Telecom Ramblings

This article was authored by Don Sambandaraksa, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Suppose for one minute that Thailand’s military government is indeed hell-bent on getting their single gateway internet and ignoring all the yes-men and politicians who deny its existence and seem to be scrambling to protect the Dear Leader from any criticism whatsoever. Undoubtedly the best description of the gateway is the interview by [Read more →]

This October Monday morning saw three interesting internet exchange items cross the wires.  After more than a decade’s worth of centralization, the whole IX sector has been spreading its geographical wings. [Read more →]

One of the ways in which regional fiber networks have been born in the US has been through the efforts of smaller independent telcos with common needs to reach outside their territories.  Such networks are important part of the infrastructure of most states, but tend to get very little attention relative to their more vocal relatives. One such network operator is Indiana Fiber Network, or IFN, which operates a statewide network in, yes, Indiana.  With us today to tell us about IFN and its plans is President and CEO Kelly Dyer. [Read more →]

Two new job listings were posted last week over on the Ramblings Jobs board. [Read more →]

DISH Network today came to an arrangement with the FCC to give back about a quarter of the AWS-3 spectrum it had won at auction.  They’ve returned some 197 licenses worth $3.3B, paying a $413M penalty for not following through.  But they’ll be keeping the other 505 licenses, valued at about $10B. [Read more →]

This Industry Spotlight was contributed by Prabhu Ramachandran, who directs WebNMS, the service provider division of Zoho Corporation

According to Gartner, Inc., 25 billion connected “things” will be in use in 2020. As companies race to the IoT market, here are a few reasons to be cautious about IoT. [Read more →]

The interconnection space saw a little consolidation occur simultaneously with organic expansion today. DE-CIX both formally launched its new Istanbul internet exchange and made an acquisition in the same market. They have acquired IST-IX, which was originally founded by Terremark. [Read more →]

While Vodafone and Liberty Global may not be getting any swaps in this year, it does look like there may yet be a bit more consolidation among fiber network operators in Europe before the year is out. Rumors have reached me from several directions now that the Digiweb Group may be ready to part with Viatel.  [Read more →]

Wednesday, time for a quick rundown on news from the metro: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Alan Zeichick, Camden Associates

The IoT is exploding –and its traffic is totally unlike anything that network operators have encountered. Here’s how savvy carriers can respond to this challenge – and use standards to turn the IoT from a management and security headache into a business opportunity to offer new agile services. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick rundown of some news from the metro and undersea spaces from the start of the week: [Read more →]

This article was authored by Don Sambandaraksa, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Thailand’s military government has ordered the creation of a great firewall of Thailand to control the flow of information on the Internet. [Read more →]

Earlier this year, Vodafone and Liberty Global admitted entering into talks.  They weren’t really talking about a merger, but more about some form of asset swaps between their respective cable empires.  This morning the two giants ended the talks without swapping anything.  [Read more →]

Five years ago this week, ABRY Partners split RCN Metro off from its parent and rebranded it.  But RCN retained the SMB-focused business customers in addition to its better-known residential footprint.  Today RCN Business is not only still out there but is on a growth trajectory.  The original customer base has grown beyond those SMB roots, as has the fiber footprint, and this summer RCN Business unveiled a new channel program aimed at further acceleration.  Ted White, VP of Business Service for RCN, will tell us a bit more about RCN Business and its plans for the channel. [Read more →]

Europe may soon have another publicly traded fiber operator to invest in, although the fiber itself isn’t actually European. Econet Group founder Strive Masiyiwa says the company is looking at a listing for Liquid Telecom, the pan-African network operator it controls. [Read more →]

It looks as if the next multi-year M&A dance could be on the border between cable and mobile.  When asked about consolidation and Altice’s recent appetite, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure suggested that, while nothing is currently under discussion, combining Sprint with a cable operator would make the company a “stronger and more formidable competitor”.  This follows comments a week ago by Altice’s billionaire protagonist, Patrick Drahi, indicating an eventual desire to own a US mobile network. [Read more →]

The American Registry for Internet Numbers announced today that it has given out the last of its IPv4 addresses.  The 4.3 billion possibilities that seemed so bottomless back in the 70s is officially tapped out. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of some news from around the world this week: [Read more →]

Yesterday, Cisco made a deal aimed at rejuvenating its approach to the Chinese market.  In an announcement that clearly was choreographed to fit with the visit of China’s leader Xi Jinping in Seattle, Cisco partnered up with Jinan-based Inspur as part of its $10B investment initiative in the country. [Read more →]

According to a piece in Fortune this morning, Equinix is making a big bet on solar energy out in California.  The data center giant has done a deal with SunEdison for 105 megawatts of solar power from a solar panel farm to be built near San Diego. [Read more →]

We don’t normally do politics here, and we won’t be choosing sides regardless.  But a funny thing happened yesterday in presidential politics.  As the summer of Trump wanes, somebody actually talked about telecommunications policy again (egads, an issue), and that somebody was former Florida governor Jeb Bush. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at some news from around the sector this week: [Read more →]

That malware that FireEye’s Mandiant found on a dozen or two Cisco Routers spread around the world isn’t quite as limited as initially thought.  Cisco and the volunteer security group called the Shadowserver Foundation said today that the malware has now been found on some 199 older Cisco routers. [Read more →]