No. 4: MARCs that are too large. The purpose of a MARC is to provide the telco with a guaranteed revenue commitment throughout the duration of the contract. But not all telcos require such a guarantee -- emerging and alternative providers, in particular, are often willing to forego MARCs. And even traditional telcos will often step down from the size of their MARCs when pushed.

No. 5. Missing service-level agreements (SLA). The purpose of a network is to get your traffic from point A to point B reliably, securely, and in a timely fashion. But too often, the carrier doesn't commit to doing any of the above. SLAs ensure that they do -- or suffer the consequences.

No: 6: Sub-par turnup times. Even when SLAs exist, many carriers won't commit to specific circuit installation times. Instead, they weasel-word with promises such as, "circuits are typically turned up within 60 business days". First off, 60 business days is 12 weeks (84 calendar days). And second of all, the "typical" turn-up time means exactly nothing if it's your circuit that's six weeks late.

No. 7: Lackadaisical account management. An organization's satisfaction with its telecom provider generally has more to do with the quality of the account management than with anything else. Yet, too few contracts provide any recourse for poor account management. Customers should have a say in how they're treated -- and by whom.

No. 8: Technology lock-in. Unbelievably, many contracts require termination penalties when the customer wants to shift from an older technology to a newer one (say, from TDM trunks to SIP trunking). Hello? So long as you're buying services from the same provider, contracts shouldn't lock you in to a particular technology.