There is no shortage these days of tests with 100G somewhere Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings) in the title, but today Verizon announced the successful completion of a 100 Gigabit Ethernet field trial on a metropolitan Ethernet infrastructure. The test was performed using Alcatel-Lucent gear deployed in Verizon’s Switched Ethernet Services network and successfully transmitted data over approximately [Read more →]
TeliaSonera Expands in Phoenix, Selects i/o Datacenters
June 23rd, 2010
The international carrier arm of Swedish telecommunications giant Teliasonera is opening a new node in the southwest at i/o Data Center’s Phoenix One facility. Teliasonera has been relatively quiet in North America for a long time, selling wholesale bandwidth out of the top ten or so markets but not much else. They don’t need Phoenix for that business, but rather they seem to be actively trying to more effectively reach national and multinational corporate clients and are moving beyond. That shift in focus suggests [Read more →]
Hibernia, Equinix, Savvis Notch Financial Vertical Wins
June 22nd, 2010
There were three other interesting networking deals focusing on the financial vertical this morning:
Colocation provider Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) announced that CFN Services has connected to its Chicago, Frankfurt, London, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Seattle and Toronto IBX centers. From them CFN will be able to offer its [Read more →]
Global Crossing Adds Latest Limelight SITE To CDN Portfolio
June 22nd, 2010
International IP services provider glbc is enhancing its CDN portfolio by adding the latest version of Limelight Networks (NASDAQ:LLNW, news, filings)‘s SITE acceleration service, which includes added control over cache management, Secure Sockets Layer support, increased failover options, and integrated content security options. Global Crossing began reselling the CDN products of both EdgeCast and Limelight since back in early 2009, and they still seem comfortable in addressing the CDN market from that position. Actually, except at [Read more →]
Spread Networks Emerges, Certifies Infinera, ADVA
June 22nd, 2010
Yesterday I posted about the apparent arrival of Spread Networks based on their website, and it turns out I was just a day early. This morning the company has made it official, they are opening a sub-13.33ms route between New York City and Chicago that is specifically tailored to the financial community. The business plan is to sell both the dark fiber and the management of the gear, and therefore they also announced what gear has been certified to achieve their latency targets. Two of those have been announced thus far: [Read more →]
Spread Networks To Take NYC/Chicago Latency Down 3-4 Pegs?
June 21st, 2010
If you thought Allied Fiber was the only new longhaul fiber being put in the ground you may have been mistaken, at least on the New York to Chicago route where according to a recently unveiled website Spread Networks is preparing to go live in July. Thanks to the kind reader who sent that link! But where Allied Fiber did not have financial traders in mind when it was started has national dreams, Spread Networks’ vision begins with and does not yet seem to extend beyond the trading community. The latency they seem to be promising? [Read more →]
Terremark Plans NAP of Amsterdam, Taps Digital Realty
June 21st, 2010
Colocation and cloud specialist Terremark (news, filings) [a subsidiary of Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings)] is planning a NAP of Amsterdam, leasing some 25K square feet from inside the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Area. Digital Realty Trust (NYSE:DLR, news, filings) will develop the infrastructure under a build-to-suit contract. The new facility will feature massive connectivity with the Amsterdam Internet Exchange (AMS-IX) via [Read more →]
Resiliency for Manchester From Level 3
June 21st, 2010
Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) announced today that it is making its Manchetser PoP in the UK resilient, meaning that it will now be independent of the company’s hub in London and will feature diverse routing. There is apparently an effort underway in Manchester to stimulate the economy and attract new businesses, and Level 3 is taking advantage of whatever carrots the city is offering. They also stated that [Read more →]
AT&T’s Femtocell Admission
June 20th, 2010
Over the weekend there was a bit of discussion on the blogs about AT&T’s Femtocell and its value proposition. Over on BroadbandReports, AT&T’s Seth Bloom was quoted as follows:
3G MicroCell is primarily intended to enhance the voice call quality experience in your home. While it can carry mobile data traffic, that’s not the primary solution it provides. Wi-Fi is the optimal solution for home mobile data use. We encourage people to take advantage of Wi-Fi capabilities – that’s why all of our smartphones include Wi-Fi radios, and usage on Wi-Fi doesn’t count against your mobile data usage bucket.
