Telecom Ramblings

Lots of news this week to keep up with, so let’s look at a few items:

Western regional operator Integra Telecom took another step toward a fiber-focused future and away from its more traditional CLEC roots with the launch of two Ethernet service offerings.  With both Ethernet Private Line and Ethernet Virtual Private Line products on tap and MEF-certified, I expect we’ll be seeing them hooking up at [Read more →]

I’ve seen a few articles lately looking at who the winners and losers are if the AT&T/T-Mobile comes to fruition, and I’d like to throw in a few more on both sides that nobody’s talking about:

Winners (Other than AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, and Verizon/Vodafone): [Read more →]

Midwestern operator US Signal did more than join the Telx Ethernet Exchange yesterday, they also announced a new expansion that takes them beyond their traditional territory and into the Great Plains.  They have apparently added a new regional loop westward from Green Bay to Minneapolis, then south to Des Moines, and back to their existing turf in Chicago.  Along the way they also added off-ramps in [Read more →]

The news from the flourishing Ethernet segment continues to flow, with three interesting items coming out of CompTel today. [Read more →]

If it weren’t for, umm, other news, Sprint’s alliance with Google Voice might have had a pretty nice impact this morning.  They are letting customers use their Sprint mobile number as their Google Voice number, which adds some nice functionality right off the bat.  They are also preloading Google Voice’s Android app onto the new Nexus S 4G, also announced today.  But it will all be drowned out by the big merger news.  The announcement of the proposed buyout of T-Mobile USA by AT&T has far-reaching implications, but the most immediate of them are neither for AT&T nor Deutsche Telecom, but rather for Sprint. [Read more →]

On Sunday of course, AT&T announced it’s intention to acquire T-Mobile USA.  A fair amount of the commentary on the internet thus far, including my own, expresses doubt whether regulators will let the deal pass.  But perhaps that is wishful thinking on the part of pundits hoping for a real fight to cover where the evil mega-corporations actually lose?  Have your say, vote here: [Read more →]

The implications of yesterday’s blockbuster announcement by AT&T of its intention to buy T-Mobile USA are just beginning to reverberate.  While most of the press will be looking at how this changes the dynamics of the mobile space, there are some pretty major implications for a swath of the independent fiber operators.  The reason is simple:  if this deal goes through, then anyone who lists T-Mobile as one of their top customers for wholesale network services is going to feel pain. [Read more →]

Apparently T-Mobile USA really was for sale, but it wasn’t Sprint that stepped up to the plate.  Instead, Ma Bell’s grandchild is doing the buying, taking yet another step back toward its dominant position.  AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) announced on Sunday its intention to buy the American mobile arm of the German incumbent for $39B.  The combination of #4 and #2 will easily restore AT&T’s position as the largest mobile carrier in the USA.  That is, it will if [Read more →]

What to do when you’ve got oodles of cash, but nothing you do with it makes your shareholder’s happy?  That’s been the story of Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) over the last year or two, as they have been taking the tens of billions of dollars on their balance sheet and buying everything that isn’t nailed down, but not making anybody happy as growth has disappointed.  The solution?  To bring an end to an era, knuckle under, and declare a dividend. [Read more →]

Lots of Ethernet-related news in the past few days:

IPNETZONE went with XO Holdings (news, filings) for nationwide Ethernet access for the MPLS Exchange Platform it launched last September.  XO has put enough money into the EoC market to have become one of its larger players, with services in forty or more markets via over 400 LSOs, and hence offers IPNETZONE an easy route to a much larger customer base.  IPNETZONE has been busy assembling network assets nationwide over the past year, having inked [Read more →]

Everybody’s favorite over-the-top poster boy, Netflix, is said to be about to buy the rights to an original TV series.  Maybe they are, and maybe they aren’t, but it all sounds to me like a rerun.  I’m thinking of Google and some of the projects they’ve done and why they did them.  You know what I mean…  Bidding on wireless spectrum they didn’t really have any plans to use.  Spearheading a [Read more →]

In its second European infrastructure announcement of the week, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) says it has optimized more of its network for the low latency crowd.  New routes to the exchanges in Milan and Zurich are now available from their other major financial hubs, including Madrid which they added just after New Year’s.  Yesterday’s news of a new route connecting Toulouse and bisecting their previous Paris-Madrid-Marseilles loop is probably not directly related, but they are clearly spending money beefing up their infrastructure to the south of the original Level 3 build. [Read more →]

