FiberToTheWhatever.com News
The most comprehensive news aggregator for fiber to the home (FTTH), FTTx, and all things fiber on the web.
| 07/30/2010 04:00 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Friday Evening Links - |
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| 07/30/2010 03:03 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weekend Open Thread - Speak your mind |
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| 07/30/2010 01:00 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AT&T 3G Will Power The New Nissan LEAF - From in-car media to remote battery level monitoring |
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| 07/30/2010 11:14 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Best Buy To Sell Rebranded Clearwire Service - Best Buy Connect brand to expand from 3G to 4G in 2011 |
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| 07/30/2010 07:31 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Week In Research: Hosted IP struggles to gain traction; cable gains friends in small business market |
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IP Telephony needs a hero: Hosted IP continues to face challenges, particularly in gaining the loyalty of the masses. A recent Research and Markets report points out that "Despite the promises of lower capital expenditures, ease of use, and flexibility, hosted IP telephony has failed to gain mass adoption so far." News release. Cable gains favor with SMBs: Despite their lousy reputation for customer service and a closed-off corporate culture, U.S. cable operators are gaining traction with SMBs, a study from ATLANTIC-ACM reports. "Cable operators have done a good job of changing their image from low-service, consumer-oriented behemoths to being able to deliver value in small business services," said CEO Dr. Judy Reed Smith. Their results may be bearing out; Cox Communications and Cablevision's commercial customer service recently got high marks from J.D. Power and Associates. The research firm sees CAGR in this segment growing 5.1 percent through 2015. News release. Broadband ascendant: Broadband subscriptions worldwide will reach one billion by 2015, a Strategy Analytics report says, with the Asia-Pacific region--already making up 45 percent of current subscribers--continuing to dominate growth. APAC will see an 18 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. Of course, much of the broadband available will be DSL, but the research firm sees fiber moving in steadily enough that a quarter of all subscribers will be connected by fiber. News release. Change is a constant for service providers: Transformation to next-generation networks has to happen in multiple layers, a new study offered through Reportlinker says, and IP transformation has particular challenges. Details and case studies are presented in the Service Provider Transformation Update. News release. Video in the retail space: Online video continues to grow, but one area that needs more attention, according to SundaySky (not coincidentally, a producer of SEO-optimized video), is e-commerce video. These are typically short videos posted by retailers, like Amazon or Overstock, on their consumer sites to inform customers about their products. However, despite widespread adoption--65 percent of online retailers use videos to increase conversion rates--less than 10 percent have more than 10 videos indexed. Download the report at the company's website here.
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| 07/30/2010 07:23 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dish To File Complaint Over Comcast Philly Sports Blockade - Companies kick new FCC procedures into high gear |
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| 07/30/2010 06:40 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cox: People Just LOVE Their TiVo Tuning Adapters - People: well, not so much... |
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Cox Communications Inc. recently met with the FCC to punctuate the cable position, offering a listing of testimonials from MSO customers that illustrated their experiences with tuning adapter installations. According to the handout, the quotes were from TiVo surveys conducted around the launch of tuning adapters in the Cox Orange County and North Virginia systems. Not surprisingly, none of the evidence shared offered a negative reaction. Some of the testimonials come off as downright giddy. Comments to the cable industry's blog by actual consumers would seem to disagree. Can any of our users share their thoughts on whether they've had good experiences with these adapters (like the Cisco STA1520, above right)?read comment(s)
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| 07/30/2010 06:25 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Netflix Streaming Costs Primarily Licensing, Not Bandwidth - Hollywood cashes in on Netflix success |
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But despite a huge increase in the amount of video streams it's serving up through Watch Instantly, Netflix's streaming costs haven't increased proportionally. In the second quarter, the company said costs associated with delivery over third-party CDN networks only increased by $1 million versus the previous quarter. Netflix is benefiting from bandwidth costs continuing to fall exponentially as it grows its streaming business. So far, predictions by Internet video nay sayers like Mark Cuban that Netflix's model isn't sustainable don't appear accurate. Netflix has eaten these Hollywood licensing costs without raising subscriber rates, though of course things could get more difficult for Netflix once cable TV providers (say ones that also own content empires) realize that streaming Netflix functionality embedded in every piece of hardware could pose a long-term threat.read comment(s)
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| 07/30/2010 06:21 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alcatel-Lucent Q2: IP, wireless carry the day with strong results |
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Solid earnings in Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) IP and wireless segments and strong growth in North America helped to partially offset a decline in fixed access revenues for the second quarter of 2010, the operator reports. Alcatel-Lucent's overall revenues were down 2.4 percent compared to last year, at EUR3.8 billion. However, CEO Ben Verwaayen maintained the company is optimistic about the remainder of the year. Revenues rose 17.4 percent sequentially and ALU saw encouraging gains in its gross margin. "Revenues for the quarter reflect the on-going and expected overall improvement in market conditions and the good traction of our product portfolio," Verwaayen said in a release. "This is notably highlighted by the good performance in IP and wireless and, from a geographic standpoint, by strong growth in North America." The company's adjusted gross margin rose three percentage points, coming in at 36.1 percent of revenue for the quarter compared to 33.1 percent in Q1 2009--an encouraging indicator for Alcatel-Lucent's profits according to Marketwatch. Second quarter results continued to reflect ongoing industry trends, with wireline revenues declining slowly but steadily while demand for next-generation solutions and wireless offerings (in ALU's case, its WCDMA business, particularly in North America) rose reliably. Alcatel-Lucent's optics division saw revenues decline 14.6 percent to EUR622 million compared to the same period last year, while earnings in its wireline division likewise dipped 13.7 percent year-on-year to EUR366 million. However, the company's IP division saw an 11.2 percent increase in revenue to EUR318 million, and particularly strong growth of 30 percent in its IP/MPLS segment, particularly in North America and EMEA. "If you look to IP, the journey that the industry is making is full IP. End-to-end IP," Verwaayen said during a conference discussing the results. "Doesn't matter what service, doesn't matter what screen, I want my service capability wherever I want, in the format that I want... IP is no longer a technology as such, it's the underlying technology throughout." Its wireless division grew revenues by 5 percent to EUR1.02 billion, with its WCDMA business the key driver, climbing 50 percent year over year. Alcatel-Lucent maintained its outlook for the rest of 2010. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/30/2010 05:58 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Panasonic Stops Selling Tru2Way TV Sets - Latest effort to kill the cable box doing about as well as the last few... |
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"We currently have no tru2way products at retail and there are no announced release dates for Panasonic tru2way retail products at this time," Panasonic said in a statement. However, Panasonic hasn't abandoned tru2way altogether. Jeff Cove, Panasonic's vice president of technology and alliances, said the company has products in the works, including a standalone "set-back" tru2way adapter for TVs, though he declined to provide pricing or availability info. "We decided that the most scalable way to approach tru2way was on the set-back box," he said. So the death of the cable box will require -- a cable box? Tru2Way is still being used by cable operators within their own TV platforms, but companies like TiVO have long complained the technology doesn't work for them due to "costly and strict license agreements."read comment(s)
