Telecom Ramblings

Earlier this year, Vodafone and Liberty Global admitted entering into talks.  They weren’t really talking about a merger, but more about some form of asset swaps between their respective cable empires.  This morning the two giants ended the talks without swapping anything.  [Read more →]

Five years ago this week, ABRY Partners split RCN Metro off from its parent and rebranded it.  But RCN retained the SMB-focused business customers in addition to its better-known residential footprint.  Today RCN Business is not only still out there but is on a growth trajectory.  The original customer base has grown beyond those SMB roots, as has the fiber footprint, and this summer RCN Business unveiled a new channel program aimed at further acceleration.  Ted White, VP of Business Service for RCN, will tell us a bit more about RCN Business and its plans for the channel. [Read more →]

Europe may soon have another publicly traded fiber operator to invest in, although the fiber itself isn’t actually European. Econet Group founder Strive Masiyiwa says the company is looking at a listing for Liquid Telecom, the pan-African network operator it controls. [Read more →]

It looks as if the next multi-year M&A dance could be on the border between cable and mobile.  When asked about consolidation and Altice’s recent appetite, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure suggested that, while nothing is currently under discussion, combining Sprint with a cable operator would make the company a “stronger and more formidable competitor”.  This follows comments a week ago by Altice’s billionaire protagonist, Patrick Drahi, indicating an eventual desire to own a US mobile network. [Read more →]

The American Registry for Internet Numbers announced today that it has given out the last of its IPv4 addresses.  The 4.3 billion possibilities that seemed so bottomless back in the 70s is officially tapped out. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of some news from around the world this week: [Read more →]

Yesterday, Cisco made a deal aimed at rejuvenating its approach to the Chinese market.  In an announcement that clearly was choreographed to fit with the visit of China’s leader Xi Jinping in Seattle, Cisco partnered up with Jinan-based Inspur as part of its $10B investment initiative in the country. [Read more →]

According to a piece in Fortune this morning, Equinix is making a big bet on solar energy out in California.  The data center giant has done a deal with SunEdison for 105 megawatts of solar power from a solar panel farm to be built near San Diego. [Read more →]

We don’t normally do politics here, and we won’t be choosing sides regardless.  But a funny thing happened yesterday in presidential politics.  As the summer of Trump wanes, somebody actually talked about telecommunications policy again (egads, an issue), and that somebody was former Florida governor Jeb Bush. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at some news from around the sector this week: [Read more →]

That malware that FireEye’s Mandiant found on a dozen or two Cisco Routers spread around the world isn’t quite as limited as initially thought.  Cisco and the volunteer security group called the Shadowserver Foundation said today that the malware has now been found on some 199 older Cisco routers. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Jouko Ahvenainen, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Apple introduced solutions to block ads in iOS. This can be harmful for many web service providers, especially Google. So, Google is already looking for new solutions to avoid the blocking. And now some ad blocking solution developers have decided [Read more →]

This summer saw the 20 year anniversary of the start of DE-CIX in Frankfurt.  After kicking off with just 10Mbps back in 1995, DE-CIX’s flagship internet exchange passed the 4Tbps mark just this past Spring.  Meanwhile, the exchange has spent the last couple of years replicating itself in new markets like New York and Dubai and a growing list of others.  With us today to reflect on those early days and how the interconnection business has evolved since is CTO Arnold Nipper, who helped found DE-CIX and has been with the exchange ever since. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Alan Zeichick, Camden Associates

The reach of the cloud is unprecedented in technological innovation. Service providers, ranging from local telcos to international long-haul carriers, are seeing new business in providing direct cloud connectivity for enterprises, establishing and in retrofitting [Read more →]

After a summer lull, we have four new listings on the Ramblings Jobs board this week. [Read more →]

TGIF with a fine fall weekend ahead. Here’s some network news items to consider before heading out: [Read more →]

The last earnings numbers for internet infrastructure for the quarter ended June 30 rolled in today, as Zayo reported its fiscal Q4 and full year numbers.  Revenues came in right at the expected level, as did EBITDA, so no real surprises for the markets this morning.  Here’s a quick summary of the company’s numbers in some context: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was contributed by John Chapman, Executive Vice President, CloudSmartz

As progress continues with Software-defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), there are several different approaches that are triggered by markets you are serving and how success is defined. This could be in the form of [Read more →]

Yesterday’s news that Comcast Business will take on the large enterprise market with a new division prompted an interesting report to be issued by Cowen’s Colby Synesael.  He suggested that this move is another step down the path to a future where Comcast would buy a national network operator like Level 3 Communications.   [Read more →]

Altice has struck again in the US, and this time they hit a bigger target. The European telecommunications group has agreed to buy Cablevision in a $17.7B deal. The deal will pay out $34.90 per share, a 22% premium above the current stock price. [Read more →]

Two data center build-outs, some recycled water cooling news and a new security scare: [Read more →]

Today Comcast Business has revealed plans for a new Enterprise Services unit that will target larger enterprises with more complex infrastructure needs than Comcast Business has targeted in the past. [Read more →]

Today we can say something that we haven’t said in more than a decade: a new transatlantic cable system has been born. Hibernia Networks today said that Hibernia Express, the cable system it has been working on since 2010 in various forms, is officially ready for service. [Read more →]