Telecom Ramblings

Friday again.  Time to play some catch up on the news this week:

We learned a bit more about the European expansion of abvt with this announcement that the fiber operator has selected ancotel’s Frankfurt facility at Kleyer 90 as part of its expansion in the city.  Abovenet formally kicked off its expansion across the English Channel last month, and Kleyer 90’s [Read more →]

That’s right, 5.2 million of them.  AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) reported its Q3 earnings per share of $0.55, which was inline with consensus estimates.  Total revenues of $31.6B was on the high side of estimates which seemed to be around $31.2B.  But the wireless business clearly had a great quarter, adding 2.6M net subscribers to reach 92.8M total.  They also saw good pickup in their U-Verse offering, which enabled consumer wireline to post a sequential improvement.  However, the thing with trying to take the measure of AT&T’s earnings is that [Read more →]

European alternative carrier Colt Group (LON:COLT, news) made its interim Q3 report this morning.  Revenue fell to €392.7M from €398.2M in the prior quarter and €400.1M in the same quarter last year, as voice revenues continued to bleed off while data revenues were flat and managed services saw growth.  EBITDA on the other hand grew to €83.8, up €3.0M from the prior quarter and €4.3M from the same quarter last year.  That pulls their EBITDA margins up to 21.3% – solidly above 20% now, an improvement which they attributed to [Read more →]

Not content to leave the rapidly shifting financial vertical to the next generation networks, British Telecom (NYSE:BT, news, filings) is readying its own entry into the European ultra-low latency business.  The company’s BT Radianz Ultra offering is being expanded into the exchanges and MTFs in London and Paris, it has previously focused on New York and Chicago.  That surprised me more than a little, you’d think they’d already be in the thick of the fight in London, right?  I’m not sure why they aren’t in Frankfurt yet, which has emerged as a major destination.  Perhaps [Read more →]

glbc just made itself a bit more global, expanding further eastward from its original European footprint.  They have added new PoPs in data centers located in Sofia, Bulgaria; Bucharest, Romania, and Bratislava, Slovakia.  Tenants in those facilities will now have easy access to the company’s IP and data services.  Driving the expansion is growing demand from the wholesale sector, including [Read more →]

Both XO and TW Telecom announced news in upstate New York of late:

XO Holdings (news, filings) has expanded its IP network into Western New York, adding PoPs in Buffalo and Rochester.  The are now able to offer internet access and connectivity solutions, converged VoIP, IPVPN, VPLS, and business continuity solutions across both metro areas.  I hadn’t realized that XO didn’t have much of a presence in the area – it’s a pretty competitive region, though according to their maps they did have some legacy voice business in Rochester.  XO seems to be [Read more →]

In a comment on last week’s article about the introduction of Spread Network’s Ethernet wave services, a reader asked whether there was much aerial fiber on Spread’s new route and whether that added risk to its ultra-low latency proposition.  My first thought was that a bunch of aerial fiber might help explain the stealth of their buildout, the directness of the route, and lower costs as well.  But as speculation goes it was obviously guesswork, so yesterday I asked them straight up and a Spread Networks’ representative sent me this response: [Read more →]

The market does not appear to be particularly forgiving at the moment when it comes to telecom equipment stocks.  Routing giant Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings) reported its third quarter earnings today, and its stock is of course down 3% after hours even after being down 4% in anticipation.  The reason?  Well, Q3 revenue was ever so slightly light but Q4 revenue guidance was actually above estimates.  Likewise, earnings per share was inline and Q4 guidance was a bit above estimates.  Here’s a quick table of Juniper’s numbers in the context of the full year: [Read more →]

There are several interesting items from fiber operators this morning that are worth a look:

Transaction Network Services has selected the Ethernet Hub Service of XO Holdings (news, filings) to grow its business nationwide.   Having raised a bit of money and announced plans to raise a bit more via a rights offering, XO’s next task is to [Read more →]

We hear so much about the consumer applications of 4G mobile speeds that it is easy to forget the commercial applications alongside all those twenty-somethings watching surfing tournaments on their iPads.  Today, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) and AirStrip announced a collaboration designed to leverage Sprint’s 3G/WiMAX network and devices to provide better care for medical patients.  3G works also of course, but one can more easily imagine the potential future impact at 4G speeds. [Read more →]

Network equipment maker Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings) reported earnings this afternoon, garnering initial rave reviews by beating estimates handily – much as they did in the prior quarter.  But when the CC rolled around, things apparently didn’t look so rosy anymore and traders reversed themselves – the stock is down some 20% after hours.  What happened?  Here’s a quick table: [Read more →]