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| 07/30/2010 04:39 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frday Morning Links - |
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| 07/29/2010 07:19 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Neutral Tandem picks charter customers for its Ethernet eXchange solution, schedules deployment |
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Neutral Tandem (Nasdaq: TNDM) has selected 10 service providers to participate in its Ethernet eXchange Charter Customer Program, and is ready to start deploying the interconnect solution in six U.S. markets including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York. The named providers include RCN Metro Optical Networks, Tinet, PAETEC, Deltacom, US Signal, Mosaic NetworX, Wilshire Connection and ION Holding Co. Ethernet exchanges are a more efficient way to interconnect multiple service providers. The Charter program was put together with the idea of a collaborative product development process that would allow eXchange customers to have input all the way through the creation and deployment of the technology. Since jumping into the Ethernet exchange market in February, Neutral Tandem has moved quickly to establish its neutral interexchange business. In addition to the initial six-city rollout, the company plans to deploy the Ethernet eXchange switch (a Cisco ASR 9000) in eight additional markets before the end of 2010. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/29/2010 06:55 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technicolor may become one of Verizon's broadband equipment suppliers |
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Technicolor (NYSE: TCH) may enter the U.S. broadband market soon with a deal to provide routers for Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) FiOS service. The companies are negotiating a three-year strategic agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding this week. If the deal goes through, Technicolor broadband routers would be deployed within the FiOS subscriber footprint beginning sometime in 2011. The routers, a news release explains, will accelerate data transmissions over the in-home coaxial wiring FiOS uses. The 95-year-old Technicolor has added quite a bit more to its portfolio besides color film processing, including equipment manufacturing like set-top boxes, gateways, and Blu-Ray Discs. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/29/2010 06:35 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SureWest boosts broadband in Q2 but telecom revenue continues slide |
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SureWest Communications (Nasdaq: SURW) took advantage of its established broadband networks to continue reducing capital expenditures in the second quarter of 2010, a factor that president and CEO Steve Oldham cited in reporting a 7 percent year-over-year growth in its broadband segment. The carrier's telecom segment did not fare so well, falling 17 percent compared to the same period last year. However, SureWest held the line for the first half of 2010 with telecom revenue coming in just 1 percent below Q1. "Our second quarter results demonstrated our ability to create growth in both business and residential markets with reduced year-to-date capital expenditures. We remain focused on growing revenues, margins and free cash flow through increases in our commercial service offerings and residential triple-play growth while continuing our cost-saving initiatives," Oldham said in a prepared release. He added, "Expanding our fiber-to-the-home network over the last five years has provided us a significant performance advantage over our competitors. We have a large inventory of marketable homes and therefore do not require further capital expenditures to extend the network. " Not mentioned were other cost-cutting measures SureWest--like many cash-strapped telcos--took to maintain its outlook, including laying off 60 employees in the Sacramento and Kansas City markets. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/29/2010 04:36 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday Evening Links - |
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| 07/29/2010 03:24 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vermont Is Wiring Itself With Fiber Because Nobody Else Will - East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network moving forward... |
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Project Director Tim Nulty said the pilot would "prove our concept" of creating a high-speed Internet network for rural Vermonters, at no risk to taxpayers. Nulty has projected profitability for the network in its fifth year of operation, if 49 percent of the households in the 22 towns subscribe. . . He declined to identify the source of the funding for the project, but said the $75 million network is no longer in the running for a stimulus loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "We have some private investment," he said. "We will raise some additional funds." Regardless of where you fall on the ages-old municipal broadband debate, Vermont has been an interesting broadband state to watch, from Fairpoint's collapse and efforts to prevent these kinds of community efforts from succeeding, to the fact that a Google executive is running for Vermont Governor with broadband as one of his primary campaign platforms. read comment(s)
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| 07/29/2010 02:02 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UK Finds That Google Wi-Fi Snooping Yielded Little - No 'meaningful details' gathered from Street View sniffing |
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The ICO said in a statement: "On the basis of the samples we saw, we are satisfied so far that it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data." It added: "There is also no evidence - as yet - that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment." Despite this, Google was "wrong" to gather the information, said the ICO. The UK's findings are in line with Google's admission that the equipment used changed channels roughly five times a second while the vehicle was moving. In other words, while Google did intend to collect publicly available SSID and MAC information, most of the live Wi-Fi user data collected (from unsecured hotspots only) was largely useless. Google has admitted error and apologized for their screw up, though the company still faces inquiries in multiple countries and in the United States. read comment(s)
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| 07/29/2010 01:37 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BT holds down operating costs in first quarter to realize 33% net profit |
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Things are tough all over for telecoms as the economic slump continues, but BT (NYSE: BT) saw some bright glimmers of hope in the first quarter of fiscal 2010 that ended June 30. While the company's revenues decreased 4 percent year over year, a focus on tightening the operating budget and knocking down its net debt meant BT's net profits climbed 33 percent to £284 million ($444 million). The operator held steady on its fiber to the home (FTTH) deployments in the UK as well. "We have made an acceptable start to the year, delivering improved financial results while investing in the future of the business," said Ian Livingston, Chief Executive of BT. "...We hit the first major milestone in our fibre roll out, passing over 1.5m premises, and we are now running at an average rate of around 100,000 premises passed every week." Key points of today's results included:
"Despite the challenging environment, these financial results underpin our outlook for the full year," Livingston said. BT stocks rose on the news and remained up through Thursday's trading. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/29/2010 07:14 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bell Aliant: Q2 revenues down, but retains bullish outlook on FTTH, IP services |
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Bell Aliant (Toronto: BA-UN.TO) once again is feeling the industry-wide impact of landline loss in the second quarter, but the service provider remains confident that its ongoing investments in Fiber to the Home (FTTH) and IP will pay off. Here's a breakdown of other key metrics:
Along with increased broadband growth, Bell Aliant continues to grow its FTTH rollout to compete with a strong set of cable operators, including Quebec's Videotron and Rogers Communications Inc. in Atlantic Canada as well as in Ontario and Quebec. In May, Bell Aliant announced that its FTTH footprint will reach more than 600,000 households and businesses by the end of 2012. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/29/2010 04:56 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sprint's IP migration brought down Q2 wireline revenues |
