Telecom Ramblings

TW Telecom today filed an 8-K with the SEC, warning that economic weakness may be spreading and may affect their growth in the near term.  As readers may recall, I spent some effort trolling through the earnings reports for Q2 looking for signs that network providers are feeling economic pressure.  A few saw pressure, most seemed ok but cautious, and a couple just shrugged it off.  Well, TW Telecom was one of those that [Read more →]

I suppose after Reliance Globalcom made its deal with Internap, it was inevitable that its erstwhile Indian rival Tata Communications would respond.  Today Dan Rayburn reports that Tata has in fact made its move.  Simultaneously investing $11.5M in BitGravity and launching its own CDN network based on BitGravity's technology, I'd say they have called Reliance's bluff and raised them a bit.  Tata and BitGravity were already allied, having partnered back in April, so this move should come as no big surprise. [Read more →]

After messing around with Level 3's public information about its lit buildings, I decided to look at  another company that also provides nice quantities of information about its lit buildings: Zayo Bandwidth.   Zayo, one of Dan Caruso's companies, also provides detailed maps of its extensive regional and metro fiber plus an on-net building list, and it is possible to glean [Read more →]

Over on Data Center Knowledge there is a nice article detailing Google's plans for datacenters floating out at sea.   The speculation is based on a patent for a water-based datacenter that Google just updated in the last week or two.  I have to say, the idea is really, really fascinating.  Here are some thoughts: [Read more →]

Last week I posted a summary of where Level 3's enterprise footprint is concentrated, this week it is the wholesale footprint - again gleaned from the new Level 3 interactive map.  From their breakdown, I count as their wholesale footprint all wireless switching centers, neutral colocations, carrier hotels, and local central offices.  This is the more traditional Level 3 footprint and [Read more →]

We've heard many tidbits relating to internet traffic growth lately, let's connect a few of the dots.  Cogent says traffic growth has really slowed, Global Crossing is seeing triple digits, and the rest see no substantive change in how many bits are on their network.  Akamai says they're seeing less traffic, Limelight disagrees.  All in all, [Read more →]

With the apparent sudden death of the InvestorVillage message boards, I have been pushed to action.  In that poll I ran just a few days ago, the top suggestion was discussion forums, and so I thought what the heck.  I mean, even if nobody shows up I still get to mess around with my website and I just love doing that.  And yet, there was no urgency at first. [Read more →]

Ciena reported earnings this morning.  Revenues and EPS were both pretty much as expected, at $253.2M and $0.37.  However, the company gave guidance for their fiscal Q4 of just $190-210M, some 20-25% below what the street was expecting, or at least what was listed on yahoo finance as the analyst consensus.  The company gave [Read more →]

They were the backup provider for the Olympics themselves to Limelight, but for the encore they are the primary provider.  In a press release by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC)  today, it emerged that Level 3 will be streaming the Paralympic games, also being held in Beijing and starting on Saturday.  But this time it's for free. [Read more →]

In a new article today, Telegeography says the internet grew at a 53% clip over the last twelve months.  That's a solid rate, although it is down a bit from last year's 61%.   It certainly doesn't match up with the slow growth rates Cogent has been reporting lately, but nor does it match up with the much higher rates Global Crossing has been reporting.  It probably falls in line with what Level 3 has been saying about traffic. [Read more →]

So they really meant it...  In late 2007 and early 2008, Global Crossing said they were going to leverage Impsat's hosting and colocation business in an expansion to Europe, and today's PR suggests they are having some success.  Of course, Global Crossing was last seen in the colocation and hosting business back in October of 2000, when they sold their GlobalCenter division to Exodus at the end of the bubble.  For those keeping score, Exodus then went bankrupt within a year, got bought by C&W USA, which in turn [Read more →]

Ars technica put out a fantastic article yesterday on the structure of the internet.  Discussions of transit and peering and the business models that are built out of them can get hairy very easily, what this article does is explain why networks do what they do in very clear, down to earth language.  The do a very good job on one topic that frequently eludes even the techs amongst us:  [Read more →]

