So earlier this week, rumors emerged that Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings) was considering buying Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX, news, filings). Well, actually the source was a serial Netflix-buyout speculator who said that the company might consider it, but you know how these things snowball in low news periods. [Read more →]
Connecting the rural population
December 14th, 2011
This article was authored by Don Sambandaraksa, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.
I spent much of last week sorting out a network and ADSL connection in a small rural Buddhist hilltop monastery in the Northeast of England. Ratanagiri Monaster is located in Harnham, a small hilltop community near Belsay, near Newcastle. This should have been an easy, straightforward job, but [Read more →]
Metro Bytes 12/14: tw telecom, Zayo, Earthlink
December 14th, 2011
Here are a few items of interest over the past few days the metro/CLEC world: [Read more →]
Verizon Moves 100G Toward the Edge
December 13th, 2011
Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings) has been the main early adopter of 100G technology in US terrestrial deployments so far, and today they took another step along that path. The telecommunications giant says it will be upgrading its IP backbone in major markets across the country by deploying the CRS-3 from Cisco closer to the edge. [Read more →]
More Module Traction for IO
December 13th, 2011
Seems like Phoenix-based IO’s datacenter module business is accelerating into the holiday season, as they have two more announcements out already this week. Yesterday, ISSQUARED [Read more →]
AT&T Calls Timeout
December 13th, 2011
Telecommunications giant AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) has had enough for the moment, they’ve asked the referee for a one month timeout. The referee of course is the Judge Huvelle, who is overseeing the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit opposing their propowed purchase of T-Mobile USA. She has granted a joint motion giving AT&T one month to decide just what to do next. [Read more →]
Integra Makes O’Hara’s CEO Role Official
December 13th, 2011

Well, it didn’t take too long for Integra to make up its mind about who will lead the company after Tom Casey left for Tronox two months ago. Kevin O’Hara, who has been serving as executive chairman since then has now been formally named Chief Executive Officer. [Read more →]
Clearwire’s Share Offering Grows Again
December 12th, 2011
WiMAX and now LTE upstart clwr said this morning that its underwriters have exercised their option to purchase those additional 26.25M shares as part of the company’s public offering. That means another $52.5M in cash for the company’s LTE buildout, making the total cash infusion just over [Read more →]
ADTRAN Buys Nokia Siemens’ BBA Unit
December 12th, 2011
In merger news this morning, ADTRAN (NASDAQ:ADTN, news, filings) has agreed to acquire the broadband access business unit of Nokia Siemens Networks including the associated professional services, network managemeng solutions, and of course the underlying intellectual property. ADTRAN has a substantial position in the broadband access equipment market already, and this deal will give them some additional heft – especially via [Read more →]
AT&T/T-Mo: Feds Go For the Kill
December 11th, 2011
When AT&T withdrew it’s merger application from the FCC, they hoped to simplify their task by temporarily eliminating one battle front so they could focus on the other. They moved very quickly over the long Thanksgiving weekend while the bureaucrats were out of the off so as to stop the FCC from actually taking the action they had been about to put for a vote. But in that haste for a tactical triumph, they may have forgotten to think about the strategic implementations of pulling their FCC papers. [Read more →]
Ramblings Jobs: Two More at Sidera Networks
December 9th, 2011
Two more job postings have popped up on the Telecom Ramblings Jobs Board, this time from sidera. After a brisk summer of job postings, we haven’t seen too many new listings over the past month or two. I suppose that’s not so surprising given the consolidation related layoffs going on plus that event over at XO in October – more feet are definitely on the street. [Read more →]
Friday Roundup 12/9: Alpheus, Telarus, Atlantic Metro, Cavalier
December 9th, 2011
TGIF, two weekends to go before Christmas. Here’s a quick rundown of news from the industry that I didn’t get to earlier: [Read more →]
On Acquiring or Being Left Behind
December 9th, 2011

Yesterday a reader left a comment which asked whether the lack of M&A activity by the likes of AboveNet, Cogent, and tw telecom risks being passed by more aggressive acquirers, specifically Level 3 and Zayo. I think that the answer to this question is not so straightforward. It is both human and corporate nature to [Read more →]
AboveNet Joins Fiber’s Buyback Bandwagon
December 8th, 2011
National metro operator abvt said today that its board of directors has authorized a share buyback program of up to $200M throuh the end of next year. It’s not as if they aren’t *trying* to spend it all on expansions of course, since they’ve been averaging capex of more than 30% of revenue for some time now. [Read more →]
Ciena Finishes off Fiscal 2011
December 8th, 2011
Network equipment specialist Ciena (NASDAQ:CIEN, news, filings) gave us our latest window into how the equipment sector is faring as it reported its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2011 results, which means up through the end of October. It has now been 6 quarters since the company bought Nortel’s MEN division and the second in a row that they reported positive adjusted earnings per share, although Ciena has been in the doghouse with investors since June’s earnings report. Here’s a quick table of the relevant numbers in context: [Read more →]
Clearwire Upsizes and Prices Public Offering
December 7th, 2011

As I figured they do if they could, clwr has expanded the size of its public offering to $350M from its initial $300M goal. oversubscription, the usual 15%. The shares have now also been priced at [Read more →]
Consumer Reports: Wireless Customer Satisfaction Drops
December 7th, 2011

With all those smartphones and tablets out there enabling people to do all sorts of things they’ve never done before on a mobile device, you’d think people would be happier with their wireless carriers than they were last year. But according to a Consumer Reports survey out today, it’s just not so. [Read more →]
Metro Bytes 12/7: Sidera, Integra, Zayo
December 7th, 2011
I will be updating my metro fiber and on-net building list over the next week or two, so if there’s data that anyone out there thinks ought to be included please send it along. In the meantime, here’s a quick look at a few items in the metro fiber space over the past few days: [Read more →]
More Fiber M&A: HickoryTech Acquires IdeaOne
December 6th, 2011
Just when you thought the telecom M&A scene was winding down for the year, Minnesota-based HickoryTech (NASDAQ:HTCO, news, filings) is getting one in for the holidays. HickoryTech is spending $28M in cash to acquire North Dakota’s IdeaOne Telecom, which operates a metro fiber network in Fargo. HickoryTech’s Enventis subsidiary expanded westward into [Read more →]
Equipment Roundup 12/6: Alcatel-Lucent, BTI Systems, ADVA
December 6th, 2011
Let’s take a quick look at some news from the gear-makers lately: [Read more →]
Unified Windstream/PAETEC Coverage Map
December 6th, 2011

Following quickly on the heels of the closing of the PAETEC deal, Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings) has a new network map on its website illustrating the newly unified asset base and LEC coverage areas. It brings together the combined footprints of [Read more →]
Clearwire Preps Stock Offering
December 6th, 2011

WiMAX operator and LTE hopeful clwr is wasting no time following up on last week’s financing deal with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings). Clearwire said yesterday that it intends to sell up to $300M of its class A common stock in a public offering, with an additional $45M on tap for overflows. Of course, I strongly suspect [Read more →]
Gaining Modular Traction, IO Releases Data Center OS
December 5th, 2011

Today modular data center operator and manufacturer IO made an interesting move, offering its IO OS data center operating system as a standalone software product. Originally designed for its modular IO Anywhere product, the software also offers intelligent control of [Read more →]