We have a new job listing on the Ramblings Jobs Board this week from GTT. [Read more →]
BYOD: Risk & Reward for Telcos and Their Clients
April 25th, 2014
This industry viewpoint was authored by Brett Moorgas, Asia/Pacific Field Marketing Manager, for the Endace division of Emulex.
There are two trends in the market that have an interesting relationship. The adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategies is delivering greater flexibility and agility for employees and efficiency gains for the organisations who [Read more →]
Int’l Roundup: Hibernia, Interxion, Pacnet, Orange, Xtera
April 24th, 2014
Here’s a quick Friday rundown on some of the news from the international front: [Read more →]
Wheeler Goes Over to the Dark Side
April 24th, 2014

Remember the new network neutrality framework FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler promised to come up with? Well, according to the Wall Street Journal, those rules will make their grand entrance in three weeks, but of course they’ve ‘leaked’. If accurate, I’m not sure calling them ‘net neutrality’ rules fits anymore. [Read more →]
Infinera Adds Momentum, Gets Level 3 Back
April 24th, 2014
As the 100G market gains momentum, so are the bandwidth arms merchants that specialize in it. Infinera had another strong quarter, showing sequential growth despite Q1 being usually somewhat weaker and guiding well above expectations for Q2. Here is a table of their results in some context: [Read more →]
Is Colt For Sale?
April 23rd, 2014

According to a report in the UK’s Guardian, there could be a pile of pan-European infrastructure on the table soon. After yet another reorganization of its business model, some analysts apparently think Fidelity may be finally ready to sell Colt, which it has long held a majority stake in. So just to speculate idly, who might show up for such an auction? [Read more →]
Data Bytes: Sentinel, 325Hudson, vXchnge, Alpheus, Peak
April 23rd, 2014
Quite a few regional cloud and data center announcements already this week that are worth a look: [Read more →]
Birch’s Cbeyond Buy May Prompt Similar Deals
April 23rd, 2014

This week’s announced purchase of Cbeyond by Birch Communications caught many in the sector by surprise. While Cbeyond had been on the table for a couple quarters, many I had talked to were skeptical they would find enough interest. But with Birch stepping up with a $323M bid, I suspect other service providers making the transition to cloud and managed services may find suitors knocking. [Read more →]
Netflix Isn’t Helping
April 22nd, 2014
It’s official, Netflix opposes the Comcast/TWC merger. I’m not sure why that question had to be asked, I’m sure any number of people could have ghost-written the answer they gave in advance. [Read more →]
More Expansion Details for tw telecom: Portland, Salt Lake, Louisville
April 22nd, 2014

With one announcement yesterday and two before the long weekend, tw telecom offered some more details on the rollout of its fiber expansion, market by market. They announced the major new fiber investment back in November and have been wasting no time getting started. [Read more →]
Birch Makes Its Move, Buys Cbeyond
April 21st, 2014

Birch Communications apparently found itself a rather large Easter egg over the weekend, announcing the purchase of Cbeyond this morning. It’s an all cash deal worth roughly $323M, with Cbeyond’s shareholders getting between $9.97 and $10.00 per share – a level they certainly haven’t seen in a while. [Read more →]
Data Bytes: Tata, Pacnet, CyrusOne, EvoSwitch, Windstream
April 21st, 2014
Welcome back, at least for those who were off for a long Easter weekend. While the world gets going again, here’s a quick look back at some of the data center news that came out late last week but I didn’t get to at the time: [Read more →]
Infrastructure vs carrier investments
April 20th, 2014
This article was authored by Jouko Ahvenainen, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.
A few decades ago telephone lines and backbone networks were typically built by national telephone monopolies. The coming of the 1990’s and mobile networks changed this. Most countries have telecom competition and a few [Read more →]
Ciena’s 200G Tested on Japan-US
April 17th, 2014
While 100G is still settling in on transpacific routes, the underlying technology continues to jack up the speeds. Yesterday, Ciena and the Japan-US Cable Network trialed 200G on a part of its network. [Read more →]
Metro Roundup: Fibertech, Integra, Verizon, RCN, LightPath
April 17th, 2014
Lots of other metro network news from this week that is worth a quick look, here’s a quick rundown: [Read more →]
Lumos Plans for the Wireless Data Deluge, Taps Cisco
April 16th, 2014

Also yesterday, Lumos Networks is planning an overhaul of its fiber-to-the-cell network, preparing for the coming LTE flood with the not so subtle moniker ‘Project Ark”. [Read more →]
FiberLight Moves Into IaaS With Cirracore’s Help
April 16th, 2014

FiberLight said yesterday that it has added the cloud to its bag of tricks. With the help of Cirracore, they have unveiled a cloud-based infrastructure-as-a-service offering aimed at the business continuity and disaster recovery market. [Read more →]
Surprise Surprise, Netflix’s Comcast Throughput Surges
April 16th, 2014
In the category of obvious results, Netflix said yesterday in a blog post that its video streaming to Comcast customers is back up. Average speeds of 2.5Mbps were up 65% since January, a not insignificant boost. It had better be up, since they’re paying for it now right? [Read more →]
Lightower Completes DC Metro Expansion Project
April 15th, 2014

There are another 400 route miles or so of fiber on Lightower’s southern frontier this week. The northeastern fiber operator said today that it has completed its expansion in the Washington DC and northern Virginia metro area. [Read more →]
CityFibre, Sky, TalkTalk Plan JV for a Gigabit in York
April 15th, 2014

Over in the north of England, a new alternative FTTH project is taking shape. Two alternative broadband and content providers and one metro fiber builder and operator have teamed up to form a joint venture. The target is the city of York, and the goal is 1Gbps to homes and businesses. [Read more →]
Industry Spotlight: 24/7 Mid-Atlantic Network’s Sean Baillie
April 15th, 2014
The Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and Maryland fiber market is one of the most dynamic in the world. And with more than 800 route miles of high-fiber-count cables crisscrossing the region and an expanding portfolio of products, 24/7 Mid-Atlantic Network is a rising, independent provider in a geography that is on everyone’s radar. With us today to discuss the company’s approach and plans for the future is Sean Baillie, who joined the company last summer and then took over as President this past November. [Read more →]
Int’l Bytes: Equinix, PCCW, Vodafone, Telecom Italia
April 14th, 2014
Here’s a quick rundown of some global news from over the weekend and early Monday: [Read more →]
Poll: Should the US Give Up ICANN Oversight?
April 14th, 2014
As expected the announcement last month that the US would give up its control of ICANN, the body that oversees domain names and such, has turned into a political football. And no amount of backpedaling will get the talking heads to let it drop either. One wonders who had such spectacularly bad timing to even mention such a thing as the country gears up for what looks like a very nasty off-year election cycle. But anyway, now that it’s on the menu and we’ve had time to hear from both sides, let’s poll Ramblings’ readers: [Read more →]