The Broadband Multimedia Marketing Association (http://www.bmma.us) recently announced the winners of the 2016 Best in Class Marketing awards.

“Each year the BMMA recognizes teams and companies that demonstrate innovation or excellence in marketing broadband services,’’ said Ellis Hill, President of ResearchFirst, Inc., the BMMA’s management firm. This year’s awards went to a national broadband, video and voice provider, Frontier Communications and a vendor company, Actiontec. Each executed best-in-class marketing practices related to broadband products and services.”

The winners are:
1. Frontier Communications (http://www.frontier.com) “Frontier Texting Service Launch” Frontier Texting (https://frontiertexting.com/), powered by Zipwhip (http://www.zipwhip.com), gives businesses the ability to connect with customers who choose the convenience of text messaging, and often prefer it as their primary means of communication. Frontier Texting was developed as a business service to allow businesses to communicate with their customers through that business’ landline number or toll free number. Text messages are stored in the Cloud and accessible to any Internet-connected device (desktop, laptop, smartphone/tablet) via a web application. A texting app is also available for Apple and Android devices, providing the same features/functions as the web application.

Commercial customers, including all business verticals, are especially viable candidates for Frontier Texting. The overwhelming majority of cell phone users text today, and texting has been adopted by virtually all demographic groups (age/income/education). Texting complements traditional voice service and enhances customer communications. Commercial businesses rely on their landline number for business and have spent significant resources advertising the number to prospective customers. There is strong brand equity in the business telephone number, and adding texting to the same number creates another channel for communicating while leveraging the equity in that number.

2. Actiontec (https://www.actiontec.com/) “Actiontec’s 802.11ac Wireless Network Extender Family”

There are two target markets for the network extenders: 1) home broadband subscribers, and 2) the broadband service providers who deliver the broadband service and need to support and retain these subscribers.

As the broadband industry and consumer demands move more and more toward over-the-top content, the home wireless network needs to support multiple HD streams to televisions, tablets, gaming consoles, and smartphones. When the home Wi-Fi network cannot keep up with these bandwidth needs or cannot reach every corner of the home, customers are left with a frustrating experience. It is hard to enjoy content when the video pauses to buffer or gets bumped down to standard definition. Wi-Fi performance has a significant impact on the subscriber experience, as well as satisfaction levels with broadband service.

Actiontec’s 802.11ac Wireless Network Extenders help provide faster and stronger Wi-Fi signals throughout the home, with Gigabit wired and wireless speeds for faster HD video streaming and online gaming on any device, in any location in the home. The extenders eliminate dead zones in the home Wi-Fi network, enabling subscribers to stream multiple HD videos and TV shows at a time without any glitches.

In addition to offering video prioritization and QoS capabilities, the network extenders represented the industry’s first 802.11ac network extenders to support Dual Band 2.4/5GHz with 4×4 AC for stronger, faster performance.

About the BMMA
The BMMA is an international organization dedicated to helping telcos advance the adoption and use of broadband services.

Member companies: Actiontec, AT&T, AppDirect (Radialpoint), Bell Canada, Calix, Cincinnati Bell, F-Secure, Front Porch, Frontier Communications, GVTC, Harrisonville Telephone Company, Hawaiian Telcom, MTS, North State, Netsweeper, Nokia, PerfTech, SaskTel, Synacor, Tbaytel, TDS Telecom, TELUS, Windstream and ZyXEL. Executive Director: ResearchFirst, Inc. (http://www.researchfirst.com)