Telecom Ramblings

This morning Softbank and Sprint did the deed, announcing a series of definitive agreements in which Softbank will invest $20.1B in Sprint while taking a 70% stake in the company. Current shareholders will own 30% of the new entity, but with some shares being bought in cash for $7.30. The deal will give Sprint’s balance sheet a major boost, giving it a much easier path forward with its current LTE buildout plans and more options when it comes to deciding how to handle [Read more →]

Pacnet has lifted the curtain on the next stage of its existence with a new strategic plan. They’re refocusing their business while streamlining operations, the latter of which will be a painful workforce reduction that will save $30M annually while seeing headcount reduced by as much as [Read more →]

Ok, enough people have asked me my thoughts on this subject that I will chime in. US lawmakers last week released a report recommending that Huawei and ZTE be banned from the market, which was quickly supported by Canada and a few others. I’m rather skeptical of the whole thing for the following reasons: [Read more →]

Another job was posted on the Ramblings’ Jobs board this weekend from a different sector of the economy than usual: the University of Connecticut. [Read more →]

TGIF, here’s some quick takes from Cologix, Cross River, and Integra before the weekend starts: [Read more →]

Yesterday’s news that Sprint is talking to Softbank about selling a majority (70%) stake seems to have teeth. At least Japanese investors think so, else Softbank’s stock wouldn’t have dropped 17% on the news. It’s risky of course, but bold if they can pull it off. But as a reader asked here yesterday, what happens to the non-mobile side of Sprint? [Read more →]

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

Over on Network World Asia, there’s an interesting thought exercise from Jim Duffy – supposing Ethernet had lost the LAN wars?  It’s an interesting question – not least because Ethernet has evolved way beyond its original mission as [Read more →]

So today’s news is that Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) says it is in talks with Softbank for a ‘substantial investment’, which could be as much as 75%. Yes, Japan’s third largest wireless carrier likes that status so much that it would like to be the third largest in the US as well. [Read more →]

This morning, Zayo says it is taking customer orders for low latency connectivity from Seattle and both Chicago and the NY Metro area, which they’ve been working on since May. Zayo believes its routes now offer the lowest latency on both rates currently available. They’re also in the process of upgrading the route to native 100G. [Read more →]

Today we’re going to take a break from the national scene and focus in on a regional metro fiber builder and operator down in Southwest Florida, US Metropolitan Telecom. With us today is the company’s founder and CEO, Frank Mambuca. Frank worked for the likes of Nynex, XCOM, and Level 3 before eventually setting out on his own in 2006 to build a brand new fiber network in Lee and Collier Counties, which house the Naples and Fort Myers metro areas. The company has thrived and become an integral [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at some other news from the European telecommunications front: [Read more →]

Fresh on the heels of its major win at Goldman Sachs, Phoenix-based IO has raised a bundle of cash to drive its modular data center plans forward globally. Moreso than just about anyone in the sector, IO has put major effort into the modular movement and has been gaining traction steadily.  A $90M war chest will give them some firepower to keep pushing. [Read more →]

The German financial marketplace Deutsche Börse is upgrading its network again, getting some help from independent European fiber operator euNetworks. They’re adding capacity for future growth with a focus on high system stability. [Read more →]

There has been interesting news lately on two fronts from the undersea routes between North and South America. [Read more →]

There has been a lot of network expansion news in recent days. Here’s some quick takes on some interesting ones from within the US that I hadn’t managed to get to: [Read more →]

Another expansionary move by XO Holdings (news, filings) this morning, as they have opened for business north of the border in Toronto.  They’ve moved into Cologix’s data center and meet-me room at 151 Front Street West, and will be offering customers there everything from wavelengths to IP-VPNs. [Read more →]

IBM and AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) are teaming up for a new global cloud service for businesses. The two are marrying AT&T’s IP-VPN network services with IBM’s Enterprise cloud services, aiming for the Fortune 1000 with a best of breed approach anchored by two of the [Read more →]

Seems like the only time we hear from this bend of the Missouri River is when we’re talking about Google, so it was refreshing to see some other fiber news come out of Kansas City yesterday. TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings) is putting more fiber into the ground to expand its presence in the city, adding loops in the ‘North of the Missouri River’ area and in the central business district. [Read more →]

Parts of the nation’s communications infrastructure went on the blink today in the Pacific Northwest. Sprint’s network suffered dual cable cuts in different parts of the company. Cable cuts happen of course and every now and then more than one happens at the same time in just the wrong place, making mincemeat out of someone’s network protection design. [Read more →]

Sidera Networks unveiled an aggressive new buildout project this morning. The company is planning a statewide network in Virginia, taking it for the first time beyond the suburbs of Washington DC and into ‘the South’. I guess that means I’ll have to drop the ‘north’ from the phrase ‘northeastern regional fiber operator’ from here on out. [Read more →]

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR, news, filings) announced a large new turn-key data center lease down in Houston. The space is going to an unnamed ‘leading technology-focused seismic solutions company serving the global energy industry.’  The energy vertical is obviously big in Texas, and it’s becoming more and more of a bandwidth consumer of late, just like every vertical seems to be for one reason or another. [Read more →]

I have been pondering the influence high frequency trading has had on the bandwidth market over the past few years, and whether the recent second look it is getting from regulators might be something worth keeping closer tabs on. Low latency demand from the HFT wing of the financial industry has created some of the most profitable opportunities for both new and existing infrastructure since the bubble.  Hence, shifts in that industry’s structure may have reprecussions. [Read more →]

Yesterday’s poll will remain open for a while yet, but I found the results after the first day to be somewhat enlightening. The three most common adjectives that Telecom Ramblings readers picked to describe T-Mobile USA’s planned merger with MetroPCS have been, interestingly enough, ‘strategic’, ‘logical’, and ‘defensive’. [Read more →]