Telecom Ramblings

Optimum Lightpath, the metro fiber division of Cablevision, announced today that it is offering 40G transport links to its customers, upgradeable to 100G when the time comes.  They will be initially targeting the services at the low-latency driven financial sector in the New York bandwidth market, which is currently the focus of a great deal of attention.  No doubt over the next year or two [Read more →]

Cable giant Comcast Corp. (CMCSA: chart, news) is apparently buying New Global Telecom (NGT).  While there has been no formal announcement, there is a memo circulating at Comcast about the purchase.  Terms are of course not available, but it’s safe to say that for Comcast this purchase is small relative to its overall bulk.  However, strategically it could be of much greater importance, as they are not [Read more →]

The content markets division of Level 3 Communications (LVLT: chart, news) and its Vyvx predecessor have been delivering the Superbowl video feed from the venue to the broadcast studio for over two decades now.  In the past that meant delivering the raw feeds to a production truck outside the stadium, compressing it, and then sending on the smaller, more easily managed feed from there.  This year, however, they will be skipping the truck and delivering raw 1.5Gbps HD feeds via fiber from the stadium in Miami to CBS’s broadcast studio in New York City.  From there they will also [Read more →]

According to a Reuters report, Indian telecommunications giant Reliance Communications is apparently having little luck shopping its Globalcom division since supposedly putting it on the market in mid December.  The deadline for bids has already been extended, and there just haven’t been many potential buyers even showing up to kick the tires.  Of course, a $3B price tag does tend to limit the field substantially to begin with.  Reliance, for its part, says it is not trying to sell these assets – but that is a claim that nobody seems to actually believe.   [Read more →]

Last week, Texas regional and metro provider Alpheus Communications joined the growing list of expansions by fiber-based telecoms in early 2010.  The company has invested in additional fiber in the Houston metro area, adding a major new ring in North and West Harris County.  The fiber passes through the energy and high tech areas along [Read more →]

Southeastern CLEC Deltacom (news) they announced that it intends to sell $325M in senior secured notes due 2016 to qualified institutional buyers this week.  Then intend to use the proceeds to refinance their senior secured credit facilities, which totaled $307M or so at the end of the third quarter.  The credit facilities will come due in 2013 and 2014 so there was no huge urgency to refinance, and the interest rates are pretty low currently so if anything their interest expenses will rise.  However, the terms are (I believe) fairly [Read more →]

When the issue of Network Neutrality gets discussed in the media, usually we hear from the same cast of characters:  ILECs and Cable MSOs on one side, and the most outspoken content providers on the other.  But there are other voices amongst the competitive service providers that don’t fit that mold.  One such voice is that of Dave Schaeffer, Founder and CEO of Cogent Communications – one of the few fiber operators out there actively [Read more →]

Time to catch up on news that slipped past my nets, something that happens more frequently during earnings season of course.  Here we have three contracts worth mentioning.

Nationwide competitive carrier Paetec (PAET: chart, news) won a software deal at [Read more →]

It has been quite some time since the PR department at Level 3 Communications (LVLT: chart, news) has gotten such a good workout.  Yesterday the company’s Content Markets division won an interesting deal with Zolmo to deliver Jamie Oliver “20 Minute Meals” to the iPhone.  They will be providing caching, geo-targeting, and streaming video, amongst other services.  Now, I for one would cringe at propping up my iPhone in the kitchen while I cook, let’s just say I’m not known for maintaining a clean counter and leaving it at that.  But then, I don’t actually [Read more →]

Networking equipment provider Juniper Networks (JNPR: chart, news) announced its earnings today for Q4 and the full year 2009, and if there were any doubts about the improving environment in the sector then there are fewer today.  Revenues of $941.5M, up 2% from the same quarter last year and up an impressive 14% from the third quarter.  Non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.32 were up from $0.23 in the prior quarter and matched the performance of the same quarter last year.  Both numbers were well above [Read more →]

We have been seeing expansions across the competitive fiber space as companies kick off 2010. Here are a few more that I hadn’t gotten to yet.

Fiberlight gave details of its expansion in the Baltimore area that I had heard was underway.  The company is constructing an additional 100 route miles of fiber to their network, expanding beyond the downtown loops.  Laurel, Columbia, Elkridge, and Greenbelt will all benefit from the additional connectivity.  Along with last year’s new loop out to Culpeper VA, [Read more →]