Telecom Ramblings

What to make of the scary statistics put out by Infonetics Research last week? According to the outfit’s Optical Network Hardware report, spending on optical gear dropped 23% globally over the fourth quarter, mainly outside North America.  Meanwhile, year over year European spending on WDM fell even faster than on legacy SDH. Yikes, so that’s why Cisco’s John Chambers was sounding the poor visibility alarm.  [Read more →]

A quick look at a few more interesting items from competitive service providers to finish off the week: [Read more →]

Yesterday, zayo announced another expansion market for its fiber-to-the-tower initiatives.  With an unnamed customer contract in hand, Zayo is planning to add an additional 165 route miles of fiber and 123 new towers to its network in Phoenix, Arizona. That will expand their route miles in Phoenix [Read more →]

This article was authored by Don Sambandaraksa, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

Rail operators run their own communications networks for data signalling and for voice communications.  There comes a point when the cost of maintaining these networks is such that [Read more →]

Looks like the public pressure Comcast has been under over its exemption of Xfinity TV traffic from traffic caps has had an effect. Comcast said today that it was suspending enforcement of its cap and trialing a usage-based plan. Of course Comcast says this has nothing to do with the argument currently raging. [Read more →]

Well, you’ve heard me ramble on in several directions on this subject already, so now it’s time to find out how readers feel.  Comcast is excluding traffic generated by Xfinity TV for the Xbox from its bandwidth caps when it comes to internet service.  Are they playing fair or aren’t they?  The FCC and DOJ will weigh in someday, but in the meantime let’s try a poll: [Read more →]

twtc goes about its business in such an understated way that it’s too easy to miss the interesting bits. This week they had some luck to the west, picking up both a solid enterprise and federal wins. [Read more →]

Time to survey some news this week in the datacenter and cloud sector from IO, Telx, Terremark, Earthlink, and Equinix: [Read more →]

Is Comcast prioritizing its packets? Are they running over a network separate from their internet service? Are they violating the terms agreed to as part of the NBCU purchase? Lots of stuff out there right now that contradicts itself, but the underlying problem is perhaps the that the industry’s vocabulary is just not up to the task. [Read more →]

This is definitely looking like the year 100G goes mainstream, as operators large and small are starting to deploy it for real. This morning it was the independent European metro fiber operator h23, which has taken the plunge for its intercity network. [Read more →]

If you thought eqix had satisfied its appetite for inorganic expansion in favor of organic buildouts worldwide, you were wrong. The organic buildouts continue of course, but the giant of the carrier neutral colocation space said this morning that it would acquire Frankfurt-based ancotel, further strengthening its European presence. [Read more →]

zayo is taking on the low latency challenge west of the Mississippi, building on the assets and services it acquired in the 360networks deal to bring Chicago closer to Seattle. They are deploying a newly optimized route, which cuts 100 [Read more →]

With ITW now in full swing, it’s fitting that there’s a whole series of interesting news on the international front to take a quick look through: [Read more →]

interoute is stepping further outside its usual haunts and adding overseas points of presence to its network. Today the pan-European fiber operator stretched far to the east and announced the addition of a new PoP in Hong Kong, giving it an [Read more →]

Cologix has expanded its US presence via inorganic means by purchasing The Minneapolis Gateway, which lies within 511 11th Avenue South in, as you might have already guessed, Minneapolis MN. [Read more →]

Organic expansions are the order of the day, here’s a quick look at where Sidera, Lightower, Level 3, and Zayo are putting capex to work this week. [Read more →]

A trio of companies are working on a new low latency connection between New York City in Landeyajasandur, Iceland. We’re not talking about a new cable built from scratch, however, but rather a new use for infrastructure that each of the three companies can already bring to the table combined with some newly built enhancements.  [Read more →]

Teliasonera International Carrier added a big, gaudy feather to its cap this morning. Facebook, the social networking giant that will soon go public, has selected the company to build and operate a new pan-European managed optical network. [Read more →]

The music is about to stop, and LightSquared is far from an available chair. Barring another extension, when 2pm rolls around today the erstwhile 4G wholesale disruptor will be in violation of the terms of its debt.  The word is that a deal between Harbinger and LightSquared’s lenders is nowhere close, and preparations are underway [Read more →]

The internet can be a crazy place when governments get involved, whether large or small, friend or foe: [Read more →]

More quick takes on interesting items from the colo sector, which in the last day or two has mostly been overseas: [Read more →]

The sputtering economy in Europe isn’t hurting the fiber business too much, if euNetworks’ first quarter is anything to judge by.  After buying both LamdaNet and TeraGate last summer, the company has been busy integrating the assets while ramping its on-net footprint. [Read more →]

This article was authored by Don Sambandaraksa, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

India has long been a land of many wonders, from Buddhism to the Taj Mahal, and regulator TRAI must rank among them with recent turns of events. [Read more →]