Telecom Ramblings

First AGL sold to Zayo, then Fibertech began looking, and now reliable sources tell me that NSTAR Communications is actively seeking bidders.  In the metro fiber business NSTAR flies largely under the radar, without even a website to point to.  Nevertheless, the company has a valuable footprint in Boston and out into the suburbs that covers over 250 high fiber count route miles, and a couple hundred or so on-net buildings.  Apparently, their energy utility parent NSTAR is looking to monetize the asset in a favorable market just as [Read more →]

We may be waiting for Google to show fiber operators how it’s done with its 1Gbps community fiber project, but over in Hong Kong it’s already becoming reality.  Today HKBN, a subsidiary of City Telecom (NASDAQ:CTEL, news, filings), introduced a residential 1Gbps symmetric service for the equivalent of just $26/month.  That’s just double the price they charge for their 100Mb/s offering, which just came out in November.  [Read more →]

Seems like this story isn’t going to go away any time soon and I’m curious what this site’s well-informed readers think of the business models being unveiled by the likes of Equinix, CENX, and Neutral Tandem.  Is the hype ahead of reality, or behind it?  Cast your vote: [Read more →]

Following quickly on yesterday’s European expansion, CENX has drawn another network operator into its carrier Ethernet Exchange.  Today XO Holdings (news, filings) announced it has now connected to the community, bringing its extensive Ethernet footprint to the table.  XO has quite a bit of metro fiber and more than three thousand on-net buildings, but it also has a substantial Ethernet over copper footprint. [Read more →]

Several news items recently on the multinational front:

Hibernia Media and Tata Communications (news, filings) have teamed up for media services, pooling their respective network assets for greater coverage.  Hibernia Media is the new name for MediaXstream, the video networking provider led by industry veteran Del Bothof that Hibernia Atlantic purchased over the winter.  The combination of [Read more →]

Interxion and CENX today announced they will be working together to develop a Pan-European Carrier Neutral Ethernet Exchange.  The initial node will open in London in June, followed soon thereafter by nodes in Paris and Amsterdam, with more to follow through the year.  CENX, of course, was the first to open the doors to such an Ethernet exchange in the USA.  Interxion, on the other hand operates some 26 data centers in 13 cities in Europe, and their entry into the Ethernet Exchange market is not unexpected.   [Read more →]

After testing the waters for 6 months, Equinix (NASDAQ:EQIX, news, filings) has formally launched its new Ethernet exchange service.  The idea of course is to bring together the various Ethernet networks out there in a direct and reliable way, such that the whole is greater than the sum of the various parts.  And of course that each of those parts shares in those benefits, as does Equinix itself.  I’m still looking for details on how the workflow [Read more →]

In an announcement at NAB today, Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) and several partners that include MicroSoft will demonstrate three dimensional HD streaming over its CDN network, Silverlight, and IIS Smooth Streaming.  The 3D streams work both on the PC and on newer televisions over HDMI, so long as you wear the right kind of special glasses of course.  So does this have a near term practical application?  It does according to Level 3’s Peter Neill: [Read more →]

CDN provider Edgecast has gone back for another dip in the venture capital pool.  Today the company is announcing an additional $10M in a Series C financing round led by Menlo Ventures.  That brings their total funding to about $20M.  The first $10M didn’t vanish into the ether though, Edgecast managed to generate a profit in the fourth quarter of this year despite both the recession and renewed [Read more →]

While the application by XO Holdings (news, filings) caught my eye first, there are a number of metro and regional fiber companies in the sector who have applied for stimulus funding for middle mile projects.  Some won funding in the first round and are going back for more, others are in the pool for the first time.  Here is a sampling that include companies often covered on this website: [Read more →]

According to an announcement on Wednesday that slipped past my nets, Integra Telecom is planning a major refinancing.  They hope to raise $770M, which will be made up of $210M in term loans, a $60M revolving credit facility, and $500M in senior secured notes.  They will use the money to refinance their existing debt, and then for that ever present need of ‘general corporate purposes’. [Read more →]

Competitive service provider XO Holdings (news, filings) has filed an application for round 2 stimulus funding that is very ambitious to say the least.  The company is proposing to build an intercity and middle mile network extending from Washington to Illinois, connecting underserved areas along the way through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.  I can’t wait to see the map, but right now we’re limited to the executive summary found [Read more →]

