Telecom Ramblings

National metro operator telecom reported its fourth quarter earnings this morning, turning in its usual solid growth.  Revenues were slightly above both estimates and the high end of guidance, while earnings per share easily beat analyst expectations.  Here’s a quick summary in context: [Read more →]

The news cup runneth over, with MWC still going on, MetroConnect kicking off today, and few earnings reports coming out too,  So let’s first catch up on some of the other news out recently: [Read more →]

According to reports over the weekend, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) was all set to buy MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS, news, filings) last week, but walked away at the last minute when the transaction was nixed by Sprint’s board of directors. The deal was said to be worth about $8B, giving MetroPCS shareholders a [Read more →]

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR, news, filings) is betting big on Dallas. The data center REIT has purchased the 819,000 square foot Convergence Business Park in the suburb of Lewisville for $123.0M. The property as currently built out is already 99% leased, with 35% of that [Read more →]

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC, news, filings) is getting into the data center business. Today at MWC in Barcelona they launched both a new service for building and optimizing data centers and a platform for network-enabled clouds to take advantage of them. Telecom operators worldwide have been maneuvering to leverage the cloud to boost their enterprise business, and Ericsson is clearly looking to grow its service business by riding that trend. [Read more →]

Another job was posted to the  Telecom Ramblings Jobs Board this week.  The success of the jobs board is something I hope to build on when I unveil the next version of it in a few weeks.  This week’s  job posting is from northeastern fiber operator sidera, which has been maintaining a steady stream of job listings here for a while now. [Read more →]

Earlier this week in the discussion following my article a few days ago on CenturyLink’s possible interest in Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) I said that the math for Level 3 doesn’t require heroic assumptions to get to positive earnings and substantial free cash flow next spring.  In fact, the math is so favorable that my model suggests that even if they materially miss guidance throughout 2012, [Read more →]

This article was authored by Don Sambandaraksa, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Ovum’s recent report on how social messaging has cost operators $13.9 billion in lost revenue has been making the headlines. But the fact of the matter is, while SMS is on the decline, data is on the rise and this shift is as much an opportunity as it is a threat. [Read more →]

Internap Network Services (NASDAQ:INAP, news, filings) is finally starting to see the benefits of its shift in focus toward its datacenter business, and finished the year on a profitable Q4 note.  Both revenue and earnings came in ahead of expectations, and the stock market responded favorably after hours.  Here’s a quick table of their results in context: [Read more →]

The Metro Ethernet Forum has unveiled its next generation of Ethernet standardization, with none other than Bob Metcalfe doing the honors.  Carrier Ethernet 2.0 has arrived. [Read more →]

One of the lesser known fiber assets in the mid-Atlantic region has a new owner.  24/7 Fiber Network has been purchased by Baltimore’s GRI Fund, and is re-launching today as 24/7 Mid-Atlantic Network. [Read more →]

This spectrum crunch thing may be about to get ugly quickly. T-Mobile USA, fresh off the death of the planned merger with AT&T, is looking more aggressive every day. [Read more →]

A pair of giant new data center buildouts feature in this week’s news from the world of colocation and the cloud: [Read more →]

National metro operator abvt says that it has put substantial resources to work in its Atlanta market this year.  That means new low latency fiber routes bringing more key sites on-net in downtown Atlanta, Alpharetta, Buckhead and Norcross, highlighting QTS in particular.  It also means additional headcount and expertise dedicated to the Southeast. [Read more →]

Hybrid RLEC/CLEC Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings) turned in its fourth quarter earnings report this morning, giving us our first look at the company since it acquired PAETEC in December. They mercifully focused most of their key metrics on the pro-forma numbers, i.e. including [Read more →]

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) reported its fourth quarter earnings  this morning.    Overall, Cogent continued its streak of steady, increasingly profitable growth.  Revenues were slightly low due to currency fluctuations, but the company managed a nice surprise down on the all-important bottom line.  Here’s a quick table of today’s numbers in context. [Read more →]

In what is the most obviously inevitable workforce reduction so far this year, LightSquared (news) is supposedly planning to cut 45% of its workforce. Following the FCC’s decision to stop the buildout of their wholesale LTE network due to GPS interference concerns, the company currently lacks [Read more →]

Zayo Group (news, filings) said today that it is expanding its northeastern fiber network to include a focus on high capacity intercity Ethernet and wavelength transport. What that means is 800Gbps of new total network capacity being targeted at one of the most competitive intercity markets in the world, i.e. within the Chicago/NYC/WashingtonDC triangle with access points in key facilities in [Read more →]

Networking equipment vendor Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) pre-announced some preliminary results for the company’s fiscal first quarter, which ended January 31. The verdict can be summed up in one word: Yuck. [Read more →]

When managed hosting provider Carpathia Hosting went out to get more space, they weren’t kidding around. Carpathia will be using the services of a joint venture consisting of both Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR, news, filings) and Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) to get the [Read more →]

Plenty of news overseas lately that is worth a quick look: [Read more →]

The Middle East’s newest, biggest cable has now officially gone live. Gulf Bridge International (news) and TE Subcom (news) today pronounced the system ‘ready for service’, bringing at least 5.18Tbps to the table and dragging the region’s bandwidth markets further into the modern world. Local ownership and landing stations in eight Gulf countries give each a direct pipe to both [Read more →]

A reader recently asked me to comment on a possible combination of CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL, news, filings) and Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) after the two have finished their respective integrations. Various articles and research notes have alluded to the possibility of late, including [Read more →]