Telecom Ramblings

Birch Communications (news) made its 16th acquisition in recent years this morning, announcing an agreement to purchase Daystar Communications.  The move follows a refinancing just last month that replenished the company’s coffers and paved the way for [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) says it has signed a multi-year agreement with Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC, news), expanding its relationship with the giant cable MSO. They will be helping to expand Time Warner Cable’s network as well as to deliver additional core infrastructure services.     [Read more →]

While much of the talk with respect to XO in recent quarters has been about a likely sale, it appears that the company’s owner, billionaire Carl Icahn, may have decided to go in the opposite direction. According to an SEC filing last week, an affiliate of Icahn Associates called High River made a bid for Broadview Networks, which recently announced plans to restructure through a voluntary bankruptcy. [Read more →]

This quarter’s data update for my competitive telecom trends pages is complete with the exception of Zayo, for whom it was the end of a fiscal year and hence we’ll have to wait a few weeks yet.  AboveNet’s data moves to the background since its purchase by Zayo, but to replace it I’ve added Integra Telecom which has added both recent financials and also metro fiber maps to its website.  And here’s a first look at a new chart of the ratio of Net Debt to Annualized Adjusted EBITDA across the sector: [Read more →]

Some quick notes on several items from alternative providers before everyone leaves for the weekend: [Read more →]

CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL, news, filings) and Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings) each reported earnings this week. The two former primarily rural ILECs have each been evolving toward business services and the cloud, but for Q2 it was CenturyLink the market was happy with while Windstream took a hit. [Read more →]

This article was authored by John C. Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Location-based services have always had problems with indoor accuracy, as GPS only works when you’re outside where the satellites can see you. Finnish company IndoorAtlas says the solution may be all around you. Literally. [Read more →]

NTT Communications (NYSE:NTT, news, filings) added more infrastructure expansions to this weeks news yesterday and today on either side of the planet. [Read more →]

Over on IP Carrier, Gary Kim posted a nice graphic illustrating the growing effects of over-the-top messaging on SMS revenue country-by-country across Europe for the last three years. But I’m struck by how many still phrase this phenomenon as caused by OTT messaging. OTT messaging is the response to the problem, not the cause. [Read more →]

Currency headwinds and a final bit of fallout from the Megaupload incident slowed down growth at Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) in the first quarter, as the company priced its dividend payment at [Read more →]

A quick survey of some of the other news from network operators from this week, including a contract win for XO, two for Level 3, some more M2M from DT, and cloud progress for NTT: [Read more →]

Faster routes between the Far East and Europe have been a recurring theme lately. With NTT’s traditional Asian strength and its expansion plans in Europe, improving its connectivity between the two is obviously a priority. Indeed, today NTT Communications (NYSE:NTT, news, filings) took action to add a new route and significantly lower latency on its global backbone between London and Hong Kong. [Read more →]

Investors may soon have another datacenter REIT on their hands. CyrusOne, the carrier neutral colocation division of Cincinnati Bell, has filed with the FCC in preparation for an initial public offering as a real estate investment trust.  [Read more →]

Lots of interesting news from the metro fiber sector in the past day or two, let’s take a quick look: [Read more →]

Primus Telecommunications Group (NYSE:PTGI, news, filings) made another M&A move this morning, but in the other direction this time. They announced the acquisition of Globility Communications, a Canadian CLEC that they already held a big stake in.  But perhaps more importantly, they announced new metro fiber buildout plans to go with it. [Read more →]

Inteliquent (NASDAQ:IQNT, news, filings) saw fewer voice minutes on its network in Q2, resulting in numbers that missed expectations and a reduction in full year guidance.  In addition, the company says it has been evaluating strategic alternatives, and is now planning a special one-time dividend to return some cash to shareholders as well as a stock buyback. [Read more →]

European independent metro fiber builder and operator euNetworks (news) turned in its usual steady quarter this morning, showing revenue growth and growing margins despite a difficult environment.  Here’s a quick table of their Q2 results in context: [Read more →]

ArsTechnica posted a piece today by Michael Livermore calling for our two presidential candidates to weigh in on network neutrality.  Allow me to disagree.  No seriously, I really don’t want them to. [Read more →]

The national metro fiber operator TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings) reported its Q2 earnings after the market closed, with its conference call on tap for tomorrow.  Revenues and earnings per share were each a bit lighter than I expected, but still within the usual error bars.  Here’s a quick table in context of the prior four quarters: [Read more →]

Three competitive network operators, each with a different focus, report earnings this week:  telecom later today, Inteliquent (NASDAQ:IQNT, news, filings) tomorrow morning, and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) on Thursday.  My guesses this quarter seem a bit more conservative than the composite street numbers, but here’s a quick preview of what we might expect to see from each: [Read more →]

This is a guest post by Paolo Gorgò.  To inquire about guest posts, contact the webmaster.

Today, TeleCity Group announced its results for the first half of 2012. [Read more →]

There was a bit of data center M&A this morning over in Europe, as Telecity Group (LON:TCY, news, filings) bought itself a footprint in Finland. They have acquired Tenue Oy, an operator of one of the most connected facilities in Helsinki, for £3.7M. The deal brings them 1MW of capacity now, with another [Read more →]

According to a Telegeography report last week, it’s been a rough year in the IP transit market. Pricing in both London and New York took more than a 50% hit between the second quarter of 2011 and 2012. I thought I’d look around to see if I could find it in recent numbers. _{[Read more →]}