Telecom Ramblings

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 →]

So much time, effort, and money were spent on LightSquared’s effort to build an LTE wholesale alternative over the past year or so, and now unless there is some serious magic left in Philip Falcone’s wand it all seems to have gone for naught.  LightSquared blames the GPS industry for sloppy design and inflexibility in finding a fix.  The GPS industry blames LightSquared for trying to kill their technology first and check for problems later.  Still others blame [Read more →]

Systems integrator CSC is planning to add some substantial infrastructure to its cloud effort.  They have launched a 1.5MW expansion at two of CoreSite’s facilities in Boston and Northern Virginia in support of a one of their clients in the global financial vertical.  The infrastructure is already in place, with direct access to CSC’s [Read more →]

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

It’s been a banner week for the French-American network gear vendor. Last Friday Alcatel-Lucent reported its first full-year profit ever, posting earnings of $1.32 billion for 2011 after a loss of $439 million the previous year. With revenue down 2% during the period, that’s quite a turnaround involving some serious cost cutting. [Read more →]

Let’s catch up on some recent news from the metro fiber operators and a quick look at the U.S. Business Ethernet Leaderboard according to Vertical Systems Group: [Read more →]

Having spent the year integrating the assets of Deltacom and One Communications as well as other smaller purchases, Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) closed out 2011 with its fourth quarter earnings this morning.  Revenues of $350.2M were slightly above expectations, while earnings per share of $0.04 was inline with estimates.  Here is a quick table of the company’s results alongside the prior quarter’s numbers: [Read more →]

Data center builder and operator Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) filed its Q4 earnings yesterday, turning in its usual workmanlike growth report.  Of course, the stock has risen sharply since the beginning of the year and probably overshot a bit on expectations, but at its core Equinix seems to have had a fine quarter overall in which it met guidance and maintained its forward projections.  Here’s a quick tabular summary: [Read more →]

Time to catch up on some bits and pieces from the colocation sector recently: [Read more →]