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Sprint's (NYSE: S) Q2 earnings report may have shown the first rise in wireless subscribers for the first time in three years, but the service provider's wireline segment results shows the common challenge that all incumbent carriers face as their customers transition away from the cash cow TDM-based services to IP. The wireline numbers speak for themselves. During the second quarter, Sprint's wireline revenues declined 11 percent year-over-year to $1.3 billion, a factor it attributes to "customer migrations from legacy data to lower rate IP services." Wireline revenues were sequentially two percent lower because of voice volume reductions. But the IP transition is again showing some positive signs for the IXC. Sprint's overall operating wireline expenses segment improved 14 percent year-over-year due to cost declines of service as IP becomes a bigger portion of the wireline base and improvement in SG&A expenses. One IP-based service that Sprint did get serious about in the most recent quarter was Ethernet. Although Sprint clearly trails the rest of the service provider community in terms of Ethernet access availability, a growing demand from its customer base for 10 Mbps connections to its IP/MPLS network drove it to start an aggressive Ethernet expansion campaign. Sprint's Ethernet expansion effort will not only bring service into 16 additional U.S. new markets this year, but it is also expanding its IP/MPLS coverage in South America and Asia-Pacific. For more:
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| 07/29/2010 04:21 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pacnet, Pacific Fibre to construct new trans-Pacific submarine cable |
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Pacnet and Pacific Fibre have teamed up to build the Pacific Fibre submarine cable system that will connect Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.--the latest in a string of new submarine cable systems. Estimated to cost $400 million, the Pacific Fibre Cable will consist of two fiber pairs that will carry 64 wavelengths. Initially, the total capacity of the cable will be 5.12 Tbps with 40 Gbps per wavelength, but upgradable to 12 Tbps with 100 Gbps wavelength technology. "As Australia and New Zealand look towards deploying national broadband networks that will raise broadband penetration and access speeds, this new cable that we are building with Pacific Fibre will deliver the enhanced international connectivity that is essential to support these broadband initiatives," said Bill Barney, chief executive officer of Pacnet in a release. "This investment is also an integral part of our overall strategy to expand our subsea cable infrastructure into the Australasia region, to complement our pan-Asian and Trans-Pacific network coverage and boost broadband connectivity into Asia." While the new cable will offer a host of new connectivity options, what makes Pacnet confident about the success of the new cable is the partnership approach. Because new Pacific Fibre Cable is being built on a partnership model, both Pacnet and Pacific Fibre will be able to own and operate their own fiber pair on the system, while sharing responsibility for cable supply contract in addition to operations and maintenance costs. Such a partnership model has already worked well for Pacnet. Previously, Pacnet synched up with a consortium of international service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corporation, and SingTel, to build the $300 million Unity cable connecting Japan and the U.S. For more:
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| 07/29/2010 03:30 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frontier imposes mandated overtime to address Verizon line issues |
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Frontier's (NYSE: FTR) mandate that union employees in its West Virginia have to work an average 70 hours work week to resolve lingering network and service issues is likely a move by the service provider to avoid the pitfalls that both Fairpoint (Other OTC: FRCMQ.PK) and Hawaiian Telecom faced after they purchased Verizon's (NYSE:VZ) lines. West Virginia has been a major focus of attention for Frontier since it closed its acquisition of Verizon's lines at the beginning of this month. FiberNet, a Charleston, West Va.-based competitive service provider that purchases wholesale services from Frontier, said it's frustrated with Frontier's slow response to a number of trouble tickets. The competitive provider even went so far as to tell the West Virginia Public Service Commission to reconsider its decision to let Frontier purchase Verizon's lines. Neither Frontier nor the West Va. PSC have responded or taken action on FiberNet's claims. At this point, the majority of reported issues with the cutover from Verizon's systems are in West Virgina. The cutover of the Verizon lines in other states such as Oregon has met little, if any, issues. To be fair, the problems Frontier is encountering in West Virginia are the result of years of Verizon's neglect of the state's network infrastructure. In response, Frontier declared "emergency and long term service difficulty" in West Virginia, a provision in the union agreement it has with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union employees that allows them to impose a 70-hour workweek. Of course, this overtime mandate is not sitting well with some union workers as reported in a Charleston Daily Mail article. An anonymous e-mailer wrote the Daily Mail to say that some employees are overstressed, including some older workers "who are having a very difficult time coping with 70-hour weeks, especially those who work outside in this unbearable heat." Frontier employees are willing to help the company succeed, but this is not the way to proceed," the e-mailer wrote. "It is alienating employees and showing a total lack of respect for their mental and physical well-being. Their family lives are suffering and the company doesn't seem to care at all." For more: Related articles:
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| 07/28/2010 07:51 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Telstra fined $16.7 million for blocking competitors from COs |
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Telstra (ASX: TLS.AX) will now have to pay a $16.7 million (AUD19 million) fine for illegally blocking competitors access to its local COs (central offices). After the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a complaint, the federal court determined that the service provider violated the Trade Practices Act and carrier license conditions by preventing broadband rivals from entering seven COs 27 times between July 2006 and April 2008. When the ACCC brought the complaint to court, it argued that Telstra should be required to pay a $32 million fine for blocking competitor access to its facilities. However, Justice John Middleton decided to give the incumbent carrier a 30 percent discount on each violation in return for their "cooperation, acceptance of responsibility and for voluntarily implementing a compliance program." For more: Related articles:
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| 07/28/2010 07:40 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rumor Mill: Juniper in line for big AT&T contract |
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Juniper Networks' (NYSE: JNPR) luck this week could be taking a turn for the good by gaining a key role in AT&T's (NYSE: T) network build out. Although there has been no word on any financial details or deployment timeline, Juniper did say that it will be chosen as a supplier of IP, MPLS, Ethernet and Evolved Packet Core domain equipment. Other than saying that AT&T and Juniper would announce details today, neither company would comment on the day, nor was any other information supplied. Depending on how big and when the AT&T deal is to take place, a win at one of the U.S.' largest service providers could give Juniper a boost after a poor Q3 2010 forecast drove shares down. For more:
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| 07/28/2010 08:03 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tellabs Q2 earnings up, but potential AT&T loss drives down shares |
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Tellabs (Nasdaq: TLAB) came out fighting in Q2 as profit rose to $64 million over the $16 million it reported in Q2 2009. During the quarter, Tellabs saw continued growth in its broadband, transport and services segments of $229 million, $133 million and $61 million. Here's a breakdown of the performance of the vendor's key segments:
Despite surpassing financial analyst expectations for Q2 and a positive Q3 outlook, Tellabs continues to be plagued by rumors that it's going to lose some of the wireless backhaul business it has with AT&T (NYSE: T) to competitors such as Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO). Whether or not these rumors are true, Wall Street reacted by sending the vendor's shares down 7 percent. "I want to address this issue head-on ... We do know AT&T is trialing a third vendor in its mobile networks. At the same time, Tellabs sees good demand from AT&T," Pullen told analysts on a conference call. For more:
