Telecom Ramblings

Session border specialist Acme Packet (news, filings) found itself a strategic buyer, and not a minor one either. The database giant Oracle has agreed to purchase the company for $2.1B in cash, or $29.27 per share. That’s a 22% premium to the closing price on Friday, and works out to a purchase price of $1.7B net of the cash on Acme Packet’s balance sheet. [Read more →]

The Washington Post this morning has an interesting piece about the FCC’s new plans for public super WiFi networks across the country. It has me a bit puzzled, because it looks like a reincarnation of the municipal WiFi movement of a few years ago. The prospect of free broadband connectivity around town, enabling cell phone users to offload virtually everything and avoid paying for minutes and such was always a big draw. [Read more →]

With the exception of the MegaUpload flap a year ago, Cogent had a rather quiet year in 2012, selling the usual tons of bandwidth at low prices, building out to both new markets and additional buildings, and of course weathering Hurricane Sandy.  The market certainly liked it as the company’s stock price rose 35% on the year and has continued to rise since.  Cogent has always had a unique, tightly focused, and lately entirely organic approach to the bandwidth business. Here to give us an update on where the company is and where it’s going in 2013 is CEO Dave Schaeffer. [Read more →]

With groundhog day in mind for tomorrow, here’s a further roundup of news I didn’t get to this week from AT&T, CyrusOne, Emerald, Level 3, and Zayo. Note that next week I’ll be travelling, so if articles trail actual news a bit further then usual for a few days that’s why. [Read more →]

clwr filed a preliminary proxy statement related to the proposed merger with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings), but it left pretty much everything hanging where it has been since Dish made its unsolicited bid of $3.30. Things have gotten increasingly complicated of late, as the DOJ has asked the FCC not to decide until it makes its own decision in light of national security concerns and such. [Read more →]

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

The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) is building a smart-grid project using passive optical networking (PON) technology, which could not only help it deliver electricity more efficiently across the country, but also turn it into China’s next broadband service provider. [Read more →]

Time for a quick review of news from this week from the metro front, both fiber and managed services: [Read more →]

América Móvil AMX-1 submarine cable system took another few steps toward reality yesterday. The Latin American giant and Alcatel-Lucent are preparing to get the new 100G system ready for commercial service by the end of 2013. They just got regulatory approval from Mexico a few months back. [Read more →]

This week has seen a milestone in the development of Carrier Ethernet, as in a webcast with Bob Metcalfe himself on Tuesday the MEF unveiled the first twenty equipment vendors to pass the CE 2.0 certification process globally. That’s about quarter of the organization’s vendor members already with more in the pipeline, suggesting a rapid uptake is underway since the original announcement less than a year ago. [Read more →]

The Pan-European provider Interoute made it clear this week just what it is focusing on for 2013 with a three pronged expansion of their cloud presence. Interoute’s paths is one of the cleanest fusions of fiber and cloud out there, with little copper or legacy voice services getting in the way or needing to churn off. [Read more →]

If there’s one thing Sidera Networks has excelled at over the past year, it’s hooking up every data center within range of its fiber. Today they kept the trend going out in Chicago with a newly expanded route to Elk Grove to the north and the major data center park it hosts. [Read more →]

Yesterday, Zayo made a down payment on its recent plans to build out 100G in earnest this year. The upstart-turned-fiber-giant says it has already deployed the technology on one of the busiest routes in the world, i.e. along the East Coast between their New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington DC markets. And it’s not just for their own capacity needs, they’re offering the 100G wavelengths themselves to customers. [Read more →]

Integra Telecom continued its campaign for a more fiber-dependent diet this week by building out its metro connectivity to two of Digital Realty’s many data centers. The western regional network operator has brought two of the data center REIT’s locations in Sacramento, CA and Hillsboro, OR online. They’ve been adding key buildings to their network at an accelerated [Read more →]

Yesterday Africa’s Liquid Telecom made a significant foray into new territory with the purchase of the East African assets of Altech. The deal is for shares rather than cash, with Altech becoming an 8.6% shareholder of Liquid’s parent company.  Altech’s network business in East Africa hadn’t been performing well lately, and they’re obviously hoping that Liquid’s greater scale will help turn things around. [Read more →]

Now that the battle lines have been clearly drawn in the battle over the erstwhile WiMAX protagonist Clearwire, it’s time for a poll.  Dish’s higher bid for all or part of the company has thrown a potential wrench into the purchase, and several large investors are agitating for a better bid from Sprint/Softbank.  Sprint can stop a competing deal, but it needs more than 50% of minority investors to sign on with its own.  What do you think, is Sprint/Softbank going to win this one? [Read more →]

Three interesting deployment announcements around the world already this week from Infinera, Juniper, and ECI Telecom:  [Read more →]

There’s a new savior on the horizon for those facing the onslaught of video bits over that last wireless mile. But it’s not gear, it’s just a new video codec. The ITU has formally approved H.265 High Efficiency Video Coding, or HEVC, which will join MPEG-4’s H.264 in the industry’s content delivery toolbox. [Read more →]

According to Izvestia.ru (via Telegeography), Polarnet just cleared another hurdle as Russia’s Telecoms ministry has come to an agreement with the government regarding a rather important detail: the money.  The cable system, if it does get built, would go from Bude in the UK through Murmansk, Anadyr and Vladivostok and connect up to Tokyo after about 17,000km.  The pricetag is apparently pushing $1B at this point, and so the real question is just [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of some sector news to start the week, three data center items and one CDN expansion from the end of last week that are worth a look.  [Read more →]

The year has started off slowly on the Ramblings Jobs Board, but we have a new listing this week at last for an opening on the southern side of the Eastern Seaboard.   [Read more →]

Here’s a Friday morning look at various metro news items I didn’t get to this week that I probably should have: [Read more →]

Just as they did in the third quarter, Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings) turned in a stronger than expected performance on all fronts in their fourth quarter report yesterday after the market closed.  Revenue, non-GAAP earnings per share, and non-GAAP operating margin all came up very solid.  However, also just as in Q4, they kept their cautious outlook toward the near future and tempered expectations.  Here’s a quick chart with some context: [Read more →]

Tata Communications (news, filings) has taken the 100G plunge beneath the Atlantic Ocean, unveiling an upgrade to its TGN-Atlantic cable system. The 13,000km system between London and New York will have its 100G ready for service during the first half of this year, meaning probably June. Just how big that makes the cable in terms of overall theoretical capacity was not mentioned. [Read more →]