Telecom Ramblings

This article was authored by Stefan Hammond, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

The “computer” concept used to mean mainframes: giant machines kept in a special room guarded by technicians. Ordinary employees were given “dumb terminals”: keyboard/monitor combinations with wires that plugged into the computer room and controlled access to the “big iron” beasts that crunched the numbers. [Read more →]

Showing just how intent they are on their Mexican invasion, AT&T has made another acquisition just nine days after closing its purchase of Iusacell. This morning they announced a deal to purchase Nextel Mexico from NII Holdings, following through on rumors of their interest since fall.  [Read more →]

Following my tour of DE-CIX and zColo at 60 Hudson last month, I was pleased to receive another invitation from Raul Martynek across the Hudson at Net Access.  Last January, Raul took the helm as CEO as the company entered a new phase of growth.  Net Access hasn’t always been in the data center business, having come to the sector from the dialup ISP world back in the 1990s.   [Read more →]

Google’s rumored move into the wireless space as an MVNO could give them the last piece of the puzzle.  From the device in your hand, the operating system it runs, the email/office/video/social apps you use, the wireless or fiber access network it connects with, the IP backbone and CDN that serves the data, the undersea cables and terrestrial dark fiber it traverses, the cloud on the other end, and the data centers that the servers sit in, Google will have its thumb if not its whole forearm in every single pie.  Should we be more worried than we are?  Or more precisely, who do you think should be most alarmed at the prospect of Google Wireless on top of all else? [Read more →]

Another billionaire is on the move in Europe, adding territory to his empire and helping consolidate the wireless market further. Hutchison Whampoa, which is of course led by Hong Kong’s Li Ka-Shing, has followed through on the not-so-secret rumors and made a bid worth some $15B for O2, Telefonica’s UK wireless division. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Jeff Smith, Strategy & Marketing Director, Interxion

Here in the waking hours of 2015, the networking community is facing fundamental questions – the kind that trace back to its very foundation. [Read more →]

Various reports today are converging on a story that Google is about to enter the wireless game. No, they’re not kicking off another national LTE buildout for us all to watch city by city. They’re going to take the MVNO path to glory. [Read more →]

Consolidation may be in the air in much of European telecommunications and infrastructure, but new networks are getting built too.  Today one launched in northeastern Europe, connecting Frankfurt with Tallinn and hooking up Berlin, Warsaw, Vilnius, and Riga along the way. [Read more →]

Several interesting news items from the metro space this week that are worth a quick look: [Read more →]

Although I wouldn’t call it a frenzy, there seems to be a steady buzz of M&A at the edges of the cloud as larger players acquire smaller, innovative companies to bring the right combination of talent in-house.  Today it was Equinix’s turn, as they announced a deal for the professional services firm Nimbo. [Read more →]

With PTC going on out in Hawaii this week, there’s lots of news under the waves plus some more European M&A action to consider: [Read more →]

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

The world has declared open season on encryption and civil liberties. In one week Thailand announced its draft Cyber Security bill, Iran’s highest court banned encrypted messaging apps and now the United Kingdom has announced its own war on privacy in the wake of the French terror attacks. [Read more →]

It’s MLK day in the USA, which means at least some of you get the day off.  But around the world, lots is happening this morning. [Read more →]

In what looks like a natural partnership, Zayo and EdgeConneX are working together to bring more fiber to the edge. This morning the two announced that Zayo will be deploying fiber to EdgeConnex facilities across the country, which are strategically positioned near network provider aggregation points like cable head ends and such.  [Read more →]

Several readers kindly noted over the holidays that it had been over a year since I’d updated my metro fiber and on-net building statistics page.  So I’ve been collecting data over the last few weeks, and it’s now time put out the new stats.  They’re on their usual page of course, but here’s a copy sorted by on-net building count: [Read more →]

Zayo has another longhaul build planned for 2015.  While they’ve already got a project building new infrastructure between Omaha and Dallas, this new buildout will connect Salt Lake City and Sacramento via a new diverse route. [Read more →]

After a couple years of working together on multiple colocation and meet-me-room projects, Amerimar Enterprises and industry icon Hunter Newby have finally made it official. They’ve launched Netrality Properties, which will bring those various properties under one roof with plans to buy more of them. [Read more →]

The last two Fridays we had our annual M&A polls, checking which operators Telecom Ramblings readers think will be the consolidators or consolidatees in the year ahead.  Now let’s take a quick look at those results and see what you had to say (and my own thoughts). [Read more →]

Hibernia Networks said this morning that it has completed a significant network expansion project in the northeastern US. They’ve added new dark fiber on six new longhaul routes and lit it with Ciena’s 6500 packet-optical gear. [Read more →]

The Big Apple has one more dark fiber operator than it did yesterday, pushing back against the prevailing winds of consolidation. Axiom Fiber Networks has formally launched in Manhattan under the leadership of industry veteran Felipe J. Alvarez, formerly of Sidera and RCN Metro and one of this website’s earliest interviewees.  [Read more →]

In its largest inorganic move in the data center world so far, Zayo today announced an agreement to acquire Latisys.  The price tag of $675M makes this the company’s biggest move since the acquisition of AboveNet two and a half years ago.  It takes Zayo much deeper into the data center market than it has gone with its zColo division thus far. [Read more →]

According to Verizon’s CEO the other day at a Citi conference, the telecom giant is looking at ridding itself of even more of its wireline network assets: [Read more →]

Time for a roundup of news from the metro: [Read more →]