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| 07/28/2010 07:14 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Level 3 narrows losses in Q2, but results disappoint analysts |
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Level 3 Communications (Nasdaq: LVLT) losses may have decreased in Q2, but its inability to meet financial analyst targets drove its stock down 11 percent. As of the end of Tuesday's trading session, Level 3's stock was trading at $1.09 on Nasdaq. Despite the sluggish Q2 results, Level 3 said it is slowly digging itself out of its ongoing revenue hole with a pipeline of deals that it says will help drive up revenue in upcoming quarters. One segment Level 3 is confident about is Core network service (CNS), which contributed to 77 percent of its Q2 2010 revenue and grew sequentially 1.3 percent, is on track to grow sequentially throughout 2010. "Our Core Network Services sales increased for the third consecutive quarter, and we believe this is a good indicator of the improved performance we expect in the second half of the year," said James Crowe, CEO of Level 3 in the earnings release. In addition to CNS, Level 3 saw relatively positive results from its wholesale core network services and large enterprise and federal businesses, which grew 2 percent and 4 percent sequentially. While Level 3's Q2 results weren't anything to write home about, Colby Synasael an analyst with Cowen & Co analyst said in a Reuters article that part of the stock reaction "may be based off of Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) which had disappointing results in terms of revenue." For more: Related articles:
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| 07/28/2010 06:26 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNH-IOL creates 802.3ba Ethernet standard consortium |
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With the IEEE's work on the 802.3ba Ethernet standard complete, University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) believes its new consortium will be able help members of the Ethernet product food chain prepare 802.3ba-compliant products. The recently ratified 802.3ba standard specifies two Ethernet speeds--40 Gbps for computing and networked storage applications and 100 Gbps for core networking applications. While the passing of the standard was a solid step for the Ethernet industry, the IOL consortium will provide vendors a way a neutral testing environment to ensure the products they are building meet their service provider and enterprise customer base. For a $24,000 yearly membership fee, the IOL consortium will distribute the cost of performing independent testing and validation for vendors that are developing products that follow the evolving 802.3ba standard. For more:
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| 07/28/2010 05:31 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AT&T ups capacity on the APCN2 submarine cable |
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To stay apace of growth in Asia-Pacific network traffic, AT&T (NYSE: T) is upgrading its network capacity on the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) from 10 Gbps to 40 Gbps. The upgrade, which is expected to be completed by the second quarter in 2011, is part of AT&T's overall $1 billion 2010 global network investment centered on scaling its global network in addition to enhancing application delivery, mobility and cloud services for global companies. APCN2 is a major element of AT&T's global backbone, providing necessary diversity to support mesh capabilities and connectivity to other major trans-oceanic cable networks linking the USA, Europe, Australia and other parts of Asia. Owned by a consortium of 14 different global service providers, including AT&T, APCN2 is a key undersea cabling network that spans 19,000 km and connects ten landing points across Asia Pacific, including in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. In June, the APCN2 consortium tapped NEC to supply DWDM equipment to upgrade the network from 10 to 40 Gbps. With research firm TeleGeography forecasting that more than $3 billion will be spent on building submarine cabling networks this year, it's clear that the market segment is going through a renaissance period. Unlike the submarine cabling systems land rush that took place at the beginning of this century to fulfill overhyped needs, the new upgrades like APCN2 reflect the end-user's insatiable appetite for bandwidth hungry applications such as online video and gaming. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/28/2010 04:39 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ookla adds ISP performance ranking to Net Index |
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If you ever wanted to know how well your broadband ISP is actually performing, look no further than Ookla, which has added ISP performance rankings to its Net Index. Consumers will be able to use the tool to determine if the hype behind the speeds their providers advertise is actually performing as advertised. The new index feature will provide ISP ratings that are compiled from end-user data collected from over one million daily tests conducted on Ookla's Speedtest.net site. To access the free daily Net Index ISP rankings, users just have to choose the appropriate index--download, upload or quality--and then their particular geographic region. Each ISP will be given a 1 to 5 star rating based on user input. Users can then take this information to make a decision about whether to switch to another ISP or assess ISPs in another location if they are moving. According to recent ISP rankings, Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), followed by Charter, Cablevision's (NYSE: CVC) Optimum Online, MidContinent Communications and Road Runner currently round out the top five residential service providers in terms of download speed performance. However, Surewest (Nasdaq: SURW) broadband leads the upload speed race, followed by Verizon Internet Services (NYSE:VZ), AT&T Worldnet (NYSE: T), Comcast and Cox. Ookla's capabilities come at a time when telecom regulators are starting to call out carriers on the actual broadband speeds they are delivering. A new Ofcom survey revealed that many of the UK's ISPs aren't actually delivering the speeds they promise in their advertisements. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/28/2010 03:50 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ofcom thinks UK's ISPs aren't being honest about advertised speeds |
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Ofcom, the UK's telecom regulator, believes that the UK's broadband providers aren't being honest about the speeds they deliver to consumers. Research revealed that about 97 percent of the nation's broadband users are actually getting speeds much lower than advertised. Similar to the U.S., UK-based service providers also include the "up to" disclaimer to clarify that the condition of copper facilities, for example, can affect the actual speed of a DSL line. While Ed Richards, CEO of Ofcom, recognizes the physical and technical challenges of delivering broadband service, the phrase "up to" is misleading since only a small fraction of users actually get those advertised speeds. A number of UK-based providers advertise up to 11.5 Mbps, but the actual average speed range subscribers are actually receiving lies between 4.1 Mbps to 5.2 Mbps. The survey also revealed that subscribers that only two percent of consumers that bought an "up to" 20 Mbps service tier, with 32 percent getting 8-14 Mbps and 65 percent 8 Mbps or below. To bridge what Richard says is a growing "gap between the average headline speed and actual speed," Ofcom wants ISPs to follow a "Code of practice" that will spell out what exactly users will get from their respective broadband service. Given the competitive nature of the UK's broadband market with over 300 retail providers, including big names such as BT (NYSE: BT), Carphone Warehouse and Virgin, being honest with consumers could be a welcome change of clarity. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/27/2010 09:35 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Steve Turley Blows Smoke on iProvo and UTOPIA |
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Long-time readers of this blog (or those paying attention to iProvo) will recognize the name of Steve Turley. As a member of Provo’s municipal council, he’s been a consistent voice of opposition on all things iProvo since as far back as anyone can remember. You may even recall the recent series of articles in the [...]
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| 07/27/2010 10:52 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Want the fastest broadband in Utah? Brigham City has you covered |
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Ookla, the company responsible for running Speedtest.net, has recently released new results on the state of broadband speeds around the world and Brigham City has taken the top spot in Utah by a wide margin. Their average speed of 20.59Mbps handily bests second-place Pleasant Grove by almost 60%. Considering that over a third of the [...]
