I left Worldcom in the summer of 1997 to join Kiewitt Diversified Group (KDG). At the time I agreed to join, only Jim Crowe, Kevin O’Hara and Doug Bradbury were part of the team. I knew Kevin well, but my relationship with Jim was fairly formal. In those days, Jim wasn’t the easiest guy to have a casual conversation with.
From the day I joined, Jim talked about a notion he had. “We want to build a business around interconnecting SS7 and IP networks,” he declared in September of 1997. I’d listen but didn’t comment. I suspect I nodded my head affirmatively, though I had little idea what he was talking about. I figured sooner or later he would shed a bit more light on the concept.
A few weeks passed. I heard him say it several more times. “Circuit switches will become obsolete.” “Voice will become free.” “All of this will result when the SS7 and IP worlds come together.” During these weeks, several more people joined us. Kevin Dundon. John Scarano. Matt Geraghty. Andrew Morley, Jon Yount. All guys who have been part of telecom for many years. All were guys I worked closely with at MFS and Ameritch.
After a while, I realized none of these guys asked questions either. In fact, no one talked about it at all–not even when Jim was back in Omaha. I noticed that they also nodded affirmatively every time Jim brought up the topic.
This went on for about two months. We were expected to write a business plan, with me playing the lead role in pulling it together. The notion behind the business plan was the interconnection of SS7 and IP. Maybe if I listened a bit more carefully, a light bulb would come on in my head. Maybe I shouldn’t have left Worldcom–the stock was up at least 10% since I resigned.
It became harder and harder to get a good night’s sleep… (to be continued)
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