Telecom Ramblings

So Netflix’s Reed Hastings did an abrupt 180 today and canned the company’s plans to separate the DVD-by-mail business from its streaming business.  Qwixter, which produced a swifter and more effective outcry than we saw with New Coke a few decades back, is officially history before it ever began. [Read more →]

Despite the merger and integration activity that must be ramping up, normal life goes on for Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings)‘s content delivery business.  Today they announced a new product offering aimed squarely at the gaming marketplace as well as a key customer win with Belarus-based online games developer Wargaming.net.  Level 3 has been helping Wargaming.net expand its World of Tanks massively multiplayer game from Russia into Europe and America, now approaching subscribers of 5 million.  To get a feel for the scale of this sort of thing, traffic for a recent patch peaked at nearly [Read more →]

Now there’s a name we don’t see too often nowadays…  VTLWaveNet, the wholesale network remnant of Viatel, is providing the dark fiber underlying SURFnet’s latest project. The Dutch research network is always putting the latest equipment and network designs through their paces. [Read more →]

Following the commitment by Sprint on Friday to an aggressive LTE buildout, the future of WiMAX upstart clwr is very much in doubt. Many would argue that was true before Friday as well given their cash burn rate, but with their primary wholesale partner saying they won’t sell more WiMAX phones beyond next Christmas…  I think the fat lady has finished warming up when it comes to Clearwire in its current incarnation. [Read more →]

You knew it had been too quiet over at Zayo, I’m not sure they’ve ever gone a year without an acquisition.  And so it came as little surprise today when Zayo announced the purchase of western regional operator 360Networks. In fact, the combination is one I mentioned as strategically interesting a few times in the past.  Here are the two network maps side by side: [Read more →]

Well, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) has made its call on the future of its wireless business, and it’s going to be a brand new LTE network. They say they are already building, and will have the first markets online by the middle of next year with 123 million in population covered by the end of 2013 and 250 million by the end of 2013.  They say their current spectrum will get them that far, and the deal with [Read more →]

Talk yesterday surfaced about Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM, news, filings) as an acquisition target, with the likes of IBM and Verizon being the most likely suspects. The reason behind the speculation does not appear to be actual rumors about talks, but rather the fact that Akamai’s stock price has fallen far enough to draw attention. But I just don’t buy it. [Read more →]

CDN challenger Highwinds joined the growing CDN federation chorus this week. They expanded their portfolio to include a federation-capable licensed CDN offering aimed at ISPs, telcos and MSOs. [Read more →]

Reports this morning are suggesting that another bid may soon materialize for PAETEC (news, filings), sparked by some analysis from FBR suggesting that Level 3 might be able to bid $7.30 per share. The stock has risen above the value of the Windstream (NYSE:WIN, news, filings) deal announced back in August, reflecting speculation that this analysis could turn into reality – though it does seem to be a small effect so far. It might be true that Level 3 could justify a higher offer, however if someone does jump in at the 11th hour I don’t think it will be them. [Read more →]

According to MuniWireless and Fierce Wireless, the rural wireless industry is about to lose one of its more visible alternative pillars. Open Range, which two years ago had lined up $100M in private equity and $267M in subsidized government loans, seems to be in the process of imploding. CEO Bill Beans has resigned and ‘massive’ [Read more →]

Western CLEC and fiber operator Integra Telecom has a new face in charge. Kevin O’Hara has been named executive chairman, taking over the CEO duties from Tom Casey who has left to become CEO of Tronox.  O’Hara has been on Integra’s board for two years and its chairman for [Read more →]

As everyone surely knows by now, Apple’s Steve Jobs passed away yesterday. While the event was not unexpected – pancreatic cancer does not leave many survivors – it certainly makes one stop and look back on the last three decades and realize just how [Read more →]

Time to catch up quickly on the colo and cloud happenings: [Read more →]

Primus Telecommunications Group (NYSE:PTGI, news, filings) said yesterday that it has hired Jefferies & Company to explore various strategic alternatives. Primus’s strongest businesses are in Canada and Australia, but they also have the low margin former Arbinet IP and voice exchange business they bought earlier this year as well as some customers in the US and Europe. The list of alternatives under consideration goes on at length: [Read more →]

Northeastern fiber builder Fibertech has been largely operating under the radar this year, but yesterday they unveiled a deal down in my neck of the woods. South Jersey’s Kennedy Health System selected the company to upgrade its connectivity, bringing a diversely routed Gigabit Ethernet ring into five of its major locations, plus dark fiber into [Read more →]

Now that Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) and Global Crossing are now one, the focus moves on to the integration in the US and to a lesser extent in Europe. On that subject, the company is quite consciously putting forth a very different public foot [Read more →]

Colo and interconnection specialist Telx added two more companies with very different styles to its Ethernet Exchange so far this week. [Read more →]

Just a week shy of the 6 month anniversary of the original announcement, Level 3 has closed its purchase of Global Crossing. The combined company had $6.2B in revenue and $1.3B in EBITDA pro forma (before synergies) for 2010, and they still anticipate $300M in opex savings from synergies. It will have 165,000 route miles of fiber, 30,000 being in the metro, and a presence in [Read more →]

With CompTel this week, everyone’s got something interesting going on, but nobody’s got time to read them all. Here’s a quick survey of some of it from the metro and regional connectivity side of things: [Read more →]

The 100G locomotive is gaining traction overseas for Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU, news, filings), which said yesterday that it is helping Russian telecommunications giant Rostelecom establish a ‘superfast connection’ between Europe and the Middle East. The upgrade will see coherent 100G technology put onto [Read more →]

Low latency bandwidth specialist Spread Networks is introducing sales of ‘managed bulk bandwidth’ on their leading NYC-Chicago routes. And they’re not playing around, as Northeastern fiber operator Sidera Networks has signed on for 250Gbps at a round trip latency of 16ms. They’ll be paying a fixed monthly fee on a long term contract plus [Read more →]

With an interim CEO now at the helm, XO Holdings (news, filings) made an interesting move today. The national CLEC and fiber operator is will be tapping Sprint for MVNO wireless services, including their Wholesale Mobile Integration services.  XO will be offering various wireless products to its SMB customers including both 4G and fixed mobile convergence. [Read more →]

CompTel is this week.  Let’s quickly catch up before the flood of announcements begins. [Read more →]