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| 07/27/2010 03:41 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Global Crossing's consolidated revenue takes a Q2 dip |
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Global Crossing (Nasdaq: GLBC) may be making continual improvements to its service set and structure, but that did not help the decline in the service provider's Q2 consolidated revenue. During the quarter, Global Crossing reported $630 million in consolidated revenue, down three percent sequentially and flat year over year, a factor it attributes to declining wholesale voice revenue and unfavorable foreign exchange impact. On a slightly more positive note, the service provider's "invest and grow" service strategy generated $555 million in revenue during the quarter, but flat on a sequential basis and up three percent year over year. Rest of World, GC Impsat and GCUK generated "invest and grow" revenue of $314 million, $134 million, and $113 million, respectively. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/27/2010 03:04 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mammoth Networks cuts Baca Valley Telephone's out of region costs |
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Baca Valley Telephone Company, a Des Moines, N.M.-based independent ILEC, needed an alternative means to reach out of its own network footprint and it found it in Mammoth Networks' Layer 2 DSL solution. Like many smaller independent ILECs that reside in the West, Baca Valley had little choice but use "fixed-cost" fiber facilities from Qwest (NYSE: Q) to reach outside of its traditional network territory. By adopting Mammoth Networks' solution, Baca Valley does not have to incur the cost of connecting to a Qwest circuit themselves. Instead, Baca Valley can leverage Mammoth Networks' established meet-point circuits and long-haul private-line connections it has to Qwest and other area telcos. And because Mammoth already has years of experience reselling Qwest services, it can readily installation and troubleshooting issues as a single point of contact when one of its customers orders service. Cutting network connectivity costs was a proposition was music to the ears of Kim Atwater, Baca Valley Telephone Information Systems Technician. "We wish the Mammoth offering was brought to us long ago," he said. "Mammoth's services have not only saved us half of what we were paying before, but have been much more reliable." Mammoth Networks may lack the large household name status, but their role in the burgeoning middle mile network provider trend has become increasingly relevant to smaller independent telcos like Baca Valley that have had little choice but to either build out their own out of region network connectivity or go to a large ILEC that don't understand their unique needs. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/27/2010 02:14 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NTT America adds storage to its enterprise cloud offering |
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NTT America (NYSE: NTT) is following up its U.S. cloud computing debut with its new offering Cloud Files, a cloud-based storage solution. While cloud-based storage may be a compelling alternative from a cost perspective, it is still a new concept that enterprises are warming up to. NTT America appears to allay fears by giving customers the ability to manage their own storage requirements. The service also allows enterprises to create unlimited storage accounts that they can define with their own account names and descriptions so IT departments can more easily manage files and grow storage that meets their own requirements. In addition to the obvious savings on network maintenance, the NTT America solution would enable enterprises to also cut down on disaster recovery costs and planning because putting data in the cloud doesn't require remote physical storage locations and the data is protected from local disaster issues. For more:
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| 07/26/2010 08:20 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Thunderstorms cause domino outage to Verizon, AT&T Mobility in Manhattan |
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Severe thunderstorms and telecom equipment are not a good match as illustrated by a recent outage that affected both Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T Mobility (NYSE: T) in Manhattan. A severe thunderstorm that brought down one of Verizon's digital cross connect systems not only affected its own wireline customers but also AT&T Mobility's wireless customers. Although a Verizon spokesperson quoted in a Total Telecom article said technicians are repairing the damaged equipment, there was no indication when it would be able to restore service. It appears the outage only affected a limited amount of Verizon's wireline and AT&T's wireless subscribers. Regardless of the size or if it tarnishes both AT&T Mobility's and Verizon's respective images of network quality, the key will be in each service provider's ability to get the equipment repaired and restore service . For more: Related articles:
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| 07/26/2010 06:45 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pace finds entry into tier 1 U.S. telco market through 2Wire acquisition |
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Pace plc may be well known for its work as a supplier of set top boxes in the UK and U.S.-based cable operators, but it believes it will have a chance to penetrate the U.S. tier 1 telco market by acquiring 2Wire for $475 million. Although Pace has a strong foothold in the U.S. cable market, its presence in the traditional telco market is non-existent. By acquiring 2Wire, Pace instantly becomes the top supplier of residential devices in the U.S. with a tier 1 telco customer base that already includes the likes of AT&T (NYSE: T) and Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE). 2Wire CTO Jaime Fink, in an interview with FierceIPTV, said the acquisition gives his company "certainly a lot of space for us to grow given the kind of company Pace is." Of course, the deal will need shareholders from both Pace and 2Wire--which consists of a consortium that includes Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), AT&T, Telmex (NYSE: TII), Oak Investment Partners, Meritech Capital Partners, and Technology Crossover Ventures--to sign off on the deal and necessary regulatory approvals. Following these approvals, Pace expects the deal to be completed in Q4 2010. For more:
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| 07/26/2010 02:04 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
SMBs will drive new adoption of SIP trunking: report |
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While business customers' initial reaction to migrating from traditional T1-based voice trunking could aptly be described as "fear," a new Heavy Reading report SIP Trunking Gains More Ground With SMBs reveals that small to medium businesses are warming up to the alternative voice technology. And as SMBs embrace SIP trunking as a low-cost alternative to traditional TDM-based voice services, it will drive the total deployment from only 8.5 million SIP trunks in 2009 to 24.3 million trunks in 2013. By adopting SIP trunking, Heavy Reading estimates an SMB could save between 50-70 percent per trunk over TDM-based circuits. Offered by both competitive providers (Broadvox, Cox Business, and Optimum Lightpath) and incumbent players (AT&T, Qwest, Sprint and Verizon) alike, SIP trunking in essence allows a business that already has an installed PBX to leverage VoIP outside the enterprise network via the same Internet connection. Denise Culver, research analyst with Heavy Reading IP Services Insider and author of the report, said that while voice quality issues are still a concern, SMBs are seeing the utility found in IP-based services. "Doubts about service quality remain, but it's clear that more small businesses are becoming convinced that IP-based networks will meet their needs, which will lead to significant growth in SIP trunking deployments over the next three years," she said. For more:
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| 07/26/2010 08:28 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Qwest's Heavy Duty Internet ties the broadband dots together |
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Qwest (NYSE: Q) may have already launched Fiber to the Node (FTTN)-based service with 40 Mbps top capabilities last summer, but it realized that it needs to augment service speed with a host of additional value-added features. Its response to that call is its Heavy Duty Internet service. Of course, there are the speed options. Eligible Qwest customers will be able to choose speeds that start out as low as 1.5 Mbps and scale to 40 Mbps at an introductory rate of either $14.99 or $19.99 for six months. Knowing that speed can only get you so far especially as local cable operators expand their voice, video and data offerings, Qwest Heavy Duty Internet service users will also get WiFi capabilities and security. Customers will be able to get WiFi-enabled home networking access to their broadband connection in addition to being able to WiFi hot spot services that it offers through its partnership with AT&T. Topping off the Heavy Duty service is Qwest @EaseTM, a series of suite of backup, security and support services that includes Norton TM AntiVirus Online and Qwest Personal Digital VaultTM storage services. Qwest itself operates in a highly competitive market that includes aggressive cable operators such as Cox Communications that's been responding to the RBOC's FTTN service drive. Interestingly, Cox Communications debuted a 50 Mbps DOCSIS service not long after Qwest went live with its 40 Mbps FTTN service last summer. "Customers are demanding more than just speed from their technology providers," said Dan Yost, Executive Vice President, Qwest in a release. "They want to know that Qwest understands what they need and how they are using technology in their homes to do everything from downloading movies to gaming to sharing photos." For more:
