Wednesday Roundup 9/26: Ritter, Integra, Earthlink, Level 3

Here’s today’s roundup of network operator news: an M&A for Ritter, a new product for Integra, and customer wins for Earthlink and Level 3:

Arkansas-based Ritter Communications did its part to keep the consolidation trend going with the announcement of a definitive agrrement to buy both of western Tennesee’s Millington Telephone and Millington CATV. The expansion into Millington’s adjacent territory across the Mississippi follows several other rural purchases over the past few years. On the integration front, they’ll take it slow at first to get to know the new turf so no need to worry about that axe just yet.

Integra Telecom added more depth to its enterprise portfolio again today, unveiling a VPN Wireless Backup service. Basically, they’re offering business continuity via the Verizon Wireless network to add diversity to the T-1s and other wireline connectivity an enterprise might have, with IPsec security to keep it all encrypted. Integra has spent the last year or two retooling itself to tackle larger enterprises and get more out of its extensive western fiber footprint.

Another company that has been working hard to transition to something new is Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings), who today picked up a customer for their virtualized cloud hosting services. independenceIT will be using the platform to deliver applications to its clients. They had previously been operating three data centers and had found it uneconomical to continue the do-it-yourself approach. Earthlink is hoping that over the next year its cloud-based and managed services start to grow enough to offset declines in the traditional CLEC businesses they acquired last year.

And along with its refinancing news yesterday, Level 3 also had a contract win. Kimpton’s EPIC Hotel down in Miami is using their internet access services to support the bandwidth needs of its guests. Another large on-net enterprise building to add to the list certainly can’t hurt.

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Categories: CLEC · Cloud Computing · Mergers and Acquisitions