Telecom Ramblings

Satellite bandwidth has always been a bit of a separate subject from terrestrial bandwidth. But today’s launch by Laser Light is looking to change that by taking laser connectivity into Medium Earth Orbit in a big way, while interconnecting with our planet’s terrestrial and submarine fiber networks. [Read more →]

According to a piece over on Vision2Mobile, the FCC will soon grant cable MSOs relief from regulations that limit their ability to buy CLEC assets. A petition by the NCTA is pending, and the FCC has until next Wednesday – with at least one analyst expecting forbearance to be granted. So if this happens, then might we see a wave of cable/CLEC mergers? [Read more →]

A quick look at a few interesting items from the datacenter and cloud front, featuring CyrusOne, Equinix, Verizon, and CDNetworks. [Read more →]

Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) is planning another foray into wireless services, this time with 4G. This morning they and clwr announced a wholesale 4G agreement that will help power Earthlink’s wireless internet service. By 4G here, they mean WiMAX for now, with an eye toward LTE services in the future. [Read more →]

Battle lines continue to firm up amongst the wireless carriers. This morning the Rural Cellular Association decided to drop the Rural and go with Competitive instead. Under its new name, the Competitive Carriers Association will seek to represent the interests of the rest of the wireless carriers against [Read more →]

In this economy there’s no such thing as too many job listings, and we have another new one on the Ramblings’ Jobs board this week from the Midwestern-based fiber builder and operator Unite Private Networks. [Read more →]

Hibernia Media, the video transport arm of Hibernia Atlantic, made its second M&A move in two weeks yesterday, announcing a merger with Montreal-based Aldea. They are clearly looking to consolidate part of the industry and gain an inorganic boost toward [Read more →]

This article was authored by Joseph Waring, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Another year and another 1,000+ wholesale executives flock to Cebu to work out bilateral deals on voice and data. Judging from discussions with a number of telcos, that’s a lot of voice and a bit of data. A common question when people would meet was “do you handle voice OR data?” So much for convergence.   [Read more →]

Tata Communications (news, filings) won a global network services contract with the international cargo handler Cargotec. They’ll be serving WAN connectivity to over 150 sites in 50 countries across the globe, from the developed world to emerging markets.  [Read more →]

Apparently, Brazil’s Telebras is quite serious about its plans to build the multi-link system hooking up South America to three continents with big bandwidth. The latest news is that they have found a European partner in the Spanish operator IslaLink. The two have signed a [Read more →]

They may have had a rough fiscal Q3 report in the eyes of the market, but Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) has spent the week on offense, at least in terms of PRs. Along with yesterday’s win at XO, on Tuesday they signed Vimpelcom and today it was Janet6. [Read more →]

This has been quite a year for MagicJack on the financial front. Today the VoIP protagonist did what is becoming a familiar thing, pre-announcing a stronger than expected quarter and raising its guidance for both revenue and earnings per share.  [Read more →]

Quick takes on several quick network buildouts, from euNetworks, Orange Polska, Hibernia Atlantic, and Zayo Group: [Read more →]

We hear so much about the impending flood of mobile data that sometimes it drowns out the real data. Traffic is always growing, but how quickly depends on what part of the network you are looking at. According to Telegeography this morning, international backbone growth slowed down yet again this year even as it reached the [Read more →]

Australia’s PIPE Networks is joining the 100G party, courtesy of Infinera’s DTN-X platform and those 500Gbps PIC superchannels. Infinera’s gear went live to market this summer, and this is the first APAC deployment to be announced. [Read more →]

No, it’s not the death of network neutrality – not yet anyway. Today the direct operator billing provider MACH won itself a contract with Skype, under which users will be able to purchase Skype credit via their mobile phone bill or pre-paid account.  Skype hopes to [Read more →]

XO revealed more of its 100G upgrade plans this morning, announcing that Ciena gear will be playing a prominent role. XO plans to use the vendor’s packet-optical gear and coherent technology to boost capacity on its metro and intercity networks across the country. [Read more →]

Some quick takes from the datacenter and the cloud from Interoute, NaviSite, Cobalt, and Akamai: [Read more →]

Zayo Group (news, filings) finished off a very busy summer season with the closing of its purchase of FiberGate. The $117M deal adds 779 route miles of fiber (399 of them new) and 315 on-net buildings to Zayo’s network in the Washington DC and Baltimore region.  [Read more →]

In a rare slimming down move by the data center industry’s most aggressive buyer, Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) announced plans this morning to make itself smaller by selling off 16 of its IBX data centers around the US. The buyer is 365 Main, backed by Crosslink Capital and Housatonic Partners which will enter 16 new markets via the purchase. [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) added another target market for its content delivery portfolio: the feds. They have added their CDN services to their WITS-3 contract vehicle, which handles common pricing for all federal agencies operating in the National Capital Region. [Read more →]

Welcome back from that long weekend, summer’s over now. While the US is still catching up on its email, here’s a quick look at some overseas news: [Read more →]

According to FierceWireless and other reports, the FCC is preparing to revise how it decides how much spectrum is too much. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski will propose the review with a vote on September 28. They’ll be looking at the rather obvious issue of whether to treat lower frequency spectrum differently than higher frequency spectrum, expecially in the context of [Read more →]