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| 07/26/2010 07:52 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CENX, EXFO develop off-net Ethernet SLA monitoring tool |
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EXFO's (Nasdaq: EXFO) new partnership with carrier Ethernet exchange provider CENX to create a new off-net service level agreement (SLA) monitoring for carrier Ethernet services is a response to the difficult challenges service providers face in ensuring their service works as advertised when they have to establish an External-Network to Network Interface (E-NNI) with a partner carrier. Service providers that had to monitor off-net Ethernet locations that ran on circuits it purchased from another service provider partner, had no choice but to either "run blind" with no ability to monitor Ethernet service quality at these locations or were forced to buy expensive customer premise monitoring equipment. While buying extra monitoring equipment was better than running blind, the service provider had to incur the costs of not only deploying, but conducting maintenance respective off-net locations. By integrating EXFO's service assurance technology into its exchange, CENX will proactively monitor each Ethernet virtual connection (EVC) from the CENX exchange to the off-net Ethernet service locations (ESLs). The new service makes use of EXFO's BrixNGN Carrier Ethernet Service Assurance System, which leverages assets EXFO bought off the former Brix Networks, a vendor-agnostic methodology to monitor any EVC regardless of what vendor's demarcation point equipment is used to deliver the service to the customer. Ethernet service providers and sellers will be able to access both real time and historical SLA degradation issues through either CENX's market web interface or via open APIs directly into their operational support systems (OSS). For more:
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| 07/26/2010 06:08 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Telefonica Brazil achieves 3 million broadband subscribers milestone |
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Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) Brazil's presence in the country's broadband market continues to rise. Adding 360,000 new subscribers in just the first half of this year, 14 percent over what it added at the end of 2009, Telefonica Brazil now has three million customers for its ‘Speedy' brand broadband service. With the addition of 200,000 new customers in just the first quarter of 2010, Telefonica says that it has added twice the amount of customers than its main rival NetServicos this year. What could make Telefoncia Brazil's broadband service, which is currently available to 23 percent of the 13 million homes in Sao Paulo, even more competitive is that beginning in August it will cut the price of its 2 Mbps service to $39.00 a month. Brazil's broadband and overall wireline market continues is an important area of growth for the Spanish operator. Earlier this month, Telefonica announced that it would not only invest $519 million to expand Brazil's broadband network and service capabilities, but also invest $2.78 billion to upgrade its wireless and wireline network infrastructure in the country. For more:
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| 07/26/2010 05:22 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AT&T brings U-Verse to Chattanooga market |
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AT&T (NYSE: T) is taking a stab at Chattanooga, Tenn.'s increasingly competitive triple play services market by bringing its U-Verse service set to parts of the city beginning this week. Users that sign up for the service will be able to get AT&T's full U-Verse suite, including AT&T U-verse IPTV-based TV service, AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet and AT&T U-verse Voice. Ma Bell is no doubt entering a highly competitive video and broadband services market. Not only does Chattanooga already have two of the major U.S. cable operators-Charter and Comcast-but also EPB Fiber, the telecom arm of local electric utility EPB Power. What paved the way for AT&T to offer U-Verse video service in Chattanooga was the passing of The Competitive Cable and Video Services Act of 2008, HB 1421. After this law was signed by Tennessee's governor Phil Bredesen in July 2008, AT&T announced that it would invest $400 million over the next few years to conduct fiber network upgrades, expand broadband deployment and the reach of its U-Verse IPTV service to the state's telecom customers. For more:
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| 07/26/2010 04:37 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Telmex Internacional's Q2 profits down, but sales were up |
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Carlos Slim's Telmex Internacional's (NYSE: TII) Q2 results was the tale of two different perspectives as profit slid 20 percent while sales and operating profits rose. During Q2, Telmex posted $270 million in profit, a decline from the $340 million it reported in Q2 2009. The Q2 profit decline follows Slim's merger of his Latin American telecom holdings Telint and Telmex with wireless operator America Movil. The good news was that revenues rose 15 percent and earnings were up by 35 percent. Even as Slim consolidates his holdings into a larger telecom power, the billionaire's dominance in the Latin American telecom market continues to face new competitors in both his home Mexico market and in Brazil. In Mexico, a Televisa-led consortium won a 20-year fiber network lease from the Comision Federal de Electricidad, which will provide alternative long-distance connectivity. Meanwhile, Telefonica's (NYSE: (NYSE: TEF) ) Telesp and Vivendi continue to ramp up their respective presence in Brazil's telecom market. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/26/2010 03:45 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
China: 420 million Internet users and counting |
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China continues to be a large consumer of Internet services. As of the end of June, the amount of Internet users in the country clocked in at about 420 million as of the end of June according to new statistics released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). With the country's total Internet consumption being 98.217 Gbps, China's three dominant Internet service provider players--China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile--reported their users consumed a total of 616.703 Gbps, 330.599 Gbps and 30.559 Gbps, respectively. These numbers will grow as these carriers step up their wireless and wireline broadband rollouts. Such news should be welcome to telecom equipment vendors that are looking to gain a stronger foothold in China's wireline broadband market. While China's dominant form of wireline broadband is still arguably DSL, the country's largest carriers have been not only aggressively rolling out not only wireless broadband services, but increasingly Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks. Besides dominant homegrown players (Huawei and ZTE), European vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson have been making waves in the country by securing contracts to supply their FTTP equipment to China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/23/2010 12:29 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Payson Bunts, Delays Voting on Joining the UIA |
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Unsurprisingly, Payson is hand-wringing over joining the new Utah Infrastruture Agency over financial concerns. On Wednesday, the city council opted to put off making a decision until August 4 as they worried openly both about the cost and how much say they would have in the new agency. Payson is about 30% connected and city [...]
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| 07/23/2010 08:16 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Week In Research: SMBs demand virtualization services; Australia Tier 2 telecoms face 'massive changes' |
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Cloud virtualization rising: The need to optimize IT infrastructure is spurring a "significant increase" in adoption of cloud-based virtualization services by small to medium businesses (SMBs), according to a report by AMI-Partners. The problem: SMB channel partners are responding to the increased demand, but many are SMBs themselves--and they're "overwhelmed by the rapidly changing landscape." Release. Aussie M&A imminent: Australia's Tier 2 telecom market--which includes virtual providers who purchase wholesale services, infrastructure operators in niche markets, and etc.--is "on the verge of massive changes which will occur over the next few years," a Research and Markets report says. With four second-tier operators--AAPT, Commander, Vodafone and Hutchison--passing $1 billion in revenues already, the Australian telecom market is ripe for M&A activity. News release. Celluar TV: Digital and analog broadcast subscribers will make up the largest number of mobile TV viewers by 2014, a new report from In-Stat predicts. But cellular subscribers will drive revenues, projected at about $15 billion. News release. NGN takes charge: Research and Markets has added John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new report "Next Generation Telecommunications Networks, Services, and Management" to their offering. It's a "look into the present and future of next generation networks, services, and management in the telecommunications industry." News release. Video streaming popularity grows: More than 10 billion (that's with a B) videos were streamed in the United States in June, Nielsen Wire reports, jumping 4 percent over May's figures and increasing 1.3 percent over the same period last year. Viewers on average streamed 74.9 videos across their computers, with YouTube the preferred streaming media of choice. That's a lot of double rainbows. Story.
