Telecom Ramblings

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

First it was unrest in the Middle East, then riots in the UK, now it’s reaching that bastion of free speech and human rights, the USA. I am referring here to the relatively new concept of shutting down telecommunications service at the whim of government on the slightest hint of political or social unrest. [Read more →]

The once sleepy world of Kiwi bandwidth has been a bit of a soap opera lately, as the new Pacific Fibre project plans to upset the balance of connectivity.  Yesterday, Vodafone’s New Zealand subsidiary jumped ship at Southern Cross and confirmed plans to move all its international capacity to the new cable by 2014.  Vodafone’s NZ bandwidth needs are estimated to be [Read more →]

Two small M&A deals this morning. [Read more →]

FiberLight (news) won a key contract in the suburbs north of Atlanta on Friday.  The fiber builder and operator is providing a new dark fiber network for the City of Roswell, connecting all municipal buildings including park facilities, fire stations, police station, water management systems, and transportation.  FiberLight’s Atlanta metro network has long had a presence up through Roswell to [Read more →]

On Tuesday, striking Verizon workers will go back on the job, as unions say that they and Verizon have agreed on ‘how to conduct bargaining’.  What that does not mean is that anyone has agreed to a contract or that any of the big issues have been decided at all, just that they’ve agreed on the structure of how to talk about them.  If that sounds less than final, well, it is.

It’s been a great summer on the Ramblings’ Jobs Board, where it’s been a rare week where we didn’t have a half dozen active postings.  This week we have two new ones, posted by the Northwest Open Access Network (Noanet) and by Unite Private Networks.  [Read more →]

If the extent of Integra Telecom’s renewed interest in fiber wasn’t yet obvious, today’s followup to July’s details of their metro buildout progress  should clear things up.  The western CLEC and network operator added some 40 buildings to its network in July alone, suggesting the acceleration in their buildout is continuing.  Their rate lately of over a hundred per quarter places them amongst more aggressive fiber builders out there currently. [Read more →]

According to a Bloomberg report this morning, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) may finally be preparing to get off the fence on its plans for Clearwire.  Apparently they are in talks with Comcast and the other cable MSO minority shareholders of Clearwire about how to fund the beleagured WiMAX phenomenon, and the possibility of a buyout by Sprint is one of the big [Read more →]

XO’s minority shareholders had their day in court, but last night word emerged that the injunction they had been seeking against majority owner Carl Icahn’s intended purchase of the remainder of the company had been denied.  The billionaire’s ACF Industries and XO wasted no time, and at 4:45pm today they closed the deal at $1.40 per share as promised.  XO is now privately held, and has filed its notice of de-listing with the SEC.  So now what? [Read more →]

In the wake of Windstream’s announced intention to buy super-CLEC PAETEC, much of the media coverage focused on their desire or need to bulk up their presence in the enterprise space like everyone else.  But Windstream’s move is more bold than that in some ways, because they are doing something that the top three ILECs have managed to avoid doing for three decades now:  [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at some news items from the past few days: [Read more →]

This article was authored by John C. Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

After the spectacle of watching the Egyptian government shut off the country’s Internet and mobile services in a desperate bid to keep anti-government protesters from using social networks to organize themselves, you’d have thought [Read more →]

The recent rumors and speculation about some sort of combination of the CDN assets of LimeLight and Level has perhaps neglected an intermediate possibility.  The two companies could be exploring a federation of some sort that would allow both companies to move in the differing directions each wishes to go. [Read more →]

The strike by the CWA and IBEW against Verizon is showing no signs of letting up, if anything it’s just getting nastier and both sides seem fine with that.  This morning, Verizon threatened to cut off health insurance including dental, vision, and prescription drug benefits by the end of the month if workers don’t return to the job.  Unions are calling the threat a scare tactic, which is kind of like calling the sky blue – we’re not talking subtle here.  But on the other hand, lots out there are probably scratching their heads and thinking ‘Seriously? [Read more →]

The larger content delivery networks dominate the headlines, but there are still some dynamic challengers to keep track of in the sector.  Yesterday, Highwinds (news) introduced a specialized version of its CDN, the Gaming Delivery Network or GDN.  While many say that CDNs have become commoditized, there is no industry more sensitive to the speed of the overall experience than [Read more →]

In what may be its last report if Icahn’s purchase goes through, XO Holdings (news, filings) posted its second quarter numbers yesterday at the last possible moment – as always.  Unless a judge intervenes, majority shareholder Carl Icahn will probably close the deal in just a few weeks and de-list the company.  But before then, here’s a quick tabular summary in the context of the past few quarters: [Read more →]

Lots of bigger news lately, which tends to drown out the interesting smaller stuff: [Read more →]

According to Dan Rayburn today, those rumors swirling around Limelight Networks (NASDAQ:LLNW, news, filings) a few weeks ago have coalesced into serious talks with Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) about somehow combining their CDN efforts.  That could mean anything from an outright purchase of Limelight by Level 3 to a purchase of the Level 3 CDN business by Limelight with Level 3 maintaining an ownership interest.  Here are a few rambling thoughts: [Read more →]

Cross-border bandwidth operator Transtelco moved today to expand its presence in Texas.  The company announced today that it is completing its route between El Paso and Dallas by adding a 50% share of PAETEC’s fiber route between Temple and El Paso.  Transtelco will also be purchasing other routes from PAETEC (news, filings) hooking up other key locations in central Texas.  Transtelco already operates a more southerly route between El Paso and San Antonio, but is beefing up its diversity on both sides of the US/Mexico border, as you can see from this snapshot of their network map: [Read more →]

Moving solidly into the device space, Google pounced this morning and announced an agreement to purchase Motorola Mobility for $12.5B in cash, or $40 per share.  That’s a premium of 63% above the close on Friday.  Motorola Mobility makes a variety of smartphones, tablets, and other devices – the key being its focus on [Read more →]

As suggested in reports over the weekend, Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC, news) announced this morning that it has agreed to purchase smaller cable rival Insight Communications.  The reported price tag is $3B, with which TW Cable will increase its customer rolls by 5%.  The nation’s second largest cable company will also boost its presence in the markets of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio where Insight serves most of its [Read more →]

The content delivery arm of international fiber operator Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) added to its string of European victories with a win at the Russian video portal RuTube.  RuTube has been using their CDN services to improve the quality of its video delivery in Russia, Europe, and internationally.  Level 3 has found substantial success in the CDN market over in Europe, but I hadn’t realized their presence had taken hold so [Read more →]

Three more job postings have popped up on the Telecom Ramblings Jobs Board, two from Rochester-based metro fiber builder Fibertech and another from Northeastern regional operator Sidera Networks. The overall economy sure isn’t going that well right now, but this little corner over here [Read more →]