Today marks the twentieth anniversary of CCG Consulting. It’s been an interesting ride and I’m glad to still be here. I started the company on this date in 1997, soon to be joined by my partners Bill Tucker and Mike Fox. Those two have gone on to other ventures – Bill to real estate investing and Mike is now teaching college economics and still doing some consulting.

Our firm hit it’s first big challenge a few years after our start when the large CLEC industry imploded in 1999 and 2000. Most of the large CLECs went under at that time and their demise brought down most of the consulting industry with them. But we always had a different philosophy of mostly working with small companies, and that choice made us one of the handful of consultants that made it through those rough years. Over the years we’ve worked with over 800 clients, most of them relatively small.

This past week also marked my 1,000th blog here on PotsandPansbyCCG. It’s hard to believe that I’ve written that much. I continue to add subscribers weekly and will continue to write as long as there is something interesting to say – and it’s hard to picture an industry facing as many concurrent changes as telecommunications right now.

I’d also like to note that I will be speaking twice next Tuesday at the NTCA convention in St. Louis. I will speaking solo on the topic of how new wireless technologies will likely affect rural markets. I’ll also be chairing a panel on the Internet of Things.