Now as that site is consumer focused, its main beef was [Read more →]
FCC Votes 3-2 to Start Re-Regulating Broadband
June 18th, 2010
At its meeting yesterday the FCC voted on party lines to proceed with the discussion of the ‘third way’ of enforcing network neutrality that was proposed last month by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. As is so often the case with the FCC, nothing has actually happened other than an agreement to hold more discussions about possibly doing something someday. Anyone who was surprised by this step just wasn’t paying attention, and in fact both supporting and opposing forces surely [Read more →]
M&A Journal: More Fiber For Sale
June 17th, 2010
Seems like every few weeks another fiber provider puts itself on the market. In 2010 so far we have seen Zayo buy AGL and Lightower buy Veroxity, while Fibertech, NSTAR, and Intellifiber are known to be soliciting offers. But according to the Wall Street Journal, there is now yet more metro and regional fiber for sale: Alpheus and KDL are apparently on the block as well. Assuming they are right (I will seek more information), here are a few comments about each: [Read more →]
Brooklyn Law to Ride Optimum Lightpath
June 17th, 2010
When it comes to network services in the education sector in the New York metro area, Optimum Lightpath has been making some real progress against the incumbent Verizon. Earlier this week the metro fiber division of Cablevision won a contract with Brooklyn Law School to provide internet and voice for its students. The new service will reach 1,500 students and 150 faculty and staff both on campus and in 11 nearby residence halls. [Read more →]
CCP Expansion Keeps Level 3’s Gaming Streak Going
June 17th, 2010
Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) today announced an expanded relationship with Iceland-based CCP Games. The original deal announced back in March was for caching and download, origin storage, and content analytics for various gaming titles including the massively multiplayer game EVE Online. The expansion adds live online streaming for EVE Online’s in-game Alliance Tournament VIII that has been underway for the last few weeks, the finals being this weekend. [Read more →]
BroadSoft’s IPO Hits The Streets
June 16th, 2010
Broadsoft (NASDAQ:BSFT, news, filings) went public today, as planned. The pricing of $9 per share was on the lower end of its expected $9-11 range and while it opened at $10 the stock is now lower in early trading. In Wall Street lingo, that means the IPO might not (the day is not yet over) be a ‘success’, but that only really matters on Wall Street. The market isn’t quite as favorable as it was a few months ago to tech IPOs, but BroadSoft is now [Read more →]
Telepresence And Saving The World
June 16th, 2010
There’s a study put out today from AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) with the headline: “Telepresence Can Reduce Corporate CO2 Emissions by 5.5 Million Metric Tons and Deliver $19 Billion in Financial Benefits to U.S. and U.K. Economies by 2020”. I get a kick out of studies like this, but not because of how wonderful telepresence is or will be. [Read more →]
360Networks Aims At the Plains While SDN Looks West
June 16th, 2010
Yesterday 360Networks announced an interesting contract and interconnection agreement with SDN Communications, a regional provider owned by a coalition of independent telephone companies in South Dakota. 360Networks will provide GigE private line service for SDN’s west coast needs. SDN expanded its focus beyond South Dakota into surrounding states last summer, and seems intent on [Read more →]
Tuesday Roundup: euNetworks, Global Crossing, Level 3
June 15th, 2010
A few quick notes about news items that have crossed the wires today and yesterday:
euNetworks has a new Chief Operating Officer. John Franklin will take over the COO role as the company continues to add muscle to their operations in preparation for growth. Franklin was most recently at BT, but had earlier been behind network development at Level 3 Europe where at the time he likely reported to none other than [Read more →]
Genachowski Finds Support Amongst CLECs
June 15th, 2010
When Genachowski unveiled its ‘third way’ to justify network neutrality regulations, we heard a great deal from the major service providers and of course it wasn’t terribly favorable. However, today the FCC’s plan got some support from the leaders of a coalition of major competitive service providers that focus on US business markets. They are [Read more →]
Equipment Roundup: BTISystems, Vitesse, Alcatel-Lucent
June 14th, 2010
Several equipment-related announcements today worth a mention:
BTISystems has been making aggressive low latency moves of late, and today they rolled out a new transponder for 10G networks that adds only 20-30ns of delay to transmission. That’s the equivalent to [Read more →]
Intellifiber Takes Low Latency Beyond NYC
June 14th, 2010
Today Intellifiber formally announced the turn-up of a new low latency network between Chicago and Washington DC. The new connection, rated at 13.7ms, fits alongside their 17.2ms NYC/Chicago route and is apparently just the beginning. They intend to complete the triangle with a similar NYC-DC offering and to extend their low latency offerings further within the deepest part of their footprint to places like [Read more →]
The Network Connection Risk?
June 14th, 2010
A Forbes article today describes the risk of having a network connection in todays world: “While it allows you to communicate around the globe with the click of a mouse, it also provides a data path for anyone to connect back to you–and not always for good reasons.” Really? You’d think we wouldn’t need such a warning after decades [Read more →]
Metro Fiber and On-Net Building List Updated
June 11th, 2010
As promised, I have updated my list of metro fiber providers, their on-net building count, and other statistics. The previous update was in December, and many of the providers on the list have clearly been very busy since then, adding more and more depth to their networks. While most of the increases in fiber miles and building counts over the past 6 months are from expansions, there were some related to the inclusion of [Read more →]
Speakeasy Jumps On the Wagon With Covad, Megapath
June 11th, 2010
Just a bit over two months ago, Covad and MegaPath announced their plans to merge and their intention to form a national Managed Services Local Exchange Carrier (MSLEC). I speculated at the time that they might not be done yet, but I didn’t really think they would strike again before consumating their own union. Nevertheless, yesterday it was Speakeasy joining the party, agreeing to [Read more →]