Telecom Ramblings

Last quarter Akamai’s forward guidance described a contract renegotiation with a key customer everyone knew was Apple, and this week the buzz on the street has been that Apple is building its own CDN.  But none of that actually slowed down Akamai at all this winter, as the company posted a big fourth quarter and offered strong Q1 guidance that included the impact of that renegotiation. [Read more →]

Those looking for a datapoint of strong growth in Level 3’s fourth quarter earnings report got what they were looking for, as the company easily coasted past my own revenue and EBITDA expectations.  And those looking for an actual profit, well they got that too and several cents per share higher than consensus estimates to boot.  Here are the numbers in some context: [Read more →]

Reports out there say that Apple has been quietly preparing its own CDN/cloud infrastructure, to the apparent surprise of far too many. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of other news from the first half of the week: [Read more →]

Both colo and metro fiber/conduit assets are changing hands out in Columbus, Ohio. Cologix today announced a transaction to acquire DataCenter.BZ, which operates a range of assets in central Ohio. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick rundown of news from around the world over the past few days: [Read more →]

When Level 3 reports its earnings on Wednesday morning, there is a good chance they will finally pass the threshold of break-even in a sustainable way.  It’s close enough that one time events can swing the actual number around, but analysts have pegged the EPS number at $0.03 for the final quarter of 2013.  Here are my guesses for the various numbers of interest in context with the prior four quarters as usual:  [Read more →]

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

When people talk about M2M and the Internet Of Things, they usually don’t talk much about the related security issues.  But they’re talking about them now. [Read more →]

According to India’s Economic Times, Tata Group is seriously considering exiting the telecommunications business with the sale of not just Tata Teleservices but also Tata Communications. Vodafone seems to have the inside track, and the Verizon Wireless proceeds will certainly be more than enough to fund something like that. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at news from this week that I didn’t get to in a timely fashion, as I am on the road.  I’ll be back over the weekend: [Read more →]

The western regional network operator Integra said yesterday that it has added 865 route miles of fiber to its network. The additional assets connect Sacramento to Salt Lake City with 100G pipes through Reno and some very dry territory. [Read more →]

If January is anything of an indicator, the content world is where Level 3 will be having the most fun in 2014. Last week we saw a new type of CDN/local caching arrangement with TM announced, and this week we have developments on three more content-related topics from the company. [Read more →]

In their report yesterday after the markets closed, Infinera revealed a strong fourth quarter and had good things to say about the first quarter of 2014.   They thus start the year in a good position with the industry-wide 100G cycle still at an early stage.  Here are their numbers in some context: [Read more →]

CenturyLink Technology Solutions has turned to IO to help expand its colocation footprint in Arizona. They’re using IO’s Intelligent Control in initial deployments at each of IO’s Phoenix and Scottsdale facilities, which means both IO’s modules and its data center operating system. [Read more →]

The Russian network operator TransTelecom (TTK) isn’t yet a household name in the west, but they’re extending more and more tendrils into Western Europe’s bandwith markets. Today it was announced that they have tapped Hibernia Networks to expand their reach into multiple additional European exchange nodes. [Read more →]

In metro news this week, two bits of expansion news, one upgrade, and two promotions: [Read more →]

Looks like we’ll have another submarine cable hooking up Asia with Africa and Europe. PCCW, China Unicom, Telecom Egypt, Etisalat, Omantel, Ooredoo, and a host of others held the signing ceremoney yesterday in Hong Kong, bringing the AAE-1 system a big step closer to reality. [Read more →]

Two regional and metro operators on either side of the US/Canada border have teamed up. Albany-based FirstLight Fiber and Montreal-based Fibrenoire say they have formed a deeper relationship for Ethernet connectivity across the border. [Read more →]

Well, whatever Charter offered to Comcast from a potential deal for TW Cable got their attention. Reports now say that Comcast is at least partially on-board to help Charter make a three-way deal actually plausible.  [Read more →]

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

Carriers want to use data analytics to understand their customers better. Is it a good idea to track their browsing and use that for churn management and marketing? Or would it be a better idea to guarantee good privacy and even protected communications services for your customers? This is not a theoretical choice; this is something carriers must decide now. [Read more →]

The rumor mill will have to move on to another target, at least in the near term according to various reports this morning. When pressed for clarity on its intentions by UK regulators, AT&T ruled out making any sort of bid. [Read more →]

With three more from FirstLight Fiber, this month’s Ramblings Jobs Board listings have had a distinct northeastern tilt. [Read more →]

I’ll be traveling next week, so if I’m a bit slow responding to anything big that’s why. In the meantime, here’s a Friday look at news from the data center space this week. [Read more →]