Network Roundup 12-21: Sprint, Zayo, Earthlink, CBeyond

And here’s a quick take of a few more items, this time from the network side of the tracks:

Sprint’s wireline business perked up a bit with the launch of a new SIP Toll Free service. The offering will help businesses improve capacity and gain better control for their incoming toll free calls while still controlling costs (customer directed routing is supported for no additional charge). Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) has been very active in enterprise VoIP even while all that residential VoIP traffic from TW Cable tapers off.

Fresh off its purchase of 360Networks, Zayo Group (news, filings) has built fiber into the Green House Data facility in Cheyenne – which is billed as the first multi-tenant data center in Wyoming. I suspect this was a 360networks project that they inherited, as I don’t recall Zayo’s Colorado network extending that far north before now. They’ll be offering dark fiber, private line, Ethernet, and IP transit to Green House Data customers.

Erstwhile dialup giant Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) continued its march into business services yesterday by completing its purchase of an IT Solution Center and hosted application business from Synergy Global Solutions. The help desk, NOC, and remote technical management business is just one more puzzle piece to fit in with the fiber and traditional CLEC assets they have assembled over the past year. They’ve been relatively quiet for some months now, I expect we’ll see some additional moves after the new year.

And cbey added some certification cred to its cloud ambitions, gaining SSAE16 SOC2 certification. Cbeyond has been mobilizing cloud-based services to sell something other than T-1s, Ethernet, and VoIP to its primarily SME customer base. They haven’t been getting any credit for their efforts in the stock markets this year, but if they manage to use cloud services to boost those low margins they could raise a few eyebrows again next year.

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Categories: CLEC · Mergers and Acquisitions · Metro fiber