Telecom Ramblings

There is little argument that telepresence is one of the most exciting new technologies coming online.  But one of the biggest raps has been that if each solution is proprietary, only people using the same provider.  This week we took another step toward turning telepresence from a sideshow into a real tool. British Telecom (BT: chart, news), Tata Communications (TCL: chart, news), AT&T (T: chart, news), and Cisco Systems (CSCO: chart, news) demonstrated a four-way conference between different networks:

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The RUS and NTIA have kindly defined broadband for us, what would we ever do without the US government to define a buzzword for us more than a decade later?  Anyhow, if you want to apply for stimulus money, the broadband you need to be spreading to the underserved is described as: (drum roll please) [Read more →]

There are some balance sheet moves that don’t cost anything but which hint at M&A activity, and therefore can be used to feint.  Others have a price tag, and generally mean there is fire under the smoke.  Level 3 Communications (LVLT: chart, news) today announced a consent solicitation for its 12.25% bonds due 2013, seeking to change its terms slightly in exchange for a one time payment of 0.75%.  Essentially, in the event of an acquisition they want to be able to use the cash flows of acquired assets on a pro forma basis to justify additional debt.  In layman’s terms, [Read more →]

It’s official, the merger between Embarq and CenturyTel is complete, and the combined entity will start its new life as CenturyLink (CTL: chart, news).  Of course the real re-branding work will come later, this is just at the corporate level - everyone else will still see CenturyTel and Embarq for a while.  The combined company will have 7.5M landlines, 440K video customers, and 2.1M broadband customers across a mostly rural footprint.  Those landlines will of course be declining steadily for the foreseeable future, but we should remember that copper may be [Read more →]

At the end of May Fibernet Telecom Group (FTGX: chart, news) agreed to be bought by Zayo for $11.45 per share or about $88M, however the deal allowed Fibernet to solicit better offers through mid June.  Such an offer in fact has surfaced.  According to this SEC filing, RCN (RCNI: chart, news) has offered $96M in cash, or $12.50 per share.  A bidding war could be in the offing, and not surprisingly none of the three companies is talking much. [Read more →]

Let it not be said that AT&T (T: chart, news) is afraid to get its hands dirty.  Today they announced a contract to provide VPN services to Republic Services, which specializes in the collection, transport, disposal, and recycling of waste.  That’s right, AT&T is going to hook up everything from the dumps (err, sorry I mean landfills) to the corporate offices.  They’ll be providing voice, data, and video to some 759 sites in a $13.5M three year deal.  Republic Services merged with [Read more →]

As an separate entity, broadband wireless provider Nextlink apparently no longer exists.  The company’s website now redirects to that of XO Communications (news) itself with this statement:

XO Communications has realigned its product offerings by integrating the Nextlink Wireless, Inc. broadband wireless products and services into the company’s existing Business Services and Carrier Services business units.

In other words, XO has quietly disassembled the unit and absorbed the pieces.  No doubt most of the revenue will go to the carrier services division, since it was mostly wireless backhaul.  The move will probably let XO save some money by reducing the overhead needed to run it as a separate segment. [Read more →]

ImClone Systems has expanded its relationship with Level 3 Communications (LVLT: chart, news), moving from a few transport links to a package including colocation, IP transit, and IPVPN as well.  The network will hook up datacenters in Newark and Frankfurt to ImClone’s two locations in New Jersey, one in New York City, and one in Heidelberg, Germany.  One of the drivers behind the deal is apparently the need to transfer large files between Germany and the NY Metro area, presumably large amounts of medical research data.   [Read more →]

The Phoenix market has a new big data center online, i/o Data Centers has officially opened the doors of Phoneix ONE.  The new facility is, to put it mildly, huge: 538,000 square feet on 31 acres of propery, and is more than four times the size of its other facility - Scottsdale ONE. [Read more →]

In a major deal announced yesterday, British Telecom (BT: chart, news) and Tata Communications (TCL: chart, news) have signed a five year global strategic voice services agreement.  Tata has now become BT’s primary supplier outside of its main footprint, and BT will supply Tata with access to the UK market and later Europe.  This alliance is a natural one since the two multinationals have rather complementary assets and customer bases.  With carriers of all stripes less and less interested in spending capex these days, we will likely see [Read more →]

Congratulations on finally being confirmed as FCC Chairman!  Now ignore the cameras, roll up those sleeves, and get started already!  You’re already more than 8 years behind on intercarrier compensation, the bickering over special access is getting downright mean, and and there are six trucks from Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast waiting at the loading dock ready to unload this month’s paperwork designed to slow you down.  And oh yes we’re all still waiting for that [Read more →]