Not that it’s a big surprise, but Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) and its proposed acquirer Softbank are vowing to stop using equipment from Huawei. The deal remains under a review by US regulators, and lawmakers are taking the opportunity for a few photo-ops along the way protecting us from evil. [Read more →]
Colo Roundup: Digital Realty, IO, Dupont Fabros, Interxion, Telehouse
March 28th, 2013
As we head into an earlier-than-usual Easter weekend, here’s a quick look at some other news this week from the colo sector from Digital Realty, IO, DuPont Fabros, Interxion, and Telehouse America: [Read more →]
Three Men In a Dinghy Cutting Submarine Cables?
March 28th, 2013
Ok, there has to be more to this story but I suppose it’s early yet. Apparently the Egyptian coast guard caught some saboteurs in the act of taking down a submarine cable off the coast of Alexandria. Three divers in an inflatable dinghy with air tanks that look so battered they might have found them on the bottom next to the cable were down there sawing away, apparently. [Read more →]
Is Oracle Hungry for BroadSoft?
March 28th, 2013
With its recent M&A moves in mind, the markets are trying to guess Oracle’s next target. And it does seem likely there will be a next target, since integrating Acme Packet and Tekelec doesn’t add up to an endgame just yet. The lucky company annointed by analysts as the one with the biggest bullseye on its back appears to be BroadSoft, and I’ve got to admit it makes a lot of sense. [Read more →]
Metro Bytes: Zayo, Sunesys, Global Capacity, Birch
March 27th, 2013
Time for a quick review of news items from the metro side of things: [Read more →]
Pacnet Finishes Chongqing Facility, Equinix Starts Another in Singapore
March 27th, 2013
News from the data center space in the far east this morning, where the frequency new projects has been particularly heavy over the past few years. [Read more →]
Hollow Core Fiber Takes Aim at the Latency Barrier
March 27th, 2013

While the gear that lights fiberoptic cables continues to evolve rapidly, the changes to fiberoptic cables themselves have been much more incremental for a long time now. That could be on the cusp of changing, as researchers have apparently taken taken the glass out of the equation for some major bandwidth. [Read more →]
Int’l Roundup: AT&T, GTS, Level 3, Vodafone
March 26th, 2013
Here’s a quick roundup of some global network news, with items from AT&T, GTS Central Europe, Level 3, and Vodafone: [Read more →]
Level 3 Launches Metro Expansion in South America
March 26th, 2013

For Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings), Latin America is hot — hot enough to put more money into its metro networks. Today the company announced the launch of new high-speed metro networks in both Bogota, Colombia (left) and Buenos Aires, Argentina. [Read more →]
Telefonica Sells Treasury Stock For Debt Reduction
March 26th, 2013
Today Telefonica decided to sell off all of its treasury stock as part of its ongoing effort to cut its debt load. The 90,067,896 shares were sold at €10.80, adding a bounty of €975M to the company’s balance sheet and increasing the company’s shares outstanding by just under 2%. [Read more →]
Buying Tekelec, Oracle Moves Further Toward Telecom
March 26th, 2013
Yesterday Oracle announced that it is acquiring another networking vendor, demonstrating that it’s quite serious about moving into the telecom world. They are buying Tekelec, which specializes in network signaling, policy control, and subscriber management. [Read more →]
Interoute’s Cloud Powers Strong 2012
March 25th, 2013
The pan-European network operator Interoute issued its full year 2012 numbers today. Much as it did last year, Interoute credited strong cloud services demand for its solid 2012 growth despite the continued macroeconomic headwinds the region as a whole has had to contend with. [Read more →]
Verizon/Vodafone Deal Rumor Spikes, Again
March 25th, 2013
This quarter’s persistent rumor has been of a final resolution of the Verizon/Vodafone situation just beyond the horizon. Yet thus far the rumors have been quite glib beyond that much. But according to the several UK newspaper articles, there may actually be a deal in the works now with an eye on a summer tie-up. Investors are taking it seriously enough to drive Vodafone’s stock 2.5% this morning. [Read more →]
Visualizing Fiber Networks: DC Metro, Northern Virginia, and Baltimore
March 25th, 2013

After touring network maps side by side over in the UK and Scandinavia earlier this month, I decided to evolve the idea further but with US metro network maps. As it works best for the largest metro markets with recognizable geographies, I thought I’d try looking at the combined Ashburn/DC Metro/Baltimore region – for which I have a dozen. [Read more →]
Mobile privacy: hard to regulate, harder to enforce
March 25th, 2013
This article was authored by John C. Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.
It’s been said before (in this space and elsewhere) that customer data privacymatters, customers are becoming increasingly aware of that, and are demanding better privacy protections and assurances that their personal data won’t get lost, stolen or abused. [Read more →]
Internet2 Teams With Zayo for 100G in the Northern Tier
March 22nd, 2013

Yesterday Zayo Group (news, filings) announced a partnership with Internet2 to boost its network assets between Chicago and Seattle. When the upgrade is completed this spring, they’ll have over 4Tbps of capacity with which to support Internet2’s 100G network plans to hook up educational and research institutions in the Northern Tier. [Read more →]
Poll: How Did Genachowski Do?
March 22nd, 2013
It’s been a while, so it’s definitely time for a Friday poll. Rumors abound that the current FCC Chairman, Julius Genachowski, will be stepping down after four years or so at the helm – in fact the announcement may be coming as soon as today. Let’s step back for a moment and think about the last four years of US telecom regulatory theater as a whole. How did he do? What grade would you give him? [Read more →]
Genachowski Will Follow McDowell Out at the FCC
March 21st, 2013

Seems like just four years ago that Julius Genachowski was getting started as FCC chairman. Oh wait it really *was* four years ago, but apparently that was long enough. Various articles are out there now expecting him to follow the Republican commissioner Robert McDowell and step down today. [Read more →]
Thursday Roundup: Exponential-e, XO, IO, Sabey, Agawi
March 21st, 2013
Time for a quick roundup of news from around the industry, with items from Exponential-e, XO, IO, Sabey, and Agawi: [Read more →]
Google Fiber Heads For the ‘Burbs
March 21st, 2013
It’s still Kansas, but Google Fiber is starting to look beyond Kansas City. In a blog post this week they revealed their intentions to add another city to their 1Gbps FTTH roll-out. So who is the lucky city? It’s the nearby suburb of Olathe, about 20 miles to the southwest. [Read more →]
Anova Brings Microwave Longhaul to DC/NJ
March 20th, 2013
Today Anova Technologies announced the acquisition of a new microwave-based low latency service terminating at the NASDAQ at 1400 Federal in Carteret, New Jersey. But it’s the other endpoint that’s what’s different: the carrier hotel in downtown Washington DC at 1275 K Street. [Read more →]
Euro Roundup: TI Sparkle, Aria Networks, TeliaSonera
March 20th, 2013

Here’s a quick look at some news on the European front today: [Read more →]
Competitive Telecom Financial Trends: TTM Capex/Revenue
March 20th, 2013

For those who keep track, I have updated each of the competitive telecom financial trends plots to reflect Q4/2012 numbers, except for a few straggling morsels of data that will get here when they get here. But in addition I am considering changing the relative capex plot to reflect the trailing 12 months rather than the individual quarterly number. The reason is obvious: capex can be very lumpy, which makes it hard to spot trends. Before I make the change officially, here’s a first look: [Read more →]