Tuesday Bytes: Everstream, Cisco, Windstream, GTT

The pandemic continues, but so does telecom and internet infrastructure.  Here are a few items from the start of this week to keep up with:

Everstream raised a bundle of cash this week. The Midwestern fiber builder and operator has secured $342.5M in debt financing from nine banks. The cash will go toward Everstream’s 2020 growth plans, which will put them in five new metro markets and targets goals of 15,000 route miles of fiber and 3,000 on-net buildings across the region.

Cisco isn’t letting the pandemic slow down its inorganic expansion plans. The industry giant has announced its intent to acquire FluidMesh Networks. Fluidmesh specializes in wireless backhaul solutions, and especially for transit applications: trains, subways, ports, etc. Their IoT technology is designed to support data transfer at 300 kilometers per hour with zero loss. The deal is expected to close in Q4 of this year, and the Fluidmesh team will be integrated into Cisco’s IoT business.

Windstream Wholesale has launched some new network-monitoring tools aimed at helping wholesale customers with their business continuity plans. Such plans are getting tested right now of course with so many of us trying to keep the lights on under stay-at-home orders. The new capabilities proactively open trouble tickets based on alarms for 10G and 100G wave customers, something they’ve had in place for enterprise customers and are now extending to the wholesale side as well.

And GTT has hired itself a new chief financial officer. Steven Berns has joined GTT’s leadership team, reporting to CEO Rick Calder. Mr. Berns was most recently co-COO and CFO at Shutterstock. Interim CFO Dan Fraser will stay on as SVP Finance and Controller. It seems like a lifetime ago already, but GTT has in recent quarters been said to be considering a sale of its fiber assets after a difficult 2019.

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Financials · Jobs · Mergers and Acquisitions · Telecom Equipment