Telecom Ramblings

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by David Bell, Digital Marketing Executive at Tripudio Telecom. The Tripudio team will be at the Call Centre and Customer Management Expo on the 2^nd and 3^rd October 2013 at the London Olympia Exhibition Centre.

It would appear that ‘cloud’ seems to be the answer to everyone’s problems these days. ‘Cloud computing’, ‘cloud networking’ and ‘cloud based hosting’ are common phrases amongst most [Read more →]

Up in the Pacific Northwest there was a bit of fiber consolidation yesterday. Wave Division Holdings has acquired Spectrum Networks and its subsidiary CondoInternet, adding yet more depth to their network in and around Seattle. [Read more →]

The fault line between the content delivery network and carrier worlds has been rather quiet lately, but today we saw a substantial new buildout by a network operator. Ericsson says it has deployed a CDN for Rostelecom, the largest operator in Russia. [Read more →]

Time for a quick roundup of news from the colocation sector: [Read more →]

The past few months has brought a steady drumbeat of transactions in the Metro Fiber sector with the acquisitions of Freedom Dark Fiber out in Southern California, US Metro down in Florida, Access Communications in Minneapolis and EasyTel in Tulsa. We sat down with Bank Street Group’s James Henry (JHH), Richard Lukaj (RSL) and Peter Beckett (JPB) to discuss the implications of these recent transactions for the sector and the outlook for the future. [Read more →]

Midweek brings us another quick roundup of news items that are worth a quick look. [Read more →]

The Vyvx division over at Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) has added a PoP way down in Johannesburg, South Africa. They’re responding to demand for video content both generated in and delivered to the country.  Telemedia is the first announced customer, gaining access to a global audience for its content. [Read more →]

For a while it looked like Verizon might crack the regulatory barrier and substitute its VoiceLink wireless replacement for copper services in remote areas. However, the public outcry was big enough to drive them into retreat, as yesterday they abruptly reversed course and said they’d bring in fiber to the island as well. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of international news from the start of this week, but taking a break from Vodafone and all that: [Read more →]

Telecom Ramblings may not be the next Rolling Stone, but nevertheless we’ve got an actual rock star interview for you today. Chad Taylor, best known as guitarist and co-founder of the multi-platinum rock band +LIVE+, is also Chairman of Think Loud Holdings, one of the main backers of United Fiber & Data. UFD made its debut earlier this year by kicking off a brand new fiber build between New York City and Ashburn by way of York, Pennsylvania. Chad joins us here today to talk fiber and telecom. [Read more →]

Last week’s heavily foreshadowed $130B deal between Verizon and Vodafone finished off the summer M&A season with a bang.  In the end, Verizon met what had been widely seen as Vodafone’s price to finally gain full control over Verizon Wireless.  Did they get a steal or did they pay too much?  Now that the dust has settled, here’s a quick poll: [Read more →]

Remember when the FCC laid down the law on net neutrality, and many said that as weak as it was it still likely wouldn’t survive a court challenge? Well that challenge took its usual scenic route through the legal system but has now arrived at long last.  [Read more →]

Over on the Ramblings Jobs Board we have two new job listings this week from the competitive metro fiber space: [Read more →]

It’s been a shortened week, but despite having all the oxygen sucked out by the Verizon/Vodafone and MicroSoft/Nokia deals, plenty of other interesting things managed to happen: [Read more →]

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

In the wake of Microsoft’s $7.2 billion buyout of Nokia’s handset business, it’s not surprising some people are comparing it to Google’s buyout of Motorola’s handset division a couple of years ago. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of news from the data center world this week, with Infinity tapping euNetworks’ fiber, and a customer each for Sabey, CoreSite, and CyrusOne. [Read more →]

The western regional network operator Integra is expanding its metro presence on its eastern frontier, i.e. in the upper Midwestern city of Minneapolis. Integra is building out 1,600 fiber miles focused on the the central business district, with completion targeted in the fourth quarter of this year. [Read more →]

One of the big cable MSOs has bought its way into a deeper metro fiber footprint. Cox Communications today signed an agreement to buy Tulsa’s EasyTEL. [Read more →]

After a couple years of digesting the former Nortel MEN business, Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) has been coming on very strong lately.  The company’s very strong fiscal third quarter was its third such performance in a row, easily beating expectations.  Here’s a quick table with some context: [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at some news items from the start of this week, and one from last week that I hadn’t gotten to.  [Read more →]

The USA may have been off for the past few days, but there’s been plenty of news elsewhere that is of interest. Here’s a quick review: [Read more →]

If you were unplugged for the Labor Day weekend in the USA, then this will be news. Otherwise, it’s just the wrap-up with the actual numbers.  The deal has been made: Verizon is paying Vodafone $130B to take full control over Verizon Wireless. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Joseph Waring, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Five-year forecasts are standard fare for research firms and analysts, which send me a steady stream of ambitious predictions that I mostly ignore. An accurate estimate 12 months ahead is challenging enough, particularly for new industry segments. And it’s no secret that three-year outlooks are at best [Read more →]