Telecom Ramblings

With 18 months since the tw telecom acquisition under its belt, Level 3 Communications is now entering into what hopefully turn out to be a period of organic growth where the combined company starts to show its promise.  There’s sure to be ongoing integration work of course, but for 2016 it shouldn’t be the dominant feature.  They’ll be starting from a relatively low overall base though, as today the company released its first quarter numbers, the relevant numbers of which are summarized in the table below: [Read more →]

Telia Carrier, the newly re-branded international network arm of Teliasonera, is on the move again in North America and specifically out in California.  This morning they announced a metro upgrade and a new low latency longhaul route, both with the help of longtime vendor partner Infinera. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at some network items so far this week that are worth a quick look: [Read more →]

After a year of waiting for regulators to do what regulators do, Charter Communications’ purchases of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks are being cleared by regulators.   [Read more →]

In its second fiber expansion so far this year, euNetworks is expanding its DWDM network up into Sweden.  They are now offering 10G and 100G wavelengths up into Stockholm via two diverse routes.   [Read more →]

There is some interesting network M&A talk going over in southern Europe this morning. Telecom Italia, which has been looking at the Italian metro and regional netork of Metroweb for some time now, may be planning to use its Sparkle international division to get the deal done. [Read more →]

The infrastructure sector has lost an independent player to chapter 11 bankruptcy, demonstrating that while the fiber business as a whole is pretty healthy right now it is still not an easy one. Late last week, Allied Fiber’s southeastern subsidiaries declared bankruptcy in Delaware court after finding it more difficult than hoped to sell dark fiber and on its newly constructed Atlanta-Miami route. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick Friday roundup of news items from the week that I don’t seem to have gotten to: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Greg Varisco, COO, Aqua Comms

The lines on a submarine cable map that represent subsea cables crossing the oceans signify the various routes of the world’s data, video and voice communications. But if you were to put your ear closer to the map, you might be able to hear the story of how these systems come about and what goes into the planning process. Modern subsea cable systems are designed to [Read more →]

Birch Communications says it added another 130K buildings to its metro fiber reach in Q1.  In all, they now reach into some 550K buildings this way, with a goal of a million by the end of the year.  [Read more →]

Zayo is raising its dark fiber flag in Canada this spring, a few months after acquiring Allstream and entering the market in force. They revealed yesterday that an unnamed global cloud provider has tapped them for a combined dark fiber and 100G wavelength solution hooking up its Canadian data center back across the border to key US hubs. [Read more →]

It is looking as if Verizon has big plans for AOL and its content division generally.  Even while the company is said to be actively bidding for Yahoo, they went out today and made another deal in a rather different direction.  AOL has agreed to acquire RYOT Corp. [Read more →]

Here are several quick-takes on what vendors have been up to lately: [Read more →]

Lots more news already this week from content providers and equipment vendors to look at: [Read more →]

No, not the kind made from grapes, although they could have done that too come to think of it.  Consolidated Communications agreed yesterday to acquire Champaign Telephone Company (CTC) in a $13M all cash transaction, consolidating a bit more fiber infrastructure under its umbrella. [Read more →]

Lots of interesting international items to take a quick look at this Monday morning: [Read more →]

According to the Wall Street Journal yesterday, the pack of wolves looking to devour Yahoo is thinning out and Verizon is indeed emerging as the wolf to beat.   [Read more →]

In the networking world, NFV is one of the biggest disruptive technologies on the horizon.  Vendors are racing their products to market and sharpening their ecosystems, and carriers are testing it out and sculpting new services or re-sculpting old ones.  But there are issues left to solve before NFV can fulfill its promises.  With us today to talk about a few of them is Andy Huckridge, Director of Service Provider Solutions & SME at Gigamon. [Read more →]

One of the most prolific consolidators in the UC and cloud communications sector has struck again. Canadian-based Mitel has announced an agreement to acquire slightly larger competitor Polycom. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Lease Advisors

With talk of a 5G mobile network slated to launch sometime in 2020, cellular carriers and consumers in the know are equally delighted: 5G will mean more than 10 times the current capacity of even the best 4G LTE. Still, with the announcement of this and other technological advancements, some are concerned [Read more →]

Zayo said this morning that it has significant buildout plans for the Texas cities of San Antonio and Austin.  The infrastructure builder and operator will be adding more than 700 route miles in the two markets as it moves to hook up some 300 wireless towers. [Read more →]

The internet exchange business has been a rapidly evolving place over the last several years.  Today two established players allied to make their expansion plans easier.  TELEHOUSE and Verizon Digital Media Services are teaming up to build out new internet exchange points. [Read more →]

Here are four quick takes on news from global network operators this week: [Read more →]