Telecom Ramblings

Yesterday the industry was abuzz with talk that Netflix was pitching a peace plan to the cable companies.  The idea was that Netflix would become just another piece of the cable bill, squaring off against the likes of HBO and backing off their direct OTT challenge.  Honestly, I found it hard to take seriously. According to FierceCable today, Comcast agrees with me.  [Read more →]

According to an article on BNamericas, Brazil’s state-owned operator Telebrás is making a big undersea move aimed at dramatically increasing the country’s international bandwidth choices by hooking up four continents. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Michael Carroll, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

If you’re looking for evidence of the growing role of women in the telecoms industry, look no further than the news that Russian OSS/BSS vendor CBOSS has been banned from the next Mobile World Congress by organizer GSM Association.

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Several interesting items today from the carrier neutral data centers: [Read more →]

Two weeks ago Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) preannounced its fiscal Q1 results, lowering guidance significantly to about $415M due to unexpectedly longer development cycles and seasonality and other such things.  Today they turned in the real number, $416.7M, but spiced things up with an upbeat outlook.  [Read more →]

Capital expenditures among competitive network operators was remarkably stable sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to my latest data update. With one exception, network operators held the rudder quite steady both on the fiber-heavy and fiber-light ends of the spectrum. This is another nail in the coffin of the idea that [Read more →]

It seems that equipment manufacturers are thinking along similar lines right now, and what they’re thinking is that 100G is today’s killer technology and tomorrow’s buggy whip. At OFC/NFOEC today Alcatel-Lucent is unveiling a 400Gbps Photonic Service Engine chip aimed first at improving the company’s 100G products but eventually at offering 400G wavelengths. [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) may be in the midst of a giant integration project, but in the past few days the focus has been more organic news. Today in particular, the company said it will be providing advanced voice services to the MicroSoft Lync Reference Architecture Project.  [Read more →]

A quick roundup of recent news items from the competitive side of the tracks that are worth a quick look: [Read more →]

Infinera (NASDAQ:INFN, news, filings) this morning announced its first customer contract for its new DTN-X 5x100Gbps product line, and it’s not one of the usual suspects. Cable & Wireless Worldwide will be using the gear to help power the brand new EPEG fiber system. [Read more →]

Following last week’s acknowledgement that it is considering a bid for Cable & Wireless Worldwide, a Reuters report this morning says that Tata Communications (news, filings) is looking to access the debt markets raise as much as $2B in cash. Some of that is likely earmarked for refinancing activity, but it does seem likely that we’re looking at [Read more →]

NTT Communications (NYSE:NTT, news, filings) has launched its own fiberoptic network services in Indonesia. They have started out at the EJIP Industrial Park outside of Jakarta with service to multinational companies. They gained a fixed network operating license just three months ago, and [Read more →]

Dish Network’s plans for building a national LTE network out of wireless spectrum repurposed from satellite duty took a major hit today. In finally making a decision, the FCC has done what it does best: it decided to delay making a decision. [Read more →]

Another job was posted to the  Telecom Ramblings Jobs Board this week.  Actually, this weekend the jobs board will be upgraded to a new version, just in time for an improving economy that hopefully will start producing jobs in quantity.  But in the meantime, northeastern fiber operator sidera continued its steady stream of listings with another this week. [Read more →]

Nearly all the fourth quarter data is in now, so it’s time to take another look at some of the metrics for companies in the sector side by side.  I have added fourth quarter data for two additional companies to the usual competitive mix: newly independent Lumos Networks (NASDAQ:LMOS, news, filings) and the increasingly hybridized ILEC/CLEC Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings) (pro forma).  Today let’s look at a plot of ebitda margin trends over time: [Read more →]

Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) opened up a new front in the neverending battle for DWDM pre-eminence today by introducing a software-programmable coherent technology that scales all the way to 400Gbps. The new generation of silicon chips, which goes by the name WaveLogic 3, is about more than speed despite the big number. [Read more →]

One of the most obvious applications of cloud computing has always been what some call ‘big science’, in which vast piles of data must be processed in order to advance the latest research. By pooling resources and using computing on demand, research groups can more easily scale their infrastructure. Today a consortium of 18 European organizations teamed up to do just that with the launch of a common cloud computing platform called Helix Nebula – the Science Cloud. [Read more →]

According to reports this morning, Tata Communications (news, filings) says it is evaluating a potential all-cash bid for Cable & Wireles Worldwide. While discussions are at an early stage, the Indian telecommunications conglomerate would need to [Read more →]

Several interesting items from the submarine cable industry yesterday that are worth a mention. [Read more →]

The last big network neutrality battle was a domestic one, but the next one appears to be kicking off in Europe. And this time it won’t be limited to words and hypotheticals. According to a Light Reading report from MWC, Teliasonera has apparently gone ahead with a new pricing policy: you can use VoIP on their LTE network, but you have to pay for it. [Read more →]

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

“Mobile cloud” was the topic du jour for the second round of morning keynotes at the Mobile World Congress Tuesday, but C-level executives spent much of their stage time talking less about the cloud itself and more about the havoc cloud is wreaking on the telecoms sector and the changes it’s undergoing as a result. [Read more →]

Here are some Leap Day quick-takes on news related to the growing interconnectivity needs in the telecom and internet infrastructure sector, both for bits and for more general B2B relationships: [Read more →]

As expected, much of the industry saved up news to release today. Let’s take a quick look at a few from the network operator side of things: [Read more →]