Business Week has a nice article on how MLB is taking advantage of the internet nowadays.  With the Olympics and the conventions going on, the content world has almost been ignoring little things like MLBAM (Major League Baseball Advanced Media).  But as we leave those behind, the World Series looms as possibly the next big CDN event.  I particularly liked this quote: [Read more →]

Cable and Wireless has finally won its battle to take over network operator THUS in the UK.  C&W originally bid £1.65 and was rebuffed.  They raised their bid to £1.80 and were rebuffed again, but this time they held their ground.  The THUS board said they were worth more like £2.52, and tried mightily to drum up other interested parties.  But in the end only C&W was sitting at the table.  By mid August C&W had managed to roll up [Read more →]

August was a sleepy month.  Pageviews, Visits, and Unique Visitors all dropped slightly from July to 25,500, 12,500, and 5,100.  I chalk that up to a few factors:  1) July was huge, 2) the telecom world goes on vacation in August, and 3) sector news was light, on account of 2).  Hopefully things will pick up again after Labor Day.  In defiance of this slowdown, ranking relative to peers continued to advance - which implies that August is just sleepy and that's all there is to it. [Read more →]

Level 3 has had a new interactive map of their USA network assets available on their website for some time now, and it has a wealth of information.   If you click on each city, they break down how many of each type of on-net building they have in that city.  Or to be more specific that they had at the time of the map's creation - nobody updates these things in real time of course.  So this presents a busybody (me) on a long weekend with the chance to actually go city by city and run some numbers.  Want to know just where Level 3 has an enterprise business and where it doesn't? [Read more →]

With XO's refinancing complete, should we reevaluate the company's prospects now?  Today the Icahn/R2/XO soap opera made it all the way to the New York Times, where Joe Nocera has a nice article on Icahn's relationship with the company and its investors.  It is true that the possibility remains that R2/Amalgamated will succeed with pressure to change the deal, but I doubt if that will affect the companies business activities from here on out and it would only help their common shareholders anyway.   Whatever we might think of the fairness of the refinancing, the time has [Read more →]

With their stock price surging, up 20% in just a few days, this little known metro/colo company seems to be on the move.  There have been no press releases, I haven't turned up any analyst reports, and basically nothing really new seems to have happened.  Could there be M&A in the air?  I do think it is possible, but I haven't heard any of those rumors either. [Read more →]

Obama gave his speech last night, and I was able to watch it live in HD and it was just astounding!  Big deal, you're saying, we all did.  Yeah, but I'm in Beijing right now.  Yes, the one in China.  And not in some fancy hotel with a high powered internet link either - just a basic, slower than average DSL line in an ordinary apartment building.  Even wonderful YouTube, in all its low-res [Read more →]

Telegeography reports that Google is working on yet another cable in Asia.  Google has already helped start the Unity system, now under construction and which will connect Japan and Los Angeles.  Data Center Knowledge has previously reported that Google has been scouting out locations throughout the region, so we have to see this all as part of one plan. The new cable under discussion, below, [Read more →]

The other day Savvis realigned itself into three business units:  Hosting, Network, and Financial Services. The move will be overseen by Bill Fathers, who has been appointed as SVP, Managing Director US.  The move makes sense given that Savvis's customers really do break down on these lines, and the needs of each group are quite different from the others.  Financial Services customers are interested in business continuity and VPNs and such, customers of Savvis's Tier-1 IP network and infrastructure  are looking at connectivity of various sorts, and Hosting customers care manly about servers, rack space, cross connects, etc.  Separate groups will let Savvis target each more effectively, in theory anyway. [Read more →]

Almost beneath the radar, Optimum Lightpath, the metro fiber division of Cablevision, did something interesting last week.  They began offering managed video services.  When I first read the PR, I said to myself 'ooh, a cable company offering video, big whoop'.  But that's not what Optimum Lightpath is talking about, this has nothing to do with cable television.  It's not a CDN either, nor is it an Envysion-like product. [Read more →]

This is the first (and perhaps last) time I have seen the word 'awesomeness' appear on washingtonpost.com.  Here is the quote: [Read more →]