Telecom Ramblings

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Wayne Hickey, Advisor, Product Marketing, Ciena

A blockbuster production of “Ford v Ferrari” starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale recently hit theaters, raking in nearly $185 million thus far and soon contending for Oscars in the new year. More than just popcorn fare or awards fodder, though, it can serve as a lesson for network operators, too. [Read more →]

A few items from across the sector to keep up with: [Read more →]

On Friday, NTT announced plans to begin constructing a new submarine cable system in the Indian Ocean via its Singaporean joint venture Orient Link Pte, Ltd.  The new MIST cable will connect Singapore with both Mumbai and Chennai as well as picking up Myanmar along the way.   [Read more →]

Two key regulatory deadlines are looming for emergency services in the telecommunications space.  Starting on February 16, 2020, enterprises will have to be in compliance with Kari’s Law and RAY BAUM’s Act, which aim to improve notifications and include better location information alongside 9-1-1 calls.  Bandwidth is a leader in the 911 space, enabling carriers, VoIP service providers and enterprises to set up their voice networks for emergency services.  With us today to help spread the word about how regulations are changing and what needs to be done is Bandwidth’s VP of Product Strategy, Lydia Runnels. [Read more →]

Windstream Wholesale announced this week an agreement for the largest single capacity sale in the company’s history. They have done a deal with a hyperscaler that totals some 5.7Tbps. [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Laurens de Nooyer, Global Industry Director, Communications & Media IoT, Software AG

With the end of mobile’s long growth spurt, communications service providers have been undergoing a very difficult time with revenues dropping and disruptive innovators popping up every day to compete more aggressively with each other. Revenue growth is no longer [Read more →]

Some new fiber, a couple new customers, and of course more cloud connectivity: [Read more →]

With Macquarie now in the ownership chair, Bluebird Network appears to be on the M&A hunt. But before doing anything dramatic, they are first taking care of some business within their own sphere of influence. Bluebird has announced a deal to acquire the Illinois Network Alliance. [Read more →]

FirstLight Fiber is finishing off the year with a bit of inorganic expansion. The Northeastern fiber and data operator has announced the acquisition of ColoSpace for an undisclosed purchase price. [Read more →]

A few interesting items from vendors and global network operators from around the world worth keeping an eye on. [Read more →]

Last month saw the launch of South Reach Networks, formerly Interconnect Miami.  South Reach Networks is a privately-held Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company headquartered in Miami, Florida. South Reach starts off with a data center at 36 NE Second Street and a fully diverse underground high fiber count metro ring providing connectivity over to Equinix and several other key destinations.  But with backing from Turning Rock Partners, we can expect some new infrastructure investments in the quarters ahead.  With us today to talk about South Reach’s plans for expansion is newly minted President Mike Sevret.

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A few items from around the world to end the week: [Read more →]

This Industry Viewpoint was authored by Sharif Fotouh, Managing Director, Compass EdgePoint

If there is a song whose title characterizes the current state of the edge data center market, it would be The Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.” (I’m a Motown guy.) Although you can’t swing a dead cat nowadays without reading or hearing someone describing “the edge” as being as close to data center nirvana as we’re going to get, right now it seems like we’re in a bit of “you go first” mode of adoption. Naturally, some may find this state of affairs a bit disconcerting, but if you think about it, this slow rate of adoption may, at least in part, be our fault. [Read more →]

Zayo has been pretty quiet lately as we all wait for the deal by Digital Colony and EQT to close and take them private. But this week they announced a new project on the organic front: another longhaul buildout. [Read more →]

A few interesting items from the start of this week, focusing in on metro and the edge: [Read more →]

Here’s a quick rundown of news from global network providers from over the break and the start of the week: [Read more →]

Latin America has long been an intriguing market for infrastructure providers, with plenty of opportunity tempered by a different and still-developing ecosystem of providers, regulators, and the like.  This year we saw EdgeUno emerge as a new entrant in the data center and cloud computing space, beginning with an acquisition of infrastructure in Colombia and quickly following up with a quick expansion into Argentina, Chile and Brazil.  With us today to talk about EdgeUno’s approach and near-term goals is CEO Mehmet Akcin.  Mehmet spent three years each building network for Microsoft and Yahoo, and recently founded the network atlas site Infrapedia as well. [Read more →]

In a pre-Thanksgiving announcement yesterday, GTT revealed that it is considering a future without fiber. The global cloud networking operator has retained Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs as financial advisors for the potential sale of its infrastructure division. [Read more →]

Some new network deployments worth noting across the industry and around the world: [Read more →]

This has been a pretty heavy month for European fiber M&A, with EQT making moves within its portfolio and Altice’s SFR making its move on Covage yesterday. Now the Dutch fiber operator Eurofiber has joined the party with a suite of acquisitions of its own. [Read more →]

The FTTH market over in Europe may soon be a little less crowded, at least in France. Altice Europe today has announced that today its SFR FTTH subsidiary has signed an exclusivity agreement to acquire its competitor Covage. [Read more →]

Last month, Arcadian Infracom raised funding for a new intercity fiber buildout along some unique routes.  The plan is to connect Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix via routes passing through the Navajo Nation and the surrounding area while adding off-ramps to underserved markets.  When it comes to internet infrastructure, there aren’t many regions in the USA that have been bypassed as thoroughly over the years.  With us today to tell us how Arcadian Infracom plans to make it finally happen is Co-Founder and CEO Dan Davis.  Dan has been in the longhaul fiber business since the 90s, culminating in a 15-year stint at CenturyLink. [Read more →]

Northern Europe will be seeing a significant fiber consolidation event in the coming quarters if EQT gets its way. The infrastructure fund has announced plans to merge two of its holdings: IP-Only and GlobalConnect. [Read more →]