Yesterday the FCC posted an article on their Blogband blog attributed jointly to all five commissioners, promising yet again to take on issues that have befuddled it for a decade or more – intercarrier compensation and universal service.  They started looking at them again last month of course, but the first step is the one they’ve never had a problem with.  Yesterday they began with another thing the FCC is good at:  workshops, or in their words “open, public workshops to identify solutions to key issues.”  As if we don’t already know the key [Read more →]

I read with interest the recent news that Nokia Siemens is trying to restructure its proposed acquisition of Motorola Solutions.  Apparently, regulatory approval is the hangup.  No, not in the US, nor in Europe, but in China where they have delayed clearing the purchase twice now – to the extent that the transaction is somewhat in doubt at this point.  Yes, China is apparently very worried about this deal, and the driving force behind their concerns is none other than Huawei. [Read more →]

Megapath (news) is increasing its commitment to copper, and especially Ethernet over Copper.  They intend to add EoC in 15 markets this year, and another 35 by the end of 2011.  They also expect to add more than 300 central offices this year, and are ‘laying a foundation for adding products beyond Ethernet over copper (EoC) such as [Read more →]

Southern New Jersey has long been short on respect unless you’re a casino connoisseur.  I know, as I grew up in North Jersey, where nobody’s quite sure why anyone bothers to live down there.  Actually, nowadays I do live down there, so I found it interesting to see Fibertech announce plans for a major metro/regional fiber build in the area.  Fibertech changed owners over the winter, with Court Square partners taking the reins and promising a new round of expansion, and this is apparently the first volley. [Read more →]

Ah Paris in the springtime, you can just smell the love in the air.  Oh wait, that’s just another IBX buildout for Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings), spring doesn’t start until next week.  Equinix never stops building of course, and this will be #4 for them in Paris – and none too soon it seems.  Phase 1 of its PA3 facility is already ‘effectively full’ and the second phase is due to open in [Read more →]

In another signal that Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) is shifting to a more aggressive posture, they have added some new network infrastructure over in Europe.  Today they announced a new French PoP in the growing market of Toulouse, on a new route which bisects their previous Paris-Madrid-Marseille ring, thus creating two additional rings that give them more meaningful regional coverage in both France and in Spain.  They did not mention whether the expansion across southern France was via [Read more →]

Let’s catch up on some fiber news while my internet connection holds up:

Financial bandwidth specialist Spread Networks (news) has added another endpoint to its ultra-low latency Ethernet wavelength offerings.  This time it’s Newark, or more specifically the hub at 165 Halsey, from which it offers SLA’d 15.75ms round trip to 350 East Cermak in Chicago.  That adds to Secaucus, Weehawken, and of course Carteret.  Sooner or later, they’ll manage [Read more →]

Telecom Ramblings doesn’t get many readers from Japan, but to those it does have – godspeed.  Japan is obviously staggering from a huge disaster that words cannot begin to convey.  The earthquake itself wasn’t that bad due to their preparations, but humanity has yet to create a tsunami proof building code.  The submarine cables that serve the island nation, however, came through it with manageable casualties.  There are reports of some damage to APCN-2 and a WSJ article suggests some others took a hit, but nothing beyond the capabilities of the redundancy one expects these sorts of assets to have. That’s how it should be of course, what with ring [Read more →]

tndm gave us our first real look at its numbers following the acquisition of Tinet at the beginning of the third quarter.  Owning and operating a major internet and Ethernet backbone gives Tinet a much different look, but of course its main tandem switching business remains the primary driver for the company.  Revenues of $63.8M seem to have been basically inline with guidance though a hair below composite estimates, while diluted earnings per share of $0.31 came a bit stronger.  Here’s a quick table of the company’s results in context: [Read more →]

According to Vertical Systems Group, business fiber penetration increased to 27.7% in the US by the end of 2010, which is a substantial increase from the 22.9% they reported last year.   The fiber penetration in Europe rose at a similar rate to 18.4% from 15.1%, still lagging the US by a couple of years.  According to VSG, demand for higher speed Ethernet services [Read more →]

Here for a Q&A today is the CEO of Cogent, Dave Schaeffer, who doesn’t really need much of an introduction.  Since the dot com bubble Cogent has followed a rather vocal and independent path, fusing a wholesale IP backbone, a metro-fiber fed enterprise data business, and simple but aggressive pricing.  He didn’t make many friends along the way, actually earning the title ‘the most hated man in telecom’ from Forbes in a profile a few years ago.  But two weeks ago, Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) posted a solid quarterly profit after several years of steady, disciplined growth, announced a new stock buyback effort, and appears poised to [Read more →]