Telecom Ramblings

Contributed by Rajive Keshup, ATLANTIC-ACM

Framing the situation

Competition amongst communications solutions providers (CSPs) continues to heat up as enterprises and individuals become increasingly dependent upon [Read more →]

With Zayo busy in Seattle, Level 3 said this morning that it has finished up a network expansion a few hundred miles to the east. The project added a new loop in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene metro areas, bringing their infrastructure in the metro area to 276 on-net buildings and 300 metro route miles in all. [Read more →]

Zayo’s organic buildout engine had been somewhat quiet for a spell, so this morning’s news of a new expansion project in the Pacific Northwest was a welcome one. Zayo says it has won a new fiber-to-the-tower deal with a major wireless carrier that will see more than 500 towers on-net, of which 350 will be in Greater Seattle. [Read more →]

The Australian software-based interconnection specialist Megaport has revealed plans to expand, taking aim at the largest US markets. So they’ll be moving from down under to go up over, right? Ok, weak wordplay… I’m an engineer, what did you expect? [Read more →]

There really was some fire underneath the smoke this time. This morning, Digital Realty Trust announced a definitive agreement to purchase Telx for $1.886B.  The deal takes Digital Realty deeper into the world of interconnection than it has previously delved, and further from its real estate roots. [Read more →]

Those who have been fighting to build a new submarine cable between New Zealand and the west coast of the US, as well as islands along the way, have taken another two steps forward toward that goal. One is financial, the other logistical. [Read more →]

On Friday, the FCC proposed yet more new rules for the telecommunications industry, looking to keep the transition from copper to fiber from becoming a cudgel wielded by incumbents against competitive operators. Switching off legacy copper systems which regulators required to be available on a wholesale basis in favor of fiber systems they have not effectively kicks providers without the reach out of the market. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Jouko Ahvenainen, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

We have seen dozens of MVNOs come and disappear. There are a few that have survived with a strong brand (e.g. Virgin) or niche services like international calls (e.g. Lebara). Now, we see a newcomer from [Read more →]

This week has been a slow start to July news-wise for telecom and internet infrastructure, if you don’t count the security non-event hysteria the other day.  But nevertheless there is plenty going on, and here is another set of quick-takes on items worth a quick look: [Read more →]

Telegeography put out an interesting item yesterday. Citing data from its IP Transit Forecast service, they projected that IP transit revenues globally will fall at a rate of 6% annually over the next 7 years. That’s not pricing, which always goes down, but revenue — suggesting the overall market will shrink significantly. [Read more →]

Yesterday we saw a series of high profile systems failures. United Airlines saw its systems go down, throwing their travel schedules into chaos. Soon thereafter, the Wall Street Journal’s website went down for a spell. And of course, the New York Stock Exchange had to close for some 4 hours due to technical problems. Nobody knew anything, but it didn’t stop some from jumping to conclusions. [Read more →]

Here’s a set of quick-takes on some customer wins announced this week: [Read more →]

When Zayo bought Latisys, they acquired more than mere colocation space. They also added some cloud services, and I wondered at the time what the company might have in store for them. Today Zayo started to answer that question as it relaunched those capabilities as part of a larger cloud-services portfolio. [Read more →]

Yet more interesting news items from overseas to look at today, including a new player in the metro space: [Read more →]

Not much going on in the US fiber and telecom market early this week, so let’s look overseas for a bit of news: [Read more →]

When Tiger Infrastructure Partners moved in with Hudson Fiber Network last September, I wondered what the company might use its new resources on. We learned the answer to that question today, as the company revealed an expansion into the dark fiber market in Manhattan. [Read more →]

As the US recovers a bit from the holiday weekend, there’s some new fiber online just to the northeast. Late last week, F6 Networks announced the completion of a 500km dark fiber buildout in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. [Read more →]

This article was authored by John Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

ITEM: The US city of Chicago has imposed a 9% “cloud tax” on online databases and streaming entertainment services. Chicago residents are none too happy about it, and the broader implications could be messy. [Read more →]

When the FCC’s new Net Neutrality rules took effect, so did its possible entry into the world of network interconnection and peering.  Not so coincidentally, perhaps, we have seen a spate of interconnection deals not just made but publicly announced.  What do you think?  Has the FCC’s threat to intervene in such disputes been a good, bad, or irrelevant thing? [Read more →]

With the July 4 weekend on tap, lots of folks are already firing up the grill. Here’s a few quick takes to finish off the week first: [Read more →]

But no, not for Colt or any other fiber network asset — at least today.  Level 3 announced today that it has acquired Black Lotus, in a move to further deepen its network security portfolio. [Read more →]

As I have expected, it is taking operators less time to dive into NFV than usual when it comes to new technologies. Yesterday, Masergy became the latest of the early adopters with an aggressive push to bring NFV-based services out of the lab and all the way to the enterprise market. [Read more →]

According to various reports, the FBI has been brought in to investigate cable cuts in California.  Apparently, yesterday there were three cases of deliberately damaged cables starting before dawn in the San Francisco Bay area, striking routes operated by both Level 3 and Zayo. [Read more →]