Telecom Ramblings

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 →]

Independent European metro fiber operator euNetworks (news) had a very busy fourth quarter, as detailed in their earnings release this morning.  After two acquisitions in 2012 (Lambdanet and TeraGate) that doubled the company’s size, they have been actively working through the integration yet still managed to greatly accelerate the buildout of their footprint.  Here’s a quick table of the company’s fourth quarter in some context: [Read more →]

National metro operator telecom reported its fourth quarter earnings this morning, turning in its usual solid growth.  Revenues were slightly above both estimates and the high end of guidance, while earnings per share easily beat analyst expectations.  Here’s a quick summary in context: [Read more →]

The news cup runneth over, with MWC still going on, MetroConnect kicking off today, and few earnings reports coming out too,  So let’s first catch up on some of the other news out recently: [Read more →]

According to reports over the weekend, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) was all set to buy MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS, news, filings) last week, but walked away at the last minute when the transaction was nixed by Sprint’s board of directors. The deal was said to be worth about $8B, giving MetroPCS shareholders a [Read more →]

Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR, news, filings) is betting big on Dallas. The data center REIT has purchased the 819,000 square foot Convergence Business Park in the suburb of Lewisville for $123.0M. The property as currently built out is already 99% leased, with 35% of that [Read more →]

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC, news, filings) is getting into the data center business. Today at MWC in Barcelona they launched both a new service for building and optimizing data centers and a platform for network-enabled clouds to take advantage of them. Telecom operators worldwide have been maneuvering to leverage the cloud to boost their enterprise business, and Ericsson is clearly looking to grow its service business by riding that trend. [Read more →]