Networking equipment maker Juniper Networks (NASDAQ:JNPR, news, filings) has agreed to purchase Ankeena Networks, at a purchase price pegged at less than $100M.  Ankeena is a young company specializing in media infrastructure that began its life just two years ago as Nokeena.  Its top management will join Juniper’s in leadership positions with the JunOS Ready Software group.  The Ankeena product set will be integrated into the whole, giving the combined company a more complete portfolio.  That won’t be a very difficult process, as Ankeena [Read more →]

abvt picked up a significant contract with IPR International, a provider of managed data protection and other services.  Abovenet will be providing metro Ethernet connectivity between IPR’s facilities in Philadelphia to its data center in Wilmington DE, and to its business continuity center in Reading PA.  IPR will be leveraging Abovenet’s IP transit services as well.  Further expansions of the relationship are planned just to the south [Read more →]

In the data center sector, there have been several interesting news items this week.

QTS has purchased a huge former semiconductor plant in Richmond VA that it plans to convert into data center space.  The former Qimonda facility cost just $12M, and comes with some 1.2M total square feet of space spread across two fabs, a manufacturing area and office space.  Data Center Knowledge has [Read more →]

I have taken my series of competitive telecom trends and added it to the resources box.  Under that item you will be able to find current versions of the charts of relative revenue growth, EBITDA margin, etc that we have looked at here several times in the past.  Additionally, I have brought my Relative Valuations (i.e. EV/EBITDA multiples) chart into the fold, which was a bit more complicated since the data needed to be recollected for data points to match up.  If you have enjoyed these charts in the pasts, please check them out in their new home and let me know how you like it.  For your viewing pleasure now though, here is the latest Relative Valuations chart:
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q today unveiled its next step into the developing field of Unified Communications (UC).  The new hosted UC platform, called Qwest iQ Hosted Unified Communication Service (iQ HUCS), is designed to help large enterprises integrate voice, e-mail and video for access by whatever device you might be using, whether a landline, smartphone, computer, or perhaps an iPad.   [Read more →]

Optimum Lightpath, the metro fiber arm of Cablevision, has thrown a few more chips into the low latency arena.  Yesterday they introduced an optical transport service aimed at the financial and other verticals capable of supporting both high bandwidth and low latency.  This follows closely on the heels of their 40G offerings announced in February.  The new service is available on “pre-equipped and pre-conditioned routes” across their footprint and features a [Read more →]

The FCC has been flexing its muscles since the Obama administration begin, from stimulus packages to network neutrality rules and on to the national broadband plan.  But today in federal court, they got spanked by the judge as Comcast was vindicated – legally at least.  The issue was whether or not the FCC under Kevin Martin had the authority punish Comcast for meddling with traffic on its network, specifically BitTorrent traffic.  The court said [Read more →]

It must be nice to parcel out your capex budget in the billions.  Today AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) said it will spend some $1B in 2010 on increasing its network capabilities and services for the enterprise market.  That means everything from the SME to the multinational corporations.  It’s not a new expenditure; what AT&T is doing is simply detailing what it intends to do with this slice of its previously projected capex budget.  And what a list it is! [Read more →]

Datacenter and managed hosting provider Savvis (news, filings) [a subsidiary of CenturyLink (NYSE:CTL, news, filings)] has signed a three year managed services contract with All Nippon Airways.  Specifically, the Japanese airline will be leveraging their managed hosting offerings to support its web of 70 websites, both internal and external, all served from the company’s Tokyo data center, which they had recently expanded.  Savvis is looking to rebound in 2010, and an aggressive strategy in [Read more →]

Following up on this morning’s thoughts on the iPad and the potential for a material change in overall traffic growth rates, let’s run a quick reader poll.  Assume for the moment that Apple figures out the WiFi signal issues that have cropped up, and that devices like this take off in 2010 and beyond: [Read more →]

Apple’s new toy of course is dominating the headlines right now, although other tablets are surely coming.  What is available now is the WiFi version, whereas the 3G version will be out in a few weeks. While we have heard various thoughts on the potential strain the iPad may put on on wireless networks, might it not be true that the WiFi version will also strain wired networks?  My theory is based on usage patterns of my family and friends, so I’m curious if others might see things the same way. [Read more →]