Telecom Ramblings

This article was authored by Tony Poulos, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

“The Great Indian Spectrum Scandal”, as I choose to call it, shows no signs of abating. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has recommended to the government that holders of cancelled 2G licenses should not be compensated for their loss. [Read more →]

We’ve all heard how Comcast is exempting its own IP video traffic from its bandwidth caps.  But by doing so, it’s not just the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules they are taking on, but the terms of the consent decree that allowed them to buy NBC Universal just last year. And as some others noted at the time, it’s actually in there rather explicitly.  [Read more →]

As they have been saying they would, edgecast yesterday announced that its OpenCDN federation platform is now in operation, exchanging production traffic between independent CDN operators.  [Read more →]

ccoi took a rather public hit back in January when filesharing giant MegaUpload was shut down by an international law enforcement action, but the company was undaunted enough to take the opportunity to declare a quarterly dividend of $0.10 for its shareholders as part of its report today.  Here’s a quick summary of their results for the first quarter. [Read more →]

The most complicated earnings report among competitive telecoms always comes from lvlt, and this one is no different.  Actually, I take that back, it is different this time.  Even as wholesale revenues flagged a bit, enterprise revenues surged mightily to more than compensate – something I’ve never seen from them before.  Here are the numbers in the context of last quarter – the only other comparable one we have since the GLBC deal closed: [Read more →]

cbey has been transforming itself away from its T1 origins for a while now, but today they announced a major new initiative to reach their customers via fiber alternatives. They hope to light 1,000 buildings and bring Metro Ethernet to 50% of their cstomer base by the end of next year. Two companies that feature here regularly will be providing much of the dark fiber to get there: Zayo and FiberLight.  [Read more →]

A few more quick items from the colocation segment already this week that are worth a look: [Read more →]

Time for a quick look at a few stories from the metro and regional fiber space over the past few days from Fibertech, Zayo, Syringa, and Lumos: [Read more →]

ArsTechnica has a detailed piece out asking this question about the future of bandwidth, but really it’s the wrong question. Of course bottlenecks *can* be averted, the real question is: who will make oodles of money on it this time. [Read more →]

Competitive metro fiber operator twtc easily beat my own guesses on most fronts yesterday with its first quarter earnings report.  Revenues were a bit higher than expectations, while margins, EBITDA, and earnings per share all expanded.  Free cash flow was above the usual range due to lower capex and a slight dip in on-net building additions.  Here’s a quick tabular summary. [Read more →]

Competitive service provider xoho is adding cloud-based virtualization, content acceleration, and interactive contact center solutions for the enterprise under its Concentric brand.  Their new Concentric Cloud Solutions portfolio is built off their own asset base plus technology from [Read more →]

eqix has been adding space organically in Asia at quite a good clip, but apparently it wasn’t fast enough to keep them happy.  The carrier-neutral colocation giant is buying data center assets and operations across Hong Kong, Singapore, and Shanghai from Hong-Kong-based Asia Tone.  Not quite all of Asia Tone though perhas, as they also seem to have facilities in  [Read more →]

Just a few weeks shy of a year after taking out PacketExchange, gtlt has made its second acquisition of a tier-2 network operator.  The operator has now bought Chicago-based nLayer Communications, according to an announcement this morning.  Financial terms were not disclosed. [Read more →]

Fiber earnings season is moving into high gear this week, so here are a few more early looks at what we might see from tw telecom (first in line), Cogent Communications (by request), and Lumos Networks (the newcomer): [Read more →]

Internet traffic is apparently picking up along Africa’s western coast, as the Main One cable is getting a capacity upgrade already. The Nigerian-owned cable system and TE SubCom announced yesterday that they’ve brought online an additional bank of 10Gbps waves to meet growing customer demand. [Read more →]

Earthlink Business launched three more cloud-based IT services today as it rounds out its portfolio.  The company is busy transforming a collection of CLEC and IT services assets into a cloud-based service provider.  They are already a far different company than the historical dial-up company that most probably still associate with the name, but they’re still in a transitional period. [Read more →]

The Internet2 is moving into more complex services than supplying big dumb pipes to universities. Today they announced an agreement with both internet backbone operator lvlt and Ontario-based communications provider Aastra to provide managed voice services to universities nationwide. [Read more →]

lvlt is at a critical phase in its integration of the Global Crossing business, but one for which it won’t get much credit yet when it comes to reporting earnings this week.  It’s sort of like being 1/4 of the way done cleaning out the garage – the mess can actually appear worse to an observer even if things are going exceptionally well.  With unfavorable seasonal factors in both cash usage and revenue growth, higher integration spending prior to the synergies to be derived from it, and impatience from a market whose short term horizon is as short as ever, this is a “can’t please anyone” quarter if there ever was one.  Here are my guesses and some more specific thoughts:  [Read more →]

Erstwhile wholesale LTE provider lightsquared will be getting a new public face before long. In order to sidestep a default on its debt, Philip Falcone has supposedly agreed to step aside from his current hands-on approach to running the company.  Lenders have given the company until 10am this morning to strike a deal. [Read more →]

Two more listings appeared on the Ramblings Jobs Board this week, one from the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative and a new one from Lightower.   [Read more →]

I was traveling for the past few days, and there’s lots to catch up on. First let’s take a look overseas: [Read more →]

On Wednesday infn announced its first quarter results with revenues just below the median of guidance with EPS and guidance at the top of the range.  But the more interesting pieces came in the details of forward guidance.  The company’s 500G PIC DTN-X launch will be at the end of the quarter, and its effects dominated their comments about future performance.  First, here’s a quick tabular summary in context [Read more →]

With the AboveNet purchase waiting in the wings, zayo today cleared its plate of other matters. They have announced the completion of the integration of the longhaul network assets of 360networks. [Read more →]