Telecom Ramblings

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

Microsoft says it will shut down its Windows Live Messenger in 2013 in a move to encourage users to migrate to Skype, which is now capable of importing Messenger contacts. [Read more →]

Time for a quick survey of the datacenter space, with quick looks a news from Cologix, ColoAtl, SunGard, and Interxion: [Read more →]

Another week, another move by Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) to transform itself back into a real alternative to Verizon and AT&T. With ink still wet on the Softbank investment and the clarifying Clearwire ownership move, Sprint found another inorganic step to make yesterday. They are buying a 10% surgical slice of US Cellular. [Read more →]

For many enterprise-focused competitive operators Ethernet-over-Copper technology has been growing in importance, and of course in raw bandwidth potential as well. This week two large alternative carriers announced substantial upgrades to their EoC capabilities that are worth keeping an eye on. [Read more →]

The rough patch at Inteliquent (NASDAQ:IQNT, news, filings) got rougher today with their Q3 report, offering a bit of insight into the recent management upheaval.  Revenues and EBITDA came in light, and earnings took a $9M charge amidships from a voice termination settlement with one of their major voice customers that also shifted the overall relationship.  As a result, full year 2012 guidance was reduced again.  Here’s the birds eye view: [Read more →]

The independent European metro fiber operator euNetworks defied the macroeconomic headwinds and increased its forward momentum as reported in their third quarter results this morning.  Recurring revenues were up 4% sequentially,while EBITDA rose by 32%.  Here’s a quick tabular summary: [Read more →]

Now that the election’s over (finally!), there’s plenty of news from global service providers already this week to look at.  Here’s a set of quick takes on some of the interesting bits: [Read more →]

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) continued its rebound from the loss of MegaUpload’s business in January with a steady third quarter that took revenues back to an all time high.  Their total of $79.7M was a bit above my own guess but slightly below the consensus analyst estimate, although it would have matched that threshold in constant currency terms.  Here’s a quick table: [Read more →]

So yesterday the defunct New Zealand to California cable Pacific Fibre managed to gain a new high profile supporter, of the ‘yeah right’ variety.  Kim Dotcom, the infamous fellow behind Megaupload, wants to reboot the project and have his new ‘Mega’ company fund part of it. [Read more →]

A week ago today, the joint hurricane/nor’easter called Sandy slammed into the NY/NJ/CT/MD/DE/PA region, leaving millions without power and vast tracts of low lying areas near the ocean in varying levels of devastation. Much of the less severe damage to the telecommunications infrastructure has now been repaired, and perhaps now it’s time to note Sandy has taught us.  Here are a few such items from my point of view, I welcome any additions: [Read more →]

As has been their recent practice, TW Telecom (NASDAQ:TWTC, news, filings) posted its earnings after the market closed today, with their conference call scheduled for tomorrow.  Their third quarter was another of the steady steps forward in revenue, EBITDA, and margins we have come to expect every three months, meeting analyst expectations on the financials while adding another 552 on-net buildings to their network.  Here’s a tabular summary: [Read more →]

Both gtlt and CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL, news, filings) today announced  expansions of their network presence with the help of CoreSite (NYSE:COR, news, filings).  GTT is adding ten of the data center REIT’s facilities to their backbone network, while CenturyLink added five.   [Read more →]

Now that Sandy has passed and the cleanup continues, four very different but publicly held alternative network service providers report their Q3 earnings this week/  Cbeyond and probably tw telecom will report after the close today, Cogent tomorrow morning, and Inteliquent on Wednesday morning.  Here’s a quick preview of what to expect from each:  [Read more →]

We have a new job listing on the Ramblings’ Jobs board this week from a frequent contributor, the Midwestern-based fiber builder and operator Unite Private Networks.   UPN is looking for a [Read more →]

Sandy, Sandy, Sandy. What a week, eh? And it’s not over yet, with a few data centers still completely out and many more still on generator power hoping the diesel resupply arrives on schedule. But let’s take a step back and think about just why the damage was as bad as it was, and why it wasn’t worse too. [Read more →]

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

Inevitably, reports from the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy have included a telecoms tech angle – not just in terms of network impact, but also consumer usage. [Read more →]

Yesterday in a Sandy-delayed report, Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) issued its third quarter financials while also closing its divestment of non-core datacenter assets to 365 Main.  The latter led to their reclassifying revenue from those assets as from discontinued operations, which confused things since analyst estimates were for the whole thing.  Further complicating matters was the addition of Asia Tone and ancotel, which analysts *were* factoring in.  But after hunting through the numbers, it seems clear that Equinix had [Read more →]

It appears the global enterprise WAN market has been evolving rapidly over the past year. According to TeleGeography, IP VPN port pricing has been falling as usual, but for low capacity ports it has been falling much more steeply. Here’s their chart:  [Read more →]

Almost lost in the shuffle earlier this week was expansion news from EdgeCast Networks.  In addition to some infrastructure upgrades, they’ve added new nodes in Vienna, Stockholm, and Sao Paolo in response to customer demand, and now claim their infrastructure carries more than 4% of worldwide internet traffic. [Read more →]

Lots of industry executives have been moving around or changing name plates this autumn, here are four from this past week: [Read more →]

Yesterday, the billionaire Carl Icahn announced the latest target for the unique type of value raid he has perfected over the last ten years. Through options and other means, he has taken the equivalent of a 10% stake in Netflix and stated his belief that it’s undervalued and should be sold to a big tech company lik MicroSoft, Google, Apple, or Amazon. [Read more →]

Yesterday it was about what broke, today let it be about what didn’t. When Sandy tore through the MidAtlantic as the largest such storm on record, it could have been much, much worse for fiber, copper, wireless, cloud, and content.  [Read more →]

Telstra Global, the international division of the Australian incumbent, is giving the ‘global’ part of its name a bit more weight by adding nine PoPs across four continents. They’ve expanded their presence with new nodes London, Marseille, Stockholm, Osaka, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Chicago, as well as two more back in Sydney. [Read more →]