Telecom Ramblings

This past week marked the 5th birthday of Telecom Ramblings, which is about 4 years 11 months longer than I figured it would last when I started out. There’s been lots of water under the bridge since then in fiber, data, content, and voice. Startups, consolidation, growth, bankruptcies, net neutrality, and always traffic growth — I’m ready for 5 more. [Read more →]

The news that Tom Wheeler is Obama’s pick to be the next FCC Chairman didn’t seem to make many waves this week, although there were a few rumbles of discontent among the activist crowd.  What do you think, did Obama choose well in replacing Julius Genachowski?  Vote and be heard! [Read more →]

Time for an end-of-week look at whatever I missed or didn’t get to the first time around: [Read more →]

This article was authored by Michael J Carroll, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

The Swiss government is tipping the Republic of Somaliland as one of Africa’s best investment bets, after a meeting between its foreign office and local community representatives. [Read more →]

Lots of news from the IaaS side of the cloud in the last day or two that is worth a quick look, with items from Earthlink, PeakColo, Data Foundry, and Equinix. [Read more →]

The independent European metro operator euNetworks continued its steady upward trends in both revenue and EBITDA with today’s report.  They’ve also been setting up their balance sheet for the next phase.  Yesterday they announced the raising of up to €45M in term loans that is earmarked for further organic and inorganic growth opportunities, and today they consolidated their share count.  Here’s a quick table of their numbers in context: [Read more →]

The shares of TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings) jumped unexpectedly yesterday just after lunch. It seems all it took was comments by Corvex’s Keith Meister at the Ira Sohn conference to the effect that tw telecom is a likely M&A target. This is not the first time this rumor has hit the mill, and it won’t be the last.  But if he’s right, who would be doing the buying? [Read more →]

Banks in Europe have been very stingy when it comes to funding fiber networks in recent years, and hence euNetworks’ announcement today that they have secured up to €45M of debt funding could be a significant shift. euNetworks has earmarked the funds for either organic or inorganic growth, but they don’t really need that kind of money for growth of the organic variety at present. [Read more →]

Lots of interesting network news from around the world this week, let’s take a quick tour: [Read more →]

If all the world were like Brazil, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) would not be unhappy. The South American region as a whole has been hopping, and they’ve been able to generate the solid growth they’re looking for a path to elsewhere. This week they’ve picked up two Brazilian contracts already, one for hosting local content delivery and one for cloud-based IT services. [Read more →]

Delaware will be getting some more fiber infrastructure courtesy of Fibertech.  Yesterday the Rochester-based fiber operator and builder announced an expansion of its regional presence in the state, building southward from Wilmington through Dover and into Georgetown, following closely on the heels of that Ohio expansion they announced in December. [Read more →]

United Network Services, Inc, or UNSi, announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire Dallas-based Airband Communications. This isn’t consolidation of similar assets, but rather a merger of complementary technologies and capabilities. UNSi specializes in MPLS and managed services, while Airband focuses on fixed wireless access and VoIP services like SIP trunking and Hosted PBX. [Read more →]

Steady revenue growth by Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) took them back into positive earnings territory once again in the first quarter of 2013.  As with tw telecom some higher expenses pulled down both EBITDA and earnings per share slightly below expectations, however it appears to be mostly just lumpiness in this case. [Read more →]

UK-based TelecityGroup expanded its colo footprint far to the southeast of its western European turf today with an acquisition. They’ve announced the purchase of Sadece Hosting in Istanbul, Turkey. [Read more →]

For TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings), the first quarter of 2013 had a lot in common with the prior quarter as the company spends more on future growth initiatives while taking a bit of a hit on margins.  Expectations-wise, they were a tad light on all fronts, coming in two cents short of the composite analyst estimates over on Yahoo Finance.  Here’s a quick tabular summary: [Read more →]

In the ongoing wireless M&A soap opera, Clearwire has finally made up its mind to stick with the original plan, err the original Sprint buyout plan that is.  Today they sent out a letter to shareholders endorsing Sprint’s offer to buy the company and its spectrum holdings for $2.97 per share in advance of the company’s upcoming vote two [Read more →]

This week will see a parade of earnings reports from network providers big and small.  For now, let’s focus in on the two alternative fiber operators tw telecom and Cogent.  Both have their conference calls on Tuesday morning, although tw will probably issue its press release later today.  Here’s a quick look at what I’m expecting to see: [Read more →]

Down under, the Australian opposition has been pushing an NBN alternative that would replace the FTTH the country has been touting for years now with FTTC – nothing like the old bait-and-switch.  Kudos to blogging neighbor Benoît Felten for flagging this hilarious YouTube send-up of the whole thing: [Read more →]

Before everyone leaves early on this fine May Friday (or not, depending on your local weather!), here’s a quick look at some news from around the world this week: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Stefan Bernbo, CEO and founder of Compuverde.  

The demand for a newer, more flexible storage option has never been greater. Our world’s becoming increasingly virtual as we upload more data than ever before into the Cloud, the collection of servers that provides the bulk of today’s digital storage. [Read more →]

It’s time for a quick rundown of metro fiber news this week with build-out news from Comcast, Ciena, Sunesys, 24/7 Mid-Atlantic, and Integra: [Read more →]

In a sign that its fortunes are shifting as hoped, Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) turned in a solid first quarter, beating analyst expectations for both revenue and earnings per share.  That and improved sales momentum was enough to raise 2013 guidance. [Read more →]

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

The key takeaway at Huawei’s analyst (and media) day last week is the company’s acknowledgement that the heady days of double-digit growth for its carrier network biz (representing 73% of total revenue) are over, and that its enterprise and consumer device groups will be the growth engines going forward. [Read more →]