Telecom Ramblings

A massive outage hit Skype (news, filings) [a subsidiary of MicroSoft (:MSFT, news)] overnight with users worldwide unable to connect let alone use the service for hours.  Data Center Knowledge has a nice summary of the various reactions.  I myself depend heavily on Skype for voice services, but even still it is not my only connection to the outside world nor is it for many of Skype’s users.  But still, what horrible timing for a public black eye!  Not only is Skype working on an IPO, we have a new potentially formidable [Read more →]

This part of the world may be shutting down for the holidays, but elsewhere business goes on.  Over in the Middle East, the construction of Gulf Bridge International’s cable system has entered its marine phase.  That means TE Subcom is loading the fiber onto the ship Responder up in New Hampshire,  That ship will soon be churning its way toward the Persian Gulf to build the 4750km, 2.75Tbps system. [Read more →]

Ok, despite the fact that its actual contents remain unpublished, just about every pundit on the planet that knows what network neutrality is has weighed in on the FCC’s latest Network Neutrality order.  My own view is rather jaded.  Nothing has been resolved, but the FCC has managed to frame the debate on its own terms for the near future.  But I’m curious what everyone else has to say, but not in the form of a yes or no but rather to take a measurement of the general mood.  So here is another rather non-standard poll: [Read more →]

National metro operator abvt has been expanding on multiple fronts for a few years now, and today they announced further investments in the Seattle metropolitan area.  AboveNet already has some 250 miles of fiber in Seattle, from Everett in the north to Tacoma in the south – as pictured below.  As part of this new investment, they will build a new direct route between downtown [Read more →]

Lest anyone believe that Comcast and Level 3 are close to resolving their differences, Level 3 did in fact have a very different view on Comcast’s trial offer that was discussed in a blog post on Comcast’s corporate blog late last week.  In a letter filed with the FCC, President and COO Jeff Storey said that Comcast broke an NDA in saying what it did, and then took issue with pretty much everything Comcast said.  I’d summarize in more detail, but why not go directly to the source.  Here’s the text of the letter, which if you are particularly gifted at using archaic search tehnologies you might be able to find on the FCC website: [Read more →]

Here’s a quick look at a few news items that flashed past already this week:

Navisite (NASDAQ:NAVI, news, filings) [a subsidiary of Time Warner Cable (NYSE:TWC, news)] has sold off a piece of its colocation business, as it executes on a plan to focus on managed and cloud solutions.  Cologix will buy the company’s Dallas facility and customers for $12.75M in cash, although [Read more →]

Earthlink (NASDAQ:ELNK, news, filings) took another big step toward becoming a major national CLEC, announcing this morning a definitive agreement to purchase the struggling One Communications.  The price will be $370M, including $285M that will go to paying off debt.  The EV/EBITDA multiple for the deal was given as 3.7, reflecting $80M in trailing twelve months EBITDA plus $20M from synergies to be realized.   [Read more →]

So the FCC appears to be poised to vote on its latest proposal for network neutrality, and from all appearances it will pass 3-2.  So why hasn’t Telecom Ramblings’ offered  commentary on this subject until now?  Well, to put it bluntly, what we have is a proposal a) that has yet to actually see the light of day, b) whose underlying power is derived from the FCC’s ability to creatively reinterpret its own mandate, c) that probably doesn’t cover [Read more →]

Privately held metro fiber operator FiberLight (news) unveiled a new strategy on Friday aimed at increasing the company’s on-net building footprint.  They have identified some 8000 ‘near-net’ buildings and towers across their 4200 metro route miles in 21 markets that it can serve cost effectively.  This is a significant step in that while FiberLight has enterprise customers, its 700 or so on-net buildings are mostly large wholesale sites and towers.  While they will surely only add a fraction of the 8000 locations on their target list in the next year or two, the expanded [Read more →]

TGIF, here’s a quick look at the news that slipped past me during the week:

lyns updated its guidance for the fourth quarter of 2010, promising an unexpected bounty – profitability.  The company also unveiled some unaudited results for October: revenues of $6.61M and gross profit of $2.23M.  The boost comes in part from the acquisition of SouthEast Telephone, and in part due to its shift in emphasis toward [Read more →]

As expected, Comcast quickly fired back this morning in a blog post.  Comcast said they offered to trial a “different architectural approach” but that Level 3 walked out when Comcast wouldn’t agree to a “zero cost outcome” in advance.  I have no doubt that Level 3 has an alternative view here, but I have an immediate question:  What is this different architectural approach the two sides came up with? [Read more →]

Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) has taken its dispute with Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA, news, filings) over interconnection fees to the next level.  They have directly asked both the FCC and DOJ to attach conditions to the cable giant’s proposed acquisition of NBC Universal.  Those conditions would require Comcast to interconnect with internet backbone providers via [Read more →]

