Telecom Ramblings

I have been battling a cold over the past few days, so it’s time to catch up a bit on the news items that slipped past my nets last week.

Western regional service provider 360Networks announced further enhancements to its wholesale VoIP platform.  They now offer support for SMS/MMS and a new metered inbound pricing model.  I keep wondering what lies in [Read more →]

Last month, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) announced that it had quintupled the Ethernet switches in its core network.  After discussions with the company it is clear that what was just phase 1 of an Ethernet offensive that is now well into phase 2, which entails offering Ethernet Switched Access (ESA) via new equipment that is being deployed across its entire network footprint.  By being able to offer ESA, Level 3 can offer more flexible products and pricing to the [Read more →]

The metro fiber sector has of course been remarkably strong for several years.  However since much of it is in private hands, public data points are sparse and many don’t realize just how good business is these days.   One of the more dynamic private companies out there right now is FiberLight, which operates metro and regional fiber across 21 markets with especially deep coverage in Texas, the Washington DC and Baltimore metro area, Atlanta, and in Florida.  FiberLight was previously the division of Xspedius that built the company’s more recent fiber networks, but it followed a separate path when [Read more →]

Content delivery network Edgecast has found itself another carrier partner, this time in the southern Hemisphere.  Today they are announcing an agreement with Australian service provider AAPT, who will join Global Crossing and DT in partnering their way into the CDN business.  Australia tends to be a tough place for outsiders to distribute content due to the low population density and long distances both to and within the region.  Therefore, such a partnership is probably the ideal [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) today announced enhancements to its low latency services between major financial destinations in New York and Chicago.  Along with improved performance, they now offer two different levels of SLA’d service.  Level 3 has specialized routes serving this market segment between DC and Chicago, Chicago and NYC, NYC and London, and London-Frankfurt.   They are now also able to offer protected configurations in which *both* [Read more →]

First AGL sold to Zayo, then Fibertech began looking, and now reliable sources tell me that NSTAR Communications is actively seeking bidders.  In the metro fiber business NSTAR flies largely under the radar, without even a website to point to.  Nevertheless, the company has a valuable footprint in Boston and out into the suburbs that covers over 250 high fiber count route miles, and a couple hundred or so on-net buildings.  Apparently, their energy utility parent NSTAR is looking to monetize the asset in a favorable market just as [Read more →]

We may be waiting for Google to show fiber operators how it’s done with its 1Gbps community fiber project, but over in Hong Kong it’s already becoming reality.  Today HKBN, a subsidiary of City Telecom (NASDAQ:CTEL, news, filings), introduced a residential 1Gbps symmetric service for the equivalent of just $26/month.  That’s just double the price they charge for their 100Mb/s offering, which just came out in November.  [Read more →]

Seems like this story isn’t going to go away any time soon and I’m curious what this site’s well-informed readers think of the business models being unveiled by the likes of Equinix, CENX, and Neutral Tandem.  Is the hype ahead of reality, or behind it?  Cast your vote: [Read more →]

Following quickly on yesterday’s European expansion, CENX has drawn another network operator into its carrier Ethernet Exchange.  Today XO Holdings (news, filings) announced it has now connected to the community, bringing its extensive Ethernet footprint to the table.  XO has quite a bit of metro fiber and more than three thousand on-net buildings, but it also has a substantial Ethernet over copper footprint. [Read more →]

Several news items recently on the multinational front:

Hibernia Media and Tata Communications (news, filings) have teamed up for media services, pooling their respective network assets for greater coverage.  Hibernia Media is the new name for MediaXstream, the video networking provider led by industry veteran Del Bothof that Hibernia Atlantic purchased over the winter.  The combination of [Read more →]

Interxion and CENX today announced they will be working together to develop a Pan-European Carrier Neutral Ethernet Exchange.  The initial node will open in London in June, followed soon thereafter by nodes in Paris and Amsterdam, with more to follow through the year.  CENX, of course, was the first to open the doors to such an Ethernet exchange in the USA.  Interxion, on the other hand operates some 26 data centers in 13 cities in Europe, and their entry into the Ethernet Exchange market is not unexpected.   [Read more →]

