Int’l Roundup: Level 3, SomCable, AXTEL, Colt

Several interesting items from outside the US already this week that are worth a look:

With its overall UK government revenues declining, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) got some welcome news this morning via a new four year contract with the UK Forestry Commission. Level 3 will be providing data, voice, collaboration, and broadband connectivity, helping to reduce the commission’s annual expenses. Of course, Level 3 (and presumably Global Crossing earlier) had an existing relationship with the Forestry Commission so this is a more of successful contract defense rather than a new win. But a stabilization of revenues in this segment is a good thing for Level 3.

One of the least connected parts of the world is going to be getting more bandwidth. SomCable is rolling out an IPoDWDM system from Optelian on their terrestrial backbone network. SomCable serves Somaliland, the more peaceful northwestern part of Somalia that has sought but so far failed to achieve recognition of its independence from the rest of the lawless country. SomCable is building a landing station in Berbera to access submarine cable capacity via the Red Sea.

Telegeography reports that the alternative Mexican provider AXTEL is mulling an infrastructure sale. The company is looking to raise as much as $300M by selling either its towers or its intercity fiber network, and then leasing it back. They’d use the proceeds to offset the effects of pricing pressure. Could be a way into the Mexican fiber business for someone?

And Colt made an M&A move deeper into the cloud.  They have acquired the channel-focused cloud platform provider ThinkGrid.  ThinkGrid’s network of  200+ resellers and ISVs will give Colt more options in addressing the SME marketplace.

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Categories: Internet Backbones · Telecom Equipment