Telecom Ramblings

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

Hutchison acquired O2. BT acquired EE. Years ago Hutchison sold  Orange that is a part of EE, and BT divested O2. Nokia acquires Alcatel-Lucent and becomes the second largest network vendor, i.e. a business it planned to divest for some years. These are just some examples, but what does it tell about telco business and its long term planning? [Read more →]

On Wednesday morning, Level 3 will report its first quarter earnings.  Hence, as has been our custom on this site, here is a quick preview of what to expect.  This will be Level 3’s first full quarter with the tw telecom business added in, and I expect to see significant integration expenses in advance of cost savings that will necessarily follow a bit later.  Also of note, my admittedly limited reading of the currency markets suggests [Read more →]

Two new job listings this past week on the Ramblings Jobs board from down in Texas to go with four others already on the books.  If that sounds familiar, it’s because it is. [Read more →]

With regulators, senators, and all sorts of allies lining up against its proposed purchase of TW Cable and no breakup fee to worry about, Comcast is said to be yielding the field of battle.  Reports say they may do it later today, deciding not to pursue what would be a difficult and probably fruitless trip through the courts.  So what happens next? [Read more →]

Here’s a roundup for this cold Friday here in the northeast.  I expect to be at the WAN Summit in NYC early next week, should anyone want to look me up there. [Read more →]

One of the essential questions to be answered for Telstra’s purchase of Pacnet out in the Pacific was just what their plans might be for Pacnet’s high profile SDN-powered platform.  Less than a week after closing the deal, Telstra has answered that question by immediately moving to expand its reach. [Read more →]

Not content with trying to prove the FTTH case with Google Fiber, Google revealed yesterday on its corporate blog that the company is taking on the other pillar of consumer bandwidth with the launch of Fi.  They’re not building a new wireless carrier along with all the infrastructure that goes with it, but they are planning to showcase a few new ideas aimed at shaking up the market. [Read more →]

I didn’t think regulators would actually step into the ring and try to stop Comcast’s purchase of TW Cable, but they seem to be doing so.  The FCC’s staff has apparently recommended that the proposed transaction be given an administrative hearing before a judge.  That’s what the FCC does when it disapproves, as in the case of AT&T/T-Mobile.   [Read more →]

Time for a quick look at other news from around the industry this week: some cloud help for first responders, two vendor deals, and a financial move in fiber. [Read more →]

Of all the services out there that the cloud revolution may transform, voice is by far the one with the longest legacy history and widespread deployment.  The VoIP revolution has taken a decade already, and still isn’t anywhere near complete and the PSTN is still with us.  But with the arrival of new technologies like the cloud and NFV, the inherent advantages VoIP has always had the potential for are becoming much more accessible.  Alianza is one of the companies driving forward on this front, and with us today to tell us what the company’s cloud voice platform is all about is CEO Brian Beutler. [Read more →]

This morning saw the project launch announcement of another brand new Transatlantic cable system.  AquaComms and TE SubCom have kicked off the build of AEConnect, which they expect to be ready for service in December of this year. AEConnect will land out on Long Island in Shirley, NY and on the northwest coast of Ireland at Killala. The 5,400km route will then offer connectivity on to London via CeltixConnect across the Irish Sea.  [Read more →]

When Birch acquired Cbeyond last year, along with it came Cbeyond’s nascent efforts to add some significant metro fiber to its diet. It wasn’t clear at the time whether Birch would continue that effort, not having done so itself too often as it pursued its prolific CLEC roll-up strategy. Yet the metro fiber buildouts are not only still moving along, Birch has been actively promoting its progress and yesterday offered another update.  [Read more →]

XO Communications is stretching its network reach southward into Latin America with the help of the regional carrier Neutrona Networks. Through interconnections in Dallas and Miami, the deal givex XO strategic access for its customers in Mexico, the markets of Central America, and South America. [Read more →]

Yesterday, CenturyLink made yet another inorganic move to bolster its position in cloud services. They have acquired Orchestrate, whose specialty is Database-as-a-Service, or DBaaS, based on the popular NoSQL platform. [Read more →]

One of Google’s more fanciful bandwidth projects is nearing the runway. Project Loon, which depending on who you ask is named after the water bird with the eerie call or simply a crazy person, has made some significant strides forward.  [Read more →]

Over the weekend, that is the news that started buzzing. Staff lawyers at the Department of Justice are said to be making the case for suing to block Comcast’s purchase of TW Cable on the grounds that it would harm consumers.  [Read more →]

Two new job listings this past week on the Ramblings Jobs board from down in Texas to go with two others already on the books. [Read more →]

The weekend looks like Spring will arrive at last, at least here on the east coast. In the meantime, here are five items to catch up on before you go: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was contributed by Michael Scott, General Manager, Wolfe

“Our company completely runs off the Internet.”

High speed connectivity has been a must-have for enterprises for quite some time. After all, growing [Read more →]

Telstra’s acquisition of Pacnet is a done deal, as Australia’s incumbent closed the purchase last night.  And the first thing they did was announce the progressive retirement of the Pacnet brand.   [Read more →]

Equinix is always building something somewhere, and today they polished off two major buildout projects. [Read more →]

This week has seen quite a bit of contract news from the vendors large and small beyond the Nokia/ALU mega deal, here’s a quick survey: [Read more →]

The return of a familiar face, a refinancing, and two new products to peruse as we move over the hump of this mid-April week: [Read more →]