Telecom Ramblings

Independent, wholesale, LTE protagonist LightSquared continued its contrary ways today, shrugging off the escalating GPS spectrum dispute and other hurdles to raise yet another pile of money.  The company said today that it has raised another $265M from both existing and new investors, bringing their 12 month total above $2.3B.  The company’s plans for the money are obvious of course, as they will need a whole lot to [Read more →]

Over the past week, quick articles have sprung up around the internet telling of Vermont’s Claude Desmararias and his fiber-laying Belgian draft horse Fred.  Apparently FairPoint Communications (news, filings) has been getting creative in its efforts to satisfy the data cravings of denizens of upper New England, moving beyond the mere, unimaginative truck roll.   Creativity is obviously a good thing, as Fairpoint has obviously had its troubles since taking over Verizon’s unwanted northern territories. [Read more →]

The UK subsidiary of glbc announced a key government deal today.  The company has been selected as one of the three key suppliers to the Managed Telecommunications Convergence Framework, which will be the procurement service for much of the UK public sector starting at the end of the year.  Services under the MCTF framework will either be PSN-certified or provide transition to others that are. I didn’t find a reference, but I’d guess that the other two key providers would likely be [Read more →]

One of the themes I am increasingly hearing about from both inside the industry and the investment community is just what it means that many of the longhaul fiber IRUs that were sold back in the bubble are now at or beyond middle age.  You know what I mean, the fiber connecting the major cities that got swapped and traded and eventually purchased out of BK or some other restructuring 5-10 years ago, but which powers much of the internet today.  Will those IRUs be renewed and at what price?  And if not, what happens?   There are two sides to the coin.  [Read more →]

Today a consortium consisting of Apple, Microsoft, Sony, RIM, Ericsson, and EMC emerged victorious in the auction for Nortel’s patents.  The pricetag was a staggering $4.5B, or five times the original stalking horse bid from Google and substantially more than [Read more →]

Before you go off for that idyllic weekend of barbecue and fireworks we’re all hoping for, let’s finish off the week with a look at a few more interesting tidbits:

Zayo picked up a a substantial metro deal up in Idaho, where one doesn’t come across too many substantial [Read more →]

Carrier Ethernet Exchange protagonist CENX (news) and Zayo’s zColo division have signed an agreement under which CENX will deploy its platform at the critical 60 Hudson Street datacenter in New York City.  It’s one of the most-connected buildings in the world, and will give CENX easy access to hundreds of operators of all stripes. [Read more →]

QuantHouse, which if you couldn’t tell from their name specializes in high speed algorithmic trading solutions, has selected connectivity from Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) to power its network between London to Stockholm.  This is a relatively new low latency route for Level 3, which has been expanding its European low latency portfolio steadily having gone to [Read more →]

Today I had a great time at JS&A’s first Telecom Exchange event, where I met many people and talked myself hoarse.  There were also several interesting announcements made at the event that are worth a quick look: [Read more →]

Intellifiber, whose new home is within PAETEC (news, filings), made another dent in the federal marketplace today.  The Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has awarded the company a three year contract for key fiber connectivity to the Defense Enterprise Computing Center (DECC).  The DECC provides computing, communications, and storage for other DoD services, agencies, and combatant commands, some of which surely involve rather important [Read more →]

Earlier this month, Midwestern regional provider US Signal began offering a managed data center service that marked their entry into the IaaS/cloud business.  While it seems as if everyone is in the cloud these days, most of the headlines go to the very largest players and the merger of the day.  An organic cloud buildout by a regional fiber operator could easily get lost in the shuffle, but the blending of metro and regional fiber and IaaS/cloud services seems like a story that might spread across the sector before long.  With us today to shed some light on US Signal’s viewpoint on the subject is Trevor Bidle, VP of Engineering: [Read more →]

Well, the question of when California-based CLEC TelePacific might finally take its business model beyond its west coast turf is now moot, as the company today announced its intention to buy Austin-based Tel West.  Tel West does most of its business in Texas, but also has a facilities-based presence up in Seattle as well as customers throughout the region with a total of around [Read more →]

Several expansion items in the metro and regional fiber sector in the past few days that are worth a look:

Zayo is on the offensive in Cincinnati, after announcing on Friday their intention to put new money into the market in response to demand from wholesale customers.  Cincinnati hasn’t been one of Zayo’s principle markets, the assets came largely from one (or both) of their two deals for assets from CityNet as well as probably a bit from the Indiana FiberWorks deal. In their new expansion, they will build out new miles of fiber in the city’s central business district and surrounding area, while doubling the company’s local on-net building count – which currently stands at [Read more →]

Hmmm, lots of news in eastern Europe today!  Alongside Level 3’s move on the Balkans, Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM, news, filings) has also announced a significant expansion into the region for the first time.  They will formally move east from Germany into five new countries:  Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. [Read more →]

With its pending acquisition of glbc about to expand its network coverage inorganically, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) has first taken the time for some organic expansion into some European territory neither has been in before.  They announced two new PoPs in the former Yugoslavia, adding Zagreb, Croatia and Ljubljana, Slovenia to their network.  [Read more →]

Private equity firm ABRY Partners has bought itself another networking business to go along with its Sidera purchase last year.  This time though, it’s not on the fiber side but rather on the managed services side.  They have agreed to purchase 100% of Masergy for an undisclosed [Read more →]

For Falcone’s LightSquared venture, the GPS interference issue is looking less like a speed bump and more like a brick wall.  After asking for more time, the company this week said it could perhaps make a few modifications to its plan that would interfere with fewer devices by cutting power and starting with a different frequency range than initially planned, an idea that seems to have pleased precisely no one.  Especially not the House of Representatives, where the House Appropriations Committee has now adopted an amendment prohibiting [Read more →]

According to the news down under, Austalian incumbent Telstra and the country’s wholesale fiber-to-everybody NBN Co venture have finally signed on the dotted line for the $11B deal they have been working on for years.  Of course today’s definitive agreement doesn’t end much of anything, as Telstra’s shareholders still have to agree, as does the ACCC.   Actually, it’s a bit of Yogi Berra’s [Read more →]

More jobs is a good thing right?  Well, the overall economy may be struggling to find them, but we have a bumper crop right now on the Ramblings’ Jobs Board.  This week we have one new posting from 360Networks and two new postings from OCG. [Read more →]

Over in the UK, Colt Group (LON:COLT, news) announced a substantial footprint expansion in Italy.  The company has long been in Rome, Milan, and Turin, but has lately added 1,600 route kilometers to bring the cities of Bologna, Genoa, and Parma directly onto their fiber network.  That will improve latency and resilience for the company’s customers in those cities, who presumably were connected via [Read more →]

Further emphasizing the growing move by cable MSOs into the enterprise segment, Charter Business is apparently going where cable hasn’t traditionally gone – into the longhaul business.  Yesterday they announced two new products aimed at the enterprise space that enable them to address opportunities beyond a single metro area:  [Read more →]

Several interesting items from the datacenter segment in the past few days:

Seattle-based Sabey announced another big east coast venture:  a gigantic new campus in Ashburn.  When complete, the facility will consist of three buildings on 38 [Read more →]

Last month, in the face of disappointing financials that it blamed on customers’ ability to use internet apps in place of SMS messaging and other evils, KPN seemed to declare its intention to impose charges on the interlopers.  I opined that KPN was preparing to piss into the wind, but I didn’t actually expect the politicians to move this fast. [Read more →]