Telecom Ramblings

As most have noticed, net neutrality storm clouds are gathering again and battle lines are being drawn. The flashpoint right now is Comcast’s decision to have its Xfinity streaming content not count against its bandwidth caps, but it’s not just Comcast. AT&T and Verizon are working on related ideas in which content providers would pay to have their traffic counted against data caps. While all this looks like it will develop into a purely partisan disagreement, I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t something useful buried in the idea. [Read more →]

Australian service provider M2 Telecoms says that it has agreed to buy the Australian operations of Primus Telecommunications Group (NYSE:PTGI, news, filings). Primus has been considering strategic alternatives since October. The company obviously has found the optimal solution to be breaking up the assets in order to appeal to local buyers, which is what I suggested [Read more →]

The business unit of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA, news, filings) took home a trophy win for its Metro Ethernet business this week. The cable giant has been selected to bring big bandwidth to the both the summer and spring homes of the Boston Red Sox. They will be providing connectivity both for historic Fenway Park in Boston and for [Read more →]

Three data center expansion projects hit the news yesterday: [Read more →]

This article was authored by Joseph Waring, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

It recently came to light that mobile operators in the US are charging police departments substantial sums for wiretaps and other requests for their users’ personal cellphone data, with the fees differing widely — from $325 per wiretap target per month to as much as $700. [Read more →]

Alternative CDN and now cloud services provider Limelight Networks (NASDAQ:LLNW, news, filings) is still expanding its list of carrier partners. Today they added one south of the border, Bestel, who will be launching Limelight’s cloud-based suite under its DigiContent brand. That will let them serve the video production, management, and delivery needs of Mexican corporations without having to start from scratch. [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at recent news items from the metro space: [Read more →]

Two interesting items for Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) this week, one on the cusp of the mobile data revolution and the other from the the horn of Africa. [Read more →]

Tech giant Dell is getting into the CDN business according to a release this morning. They are now offering Dell Deliver, which is built on EdgeCast’s platform with video processing from Elemental and of course is ultimately powered by plenty of [Read more →]

Data Center operator RagingWire has selected sidera to provide fiber connectivity to its new 140,000 square foot facility in Ashburn. RagingWire leased the space last May, expanding from its base in Sacramento which now features some 470,000 square feet. A key selling point for Sidera’s bid was its extra network diversity on the route between Ashburn and the New York metro area, which manages to offer bypass routes [Read more →]

While we’re all waiting to see if Zayo succeeds in its bid to buy the company, abvt is still out there selling bandwidth. This morning they picked up a key UK contract in the financial vertical supplying connectivity to BATS Europe and Chi-X Europe . [Read more →]

There was a blitz of colocation-related news items yesterday, here are some quick highlights: [Read more →]

Several interesting stories from the metro space already this week that are worth a quick look. [Read more →]

According to reports, Russian telecommunications giant Rostelecom is buying IP/MPLS network operator RETN. At least that’s what it sounds like — the Russian fiber market has always been a bit opaque to me and the tortured language issued by the FAS regulatory body didn’t help one bit: [Read more →]

Lately Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI, news, filings) has begun to come up more frequently as a fiber M&A target in both the media and analyst reports, while for many years they haven’t really popped up too much in the various consolidation rumors.  That’s partly because they’ve stated that prices are higher than they are willing to pay, while CEO Dave Schaeffer has seemed focused on simply continuing to chart an independent, disruptive [Read more →]

Hmmm, I think magicJack VocalTec (NASDAQ:CALL, news, filings) is trying to get some attention from the markets. It’s not often that a company pre-announces in February that it will beat analyst estimates for Q1, and then pre-announces again after Easter weekend to confirm that it in fact probably has done so and intends to resume and accelerate its stock buyback program.  But then, magicJack has never been known for its humble approach to PR either [Read more →]

Over the weekend, AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) and unions representing tens of thousands of workers passed a deadline without a new contract. For now, the unions and the company are still negotiating and the workers will still be working according to a Reuters report. The main area of dispute is who pays how much for [Read more →]

Happy Easter to everyone!  Most readers are probably still on break but for those who aren’t here are some quick looks at some news items that happened since or slipped through the cracks last week. [Read more →]

The Ramblings Jobs Board has had a very productive spring, especially since it was remodeled last month. This week we have a new listing from a familiar face. Jaymie Scotto & Associates is looking for [Read more →]

There was some lively discussion following my, err, somewhat lively response to that WSJ article earlier this week.  My own opinion is no secret, but let’s put it to a vote just to see where we stand as a group: [Read more →]

It was truly inevitable that after last quarter’s final regulatory defeat over the GPS interference issue we would see LightSquared on the ropes. That is what the word is out there in the media today with bankruptcy is looming large as an option, with Philip Falcone himself quoted by Reuters as ‘seriously considering’ a voluntary filing. [Read more →]

With Easter on tap this weekend, let’s wrap up with a few quick looks at items in the colocation space, which has been very busy this week: [Read more →]

In the Wall Street Journal yesterday there appeared an article entitled “Optical Delusion? Fiber Booms Again Despite Bust” which requires a response. While noting the importance of where the fiber is in determining its value, the author continues to speak from the doubtful perspective that there is some [Read more →]