Telecom Ramblings

Two companies that have dreams of using the stratosphere for bandwidth infrastructure have decided to throw in together. SoftBank's HAPSMobile is investing $125M in Google's Loon as the two partner for a common platform, and Loon gains an option to invest a similar sum in HAPSMobile later on. [Read more →]

Some data center and interconnection news at midweek: [Read more →]

Google's submarine cable empire now hooks up another corner of the world. The company's 10,000km Curie submarine cable has officially come ashore in Valparaiso, Chile.  [Read more →]

Some metro fiber is changing hands out in the Midwest. Ohio-based Horizon has acquired a fiber and conduit network in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. [Read more →]

What does a global data center operator need for Easter? Another data center, obviously. Equinix made a small acquisition yesterday that boosts the company's European footprint. [Read more →]

Two other bits of fiber news from just before Easter weekend worth noting: [Read more →]

This article was authored by Dylan Bushell-Embling, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

The chairman of the US FCC has urged the agency to reject China Mobile's applications to provide telecom services in the US market on national security grounds, in the latest salvo in the telecom trade war between China and the US. [Read more →]

There has been a lot of bandwidth news out of Italy lately, and yesterday it was Retelit's turn. The network operator, once strictly an Italian concern, has both upgraded and added to its international connections, declaring itself to now be a 'global operator'. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was contributed by David W Wang

Since SD-WAN started to get traction in the telecom/IT market and industry from 2015-16, as more SD-WAN vendors entering the landscape, every year we’ve had predictions the market would undergo consolidation. [Read more →]

Four items to keep an eye on: [Read more →]

A few news quick-takes worth keeping an eye on at midweek: [Read more →]

One year after T-Mobile and Sprint finally finished the preliminaries and announced a merger, the proposed deal is under fire. Few ever thought the deal would get through regulators unscathed, but now we're finally getting to the details. [Read more →]

It'll be a small, negligible piece of Google's overall numbers, but yesterday's announcement from the Louisville Metro Government is a reminder of why companies without Google's deep pockets don't often try unproven technologies for FTTH. Google Fiber will be paying $3.8M to clean up from its "nano-trenching" buildout in the Kentucky city. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Dylan Bushell-Embling, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

The fiber network unit Reliance Jio Infocomm is reportedly planning to raise around 270 billion rupees ($3.89 billion) in syndicated loans to help expand the newly created [Read more →]

A few quick takes worth keeping an eye on: [Read more →]

Earlier this month, Indiana-based Intelligent Fiber Network raised some funds and brought a new type of regional operator in as one of its owners. Wabash Valley Power has invested as part of a $13M capital raise and joins the coalition of 20 independent LECs that own IFN. [Read more →]

Italy-based Sparkle has announced plans to invest in some new subsea capacity under the Tyrrhenian Sea. No I won't make you google that, it's the piece of the Mediterranean off the west coast of Italy, under which Sparkle plans to build the BlueMed cable system. [Read more →]

The ongoing bidding for Zayo is now said to have come down to a single consortium of investment firms. According to Reuters this week, a group led by Digital Colony Partners LP, EQT AB, and Stonepeak Infrastructure partners is the last man standing. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was contributed by Rob Shore, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Infinera

While IT organizations, new business models, and the customer experience tend to dominate the digital transformation headlines, the communications infrastructure underlying digital transformation is quietly but surely undergoing a paradigm shift. This shift includes a rethinking of [Read more →]

Here's a quick roundup of some news from around the world worth keeping an eye on: [Read more →]

SubCom has been chosen by Singaporean-based H2 Cable for a new APAC cable system. Subcom's win on this APAC deal comes after a similar project by Huawei was nixxed by Australian regulators. The price tag of the project is expected to be $380M with an expected date in 2022.  [Read more →]

A few interesting bits of infrastructure to keep an eye on: [Read more →]

This article was authored by Dylan Bushell-Embling, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

While China is certain to be one of the world's largest 5G markets and has been spending heavily to gain an early lead in 5G adoption, there are signs that 5G momentum is slowing down in the market. [Read more →]