Telecom Ramblings

It was only two weeks ago that Sprint said it would in fact rejuvenate the Nextel network rather than sell it.  Now a court has given them 12 months to shut it down in 81 markets mostly in the Midwest due to conflicts in their affiliate agreement with iPCS.  Even assuming that Sprint manages to delay this brings up the obvious question, how do you rejuvenate a network that you have been ordered to shut off? [Read more →]

itcd reported earnings on Friday after the bell, as always waiting until the last possible moment.  And the news?  Well, the economy may suck but you wouldn’t know it from their earnings report.  But then, when the economy was good it never showed up then either.  Not much ever seems to [Read more →]

First it was wave powered floating data centers, then tidal powered data centers in the Scottish Highlands, and today Data Center Knowledge has a fascinating article on possible nuclear powered datacenters. The idea revolves around a hot tub sized 27 megawatt nuclear power module from Hyperion that you bury on the property. [Read more →]

Alternative network services provider PAETEC (PAET) reported earnings this morning, offering us perhaps one of the last remaining datapoints before we enter a long winter.  All that gloom out there just makes it feel like it’s going to be a cold one, doesn’t it?  Anyhow, PAETEC had a disastrous Q2 stumble – at least in the [Read more →]

Internet security sites are buzzing with the latest success of self-policing.  As reported by Brian Krebs in his blog on the Washington Post site, San Jose based web hosting service McColo has been cut loose from the internet by its providers.  According to various security experts, perhaps 75% of daily spam & scam email globally was knocked offline, at least temporarily, as it either originated from McColo or was otherwise controlled from there.  I find this whole situation quite fascinating. [Read more →]

Hello All, thejuice here. I wanted to update a previous set of blogs regarding Cogent (CCOI). As previously indicated, I purchased a group of next gen carriers when their EV/Ebitdas got in the 3.5 range. One of those names, Cogent was of particular interest to me as I believed that management needed [Read more →]

Just when you might have thought Broadband over Power Lines was finally dead and buried, here it comes back again.  In this iteration, it is IBM and an upstart called IBEC pushing the idea and, yes, putting money behind it.  As if we don’t have plenty of viable business models in need of investment right now?  The idea for BPL this time is to go where the cable and DSL providers [Read more →]

Today I am updating my list of metro fiber providers that I last revisited back in August. As usual, I look for metro route miles and raw on-net buildings of all types, and look at the ratio as a raw metric for relative density and penetration. This quarter’s major surprise came in an email from Fibertech, [Read more →]

Over at The Business of Online Video Dan Rayburn reports that this month Level 3 (LVLT) has opened broadcast encoding centers in Manhattan and Tulsa.  This represents yet another step in the evolution of Level 3’s content offerings, one that it has always hoped will separate it from the pack. [Read more →]

Defying the tsunami of economic fear out there, FiberNet Telecom Group (FTGX) has brought metro networks online in two brand new markets: Chicago and Miami.  This is a significant milestone for the company, before now they had focused nearly all their effort on NYC with a small extension in Los Angeles, they have doubled their markets!  It seems clear after this initiative that they have bigger [Read more →]

Today we got our first look at XO Communications (XOHO.OB) since Carl Icahn refinanced their debt early in the third quarter with large amounts of preferred stock. Despite the opinion of the Washington Post the other day, XO did not disappoint and the effects of the economic crisis on its performance were not detectable this quarter. In their earnings release, the company announced a solid revenue growth and unexpectedly strong EBITDA: [Read more →]

From the consolidation in the telecom and fiber sector over the last four years came fewer and larger companies and difficult integrations. Two of the most aggressive rollup artists were Level 3 Communications (LVLT) in the first half and Zayo in the second, each assembling a vast array of mixed assets.  The two are not really comparable in size or geography of course, yet the systems they are unifying are similar and their approaches to patching [Read more →]

As I read through Sprint’s earnings release on Friday, one question kept running through my mind:  “Just how long can they keep doing this?”  Every quarter, another 2-3% sequential drop in revenues as customers flee.   They’re going to have to step up and fix the situation soon, else we will get to see what happens when falling revenues meet fixed costs – freefall is the pleasant part, the pain comes when you land. [Read more →]

Internet solutions provider Internap(INAP) reported earnings Thursday after the market closed, showing a few signs of life again after a weak Q2 showing and an horrible 2008 so far. Revenues of were higher than generally expected, and adjusted ebitda and earnings were similarly [Read more →]

Wow, it’s been a busy few days for the internet infrastructure sector, it seems like just about everyone yet to report earnings is trying to squeeze through the door.  Today hosting specialist Rackspace (RAX), which had the lucky timing of going public in August just before the economy fell and broke a hip, reported its third quarter numbers.  I don’t yet have a great feel for this company and where they might or might not go.  On the one hand there is the older but solid hosting/colo model and on the other hand [Read more →]

Good morning all. Well Cogent (CCOI) reported this morning and there are quite a few items to discuss. First off, these guys are good traders. Although not impacted in the current financial statements it appears they have purchased back more than 50% of their debt for less than .50 cents on the dollar. Further, as we know they continued their assault on [Read more →]

Cogent Communications (CCOI) reported earnings today, and it was quite a show – a variety show.  You know, the kind where there is some amazing stuff and also some other stuff you wish stayed behind the curtain.  So after reviewing thejuice’s primer let’s look at the usual figures first:  Revenues of $54.6M were perhaps a tad light but roughly as expected.  However adjusted EBITDA was weaker than anticipated at $14.2M, due to [Read more →]

In late September, during the height of the fear of financial armageddon, the international telecom operator Global Crossing gave presentations at several investor conferences.  To disbelieving ears, they said that their growth trends were intact, and while they had been monitoring the situation watching for weakness they saw no disaster around the corner for their business.  The market decided they must be [Read more →]

TW Telecom reported earnings after the bell today, although their CC is tomorrow morning.  I wasn’t too far off in my guesses – too high on network revenue and too low on data but it canceled out.  Overall, revenue of $291.6M was exactly what they promised in September, slower growth reflecting some churn from spreading economic weakness relative to their strong second quarter.  Modified EBITDA of $102.6M, however, was very strong, at 35.2% modified-EBITDA margins the company improved more than [Read more →]

Telecom services company TW Telecom (TWTC) reports earnings before the market opens on Thursday, so let’s look at some expectations.  The company reported stellar Q2 earnings but a month later issued a prophetic warning that economic weakness was spreading.  In the way only Wall Street can, the company’s stock price was first punished for being honest and then punished [Read more →]

Hello all. Rob has given me the opportunity to write the Cogent primer! Cogent Communications (CCOI) reports earnings before the bell on Thursday. As readers of this blog and the IV board may know, as the market melted down I took positions in CCOI, TWTC, and Q, along with my core position in LVLT. As a consequence I have done a fair amount of research on Cogent and thought it might be [Read more →]

Level 3 (LVLT) registered a shelf in an SEC filing today that allows them, basically, to sell indeterminate amounts of anything they want to anyone with a pulse.  Ok, it’s not that wide open, but it does position them to offer any of the following: [Read more →]

Now, I’m used to weak telecom reporting from some parts of the media, but this one really takes the cake.  The Washington Post, that bastion of newsworthiness, managed to write this wowser: [Read more →]