Telecom Ramblings

The northeastern fiber operator Lightower Fiber Networks is now not properly called northeastern, having brought fiber to a piece of Dixie. Lightower has completed its 1,100 route mile fiber buildout throughout Virginia and now reaching down into North Carolina. [Read more →]

After every acquisition, Level 3 goes to work on that complicated balance sheet, and this morning they are doing so again.  Although actually this one was probably in the works regardless.  [Read more →]

On Friday, the FCC took AT&T’s show of displeasure toward President Obama’s net neutrality stance and turned it around. After AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson publicly pulled the emergency brake on its fiber network rollouts, the FCC wants to know just what it is they are pausing. [Read more →]

This article was authored by John C. Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Smart cities start with smart citizens, but many of those same citizens will expect the city, not operators, to provide smart-city services. [Read more →]

This week we got a new listing to look at on the Ramblings Jobs board to look at from down south to go with an existing one from up north. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick Friday rundown of the news ending the week: [Read more →]

Ok, yesterday’s poll wasn’t terribly seriously composed of course, and was designed to express exasperation in its many forms.  This one is about the actual issue.  After six years of debate, where do you all come down on network neutrality?   [Read more →]

Obama wants Title II and he wants it now, AT&T is taking its ball and going home, and Tom Wheeler has no friends.  What’s your reaction to it all?  Here’s a quick, completely scientific poll to find out what Ramblings’ readers think. [Read more →]

Time for a quick look at news from around the world: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint roundtable summary was authored by the MEF.  

An older carrier network can be deceptive. It often is perfectly suited for today’s business needs, solid, predictable and reliable. It may be largely paid for, or at least depreciating on schedule, with minimal need for significant CapEx outlays. Yet that trusted technology can fall flat when faced with [Read more →]

So AT&T isn’t happy about Obama’s speech yesterday endorsing regulating broadband like a utility.  Today they CEO Randall Stephenson said the company would suspend investing in its FTTH expansion until the situation is resolved. [Read more →]

Southern California has some new 100G metro connectivity today.  Wilcon has taken the next step forward in its evolution, lighting its dark fiber network and introducing scalable Ethernet, wavelength, and internet access services. [Read more →]

For this Wednesday morning, here’s a quick rundown of data center and cloud news from this week: [Read more →]

Of all the deals I’ve ever thought the European network and cloud provider Colt might be involved in, this one never came up. Colt announced this morning that it plans to acquire Tokyo-based KVH for €130.3M. [Read more →]

In the third quarter, GTT continued and expanded on the steady growth trend they’ve been working on, beating revenue estimates and increasing margins once again.  Here are a few of their numbers in some context: [Read more →]

Here’s a quick Tuesday roundup of fiber news on the metro and regional fiber front: [Read more →]

In a surprise announcement yesterday, Juniper’s CEO Shaygan Kheradpir stepped down after having taken the helm at the beginning of this year. EVP, general manager, and longtime Juniper veteran Rami Rahim has been tapped to take over the CEO role at least for now. The usual platitudes weren’t there, however, and it seems something ugly went down. [Read more →]

After six years of letting the bureaucrats and lobbyists dance largely unsupervised, President Obama today entered the debate. As one might expect from his politcal roots, he weighed in solidly on the side of net neutrality as originally envisioned — no fast lanes or anything of that sort. [Read more →]

Unbowed by October’s rejection, Mitel has come back with a new offer for ShoreTel.  This morning the Canadian-based cloud VoIP provider raised its bid to acquire its US-based rival by just under 5% to $8.50/share. [Read more →]

So much of the ‘North American’ telecommunications market still stops at the Rio Grande that it’s a significant story when someone crosses it. Over the weekend AT&T did just that, however, announcing a deal to purchase Mexico’s Iusacell.  The move comes just months after AT&T exited its stake in America Movil and will put them in direct competition with Carlos Slim’s telecommunications empire. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Stefan Hammond, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

As they usually do this time of year, Gartner has released their predictions for 2015…

“…and beyond.” [Read more →]

This week we got a new listing to look at on the Ramblings Jobs board to look at from the New England coastline. [Read more →]

This is a guest article contributed by Rachel Hemsley.  If you would like to write an article for us, contact the webmaster.

With today’s reliance on mobile phones it’s easy to assume that no matter where you go (unless it’s a train tunnel) there will be mobile coverage. However, there are still a surprising amount of locations where getting a good mobile signal is a rare occurrence.

[Read more →]