Telecom Ramblings

XO Communications stepped back into the public eye with some new expansion plans yesterday, backed by some new cash. Since Chris Ancell took over as CEO after last Thanksgiving, I’ve been waiting to see which way he would turn the steering wheel at XO. [Read more →]

There’s been a bunch of metro fiber news in the past few days, here’s a quick rundown: [Read more →]

In a filing with the SEC yesterday, Juniper Networks offered some sobering new information about its plan to refocus and cut costs. They’ll be reducing their headcount worldwide by 6%, which given current levels of around 9500 means that about 500-600 folks will be looking for alternatives.  Juniper says a significant proportion of those will be from middle management.  [Read more →]

In the last few days two IP backbones, each large in transit but small in the overall telecom world, made quiet moves that have given them an extra $200M or so to play with. GTT filed a shelf with the SEC in that amount, while Cogent Communications has tapped the debt markets. And while it’s probable that there’s nothing relating the two moves (I certainly don’t have any information about either company’s plans), it still got me thinking. What sort of inorganic move would make sense for an independent IP backbone right now? [Read more →]

Here’s four interesting items from the international front: [Read more →]

Zayo is at it again. No, they didn’t buy anyone yet today, I mean on the organic front. For all the fanfare of M&A and consolidation, Zayo’s more enduring legacy will be all the fiber they are putting in the ground. The new project is in and around the heart of the tech world: Silicon Valley. [Read more →]

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

Remember those rumors that Facebook is planning to use drones to deliver Internet connectivity to the unconnected?  Turns out it’s true.

[Read more →]

Here’s a quick rundown of some recent metro news from around the sector: [Read more →]

A new trend is poised to emerge in meeting the power needs of the ever-expanding global data center footprint while meeting new green energy standards. Sources say the next big merger deal in the sector will probably be between an unnamed national colocation operator and either Bally’s or Gold’s Gym. [Read more →]

This morning, industry giant AT&T unveiled a new use for its cash and it isn’t European M&A.  Rather than do anything rash, the company’s board of directors has authorized a new stock buyback of up to another 300M shares with no expiry. That’s up to 6% of the total and represents a not insubstantial $10B or so in cash at today’s stock price. [Read more →]

In a Forbes piece yesterday, Hal Singer took the role of transit backbones in the world’s internet infrastructure and reduced it all the way down to the status of ‘middlemen’.  And of course, middlemen are undeserving of protection from the FCC when it comes to ensuring a healthy marketplace since they don’t actually do much of anything anyway, right?   Be careful what you wish for. [Read more →]

Over the past few weeks, another country has decided that the solution to its problems is to clamp down on the internet. In Turkey it started with the blocking of a few major social media sites, i.e. Twitter and YouTube. But over the weekend it blossomed into full scale DNS hijacking, according to Renesys.  [Read more →]

Time to finish off the week with a quick roundup of news items worth a quick look: [Read more →]

In latest twist in the cable M&A soap opera we’ve been treated to these past few months, Charter is taking its case to a proxy fight. In an SEC filing this morning, they apparently now soliciting proxies from TWC shareholders to vote against the proposed merger with Comcast. [Read more →]

As its nationwide expansion project picks up steam, tw telecom is putting out a few details of the projects in each market. Earlier this week the focus was out in Colorado Springs and the surrounding areas, and yesterday it shifted both southeast to Memphis, Tennessee and southwest to Orange County, California. [Read more →]

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 →]