Telecom Ramblings

One last look at some post-Q4 numbers, specifically the ratio of enterprise value (EV) to adjusted EBITDA across the sector. This ratio isn’t perfect of course, but it has more inherent comparability than other metrics, as it incorporates net debt (via EV) and alongside the capex/revenue plot gives a decent relative picture of the sector’s various operating models.  This plot incorporates not only data for the end of 2012, but includes a real time estimate as its last data point.  One can clearly see a recovery in valuation in progress, following the sharp drop in Q3. [Read more →]

The carrier neutral collocation business just keeps on growing quarter after quarter, and with all the movement toward cloud-based services across the globe it seems very unlikely that trend will change anytime soon.  With us today to tell us more about TELEHOUSE America’s position in this space and its plans for the future is Fred Cannone, Director of Sales and Marketing. [Read more →]

That the colocation business is expanding on all fronts right now is obvious, but the location chosen by Arizona’s Phoenix NAP came as a bit of a surprise. They will be opening a new node in Amsterdam, taking up residence in one of the five facilities there operated by Interxion.  The expansion is all about Phoenix NAP’s [Read more →]

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR, news, filings) released the results of its survey of North American demand for data centers, revealing just how broad-based and unidirectional the sector’s expansion is right now. Ninety two percent said they will definitely or probably expand this year, while just four percent said they have no such plans. That’s up from last year, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s not going to go up next year — you can’t get more than 92% of respondents to consistently [Read more →]

Two new jobs were posted to the Ramblings Jobs Board this week from Unite Private Networks and from City Fibre Holdings.  Additionally, the jobs board itself finally got a long-needed overhaul.  [Read more →]

The Dutch research network said today that it has successfully demonstrated a 100G ultra-longhaul DWDM solution from Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings). On a route between the SARA supercomputing site in Amsterdam and CERN to the south in Geneva, SURFnet introduced 100G single carrier optical interfaces into their existing infrastructure without any disruption. [Read more →]

Last summer, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) put a green foot forward by moving two colocation facilities in London and another in Amsterdam onto 100% renewable power.  Apparently that went pretty well, because they added another five today a bit further to the east.  [Read more →]

Yesterday Telefonica (NYSE:TEF, news, filings) launched a cloud computing platform aimed at Latin America called Virtual Hosting 2.0.  Latin America is of course Telefonica’s growth engine, while its Spanish incumbent and other European businesses are far less dynamic.  Telefonica is powering the new platform via five interconnected data centers spread across five countries in South America: [Read more →]

Yesterday the industry was abuzz with talk that Netflix was pitching a peace plan to the cable companies.  The idea was that Netflix would become just another piece of the cable bill, squaring off against the likes of HBO and backing off their direct OTT challenge.  Honestly, I found it hard to take seriously. According to FierceCable today, Comcast agrees with me.  [Read more →]

According to an article on BNamericas, Brazil’s state-owned operator Telebrás is making a big undersea move aimed at dramatically increasing the country’s international bandwidth choices by hooking up four continents. [Read more →]

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

If you’re looking for evidence of the growing role of women in the telecoms industry, look no further than the news that Russian OSS/BSS vendor CBOSS has been banned from the next Mobile World Congress by organizer GSM Association.

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Several interesting items today from the carrier neutral data centers: [Read more →]

Two weeks ago Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) preannounced its fiscal Q1 results, lowering guidance significantly to about $415M due to unexpectedly longer development cycles and seasonality and other such things.  Today they turned in the real number, $416.7M, but spiced things up with an upbeat outlook.  [Read more →]

Capital expenditures among competitive network operators was remarkably stable sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to my latest data update. With one exception, network operators held the rudder quite steady both on the fiber-heavy and fiber-light ends of the spectrum. This is another nail in the coffin of the idea that [Read more →]

It seems that equipment manufacturers are thinking along similar lines right now, and what they’re thinking is that 100G is today’s killer technology and tomorrow’s buggy whip. At OFC/NFOEC today Alcatel-Lucent is unveiling a 400Gbps Photonic Service Engine chip aimed first at improving the company’s 100G products but eventually at offering 400G wavelengths. [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) may be in the midst of a giant integration project, but in the past few days the focus has been more organic news. Today in particular, the company said it will be providing advanced voice services to the MicroSoft Lync Reference Architecture Project.  [Read more →]

A quick roundup of recent news items from the competitive side of the tracks that are worth a quick look: [Read more →]

Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings) this morning announced its first customer contract for its new DTN-X 5x100Gbps product line, and it’s not one of the usual suspects. Cable & Wireless Worldwide will be using the gear to help power the brand new EPEG fiber system. [Read more →]

Following last week’s acknowledgement that it is considering a bid for Cable & Wireless Worldwide, a Reuters report this morning says that Tata Communications (news, filings) is looking to access the debt markets raise as much as $2B in cash. Some of that is likely earmarked for refinancing activity, but it does seem likely that we’re looking at [Read more →]

NTT Communications (NYSE:NTT, news, filings) has launched its own fiberoptic network services in Indonesia. They have started out at the EJIP Industrial Park outside of Jakarta with service to multinational companies. They gained a fixed network operating license just three months ago, and [Read more →]

Dish Network’s plans for building a national LTE network out of wireless spectrum repurposed from satellite duty took a major hit today. In finally making a decision, the FCC has done what it does best: it decided to delay making a decision. [Read more →]

Another job was posted to the  Telecom Ramblings Jobs Board this week.  Actually, this weekend the jobs board will be upgraded to a new version, just in time for an improving economy that hopefully will start producing jobs in quantity.  But in the meantime, northeastern fiber operator sidera continued its steady stream of listings with another this week. [Read more →]

Nearly all the fourth quarter data is in now, so it’s time to take another look at some of the metrics for companies in the sector side by side.  I have added fourth quarter data for two additional companies to the usual competitive mix: newly independent Lumos Networks (NASDAQ:LMOS, news, filings) and the increasingly hybridized ILEC/CLEC Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings) (pro forma).  Today let’s look at a plot of ebitda margin trends over time: [Read more →]