Telecom Ramblings

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

If the whole object of Big Data is to collect user data in the name of highly personalized ads and services, take note: some start-up companies are pushing back with smartphones, web browsers and search engines that will help users stay anonymous.   [Read more →]

Two global networking vendors announced an alliance today that could shake up the status quo.  Ciena and Ericsson have signed a strategic global agreement to push forward on multiple, high profile fronts. Just in time for Valentine’s Day too. [Read more →]

Time for a quick roundup of other news from the networking world: [Read more →]

So Comcast surprised everyone, outbid Charter, and won over TW Cable’s board with an all-stock deal.  While everyone thinks the FCC is going to go over this with a microscope, the protagonists’ position is that this is good and necessary for cable and that competition won’t be hurt at all.  If necessary they’ll divest some 3M customers.  What do you think, will the powers that be let this merger go through? [Read more →]

The rumors are flying around, and they don’t all entirely agree with each other. But they all seem to agree that Comcast is about to announce a deal for TW Cable in the $44-45B range.  [Followup: it’s now official with a $45.2B price tag] [Read more →]

Here’s some European-flavored news bytes for this Wednesday, although for the first one the action is actually on this side of the Atlantic. [Read more →]

After tw telecom announced a major expansion across 27 markets back in November, they didn’t waste much time.  The biggest feature of the company’s Q4 earnings report yesterday was a $119.8M in capex associated with the project including a ‘strategic market expansion capital lease’.    As for the rest of the report, tw telecom reported its usual clockwork revenue growth and indicated next year will see a somewhat [Read more →]

Yesterday Rackspace posted nice earnings, saw its longtime CEO retire, and announced a shift in focus toward the hybrid cloud. Shares were trading rather lower after hours and in the premarket as the uncertainty of the last two overwhelmed the promise of the first. [Read more →]

Last week Stacey Higgenbotham over at GigaOm suggested that something is fishy in the world of last mile bandwidth. With the latest Netflix ISP speed index data, it sure is looking like she’s onto something. [Read more →]

This is a guest article by Winston Qiu, an industry professional who writes over at submarinenetworks.com. 

No doubt, Chinese are now leading the submarine cable industry. Chinese chair in several important  submarine cable systems across the Pacific or connecting Asia, Africa and Europe, including APG, AAE-1, SMW5, NCP, Faster Cable, no matter under constructing or in planning. There are skeptical and anxious voices, some even think [Read more →]

With the sale of its 45% interest in Verizon Wireless set to close in the next few weeks, Vodafone is certainly wasting no time putting the incoming cash hoard to work.  Last week there was talk of Tata, and now according to reports out of Europe this morning the British group has followed through on earlier Spanish rumors and made a real bid for Ono.  [Read more →]

This article was authored by Grace In Mono, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Exactly two years to the month after I wrote about the “end of unlimited data plans” in the Philippines, we are back to talking about telcos’ fair use policy (FUP) on data usage and how [Read more →]

This weekend we have two more listings on the jobs board than the last time, one from Level 3, two from Lightower, and another from FirstLight Fiber. [Read more →]

A quick summary of some cloud and data center news from the past week to catch up on:

[Read more →]

Steady revenue growth, some organic some inorganic, steady margin expansion, and plenty of new on-net buildings marked Zayo’s fiscal second quarter.   Here are their numbers in some context: [Read more →]

A quick roundup of network news from the last day or two: [Read more →]

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 →]