Western European metro operator euNetworks (news) has added a new low latency arrow to its quiver, expanding its potential in the financial vertical.  But this time it’s not within or between the familiar London and Frankfurt haunts nor even involving other nearby hubs mentioned of late in Paris and Amsterdam.  This time, it’s a lightning-quick London-to-Stockholm route, bringing Scandinavia into the low latency picture.   [Read more →]

We don’t hear very much about the fiber activities of the largest cable companies, so it was nice to see Time Warner Cable Business Class offer details on its recent buildout in Southern California.  They have put $120M into their network in the greater LA metro area, building some 16 fiber rings containing 360,000 fiber miles.  By anyone’s measure that is a major investment, and Time Warner says it will allow them to serve an additional 125,000 businesses.  Where do those rings go? [Read more →]

I’m sorry, but did we really need to coin the term “Cupcake-Gate”…  Apparently AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) went and gave gourmet cupcakes to the FCC, and I don’t mean just to a few commissioners.  127 dozen, or 1,524 cupcakes, worth about $3,700 in all landed on desks all over the agency.  This was immediately seized upon by the interest group Public Knowledge, which apparently saw this as an opportunity to put on the Grinch suit that [Read more →]

Apparently, entering the dark fiber business isn’t so easy after all.  Today on its official blog, Google announced that it needs another few months to choose in which community it will build that fabled 1Gbps fiber network that was the buzz of the internet so long ago.  Well, 9 months ago anyway – seems like longer than that, doesn’t it?  So what’s taking so long?  Too many entrants – 1100 communities was far more than Google anticipated.  But what did they expect?
[Read more →]

It has been quite a year for consolidation in the fiber/CLEC space, with more than twenty deals of various types taking place.  But with the exception of the CenturyLink/Qwest deal, nearly everything that has been bought has been in the $500M range or smaller – usually much smaller.  Back in September, I put together a tally of the deals that had happened until then.  Of course, there’s still room for a few more before the end of the year, but let’s dare fate and update that list here with the various deals that have been announced since. [Read more →]

Time to catch up some recent news of interest.

Metro fiber operator abvt announced another strategic expansion, but this time it isn’t into a new market but rather deeper into a more familiar space.  They are expanding their sales efforts within carrier neutral datacenters across their footprint, both those they are currently connected to and new ones which they will bring on-net.  Sounds like a no-brainer to me.  But actually, word has it that Abovenet has [Read more →]

In what was one of the less definitive notes of December, Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S, news, filings) offered the markets an update on its relationship with WiMAX protagonist clwr.  I say ‘less definitive’, because their update was mainly to tell us what they might or might not do: [Read more →]

I don’t know how I missed it at the time, but last week Zayo Group (news, filings) unveiled yet another investment into its Fiber-to-the-tower program.  While the supra-regional fiber operator had already put money into FTT projects around Memphis, this new deployment will add another 34 cell sites both in Memphis and now across the southern border into northern Mississippi, including such towns as Southaven and Olive Branch (see map snippet below).  [Read more →]

Over on the Ramblings’ jobs board, we have two new listings from Zayo Bandwidth.  Zayo always seems to be expanding on multiple fronts, and it’s nice to see a bit of hiring just a few months after closing the AFS purchase and as winter is about to officially begin (someone remind Minneapolis that winter hasn’t started yet!).  First, Zayo is looking for a Sales Engineer, responsible for providing coaching and development to Carrier Account Executives, and providing technical support throughout the sales process.  Second, Zayo is looking for [Read more →]

I had thought the fiber M&A frenzy would ebb for the holidays, but no.  Following closely on the heels of Sidera’s purchase of LIFE, Lightower Fiber Networks has struck again, making its third acquisition this year.  This morning the northeastern regional and metro fiber operator announced the acquisition of Open Access Inc.  Open Access is based in Farmingdale, NY, and operates a fiber network across Long Island and into Manhattan, with over 400 route miles and 230 fiber-fed buildings as well as a tier-2 colocation facility at their headquarters.   [Read more →]

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to talk once again with AboveNet’s Chief Executive Officer, Bill LaPerch, who today makes a return visit to Telecom Ramblings’ Industry Spotlight series.  Few companies have weathered the economic storms of the last several years better than AboveNet, which resurfaced from near oblivion about two years ago and has been one of the best turnaround stories in the sector ever since.  This year, they have eschewed (thus far) the spasm of M&A that has engulfed the metro fiber sector in favor of expansion into new markets, very solid organic growth, and a recently announced special dividend.  With no further ado: [Read more →]