There are approximately 1300 local exchange carriers and 900 interexchange carriers spread across this vast expanse of land and people known as the U.S. So why do the approximately 100 independent software vendors (ISVs) in the telecom market all insist on going after the top five or 10?

Somewhere between the enterprise market and the Tier 1 carrier, in size and revenue, is the independent telco. And for the most part they are more than willing to try new things and spend a little money. Most are tiny, smaller than many corporate enterprises, while a few, like CenturyTel with its 2,313,600 access lines, are darn-near an RBOC themselves. The independents are a formidable target market. But ask a small- to medium-sized software vendor what its target market is, and they puff up their chest and say, "We're a Tier 1 provider!"

Sure, they'll take on some Tier 2 business, and in some shameful cases a Tier 3, but that's typically just to tide them over until they catch the big fish. They're quite proud of their software, their algorithms and their logarithms. And they want to be major players in a major industry. That's understandable.

But maybe it's time for a change in strategy. Many top-tier equipment vendors, such as Lucent, Alcatel, Ericsson and others that historically have focused on providing big gear for big carriers, have taken a fresh look at the independent market and are aggressively pursuing it through channel partners. Tekelec, which has never ignored that market, is having a field day there.

It makes economic sense that it is easier for software companies to support three big customers than 300 little ones. And it is understandable that a couple of Tier 1 deployments makes it more likely that an ISV could get acquired for that premium it has been wishing for since 1996. But given the merger mania engulfing the top-tier providers, the persistent warnings by analysts that there are simply too many OSS vendors going after too few customers, and the time and effort software gurus have invested in making their products into the kind of off-the-shelf solutions that smaller providers are itching for, some ISVs should stop standing in line for the feast and start eating at the buffet table before they become too much of a thin client.

Yes, lugging laptops and PowerPoint presentations across the plains of west Texas or through the swamps of Louisiana visiting rural telcos might be drudgery for today's metrosexual salesman. And spending nights in motels along that lonely stretch of Highway 14 between Rochester, Minn., and Sheridan, Wyo., or somewhere between Tallahassee and Tennessee may not have the cache (ka-shay) of a tradeshow in Las Vegas, but it opens doors to a lot of little telcos that aren't quite as rude as the big-city carriers. They don't always make you jump through bureaucratic hoops just to get in the door or become an "approved vendor." And, as long as their subsidies hold out, they just might have money to spend.

And 300 slices of something are better than one big slice of nothing.

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