Following my initial forays into compiling comparative on-net building data for competitive telecoms, more data started coming in.  Some from several very helpful readers, some from a little more elbow grease on my part.

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My earlier posts on whether the entrance of network operators Level3 and AT&T into the CDN space constitutes a threat caused a pretty hefty pile of comments, more offline emails, and even a couple of blog responses by Dan Caruso.  Some points were agreeing, some disagreeing, but all were helpful to me in furthering my understanding of the subject, thank you.

Let me clarify a few points:

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Yesterday I gathered on-net building data. Now, size isn’t everything, it matters a great deal what buildings you connect and how you connect them.  So let’s see what we can get out of those numbers.  In terms of on-net buildings per market served:

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A friend of mine, currently the CEO of Syringa Networks, is retiring and helping the board of directors recruit a replacement.  The readership of this board includes more than a few folks from the industry, some might be interested and more might know someone who is.  So here you go:

Syringa Advertisement for President/CEO

Syringa Networks, a regional fiber optic telecommunications carrier, is accepting applications for the position of President/CEO.

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For a couple years now I have been keeping track of on-net buildings, but I have done so haphazardly.  With this forum in place, I think I will try to keep it more regulary and in a public format.  When I speak of an on-net building I mean that it has a fiber connection to someone other than the local ILEC.  Of course, different companies disclose this number differently, and some don’t give it at all, but we can get a general idea if we try:

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Finally, after a process that was much more difficult than it should have been, this blog has a new home!  The forwarding from itaoran is propagating around the internet, I hope I didn’t lose too many readers.  Regardless, if you have this site bookmarked you should edit it if needed.  If you use a reader, I hope this went ok already but since I’ve never done this before we’ll just have to wait and see.  Of course, there may still be bugs, so if anyone finds links that don’t work or anything else broken, please please do send me a note.

How can one company (Level 3) state that broad patent coverage is necessary to even enter the business, and another to all the way through an IPO (Limelight) with almost none? The whole patent situation amongst CDNs makes it virtually impossible to pinpoint value, and it is a symptom of the breakdown in our patent system, especially as applied to software and the internet. Here’s a quick summary of some of the players in the CDN patent soap opera:

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Yesterday I discussed the benefits of owning the network in the CDN business.  I do realize that the issue is a disputed one, but for the sake of argument just suppose that owning the network does change the cost structure of the CDN business substantially.  What happens next?  Surely the pure CDN providers won’t just sit there, waiting for annihilation, so let’s look at some possible responses:

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