Telecom Ramblings

Today marks the 40th birthday of Ethernet, which has come a long way since the napkin on which it was conceived by Bob Metcalfe at Xerox PARC.  Generally when we talk about 40th birthdays, we look back on some ancient, giant piece of antiquated technology and wax on nostalgically about how our phones are a million times more powerful now.  But not Ethernet, which in its latest form is busy taking over yet more of the networking world’s functionality from younger but less capable or less cost effective technologies.   [Read more →]

In the face of shareholder opposition, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) this morning delayed the vote on its bid for the half of Clearwire it doesn’t already own in order to raise the bid. The original price of $2.97 had been getting substantial pushback from investors, especially from Crest Financial. The new bid price stands at $3.40, an extra $0.43 per share. [Read more →]

Three interesting stories to look at from the European theatre: an enterprise channel win for euNetworks, another gaming CDN/IP win for Level 3, some more Mediterranean breadth for Interoute, and Rascom goes 100G to Russia. [Read more →]

Over the past twelve months, Pacnet has gone through a lot of changes. In October the company announced a transformation plan that would give the company a new managed-services and datacenter-centric approach and take greater advantage of their connectivity in Mainland China. And indeed they’ve been putting real money to work since then. With us today to tell us where Pacnet is at and what’s on deck is Jim Fagan, the company’s President, Managed Services. [Read more →]

Following my contrarian article last week where I predicted that tw telecom would not only not sell as analysts are predicting but actually buy something, several folks asked me the rather obvious followup of ‘whom’. One regular commenter went so far as to ask if all roads still stop at XO, which of course has been on the receiving end of my M&A speculations multiple times in the past. Not all roads perhaps, but some do so let’s start there. [Read more →]

Let’s start off the week by finishing off last week, with a look five news items from the data center sector: more money for IO and QTS, and customer wins at CoreSite, Cologix, and 365Main. [Read more →]

We have a new job listing this week from the midwestern-based fiber builder Unite Private Networks, giving them two active listings, while MegaPath still has one on the books. [Read more →]

With ITW going on, it’s been a busy week for international telecommunications on the PR front. Here’s a quick roundup of some articles of interest from overseas: [Read more →]

Over the past few days, word has come out that in fact DukeNet does have a book out and may very well become the next metro fiber consolidatee. DukeNet has a deep footprint in the Carolinas with a few thousand towers on-net, with additional regional/metro connectivity stretching to the north, south, and west. It’s one of a dwindling number of mid-sized regional fiber operators still independent,  So who might be the most likely buyers?  Here’s a quick survey: [Read more →]

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

ITEM: Researchers claim to have developed a model for crunching the Big Data generated from cellular networks without revealing the identities of mobile users. [Read more →]

Speculation on who will step up and buy tw telecom has been spreading, with the latest being a Bloomberg article quoting various analysts bullish about the potential of a deal.  The candidates cast in the role of buyer are TW Cable, Comcast, and CenturyLink, and I agree they are the most likely if one accepts the hypothesis that tw telecom is preparing to sell. But I’m going to go out on a contrarian limb and say that not only will they not sell, this time they’re going to buy. [Read more →]

Here’s a set of quick-takes looking at news from the metro sector this week from Alpheus, DukeNet, Comcast Business, UNSi, MetTel, and Zayo. [Read more →]

As it continues to integrate last year’s acquisitions into its business, Zayo is redefining the possible EBITDA margin potential for the fiber sector.  In today’s quarterly earnings numbers, they saw sequential growth in EBITDA that exceeded that of revenue in gross terms, bringing margins up to 58.1%.  Here’s a quick table of their numbers in context: [Read more →]

Making its 18th acquisition of the recent era, Birch Communications today announced that it has signed an agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets of Lightyear Network Solutions. [Read more →]

Europe’s networking community got a bit of consolidation today, as one of the last fiber orphans of the dot com era found a new home at last. Viatel and its VTLWaveNet division have joined the Digiweb Group. [Read more →]

Yesterday rumors emerged that XO’s CTO Randy Nicklas had left the company, and indeed his picture disappeared from the company website’s management team. But it was clearly voluntary, as Nicklas has already resurfaced over at Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings). [Read more →]

After discontinuing its efforts back in March, Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) appears to have finally landed the refinancing it was looking for. This morning they kicked off the private offering of $300M in senior secured notes due 2020. And simultaneously they commenced a tender offer and consent solicitation for the $292.3M in 10.5% notes due 2016 that they inherited from the purchase of Deltacom two years ago. No doubt we will hear what the new pricing will be later today or tomorrow.  [Read more →]

EdgeCast has won a big victory in its campaign to supply the CDN technology underlying telecommunications networks around the world. The Swedish giant TeliaSonera has partnered with them for managed CDN and site acceleration capabilities while adding their unparalleled Nordic depth to EdgeCast’s global reach. [Read more →]

With ITW now in full swing, there’s been lots of news to start the week. Here’s a quick rundown of items from the datacenter sector: new products from Digital Realty and Telehouse, a product enhancement from Global Capacity, and a new tenant for CoreSite. [Read more →]

According to CEO Bjarni Thorvardarson via Capacity Magazine, Project Express is back in business with a new vendor: TE Subcom. Three months ago, Hibernia temporarily suspended its plans for a new lower latency transatlantic system in the wake of the [Read more →]

With its enterprise business carrying the growth mantle of late, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) switched things up and today unveiled a new initiative aimed at selling cloud-based carrier VoIP to other service providers. Teaming with the cloud voice provider Alianza for a carrier cloud voice solution, they are targeting service providers of all types who need to focus on other things to find growth. [Read more →]

So the FCC punted again, asking for further comments on AT&T’s November proposal to begin to ‘sunset’ the PSTN via geographic trials free of regulation. AT&T wasn’t happy, with Jim Cicconi writing “We are puzzled it took the FCC six months to decide it needed such information.” Really? The FCC dithering and asking for comments when faced with an actual decision is  [Read more →]

We have a new job listing this week from the national managed services LEC MegaPath to go with two others still active from UPN as well. [Read more →]