Telecom Ramblings

The Japanese network giant NTT Communications and the European-based private equity group AXA announced a potential deal this morning that would see NTT take a 90+% stake in Arkadin. The French-based Arkadin serves some 37K customers across Europe, the US, and Asia with audio, video, and web conferencing and related collaboration tools.  [Read more →]

During the quarters before the merger between Lightower Fiber Networks and Sidera Networks was announced, both companies had been looking to the south for expansion opportunities. In October Sidera had even begun an aggressive buildout of fiber southward deep into Virginia.  Today Lightower took those plans and ran with them, confirming and further expanding the company’s network expansion down the eastern seaboard.  [Read more →]

Last week there was a very interesting deal that I’ve been trying to get my head around. Starbucks has decided that its Wi-Fi hotspots needed an upgrade, and to get it the king of retail coffee is ditching AT&T and going for a service to be provided by none other than Google and Level 3. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Stefan Bernbo, CEO and founder of Compuverde.  

Demand for storage has never been higher. A recent study by IDC projected that data center infrastructure will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53 percent between 2011 and 2016. The popularity of cloud computing has undeniably contributed to the surge in the call for additional [Read more →]

Time for a quick Friday roundup of news from the sector that I didn’t get to yet: a new service for MegaPath, a substantial metro fiber partnership for Southern Telecom, and new contracts for Interxion and Telx. [Read more →]

In the Pacific, Southern Cross says they have completed their 100G expansion project. They have installed Ciena’s coherent technology across their 30,000km system connecting the US west coast to Australia and New Zealand via Hawaii. [Read more →]

In its second quarter earnings report, Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) maintained its current trajectory on most metrics as they churn off legacy revenues and build their cloud, managed IT and data revenue base. They also moved the results of their negligible systems/equipment business to discontinued operations, skewing a few of the numbers slightly including forward guidance.   No doubt there are other bits and pieces of Deltacom and One that they will be doing that with over time. [Read more →]

This article originally appeared on Telecom Asia.

Huawei Marine Networks announced the successful completion of Globe Telecom’s Boracay and Palawan Submarine Cable System (BPSCS) in the Philippines.The domestic system, which has a total length of around 330km, consists of two segments. One linking [Read more →]

If investors were looking for a big revenue rebound at Level 3 Communications with today’s earnings report, they’ll have to wait another quarter.  CNS revenues were up sequentially but further wholesale weakness and more UK government leakage continued to offset much of the solid enterprise revenue growth they’ve been finding.  Here’s a table of Level 3’s Q2/2013 results in some context: [Read more →]

There’s a new fiber builder taking shape on the eastern seaboard. Equinox Global Telecommunications this morning unveiled network expansion plans that will boost connectivity to and within Charlotte, North Carolina. [Read more →]

Vancouver will get new data center option early next year as Cologix continues to expand its footprint. Building on its existing footprint and Meet-me room at 555 West Hastings, Cologix’s new network neutral colo space will be at 1050 West Pender Street in downtown Vancouver. [Read more →]

Time for a quick tuesday roundup of news from the competitive network operators, with contract wins for Comcast Business and Integra, expansion plans by Birch and tw telecom, and a compliance achievement for EarthLink. [Read more →]

Global Capacity is expanding its One Marketplace platform into eight Equinix facilities where it is interconnecting with the Equinix Ethernet Exchange. The two have signed a solution partner agreement which will enable automation of Ethernet pricing and delivery across the two platforms. [Read more →]

With its second quarter results today, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) closes the book on its former self in several ways. Along with the end of the quarter came the shutdown of the Nextel network, soon followed by the closing of the Clearwire and Softbank transactions. Thus their actual numbers have a bit less relevance than usual. [Read more →]

Just thirteen months after taking KPNs board of directors to remedial valuation school as it bought nearly 30% of the company despite protests it was paying too little, America Movil and its billionaire-in-chief seem to be preparing to make a few more waves. Last week Carlos Slim expressed the belief that the sale price for KPN’s E-Plus division was too low, and this week America Movil has now ended its relationship agreement with the Dutch incumbent. [Read more →]

One can often gauge just what messages a company will focus on during its earnings report by looking at the press releases that land just beforehand. For Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings), which reports on Wednesday, the week kicked off with two familiar themes in the form of announcements covering an expanded content services deal in the US and a new, high profile, multinational IP VPN customer in Latin America. [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) will report its second quarter of 2013 and first quarter under the leadership of CEO Jeff Storey on Wednesday this week.  While some of my earlier models have projected they would make the transition to positive EPS this quarter, the last two quarterly reports managed to delay things and it now looks like that’s a Q3 story.  But I’m guessing that this quarter *should* show some improvements in both revenue and EBITDA: [Read more →]

Time for a quick roundup of news from the data center. Both Telx and CoreSite saw new international network PoPs move into their facilities, Digital Realty made a second Dutch Move, CyrusOne picked up a financial vertical contract, and Savvis launched a new service: [Read more →]

Next month will see another step forward for big bandwidth to and through one of the least connected regions of the planet. Arctic Fiber kicked off its route survey through Canada’s far northern region of Nunavut and northern Quebec. [Read more →]

With the rollout of its flagship DTN-X platform now a year old, Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings) appears ready to cross the line back into profitability next quarter.  Revenues and earnings per share beat estimates, and the third quarter guidance came in above expectations: [Read more →]

There were no fireworks in the Q2 report of cloud CDN provider Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM, news, filings), just solid numbers.  With support from the performance and security solutions side of things, both revenues and adjusted earnings per share came in at the top of guidance, which is right where analysts had been looking.  Here are a few of their numbers in some context: [Read more →]

The carrier neutral data center giant Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) is taking it on the chin again after hours following its Q2 earnings report.  Eating into their usually rock-steady growth profile were a change to the accounting of non-recurring revenues, the costs involved in the REIT conversion they are pursuing, and some foreign exchange effects.   [Read more →]

Time for a quick roundup of news from early this week or late last week, with contracts for Comcast Business and Geo Networks, a certification for DukeNet, and an expansion by Sovernet on its eastern flank: [Read more →]