As another part of its increasing efforts to target enterprises of all sizes, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) today lifted the curtain on a new product.  The Converged Business Network service offers to take all the voice, internet, and data networking off of an enterprises hands through ‘one carrier, one circuit, and with one bill.’  The theme of simplification via outsourcing the network is a familiar one of course, but it still works – especially alongside the arrival of [Read more →]

The UK’s largest transport operator, FirstGroup, has selected glbc for a nationwide secure WAN.  I must admit that from this side of the Atlantic, I actually thought ‘transport operator?  I wonder if they own fiber or lease wavelengths’.  But of course I soon found that FirstGroup specializes in transporting people and things rather than mere photons.  Their business include a quarter of the passenger rail network in the UK as well as a host of bus services in both the US and the UK.   [Read more →]

Consolidation has been coming to the VoIP space as well.  The other day, it was the news that BroadSoft was picking up Casabi, and now it is merger plans between Broadvox and Cypress Communications.  Peter Radiseki broke the news (again!) last week, and the company has since acknowledged their plans.   The combined company will have more than 10K customers and 300 employees.  The details of this deal are a reminder that while VoIP platforms may [Read more →]

Metro fiber specialist FiberLight (news) has been building out its network in support of the WiMAX buildout of clwr across several of its largest markets, according to a press release issued by the company on Friday.  Back in the Spring I interviewed the company’s CEO, Mike Miller, and his comments on fiber to the tower suggested that like Zayo they are seeing opportunities and have been active in the space.  Most in the sector have focused mainly on switching centers and other larger wholesale sites, but obviously Clearwire was already working with them when I asked. [Read more →]

Friday at last.  Time to catch up a bit on the articles that slipped past my nets or otherwise left me briefly speechless: [Read more →]

While M&A activity in the fiber space has been heavy, it is not the only game in town.  Yesterday, IP communications software provider Broadsoft (NASDAQ:BSFT, news, filings) announced its intention to buy a small outfit called Casabi.  It’s not a big deal, just $1.95M, and it’s not really consolidation.  Rather, Broadsoft seems to be buying technology to add to the SaaS/cloud portfolio it has been working on since the PacketSmart purchase last year.  While I do get my fair share of rumors, I hadn’t heard about this one – but [Read more →]

This summer’s surprise fiber build Spread Networks unveiled a low latency Ethernet wave service between New York and Chicago yesterday.  At just 15.75ms, the offering is easily the lowest commercially available wavelength in the game right now, but doesn’t yet bring things down to the 13.33ms range that had been highlighted over the summer.  Still, it’s probably a full millisecond faster than competing routes from Level 3, Intellifiber, and others.   [Read more →]

Yesterday, colocation and interconnection provider Telx Group (news, filings) announced another expansion of its footprint at the major carrier hotel at 111 8th Avenue in New York City.  The company intends to add another 40,000 square feet, and just six months following the 21,500 square feet it added back in the Spring.  That brings their total footprint at this facility to over [Read more →]

I noted earlier this week that we hadn’t seemed to have heard much from Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) about its Ethernet Exchange offering lately.  Then just yesterday, LightReading posted this excellent Q&A with Equinix’s Jim Poole.  It’s almost as if someone was listening…  But anyway, they certainly aren’t going away and they offered a few details on where they are with this new product.  [Read more →]

They may be privately held, but every six months or so Interoute gives us a glimpse of how they’re doing, and in the first half of 2010, they continued their march forward.  Revenues grew to €139M, up from €129M in the first half of last year.  That’s a growth rate of 7.8% or so, which isn’t spectacular but is certainly respectable given the economic uncertainty over in Europe.  More importantly, they managed to drive a bigger share of that revenue into €28M in EBITDA, up from €22.7M in the first half of 2009.   [Read more →]

Last week industry bellweather Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) warned of a revenue shortfall, and the entire sector shivered.  The question was whether or not the datacenter business was about to take a bit of a breather, with growth slowing down, prices softening, etc.  But a report today from Telegeography suggests its all bunk.  [Read more →]

In an effort to raise money to continue its national WiMAX network, clwr is reportedly preparing to sell off some spectrum.  The bidding is already supposedly in its second round and is being managed by Deutsche Bank AG.  The rumored price tag?  Between $2.5B and $5B, which would pay for a whole lot more WiMAX coverage – maybe even all of it if they can get $5B. [Read more →]