Comcast’s Business VoIP Cloud Rolls In

March 27th, 2012
 

Remember about two years ago when cable giant Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA, news, filings) bought up the small but dynamic wholesale VoIP services provider New Global Telecom?  Since then Comcast has made waves in the metro Ethernet side of the enterprise market, but not so much with VoIP. Well, they took their time about it but they appear to be making their NGT-powered move now. [Read more →]

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On Spectrum and Wireless Backhaul Bottlenecks

March 27th, 2012
 

In a guest article in Forbes over the weekend, Level 3 CEO James Crowe opened a new front against the incumbent last mile providers. Or, more accurately, he reopened a front that the FCC has been trying to sit on for a very long time. He took them to task for exacerbating the very spectrum shortage they are complaining about in order to maintain their marketshare. [Read more →]

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Network Bytes: 3/26: Telstra, Level 3, Lumos, Orange

March 26th, 2012
 

Quite a lot of news for a Monday morning today, let’s take a quick survey of some items from network operators of various sizes: [Read more →]

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For the NBN, Australia Sends Huawei Packing

March 26th, 2012
 

It isn’t just the USA that is acting on security worries about Huawei. The Australian government today barred the Chinese equipment maker from its $37B NBN project, according to reports.  I honestly didn’t think the NBN would get this far back when it was announced, but it has and [Read more →]

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Bank Street Perspective on the AboveNet-Zayo Deal

March 26th, 2012
 

This article was authored by James Henry, Senior Managing Director of Bank Street Group.

As we’ve spoken with industry executives and private equity partners over the past week since Zayo’s acquisition of AboveNet was announced, there have been a number of common questions and themes about the transaction itself [Read more →]

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Ramblings Jobs: More Sales For Sidera

March 23rd, 2012
 

With the news that T-Mobile is laying off 1900 and two M&A events all happening this week, we could do with a reminder that there is hiring going on out there too. New this week on the recently upgraded Ramblings Jobs Board has been another in a series by northeastern fiber operator [Read more →]

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DOJ Implicates AT&T in IP Relay Fraud

March 23rd, 2012
 

If you thought that three months after the T-Mobile deal died the US government and AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) might have shook hands and made up already, you were wrong.  Ok, maybe nobody thought that. But yesterday the DOJ accused AT&T of knowing that those Nigerian scam artists that never seem to get tired of filling your email box had also [Read more →]

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Friday Roundup 3/23: Akamai, Pacnet, C7, Savvis, CenturyLink

March 23rd, 2012
 

It’s been an interesting week, although the Zayo/AboveNet deal drowned out much of the rest. Let’s catch up on some of the items that slipped past my nets the first time through: [Read more →]

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Tata Completes Global Undersea Loop

March 22nd, 2012
 

India’s Tata Communications (news, filings) formally launched its ‘Tata Global Network – Eurasia’ cable today, completing the first ‘wholly owned cable network ring around the world’. The 9,280km TGN-EA cable connects Europe to India via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. [Read more →]

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A Tampa Wireless Win For FiberLight

March 22nd, 2012
 

Yesterday southeastern metro fiber operator FiberLight (news) announced another expansion project to go with the buildout in West Texas. They will be providing Ethernet backhaul services to over 40 additional towers in the Tampa metro area for ‘one of the nation’s leading wireless providers’. The Tampa project will add 50 route miles in the region for FiberLight, bringing their Tampa total to [Read more →]

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Still Hungry, Zayo Takes Out Arialink Too

March 21st, 2012
 

If anyone thought that Zayo’s proposed purchase of AboveNet earlier this week would keep them to busy for further M&A for a while, it only took two days for that illusion to be shattered. In its second M&A announcement of the week, Zayo has agreed to acquire Michigan-focused metro operator Arialink for $18M[Read more →]

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Int’l Roundup 3/21: Equinix, Interxion, Level 3

March 21st, 2012
 

So much of the news today is overseas, here’s a quick look at some more: [Read more →]

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Colt Delivers For Jaguar

March 21st, 2012
 

Colt Group (LON:COLT, news) picked up another modular data center victory today, this time for a luxury car manufacturer. The UK’s Jaguar Land Rover has selected the pan-European network operator to deploy a customized data center at its Solihull plant.  Jaguar will then [Read more →]

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Interoute, Turkcell Team Up in Istanbul

March 21st, 2012
 

Interoute (news) said today that it has partnered up with Turkcell Superonline to add a second route into the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul. They first arrived in the city almost exactly two years ago as part of their eastward push.  [Read more →]

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Colo Bytes 3/20: AiNET, Level 3, IO

March 20th, 2012
 

A few interesting items already this week in colocation: [Read more →]

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Teddy Bears and Eyeglasses for Internap

March 20th, 2012
 

Internap Network Services (NASDAQ:INAP, news, filings) seems to be making a bid to further expand its customer focus. The colocation and transit specialist has historically been most visible serving the niche of smaller web-centric enterprises for whom connectivity is everything. Today they are highlighting the addition of two more traditional retailers to their customer rolls. [Read more →]

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Another Bidder For AboveNet? Realistic Candidates Are Scarce

March 20th, 2012
 

Yesterday’s announcement of the intended purchase of abvt by Zayo Group (news, filings) included a “go-shop” provision under which AboveNet has 30 days to seek a higher offer. The followup question therefore is who might make a bid? There are several strategic buyers who have the means and the motive to go after these assets, but for each [Read more →]

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M&A Journal: More Thoughts On the Zayo/Abovenet Deal

March 19th, 2012
 

Ok the initial surprise of the Zayo/AboveNet announcement has worn off, so here are a few additional thoughts on the implications of the deal. [Read more →]

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Wow! Zayo to Buy AboveNet

March 19th, 2012
 

Well, they managed to keep this one secret from me.  In a blockbuster announcement this morning, privately held metro fiber operator Zayo Group (news, filings) is buying its larger publicly held neighbor, abvt.  The purchase price will be approximately $2.2B, or $84 per share.  That’s a 13% premium above AboveNet’s closing price on Friday. [Read more →]

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Reliance’s FLAG Reportedly Files For IPO

March 19th, 2012
 

According to a Reuters report this morning, the submarine cable unit of Reliance Communications has filed for an IPO — but not in the US, but rather in Singapore as was rumored two months ago. This is of course the FLAG group, which is part of Reliance Globalcom. It is not yet clear precisely what parts of Reliance Globalcom will go into the IPO and what parts won’t. [Read more →]

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Weekend Roundup 3/18: Internap, Comcast, AboveNet, OnRamp, IO

March 18th, 2012
 

Some quick takes on news items that fell through the cracks during the week: [Read more →]

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Sprint Flushes LightSquared Deal as Clearwire Poaches a Wholesale Partner

March 16th, 2012
 

In a thoroughly unsurprising move, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) has now formally ended its wholesale partnership with LightSquared. While LightSquared remains publicly committed to finding a way to use its spectrum, the FCC’s decision to revoke the conditional approval they had granted a year earlier has left them without many options. Sprint had given the company extra time, but is now formally giving up on the project and returning some $65M in prepayments they had received but not yet used. [Read more →]

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ADTRAN Revises Q1 Estimates, Downwards

March 16th, 2012
 

The equipment vendor ADTRAN (NASDAQ:ADTN, news, filings) decided not to keep the bad news to itself, and revised its first quarter revenue guidance. Two months ago, the company had projected revenues to remain roughly flat sequentially, or in the $170M range – which is where analysts had placed their bets too. But the company is now forecasting something more like $130-135, a shortfall of more than 20%.  Ouch. [Read more →]

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