Int’l Roundup: CFE, Level 3, Hibernia, ChinaCache

A few interesting items from overseas that are worth a quick look from Mexico’s CFE, Level 3, Hibernia Atlantic, and ChinaCache:

The Mexican government says it is going to sell even more dark fiber in an effort to bring broadband to more of its citizens. President Felipe Calderon says that he has told state-owned CFE to increase the 20,000km of fiber they were preparing to auction to 30,000km, with 1,000 new access points becoming available. They’ll also be holding in auction for bringing connectivity to the southwest coast to Ometepec in Guerrero, with the winner being the bidder who requires the lowest subsidy. Of course Mexico’s presidential election campaign has nothing at all to do with any of this, haha.

More Latin American progress from Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) yesterday, as the company announced an agreement with Ecuador’s Grupo Salud S.A. Level 3 will be supplying the prepaid healthcare company with a suite of services including data center, VoIP, internet, hosting, security infrastructure, and technical support.  Grupo Salud will use all that to connect up its 1,000 doctors across the country, but especially in Quito and Guayaquil. Level 3 is putting money into really growing this former Global Crossing segment.

Hibernia Atlantic has expanded its UK footprint further, adding another node beyond the usual London carrier hotels. They have brought their fiber connectivity into Teledata’s 70,000 square foot carrier neutral facility up in Manchester. For a company whose primary asset has always been its transatlantic cable, Hibernia maintains a deep regional footprint on either side of the Atlantic. Their new ultra-low latency cable is still scheduled to go live sometime next year.

Chinese CDN operator ChinaCache (:CCIH, news) has established a strategic partnership with Telecom Malaysia Berhad. They’ll be serving China-originated internet content to Malaysian consumers via content caches stored within Malaysia. Great, three hundred channels of a) ancient Chinese emporers and their courts with the same two dozen actors, b) patriotic Red Army serials, c) endlessly repeated, over-choreographed music & dance events, d) news nobody believes even in China, and e) lots and lots of pretty actresses crying all the time. But I digress (yes I am in China at the moment).

 

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Categories: Content Distribution · Internet Backbones · Undersea cables