Telecom Ramblings

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

IT and telecom convergence was a hot topic at MWC this year. At the same time it is nothing new as discussion topic. It was discussed already 15 years ago, when Intellectual Networks (IN) came to telecom networks. IN never amounted to real convergence. Since then we have got packet-switching, and now [Read more →]

New customers and connectivity options for five data centers in five cities from this week: [Read more →]

tw telecom said yesterday that it is expanding its Colorado footprint to the south of its Denver-area home turf. They’ve already been in Colorado Springs since 2006, ever since the Xspedius deal closed I believe. But now they’ll be doubling their network reach, spreading outward from that footprint. [Read more →]

Another day another 100G announcement, but this time it’s a pure metro one.  LightPath, the metro fiber division of Cablevision, unveiled a 100G optical product today, which they will be marketing to their customers in the financial, market data services and healthcare vertical. [Read more →]

Open source cellular is getting a commercial grade boost today, as Range Networks has unveiled the latest and greatest version of OpenBTS. Bringing modern wireless bandwidth to rural areas has always had its economic challenges, ones that the big carriers have lacked much incentive to fix. With version OpenBTS 4.0, Range hopes to take what has been an interesting concept into the mainstream, or at least within pinging distance of it. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Dan Joe Barry, president of marketing, Napatech.

Real-Time Big Data Analytics (RTBDA) has become a predominant topic among big data discussions as it speaks to the key value propositions of big data analytics. Many Internet/Over-The-Top (OTT) companies such as Amazon and Google use it as their strategic foundation to [Read more →]

Five market expansions by five very different operators to look at today: [Read more →]

While the rest of the content world is currently obsessed with net neutrality, peering, and the end of the internet as we know it, Akamai is busy developing its carrier relationships. Today that means the announcement of a global CDN alliance with Telefonica. [Read more →]

Now that nearly all the earnings results are posted for Q4/2013 for competitive network operators of all stripes, I have updated the eight competitive telecom trends graphs with the new data.  The highlights include: [Read more →]

According to the Wall Street Journal this morning, Cisco has big plans to evolve beyond the mere networking gear heavyweight of our time. They’re planning to make a late, dramatic entry into the world of cloud computing services today. And by dramatic I mean with at least $1B in cash on tap and ready to spend over the next couple years.  [Read more →]

Late last week saw private equity move in on some more internet infrastructure. Court Square Capital has purchased a majority interest in Conterra Broadband. Conterra’s current senior management also invested, while Goldman Sachs, Duke Energy, and GE Capital took the opportunity to [Read more →]

So now we know where another content company may be coming down on network neutrality, and it’s not where you think. According to a WSJ report and a nice followup from Ars Technica, none other than Apple is negotiating with Comcast for a separate path to consumers presumably for its long-rumored Apple TV offering. [Read more →]

Two new listings landed over on the jobs board this week. [Read more →]

Ok, Friday poll time.  What do you think, is peering properly part of the net neutrality debate or is it a separate issue?   Here’s a spectrum of options in the vernacular to choose from, so speak up! [Read more →]

This week has seen an escalation in the battle over net neutrality, as both content providers and transit networks are now demanding that the murky world of peering gets added to the agenda. While the original FCC net neutrality regulations never went past the last mile, ISPs have been applying pressure recently in the form of refusals to upgrade interconnections to relieve growing congestion. Their apparent aim? [Read more →]

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

As you no doubt know, the US government has announced it will give up control of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). [Read more →]

Here’s a quick rundown of some other news across the industry from this week: [Read more →]

Here’s a quick rundown of news from the international front this week: [Read more →]

On Level 3’s blog yesterday, the topic was “chicken” as it relates to traffic interconnection, net neutrality, and the last mile. The chicken part was in relation to the game Level 3 says some last mile operators are playing when it comes to upgrading their interconnections with other network operators. It’s a nice analogy that reminds us all how easy it would be for runaway egos to bust the internet these days if we let it. [Read more →]

The global networking arm of India’s Reliance Communications has unveiled a new look, and it’s not a minor makeover. Reliance Globalcom has rebranded and relaunched as Global Cloud Xchange, the “world’s first true cloud ecosystem”. [Read more →]

With its earnings now in the black at last, Level 3 Communications clearly has found some new flexibility with its capex.  Today they announced plans to build new fiber under the waves for the first time in many years.  No, not transatlantic or transpacific, but rather down where all the action has been lately for them in Latin America. [Read more →]

There was some unexpected management turnover yesterday in the data center REIT world yesterday with the news that Michael Foust has left the CEO role at Digital Realty Trust. He has been succeeded by the company’s CFO/CIO Bill Stein, at least in the interim. A search will soon begin for a permanent successor. [Read more →]

With Comptel underway in Las Vegas, there’s a bunch of metro and regional network news to take a quick look at already this week: [Read more →]