Telecom Ramblings

I have to say, the last month has been truly surreal.  The financial disaster and the hurricane surrounding it has sent the stock of most fiber and data oriented companies into a huge tailspin.  The situation is fundamentally different than it was 7-8 years ago when the tech bubble burst, and yet when the street panics it doesn’t care. [Read more →]

Defying the liquidity crisis in the markets, ITC^Deltacom (ITCD) announced today it is spending $20M to upgrade its network in the southeastern US.  More Infinera DTNs will be installed, and they will even build out metro networks in several markets over the next few quarters.  [Read more →]

Well, the financial markets may be in turmoil, and fears of a spillover into telecom an infrastructure may be rampant, but one sector seems still immune.  As the quarter closed, Digital Realty Trust pre-announced record leasing rates, both for square footage and revenue.  Can nothing dampen colocation sales these days?

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According to a Technology Review article, researchers have succeeded in sending a 10.6Gbps wireless signal over millimeter wave.  That’s something we’ve only ever seen over fiber of course, with 100Gbps now the target.  So, does fiber have a new competitor? [Read more →]

With the financial crisis frightening the heck out of nearly everyone, it is quite noteworthy to see a confident smile now and then from a telecom CEO. And in the last week, we’ve gotten two of them. [Read more →]

Hi everyone….what a week, huh! These last few days have really tested me. Our favorite son has taken it in the shorts and after being ahead of the benchmarks for the year the last few days saw that nice fact go bye-bye. In times like these I try hard to talk to other investors to gain perspective and then go back to the numbers to see actually where we are versus what I’m expecting. [Read more →]

At Streaming Media West, Day Rayburn updated his CDN pricing report for Q3, with interesting results.  The biggest drops came at the low end – the 250Tb level – and were 35-50% in a single quarter.  I think this drop and the report that many smaller CDNs are now shopping themselves are directly linked.  It’s a simple relationship: the more revenue you have, [Read more →]

We’ve all watched the meltdown in the financial sector over the past few weeks with awe.  All these household names, giants of stability, the very definition of wealth, all seemingly helpless against a tide of bad debt of their own creation.  But what does it really mean for the internet and all the companies that hold it together? [Read more →]

At long last, Abovenet filed its 2007 10-K yesterday and we finally get to see where they stand.  Or at least where they stood 9 months ago, back in May we heard how 2006 went.  Perhaps soon we will hear about how Q1 and Q2 2008 went?  But the big news in Abovenet’s 10-K is that they showed [Read more →]

At the end of the Streaming Video West conference, there were multiple reports that consolidation in the industry was not just around the corner, but even imminent.  Well, I let that sit a while because, well, I’ve heard it before.  And I don’t really think it’s going to happen that way. [Read more →]

Today Pacnet became the latest customer of Infinera, selecting their DTN for upgrades to their land network in preparation for their part of the Unity cable (called EAC Pacific) when it comes online.  Not too many have been watching, but Pacnet has been making lots of moves this summer.  Pacnet who, you say? [Read more →]

So we weren’t able to solve the riddle posed by Dan Caruso as to who Zayo’s 11th acquisition was.  The answer?  Metro fiber assets in Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Cincinnati, and the tri-cities area of Tennessee from Citynet.  Wait, Citynet?  [Read more →]

At long last, Sprint’s XOHM exists!  The WiMAX network went live today in Baltimore.  Now, will people flock to it?  I think it depends entirely on how well it works, i.e. how reliable the speeds are and how solid the coverage area is.  Muni wifi failed largely because it, well, sucked.  DC and Chicago are next in line presumably soon, and Clearwire is due to start opening markets too.  The era of WiMAX is finally upon us, while there were a few early starts from smaller companies this marks the entry by the big players at last. [Read more →]

Dan Caruso, who leads Zayo and writes bearonbusiness.com, has challenged the readers of Telecom Ramblings to guess Zayo’s 11th acquisition!  Well, we can’t turn that down can we?  Here are the clues: [Read more →]

I’ve added several more telecom blogs to my blogroll, each offering a non-USA perspective to many of the issues I ramble on about here.  One is relatively new, the others have been around a while – it’s just that my tastes are widening.  [Read more →]

Level 3’s CDN will be handling the streaming for Fox all four of the 2008 Presidential debates, according to a press release earlier today.   This marks the second high profile win for Level 3 in the arena of politics, following up on the successful Democratic Convention coverage.  [Read more →]

Apparently, NTT’s customers in Japan are also getting a usage cap.   But it’s quite different from Comcasts 250Gb/month limit.  NTT’s limit is a) daily, b) 30Gb, and c) upstream only.  Who the heck uploads 30Gb/day?  Apparently some P2P nodes will do that if you let them and happen to be hooked up to the sort of monster 100mbps fiber connections you can get in Japan.  [Read more →]

Nyquist Capital has a fantastic article on the prospects of 40G technology and the underlying trends, I recommend a read.  A dynamic I’d tack on is one brought up by a reader of this blog in a private message that has been rattling around in [Read more →]

A few months ago, I spent a whole post detailing the obscure anti-dilution hedge that Level 3 bought from Merrill Lynch back in 2004. D-day for that arrangement was to be this December, with the prize for Level 3 varying between $0 and $175M, and it looked alot more like zero with the stock price at $3.  Well, that’s not how it turned out, apparently the two are unwinding the contract. [Read more →]

In just 6-7 weeks, the FCC will run up against its latest deadline for dealing with intercarrier compensation.  Back in July, they were given until November 5 by a federal court to address the issue.  Over on the Global Crossing blogs, Paul Kouroupas has an excellent post today detailing in plain language not only the extent of stupidity of the current system, but why it hurts everyone in the industry to leave it as is – from ILEC to CLEC to RLEC.  [Read more →]

Level 3 today announced an expansion of services in Canada, adding both transport and IP services in Toronto and Montreal and transport services in Montreal.  They had already sold transport in Toronto, yet despite having a loop through the area since the original Level 3 network was built, they have barely ventured [Read more →]

In what has easily been the most surprising result from the reader polls I have run on this site, when asked ‘Which IP network will enter the CDN market next’, the answer “Global Crossing” has run a strong second place amongst readers of this blog.  The leader, Verizon, was a no-brainer of course.  No other company got more than two votes, including [Read more →]

Level 3 Business Markets announced a contract today with Bostwick Laboratories, providing them with on-net services including internet access, VoIP, and enhanced network services.  The deal is a welcome one for Level 3, which is still seeking to prove to the market that its enterprise division has legs.  Medical data infrastructure deals like this are the bread and butter of TW Telecom, and Level 3 would like to start making its own name in the sector. [Read more →]