Telecom Ramblings

The European private equity group Cinven has made a pretty big move into the fiber business with agreeing to the purchase of GNFT, the fiber arm of Gas Natural Fenosa. For a pricetag of approximately $680M, they will get a substantial foothold in the internet infrastructure markets in Spain and parts of of Latin America. Now the question is, what will they do with it? [Read more →]

It’s time for a quick roundup of news from around the globe: [Read more →]

After having its service blame Verizon’s crowded network for streaming difficulties for a few weeks, Netflix is now backing off. Verizon had sent them a cease and desist letter, and had been protesting loudly. But I think that’s precisely what this was all about. [Read more →]

As our friendly global internet giants busy themselves with closing the barn door after the horse got out, the good news is that they’re closing the barn door. Over the weekend, the New York Times had an article detailing just how hard the industry has started working to keep out the spies, foreign and domestic. It’s just rather sad that it took so long and that we only believed it necessary when we realized the enemy could be us. [Read more →]

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

You can have SDN without NFV, but you can’t have NFV without SDN – not if you want greater service agility and new revenue streams, said the head of the Open Networking Foundation. [Read more →]

Three new job listings have been posted to the Ramblings Jobs Board this past week, two from FirstLight Fiber and one from Lumos Networks: [Read more →]

Interconnection and Netflix traffic is once again the talk of the sector, with Netflix explicitly referencing Verizon’s ‘crowded network’ in error messages to customers and Verizon crying foul.  What do you think, did Netflix cross the line, are they just being accurate, or have they simply found a clever way to return Verizon’s pressure with a bit of their own?  This one’s not yes or no, you get to pick two adjectives from the list or add your own. [Read more →]

When disagreements play out in the general media like this, the details that matter get lost in competing definitions. Earlier this week social media reports revealed that Netflix has started showing its users an error message blaming slower streaming on Verizon’s ‘crowded’ network. Verizon wasted no time in firing back with a legal threat.  [Read more →]

Back in March, Ciena posted a decent fiscal Q1 with what the street (but not I) deemed weak estimates after which the stock suffered for a quarter.  Today it is surging in the pre-market after the packet-optical vendor posted its fiscal Q2 results, hitting their numbers easily and posting guidance for next quarter above the expected range. [Read more →]

Some corporate mergers hit the markets like a meteor strike, landing all at once and with little warning. The potential Sprint/T-Mobile combination is more like a slow moving hurricane that never seems to come ashore as it waxes and wanes in strength.  But landfall looks more likely now than ever. [Read more →]

CityFibre has a new item in its list of Gigabit Cities over in the UK this week.  They have now completed the acquisition of Coventry’s existing metro fiber network, upon which they will expand to offer connectivity to the city’s business community. [Read more →]

In the metro space this week we have the channel helping out with two contracts with two retailers, and bandwidth for a few good men. [Read more →]

For the second time in a few weeks, Kaia Global Networks has cropped up in the infrastructure news over in Europe. Their relationship with euNetworks has been expanded with multi-year agreements for capacity on their European backbone.  [Read more →]

Here’s some quick takes on news from three global backbone operators: [Read more →]

I have been reading with some amusement and some trepidation the rapid advancement of this ‘right to be forgotten’ concept in Europe. It’s the sort of thing that sounds great when it comes out of the mouths of politicians and those with particularly egregious cases, sounds even better to lawyers, and drive those who design and build the stuff to perhaps retire early. [Read more →]

Apparently fiber isn’t enough for Google, as they are again putting resource to work up in the sky. They are now said to be backing WorldVu and it’s plan to put 360 satellites up into low earth orbit starting sometime in 2019. The target would be high speed wireless broadband access into the hard to reach spots on the planet. [Read more →]

I’m running a bit late today, but here’s a quick look at a few items I didn’t get to last week that I probably should have: [Read more →]

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

Operators need unprecedented agility to survive as old business models are rendered obsolete, but while SDN technology may help them pull that transformation off, they’re kidding themselves if they think deploying SDN will be easy or simple. [Read more →]

Lots of interesting news items from the colo world still to look at from this week. [Read more →]

In a move that will likely shake things up among global telecommunications operators, the Japanese giant NTT has unveiled a commercial NFV product set globally. NFV, or network functions virtualization, is one of this year’s big buzzwords… or buzz-acronyms I guess. But its actual arrival beyond the testing or trial stage was supposed to be a while off yet. [Read more →]

Reports out of Japan say that Deutsche Telekom AG and Softbank have made a deal. Apparently, Softbank’s Masayoshi Son made a proposal in mid-May and Deutsche Telekom AG has agreed, although confirmation seems to be elusive. If true, the deal would bring together Sprint and T-Mobile in the USA to create a strong #3. [Read more →]

Once the construction arm of Xspedius, FiberLight builds and operates deep regional and metro fiber networks in Texas, the DC metro area, Georgia, and Florida.  They are currently in the midst of a giant buildout project in Texas that when complete will have added some 8,000 route miles to their network. With us today to talk about the company’s expansion plans is Paul Pierron, who was promoted to CEO three months ago after joining the company as COO early in 2013.  He is no stranger to this sector or to FiberLight’s main markets, having previously held leadership roles at AT&T, SBC, Sprint, Nuvox, LightCore and Xspedius. [Read more →]

Long after Google got involved in such mundane things as submarine cables, it seems two other tech giants have gotten the itch. Apparently both MicroSoft and Facebook are making plans to follow in Google’s transpacific footsteps and invest in a new undersea fiber build.  Actually Facebook is already part of APG I believe, but might be looking to up its presence further. [Read more →]