Telecom Ramblings

Last week I posted maps of fiber-based networks in the British Isles alongside each other as a means to better understand potential consolidation in the European telecommunications market beyond wireless and the incumbents.  Today it’s time for a similar look at Scandinavia and the Baltics.  Once again, if one looks one can easily find at least a couple dozen, ranging from a token presence in PoP or two to deep local infrastructure: [Read more →]

Time for a Friday look at some of the news this week from the colo business from SubTropolis, Cyrus One, Colo Atl, Telx, and Interxion: [Read more →]

Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) surprised the markets yesterday with their fiscal first quarter results, and in a good way.  The networking vendor posted an adjusted profit per share of $0.12, far above the composite analyst expectations of a loss of $0.14.  Revenues were slightly higher than expected, but it was lower expenses and improving capex trends from carriers that meant the most: [Read more →]

After a difficult second half, Inteliquent (NASDAQ:IQNT, news, filings) finished the year by beating its revised guidance quite handily, with both revenues and EBITDA for Q4 more solid than expected.  However, the bigger question has been just where the company’s fortunes lie in 2013 in the wake of that December settlement with a large customer and the shift it portends in the company’s cost structure and future revenue levels.  Here are the company’s results and guidance in some context: [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) is going to be looking for some new leadership this year, as the company has just announced that its CEO James Q. Crowe  is planning to transition out of that role by the end of 2013.  The company’s board of directors has formed a transition planning committee to help identify the next CEO.  The exact timing of Crowe’s departure is subject to change “at the Board’s discretion in consultation with Mr. Crowe”, which likely means that it will happen whenever the new guy or gal is ready to step in. [Read more →]

Few segments of the telecommunications industry have been changing as rapidly as international interconnectivity, whether it be voice, IP/MPLS, Ethernet, or Sonet/SDH. As a carrier neutral independent exchange, Epsilon sees an opportunity to carve out some new territory. With us today to discuss Epsilon’s rapidly evolving interconnection and local access aggregation model is the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, Irwin Fouwels. [Read more →]

Time for a quick roundup of network-related news this week from Hibernia Networks, XO Communications, 24/7 MidAtlantic, and Earthlink: [Read more →]

Dan Rayburn has a thought-provoking article out today in which he describes the video CDN business as flawed, with its downside obscured by subsidization by Google/YouTube. He has a point, but I think it’s actually two separate points that deserve their own space. [Read more →]

Reports are indicating that Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings) has been taking a serious look at buying out Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless. Sound familiar? It should, since the same rumor has bubbled to the surface every few weeks since winter began, or maybe since the decade began in some form. So what’s new? Besides the fact that Vodafone’s stock price is surging 5% in response, I mean… [Read more →]

Zayo today said it has completed its second 100G deployment, bringing big bandwidth to its Chicago-Memphis route in the form of both wavelength and Ethernet sales.  Their first 100G deployment was in the busy northeast corridor of course, between New York City and Washington DC.   [Read more →]

European cloud and colo demand must be looking pretty good despite the sustained economic headwinds. CenturyLink’s Savvis division is building out new space to bolster its square footage in London.  [Read more →]

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

And now, a random collection of golden quotes heard at last week’s Mobile World Congress: [Read more →]

Several interesting items lately in the metro space are worth a look: a fiber contract each for Unite Private networks, Fatbeam, and Southern Telecom, some EoC news from TelePacific, and a refi update from Earthlink. [Read more →]

Gulf Bridge International introduced some terrestrial diversity to its offerings over the weekend. They’ve added diverse land routes that will give them both greater reliability and lower latency. The undersea routes have long been vulnerable due to common routes through the Red Sea, Egypt, and the eastern Mediterranean. [Read more →]

There has been more and more talk lately about the potential for consolidation among European networks, and not just from me.  But it is my feeling that the sense of the assets out there is narrowly focused on the incumbents and on the wireless/spectrum side of things, and that for fiber we don’t really have a feel for who the players would be beyond a few names that get mentioned over and over.  So I went out and hunted [Read more →]

Late last week, ground was apparently broken on a new intercity fiber project between New York City metro area and Ashburn, VA. They’ve got all the planning and rights of way in place, and were set to break ground on Friday. The company behind the project, United Fiber & Data, has some rather unusual backers. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at four contract wins and a modular expansion from the colo sector this week, on each for Telehouse, Verne Global, Telecity, Data Foundry, and Interxion: [Read more →]

Must be balance sheet spring cleaning week, as Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) has also now chimed in with a big refinancing plan too. They started off looking to raise a cool billion in senior notes, and wound up pricing a whopping $1.5B of them made up of $500M of 4.875% notes due 2020, and $1B of 5.375% notes due 2023. [Read more →]

Apparently there’s quite a window in the credit markets right now – at least for fiber operators.  Earlier this week we heard about Integra’s refinancing package, and today Zayo made a similar move. [Read more →]

Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings) continued its assault on the 100G market with a win in the Mediterranean Sea. TI Sparkle is deploying the vendors flagship DTN-X gear on its MedNautilus network, leveraging those 500Gbps super-channels to meet rising traffic needs. [Read more →]

Still under siege but with its new CEO at the helm, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU, news, filings) seems to be picking up some momentum in the managed services segment. Last month it was a $1B deal for about half of Reliance Communications network management needs in India. And this week we have two more, although perhaps not quite of that magnitude. [Read more →]

Emerald Networks, which is building a new transatlantic cable with a branch to Iceland called the “Emerald Express”, has added a high profile customer.  None other than Vodafone Group (NYSE:VOD, news, filings) is planning to sign a contract with the cable system for capacity.  [Read more →]

It’s been a busy week for the folks at Integra Telecom, or I should say simply “Integra”, since that’s the way they’ll be introducing themselves from here on out. Following up the successful refinancing of its debt announced yesterday, the western regional network operator has unveiled an updated brand, complete with a new logo, tagline, and the name it goes to market with. [Read more →]