Telecom Ramblings

So the big news late last week, of course, was Apple’s victory over Samsung in its patent lawsuit to the tune of $1.05B. While there are still more rounds to go before that victory is set in stone, it will roil the handheld device sector bigtime and may even just be a skirmish that leads up to a fight with Google. But I’ll let the gadget blogs take that on. What I’m wondering is whether this is something network operators really did not want to see. [Read more →]

Mammoth Networks says it has completed a major native Ethernet upgrade to its backbone, boosting capacity throughout its Western territory by five-fold. The upgrade covers nine key sites and a dozen markets, including Albuquerque, Billings, and Spokane. [Read more →]

And I do mean catchup – I’ve been on the road for the last 36 hours, and so I apologize for falling a bit behind! Here’s a quick look at some news to close out the week from DukeNet, CenturyLink, Hibernia Atlantic, and FiberMedia: [Read more →]

Yesterday, just after I left on a trip (naturally), the FCC made a very important but still inconclusive regulatory move. In a party line 3-2 vote, the agency suspended the rules passed in 1999 that allowed incumbent providers flexibility in special access pricing. [Read more →]

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

As you no doubt know, the ITU has plans to update its International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs), which were last updated in 1988, and have since become badly outdated. At the time, most [Read more →]

In a bid for faster international growth, Calix Networks (NYSE:CALX, news, filings) has made a deal with the much larger vendor Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC, news, filings). They have agreed to acquire the fiber access business of from the Swedish giant, including its GPON solution which is the main focus. [Read more →]

The Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Communications (NYSE:NTT, news, filings) has been very vocal about the expansion of its IP backbone over the past few years. Yesterday they announced they have passed 500Gbps between Asia and Oceania.  That compares not so unfavorably with [Read more →]

The end of August tends to be a slow time when it comes to big news, but there’s still interesting stuff to find if you look hard enough: [Read more →]

Some quick catchup with news from overseas — Rackspace down under, Equinix in southeast Asia, and PCCW in the Middle East: [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of some cloud/colo news with items from Equinix, Savvis, Limelight, and iomart: [Read more →]

That’s what an article in Forbes says this morning, quoting a financial model put together by analysts critical of the effort. It seems crazy to think that Google has any intention of spending that much money on this demonstration, but the fact is that we still don’t really know how much skin they’re really putting into the game.  [Read more →]

This morning Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) formally launched its CDN services across South and Central America. The Chilean online streaming company Grupo Z has already signed on for the delivery of its diet of [Read more →]

Colocation and cloud services provider Viawest (news) [a subsidiary of Shaw Communications (news)] isn’t kidding around with its expansion in Las Vegas. Today they announced the acquisition of CoreLink’s downtown Las Vegas data center, a move that reflects the company’s aggressive footing as described by CEO Roy Dimoff in an interview here on Ramblings last month. [Read more →]

I have updated my competitive telecom trends pages with both new data (for Q2 and a few additional companies) and several charts that I have been working on over time. Along with the Net-Debt/EBITDA plot, the collection now includes a Revenue/Employee and EBITDA/Employee plots, although the number of data points is relatively sparse still for both.  You can always find these pages in the Resources section, but here’s links to all eight: [Read more →]

The behavioral platform and gamification specialist Badgeville is now accessing its public cloud infrastructure via Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings). Deploying initially in the carrier neutral giant’s DC6 IBX in Ashburn, Badgeville is taking advantage of the direct fiber connectivity to the public cloud, which in this case means they’re using AWS Direct Connect. [Read more →]

In a sign of the company’s growing confidence in its cash flows, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) this morning announced the addition of a new data center facility to its London footprint. The new facility is located in Hayes, West London, strategically located to serve the financial vertical, amongst others.  [Read more →]

In this economy there’s no such thing as too many job listings, and we have another new one on the Ramblings’ Jobs board this week from Lightower Fiber Networks.  Lightower is looking for an [Read more →]

TGIF everybody. Before you go off to enjoy the weekend, here’s a few more quick looks at other news this week from across the sector: [Read more →]

While the media has been getting ahead of itself in places, Verizon Wireless does seem to have overcome the last hurdle to its $3.6B acquisition of AWS spectrum from the cable MSOs. The Department of Justice approved the deal yesterday, with a condition or two attached, and now they’re just waiting for the [Read more →]

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

Operators are increasingly enthusiastic about the prospects of Wi-Fi offload in their 4G roadmaps. But that’s going to be bad news for mobile advertising – at least until Facebook steps in to save the day. [Read more →]

In an M&A move that substantially expands the breadth of the company’s Southeastern footprint, Zayo finally cleaned up its relationship with US Carrier by agreeing to purchase the 50% they didn’t already own. The deal adds some 3,700 miles of regional fiber primarily in Georgia with connectivity into Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama.  [Read more →]

Here’s a quick roundup of news from the colo and cloud sector, including items from CoreSite, Interxion, Telx, Savvis, Level 3, and KDDI: [Read more →]

Networking equipment giant Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) cruised through its fiscal fourth quarter according to the company’s release this afternoon. Revenues of $11.7B and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.47 were each one notch above analyst expectations. Guidance for their fiscal Q1 was [Read more →]