Telecom Ramblings

Zayo Advances in Ann Arbor, Denver

Rob Powell — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:16:28 +0000

Competitive fiber operator Zayo has had a couple of news items over the last few days. First, they picked up a contract in Michigan with managed data center provider Online Tech. They will be providing a diverse fiber path hooking up the company’s data center in Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor metro fiber footprint derives from the former KMC assets that Zayo … [visit site to read more]

Abovenet Closes Books on 2009 Comeback

Rob Powell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:55:03 +0000

Metro fiber comeback story Abovenet (ABVT: chart, news) reported its Q4 earnings this morning, closing the book on what was one of the few unequivocally positive stories amidst the economic turmoil of 2009. Revenues, EBITDA, and capex were all inline with guidance and perhaps slightly above analyst expectations. Earnings per share of $7.96 included a huge non-cash income tax benefit, probably due to advance recognition of NOLs – GAAP can be strange sometimes. Here is a quick table putting their results in context. … [visit site to read more]

Ciena Sells $375M in Converts

Rob Powell — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:32:21 +0000

Telecommunications equipment provider Ciena (CIEN: chart, news) has raised $375M in convertible notes due 2015. They will be using the proceeds to pay for their acquisition of Nortel’s MEN unit. The credit markets seem to have looked favorably on the offer, which began at $250M. The notes priced at an interest rate of 4% and are convertible at $20.38 – a premium of … [visit site to read more]

Cisco’s Surprise: the CRS-3

Rob Powell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:31:44 +0000

While I tried to stay out of it, the hype reached stratospheric levels over the last week in the runup to Cisco’s announcement. What could Cisco possibly have been planning that could “forever change the Internet and its impact on consumers, businesses and government” yet somehow keep it secret this long? Well, nothing really was going to fit the bill after the media got done speculating. So what did they have to announce? Precisely what everyone should have expected them to announce: absolutely gigantic new … [visit site to read more]

Amidst Buyout News: RCN Metro’s Q4

Rob Powell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:46:47 +0000

While the news of ABRY’s proposed purchase of RCN (RCNI: chart, news) overshadows all else and led to the canceling of their investor call, the broadband and metro fiber company still reported earnings today. As always, I look mostly at the RCN Metro segment, which delivers thick pipes to the wholesale bandiwdth and data intensive enterprise segment. … [visit site to read more]

Undersea Tidbits: Globenet, Pacnet, and Tyco

Rob Powell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:55:16 +0000

Several bits of news from the undersea cable front in the last day or two, here’s a quick look.

Globenet and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU: chart, news) have completed an upgrade to Globenet’s submarine cables connecting North and South America. Along with increased capacity of 110Gbps on its submarine segments, the landing stations in … [visit site to read more]

Verizon: 100G to Fully Arrive This Year

Rob Powell — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:14:16 +0000

Verizon says it is now ready to take the plunge. In another demonstration run on 1,520km of fiber north of Dallas, the telecommunications giant teamed with Finisar, NEC and Juniper put together the most complete 100Gps trial to date. Rather than just test a piece at a time, this demo sent video traffic via a 100Gbps interface to Juniper T1600, Finisar 100G CFP optical transceiver modules, and an NEC SpectralWave DWDM system equipped with 100G real-time coherent transponders. Wow, that was a jargon filled … [visit site to read more]

Verizon’s Testing Says LTE is Faster than 3G

Rob Powell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:12:07 +0000

Ok so I skipped the word ’significantly’, but still the headline seems like a solid candidate for the ‘Well, duh…’ files to me. But anyway, Verizon Wireless has been field testing 4G LTE in Boston and Seattle, and has been seeing peak speeds of 30-40Mbps down and 15-20Mbps up. Those are of course welcome numbers, but nothing particularly surprising. The key of course will not be peak performance, but the speeds you get under load – more specifically when surrounded by smartphone users. Verizon says that ‘real world’ conditions yielded speeds of … [visit site to read more]

Monday Roundup: Orange, XO, and Level 3 CDN

Rob Powell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:45:16 +0000

It’s been a busy PR morning for network operators – busy enough to bring on a ’roundup’ post that I more commonly do on weekends.

Orange Business Services, the international services arm of France Telecom (FTE: chart, news) announced today it is enabling the unified communications (UC) strategy of NXP Semiconductors BV worldwide. Some 15,000 employees have been migrated to the Managed Microsoft Office Communications Server (Release 2) service hosted by Orange. According to NXP, the key features are … [visit site to read more]

NTT’s Arcstar Looks for Efficiency, Adds Russian Access

Rob Powell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:48:52 +0000

Japanese telecommunications giant NTT Communications (NTT: chart, news) has been giving its global network services division, Arcstar some focus lately. The company has made another move into Russia with the interconnection of its own IPVPN with those of operator TTK, whose fiber runs along the railroad tracks across those vast distances. It’s not the first time the two have worked together, having collaborated on the Hokkaido-Sakhalin Cable System a few years ago. This new move expands the reach of Arcstar’s Global IPVPN services throughout … [visit site to read more]

Level 3 Expands in Northern California

Rob Powell — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:21:45 +0000

Level 3 Communications (LVLT: chart, news) brought its local markets initiative to northern California. They will be grouping together the markets of San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento with a general manager, and will be adding both capacity and staff in the region. This is the second such initiative on the west coast, the first being up in Seattle last summer. No doubt we will see a southern California initiative at some point as well, however … [visit site to read more]