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| 07/23/2010 07:19 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ADVA Optical Networking beats Q2 2010 forecast with $87.9M in revenues |
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Fueled by higher carrier infrastructure sales and a year-on-year uptick in its Ethernet access business, ADVA Optical Networking (Frankfurt: ADV.F) reported that its Q2 2010 revenues of $87.9 million were above guidance. Initial guidance had forecast revenues between $80.8 million and $87.2 million, up 18 percent vs. Q2 2009 at $74.6 million and up 8.6 percent vs. $81.1 million reported in Q1 2010. "We are very pleased with our Q2 2010 revenues of $88 million, which exceed guidance and are up strongly, 8.6 percent vs. the previous quarter and 18.0 percent vs. Q2 2009," said Jaswir Singh, chief financial officer & chief operating officer of ADVA Optical Networking in a release. "This development is driven by higher sales in carrier infrastructure equipment and also by a year-on-year pick-up of our Ethernet access business." One notable development that could help ADVA break into more accounts in the U.S. market was its partnership with Juniper Networks, which bought a small stake in the German company. ADVA, however, did see some losses. The vendor's pro forma gross margin at 41.0 percent of revenues came in below the 43.0 percent seen in Q1 2010. Singh attributes the decline to "the weakening of the EUR against the USD, the transition of its well-established FSP 500 platform to the next-generation FSP 150 platform and elevated costs driven by investments in new growth opportunities, adding that "the impact of the changes in foreign currency exchange rates to our pro forma gross profitability was compensated by net gains from foreign currency hedging recorded below the operating-income line." Going forward, ADVA Optical Networking has projected that Q3 2010 revenues will come in between $96.2 million and $102.6 million with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) pro forma operating income between two and six percent of revenues. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/23/2010 05:56 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AT&T Government wins big at USDA with $350 million Networx contract |
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AT&T Government Solutions (NYSE: T) has racked up one of its biggest wins as a General Services Administration (GSA) Networx Universal contract holder with a $350 million contract to provide Managed Security Services and deploy a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Data Services. What makes this latest win is the amount of locations that AT&T will have to serve under the contract and that they now are the sole data network provider for the USDA. Awarded under the GSA's Networx Universal contract vehicle, AT&T will build a managed and unified IP network architecture that will serve over 5,000 USDA locations. USDA's geographically dispersed network encompasses over 29 sub-agencies all with diverse missions, including doing research on food allergens, providing advice to farmers and inspecting food. "If you think about those 29 sub-agencies in the department that do a lot of different things for a lot of different types of constituents," said Jeff Mohan, Executive Director, Networx Program Office, AT&T Government Solutions. "If you think about the extension office, they are primarily dealing with citizens and providing advice on how to grow crops. But if you think about the guys that are doing R&D on pathogens, they are probably talking to schools of public health, so they probably have a different requirement to move large files around." Regardless of the mission, Mohan adds that AT&T will provide a common network framework that will drive collaboration between the diverse agencies within the USDA. "What this network enables is all of these sub-agencies to use a common platform to do their business," Mohan said. Perhaps the biggest thing that's changed with this new network is security services. Delivered on top of its MPLS-enabled network, AT&T not only will provide USDA with not only its IP VPN data services, but also a suite of managed security services, including a managed firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, managed e-authentication service, vulnerability scanning, anti-virus management, incident response, secure managed e-mail, and managed tiered security services. AT&T is no stranger to supplying telecom services to the USDA. Previously, AT&T deployed sites for the USDA Universal Telecommunications Network (UTN) under the Federal Telecommunications Service 2001 (FTS2001) Crossover contract--the predecessor to GSA Networx. For more:
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| 07/23/2010 04:01 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Zayo, Com Net, and OARnet win joint $30 million broadband grant for Ohio |
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Zayo Bandwidth, a carrier that's made a name for itself supplying dark and lit fiber products over an ever-growing network, will lend a hand in the new GigE Plus Availability Coalition (GigEPAC) by building 424 miles along the new 700 route mile fiber build. GigEPAC will leverage the $30 million broadband stimulus grant it just won to extend broadband services to 28 rural and underserved communities in Western Ohio. Led by Com Net, the GigEPAC Coalition includes Zayo Bandwidth, a co-direct sponsor in this award, OARnet and other last mile service providers. The coalition will provide necessary network connectivity to schools, state and local government agencies, public safety agencies, libraries and community support organizations. In addition, GigEPAC will provide middle mile network connectivity to other local service providers. Although this is first broadband stimulus grant Zayo Bandwidth received as a co-direct sponsor, the service provider to date has won three awards this year. In addition to participating in GigEPAC, Zayo Bandwidth was awarded a $13.4 million grant to build a fiber network in Anoka County, Minn. and a $25 million grant to build a 626-mile fiber network connecting 21 college campuses and underserved areas in Indiana. The joint GigEPAC/Zayo broadband stimulus award is reflective of the larger middle mile network trend that's designed not only to bring connectivity to anchor institutions, but also to smaller service providers that need alternative connections to major Internet backbones. - see the release here
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| 07/22/2010 02:18 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eschelon veteran Steve Wachter appointed Integra Telecom's new EVP and COO |
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As Integra's EVP and COO reporting directly to Dudley Slater, CEO of Integra Telecom, Wachter will oversee all of the customer facing operations, including local network management, customer care, and sales across the CLEC's 11 state service area. Prior to the new post, Wachter served as senior VP for Integra Telecom of Minnesota and North Dakota, while at Eschelon he served as the VP of sales and service delivery in Minneapolis. "Steve has demonstrated tremendous leadership and strategic foresight throughout his tenure at Integra Telecom," said Slater in a release. "He understands the telecommunications industry as well as the value Integra's decentralized, local customer service model brings to the customer experience." For more: Related articles:
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| 07/22/2010 08:57 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AT&T's Q2: IPTV, business services save the wireline day |
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AT&T's (NYSE: T) Q2 wireline market segment results once again show how much IP-based services, in particular its U-Verse suite and business services, have on the future growth of a segment that's battling an emerging set of competitive forces. From an overall financial perspective, AT&T's Q2 profit increased to $4 billion, up from $3.2 billion from Q2 2009. Company revenue rose from $30.6 billion in the same quarter last year to $30.8 billion in Q2 2010. Fueled by the ongoing expansion of U-Verse services, sustained revenue growth in strategic IP-based business services and cost management, AT&T's wireline segment revenue reported revenue of $5.4 billion in total revenue, which is flat when compared to Q2 09 results. However, total wireline revenues showed their smallest year-over-year decline in five quarters of 3.7 percent. Consumer wireline revenues were up 1.1 percent--the second consecutive quarter of sequential growth. A big contributor to consumer wireline growth was the addition of 209,000 new U-Verse TV subscribers during the quarter. In total, AT&T now has 2.5 million U-Verse subscribers, a 60 percent increase from 2009. U-Verse High Speed Internet attach rate ran about 90 percent, while about two-thirds of subscribers took U-Verse voice and more than three-fourths of AT&T U-Verse subscribers have a triple- or quad play option from AT&T. While many business customers are starting to come out of the recent economic downturn, AT&T's business market unit saw a series of hits and misses during Q2. Overall business revenues were $9.6 billion, down 4.7 percent in comparison to Q2 09 and business service revenues were down 4.0 percent. However, there were some signs of life in AT&T's Business Market unit. Once again, growth in IP VPN revenues drove up business IP data revenues by 9.1 percent, which generated total business data growth of 0.3 percent, the first growth in this category in five quarters. A big contributor to AT&T's business IP revenue results was the ongoing migration of AT&T's Frame Relay customers transitioning to IP-based solutions. During the quarter, about 70 percent of AT&T's business customers made the Frame Relay to IP transition. For more:
