Telecom Ramblings

This article was authored by Lachlan Colquhoun, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

AT&T’s mega offer to buy Time Warner looks more defensive than transforming.  If it spends more than $120 billion on acquisitions in two years, can the telco survive and service that much debt? [Read more →]

Here are three metro and regional fiber news items to review: [Read more →]

EdgeConneX revealed a new and somewhat unique partnership out in southern California. They have teamed up with the regional fiber operator Electric Lightwave to create an ‘Edge Landing Station’ down in San Diego. [Read more →]

We have some M&A to report from the managed services side of things, with assets changing hands between two familiar private equity players.  Berkshire Partners has entered into an agreement to buy Masergy from ABRY Partners.   [Read more →]

Uniti Fiber announced some expansion plans out in the Midwest this morning. They will be moving to better support the backhaul needs of one of the largest wireless carriers out in southeastern Iowa and the northern and central regions of Illinois. [Read more →]

The world of interconnection has been changing rapidly over the last few years.  What was once utilized only by large carriers in a handful of facilities around the world is now an ecosystem open to enterprise, content and cloud networks that reaches way out to the edge. One of the new breed of interconnection-focused companies is Console, which has developed a global software interconnection platform, blending automation with aspects of social networking to expand the ecosystem even wider. With us today to tell us where they are and how they got there is Console Chief Strategy Officer and Founder Al Burgio. [Read more →]

I may have been skeptical, but AT&T’s interest in Time Warner turned out to be the real thing. Today they agreed to purchase the media giant for $107.50 per share in a deal worth $109B with Time Warner’s debt included. [Read more →]

Some UC and two submarine cable items: [Read more →]

That’s the rumor percolating through the markets now anyway.  Executives of AT&T and Time Warner are said to be or recently have been in ‘informal talks’ about a possible merger.  If a deal were to actually happen, it would be bigger than AT&T’s purchase of DirecTV last year given Time Warner’s current marketcap north of $60B. [Read more →]

Here’s a few items from network operators from this week: [Read more →]

Verizon’s Q3 results were a bit mixed. The telecommunications giant posted revenues of $30.94B during the quarter and down 6.7% over the same period last year. Analysts had been looking for something more like $31.14B. But on the other hand, adjusted net income of $1.01 per share was a couple pennies higher than anticipated. Verizon’s stock is down some in response, but it’s early yet so who knows. [Read more →]

Today we will delve a bit into the back office, where the fortunes of a firm can be easily won or lost.  After all the consolidation we have seen, most networks have become a complex mix of different vendors and vintages, and keeping track of it all is a growing challenge that costs firms money.  With us today to talk about the problem and how it’s newly introduced ITAM Robot and UC Analytics platforms address it is the CEO of Avotus, James Martino. [Read more →]

Digital Realty Trust made a big, highly anticipated announcement this morning.  They plan to build a giant new data center out in Chicago in the South Loop of the Chicago Central Business District.   [Read more →]

For this edition of Wednesday Bytes, we have one significant 100GE product rollout, one metro fiber expansion, and two moves relating to low latency connectivity: [Read more →]

This article was authored by Lachlan Colquhoun, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

The first reaction is to be slightly scared, but then excited about the news that Japan’s SoftBank Group is teaming up with a Saudi sovereign wealth fund to create a new tech investment fund, focussing largely on the Internet of Things. [Read more →]

Windstream has, at long last, made the decision to take its fiber footprint to the west coast.  They have announced plans to add fiber routes across the Rockies to bring the markets of Salt Lake City, Reno, Las Vegas, and Silicon Valley onto their physical network this year, with further plans to add additional western routes and markets next year. [Read more →]

One network expansion, a strategic investment, some cloud connectivity, and an IX at the edge: [Read more →]

Another item from the under the waves landed late last week. The Hawaiki Submarine Cable has officially moved off the drawing board and into the manufacturing plant of TE Subcom. Some 1,000km of cable is done, and the manufacturing of the repeaters is underway. [Read more →]

A few years ago, we started to see new intercity fiber projects spring up on specific routes.  One of the more intriguing of those proposed projects was that of United Fiber & Data (UFD), which proposed to construct fiber on the highly trafficked route between New York City and Ashburn, but on a diverse, westerly route.  There hasn’t been much news on the project since, but construction is in fact underway now.  With us today to tell us all about it is President and COO Christopher Lodge. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was contributed by David W Wang

Now it’s very clear that all major telecom carriers are deploying or will soon deploy SD-WAN for their next-generation hybrid WAN network made from public Internet and MPLS. Recently both AT&T and Sprint have announced that they will use [Read more →]

Lots of news from network operators this week that shouldn’t be missed. [Read more →]

The internet giants Google and Facebook apparently agree on at least one thing this month: that the world’s infrastructure is in need of another trans-pacific cable system.  They are teaming up with privately held Pacific Light Data Communication and TE Subcom to build the Pacific Light Cable Network, or PLCN. [Read more →]

With its expansion throughout the state of Virginia in place and the integration of Fibertech well along its path, I’ve been expecting Lightower to kick off a new project.  They did so today, announcing a significant expansion southward into North Carolina. [Read more →]