Telecom Ramblings

There was a bit of M&A in the competitive telecommunications market in the MidAtlantic. The managed service provider Xtel Communications has announced the acquisition of Global Telecom, a.k.a. GTB, extending its geographical reach and adding to its talent pool. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Boominathan Shanmugam of Prodapt Systems

Most service providers in the connectedness industry are challenged with the planning and allocation of field technicians based on demand. Gartner states, “Balancing available resources against the demand is essential to successful initiative completion.” Based on the engagements with various service providers, the common challenges in traditional field service capacity planning are [Read more →]

From around the world this morning and late last week: a couple of interesting executive moves over in Europe, a rebranding, a new data center campus, and a network upgrade project. [Read more →]

As 2022 comes to a close, Zayo released some details on where it has been investing in its network. The list gives us a sense of not just 2022, but where the company is headed as we move into 2023. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Kailem Anderson – Vice President of Portfolio and Engineering for Blue Planet, a division of Ciena

Network engineers and architects commonly used diagrams to visualize their network architecture. However, with the advent of disaggregated networks, 5G, and edge computing, which are designed to deliver dynamic services comprised of virtualized resources that can be placed anywhere in the network, generating an accurate picture of the ever-changing network has become more challenging than ever. [Read more →]

Three items from southern Europe and one from southern Asia: [Read more →]

Aligned Data Centers is taking on some major new geographical reach with the planned acquisition of ODATA. The purchase will give Aligned a significant hyperscale presence in Latin America right off the bat, with more already under construction. [Read more →]

Bluebird Network has made a small inorganic move out in the midwest. The Missouri-based communications infrastructure provider says it has agreed to acquire the middle mile network assets of Missouri Telecom Inc., or MTI, which operates FTTH infrastructure in the region. [Read more →]

Two independent infrastructure players are teaming up to create a future key piece of the Pacific Northwest’s infrastructure. MOX Networks announced yesterday that it is building the necessary backhaul network for Toptana Technologies new cable landing station. [Read more →]

Some fiber is changing hands up in the Pacific Northwest. Ziply Fiber has agreed to acquire iFIBER Communications as it continues to find places to invest in FTTH opportunities across the region. [Read more →]

What’s better than one new route to Portugal? Two, at least for EXA this winter. The pan-European network operator announced this morning plans to invest in a second route across the Iberian peninsula to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Jeff Wang, Senior Managing Director at Accenture

The internet is being reshaped and evolving into a spectrum of digitally enhanced worlds, realities and business models. This is a game changer for communications service providers (CSPs) who will serve as an endpoint for consumers and businesses to the metaverse, a market that is expected to be worth an estimated $13 trillion in global revenue by 2030 according to a recent Citi report. While any generational shift in the internet presents threats to incumbents, CSPs are strongly positioned to capitalize on this opportunity given their proximity to customers and high levels of trust that they enjoy. [Read more →]

As the worlds of cloud and telecommunications become increasingly intertwined, some big names from the tech world are making an impact on the next generation of infrastructure.  Oracle has come a long way from its pure database roots to become a major cloud provider, and is now taking serious aim at a 5G-connected world on multiple fronts, from the 5G network core to future connected enterprise applications.  With us today to talk about their approach is Andrew De La Torre, Group Vice President of Technology at Oracle Communications. [Read more →]

A few other items from around the world this week to catch up with: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Sergiu Nedevschi, Co-Founder & CSO at Tarana Wireless

Fixed wireless access (FWA) networks have long been used to provide basic internet service in areas with no fiber or coax infrastructure. Unfortunately, these legacy FWA solutions are significantly challenged by the obstructions pervasive in most residential neighborhoods, which block wireless signals and severely limit these networks’ utility as demand for faster internet service continues to rise. These obstructions [Read more →]

Five interesting items focused on regional and metro projects and events around the US: [Read more →]

Lumen said yesterday that it plans to significantly increase its potential capacity nationwide. The company plans to add 6 million fiber miles to its intercity fiber network over the next several years. The move takes advantage of Lumen’s existing extra conduits, meaning they don’t have to dig, just pull. [Read more →]

The new year will see a changing of the guard over at euNetworks. The Western European bandwidth infrastructure company’s board of director has agreed to the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Erik Nordquist, Global Managed Security Product Director at GTT

As ransomware and data breaches have been grabbing headlines for the past few years, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have stopped being top of mind for many CIOs, but they’re still more dangerous than ever and companies cannot neglect the necessary steps for prevention and securing internal traffic. In fact, Google Cloud recently recorded the largest DDoS attack ever of 46 million requests per second in an offensive that lasted 69 minutes. [Read more →]

One of the biggest byproducts of the global pandemic is its impact on accelerating the digital transformation process. In just a few years, data digitization, often referred to as digital transformation, has profoundly changed the shape of digital business in every industry and for consumers globally. Increased usage of digital applications in video calling, telehealth, e-commerce and e-learning and entertainment has significantly increased the need for data capacities.  Unrelenting data growth, combined with the continuing migration of enterprises offsite into multitenant colocation data centers, is having a significant impact on the industry.  With us today to talk about their experiences over the last few years is Tag Greason, Chief Hyperscale Officer, at QTS Data Centers. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Andrew Whitelaw, CEO of Springboard

Origin-Based-Rating (OBR) is being rolled out in a growing number of markets globally, creating new challenges for voice service providers and MNOs. They are being challenged to maintain and grow margin as new surcharges are appearing on their bills often six months or more after a service has gone live. [Read more →]

Two regional FTTH updates, one new PoP, and some data center buildout news: [Read more →]

ExteNet has picked up some major business in the arena of, well, arenas. The wireless infrastructure specialist announced yesterday that it has entered into an exclusive and expanded partnership with one of the big three US wireless carriers: T-Mobile. [Read more →]