After testing the waters for 6 months, Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) has formally launched its new Ethernet exchange service.  The idea of course is to bring together the various Ethernet networks out there in a direct and reliable way, such that the whole is greater than the sum of the various parts.  And of course that each of those parts shares in those benefits, as does Equinix itself.  I’m still looking for details on how the workflow [Read more →]

In an announcement at NAB today, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) and several partners that include MicroSoft will demonstrate three dimensional HD streaming over its CDN network, Silverlight, and IIS Smooth Streaming.  The 3D streams work both on the PC and on newer televisions over HDMI, so long as you wear the right kind of special glasses of course.  So does this have a near term practical application?  It does according to Level 3’s Peter Neill: [Read more →]

CDN provider Edgecast has gone back for another dip in the venture capital pool.  Today the company is announcing an additional $10M in a Series C financing round led by Menlo Ventures.  That brings their total funding to about $20M.  The first $10M didn’t vanish into the ether though, Edgecast managed to generate a profit in the fourth quarter of this year despite both the recession and renewed [Read more →]

While the application by XO Holdings (news, filings) caught my eye first, there are a number of metro and regional fiber companies in the sector who have applied for stimulus funding for middle mile projects.  Some won funding in the first round and are going back for more, others are in the pool for the first time.  Here is a sampling that include companies often covered on this website: [Read more →]

According to an announcement on Wednesday that slipped past my nets, Integra Telecom is planning a major refinancing.  They hope to raise $770M, which will be made up of $210M in term loans, a $60M revolving credit facility, and $500M in senior secured notes.  They will use the money to refinance their existing debt, and then for that ever present need of ‘general corporate purposes’. [Read more →]

Competitive service provider XO Holdings (news, filings) has filed an application for round 2 stimulus funding that is very ambitious to say the least.  The company is proposing to build an intercity and middle mile network extending from Washington to Illinois, connecting underserved areas along the way through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.  I can’t wait to see the map, but right now we’re limited to the executive summary found [Read more →]

Networking equipment maker Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings) has agreed to purchase Ankeena Networks, at a purchase price pegged at less than $100M.  Ankeena is a young company specializing in media infrastructure that began its life just two years ago as Nokeena.  Its top management will join Juniper’s in leadership positions with the JunOS Ready Software group.  The Ankeena product set will be integrated into the whole, giving the combined company a more complete portfolio.  That won’t be a very difficult process, as Ankeena [Read more →]

abvt picked up a significant contract with IPR International, a provider of managed data protection and other services.  Abovenet will be providing metro Ethernet connectivity between IPR’s facilities in Philadelphia to its data center in Wilmington DE, and to its business continuity center in Reading PA.  IPR will be leveraging Abovenet’s IP transit services as well.  Further expansions of the relationship are planned just to the south [Read more →]

In the data center sector, there have been several interesting news items this week.

QTS has purchased a huge former semiconductor plant in Richmond VA that it plans to convert into data center space.  The former Qimonda facility cost just $12M, and comes with some 1.2M total square feet of space spread across two fabs, a manufacturing area and office space.  Data Center Knowledge has [Read more →]

I have taken my series of competitive telecom trends and added it to the resources box.  Under that item you will be able to find current versions of the charts of relative revenue growth, EBITDA margin, etc that we have looked at here several times in the past.  Additionally, I have brought my Relative Valuations (i.e. EV/EBITDA multiples) chart into the fold, which was a bit more complicated since the data needed to be recollected for data points to match up.  If you have enjoyed these charts in the pasts, please check them out in their new home and let me know how you like it.  For your viewing pleasure now though, here is the latest Relative Valuations chart:
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q today unveiled its next step into the developing field of Unified Communications (UC).  The new hosted UC platform, called Qwest iQ Hosted Unified Communication Service (iQ HUCS), is designed to help large enterprises integrate voice, e-mail and video for access by whatever device you might be using, whether a landline, smartphone, computer, or perhaps an iPad.   [Read more →]

Optimum Lightpath, the metro fiber arm of Cablevision, has thrown a few more chips into the low latency arena.  Yesterday they introduced an optical transport service aimed at the financial and other verticals capable of supporting both high bandwidth and low latency.  This follows closely on the heels of their 40G offerings announced in February.  The new service is available on “pre-equipped and pre-conditioned routes” across their footprint and features a [Read more →]