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| 07/22/2010 08:07 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Juniper Q2: Revenue up, but Q3 forecast disappoints analysts |
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Juniper (NYSE: JNPR) may have seen its revenue spike 24 percent in revenue, a factor it attributes to an uptick in carrier spending, but a less than stellar Q3 forecast sent the vendor's stock down. For Q3 2010, Juniper forecast earnings of 30 to 32 cents a share. This forecast was not exactly all that impressive given the fact that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expected Juniper to report 31 cents a share. "The guidance was actually good, pretty solid. But some investors' expectations were clearly a little bit higher," said Michael Genovese, analyst at Soleil Securities. One factor contributing to the weaker than expected outlook was a lack of new customer commitments from Tier 1 carriers such as AT&T and Verizon. The lack of new carrier customer wins drove down Juniper's shares 15 percent in the past three months. Kevin Johnson, Juniper's CEO, however, says it has "very good relationships" with AT&T and Verizon, and that they are "very positive on the fact that these relationships are getting stronger." Overall, Juniper had a solid second quarter. During the quarter, Juniper reported $978 million in revenue, an increase over the $786 million it saw in the same quarter last year and surpassing analysts' expectation of $954 million. At the same time, Juniper's earnings per share increased from 19 cents to 30 cents from Q2 2009, surpassing analysts' expectations by a penny. For more:
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| 07/22/2010 07:20 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Main One cable rakes in three carrier customers |
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Only days after Main One opened its submarine cable network for business three Nigerian telecom providers--UAE-based Etisalat, South Africa's MTN and Nigerian-based Starcomms--has signed on for service. Built through a partnership with TE Subcom, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Huawei, the 7,200 km Main One submarine cable system will link West Africa to Europe with landing stations in Nigeria and Ghana and branching units in Morocco, Canary Islands, Senegal and Cote d'Ivoire. Phase two of the Main One network, which will link Ghana and Nigeria with an extension to South Africa, will be completed by the end of 2011. Delivering 1.92 Tbps speeds, the Main One cable will provide a much needed alternative international route to West Africa. Up 'til now, service providers that needed to connect into West Africa had little choice but to buy capacity from the existing South Atlantic Terminal (SAT-3) cable. Steven Evans, CEO of Etisalat Nigeria, which is in the process of doing testing on the network with plans to go live this week, said the cable will not only enable wireless operators to offer new data services, but also drive new competition in West Africa's telecom market. "We are working very hard at the moment to go live on the network, hopefully within the next 24-48 hours ... so that we will be one of the first people to be having broadband on the main network in Nigeria," Evans said in a Reuters article. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/22/2010 05:16 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strategy Analytics: U.S. falls to 23rd spot in worldwide broadband race |
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Despite efforts by the FCC and Congress to expand broadband availability to more consumers and businesses, a new ranking released by Strategy Analytics shows that the U.S. trails the rest of the world in broadband development. According to the analyst firm's new Broadband Composite Index (BCI), the U.S. ranks 23rd on the list of 57 countries. Taking the top spot on the ranking is South Korea, while Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Japan round out the remaining top five spots. In developing the BCI measurement tool, Strategy Analytics judged the 57 countries in five categories, including household penetration, speed, affordability, value for money, and urbanicity. Ben Piper, Director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service and author of the report, said what's holding back the U.S. broadband market is a lack of healthy competition. This lack of competition, which has been dominated by a two-horse race between cable operators and telcos, has not only driven up broadband prices, but kept speeds low.
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| 07/22/2010 04:22 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Telstra gets ready to hand out pink slips |
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Telstra's (ASX: TLS.AX) CEO David Thodey wants to tighten up his operations and to achieve that goal he's going to cut about 10 percent of senior and middle management positions in the service provider's business. According to a Telstra spokesman that was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the workforce reduction is an effort to simplify the telco's operations and reducing duplication. In total, Telstra will lay off about 30 senior managers and 270 middle managers. "These changes are about making our business simpler, removing duplication and increasing the speed of decision-making. All of the changes are intended to make processes simpler for our front-line staff, enabling them to make things happen faster and serve customers better," said the spokesperson. Although Telstra has informed senior managers of its job reduction plans, the service provider will reveal what middle management roles will be cut in the next few weeks. Not surprisingly, the job cuts come at a time when Telstra has had to battle aggressive wireless operators such as Singapore Telecom's Australian division Optus, not to mention declining wireline revenue. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/22/2010 03:51 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
360networks takes VoIP services to the Sacramento market |
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360networks, a facilities based wholesale service provider, has expanded its wholesale VoIP footprint in Sacramento, Calif. market. Through this expansion, 360networks will be able to provide wholesale VoIP services in 47 rate centers, covering more than 1.4 million people in the Sacramento area. The move into Sacramento follows 360networks' earlier expansion into the Northern California market. Overall, the expansion into Sacramento ups 360networks' total wholesale IP Origination and IP Termination services to 1,488 rate centers and 70 million people across 17 Western U.S. states on its own 17,200 route mile fiber backbone. Although Rick Coma, 360networks senior vice president, acknowledged this latest network expansion brings its VoIP support to a total of "15 of the west's largest metropolitan areas," is just one part of its ongoing investment strategy in the Western region. "We will continue to invest in our network, so our customers can meet growing demand for VoIP services in rural, suburban and metropolitan markets across the west," said Coma. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/21/2010 01:02 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Smoking Gun: Qwest Caught Admitting That FTTN Eliminates Competition |
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Incumbent telcos haven’t exactly been thrilled at having to offer their lines at wholesale rates to competing ISPs, especially since landline revenues have been sliding into a ditch. While AT&T and Verizon can keep most of that revenue with a wireless division, Qwest has no such option and has struggled with making enough money to [...]
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| 07/21/2010 08:19 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Verizon serves up new DSL wholesale offering |
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Competitive service providers that are looking for a new wholesale DSL option, but want to maintain their own service identity, can now turn to Verizon Global Wholesale and its new "White Label" wholesale options. Wholesale customers will now have the option of offering Verizon's DSL-based services--Broadband Traffic Aggregation Service (BTAS) and InfoSpeed DSL service--as their own branded product. Up till now, competitive carrier wholesale customers had to sell Verizon-branded Verizon Online service as Wholesale Advantage DSL. Kathleen Sullivan, divisional vice president, Verizon Global Wholesale said that the new wholesale options enable its competitive carrier customers "sell an Internet service that is similar to the one we sell to our retail customers but with the carrier's own branding umbrella." BTAS is ideal for U.S. competitive providers that want an easy way to turn up high speed Internet (HSI) service, while InfoSpeed provides the local access portion of DSL to service providers that may have built out their own ATM backbone and have established local points of presence. Even though competitive providers may be reselling Verizon's DSL service, the compelling aspect of InfoSpeed is that they gain control over the service experience with the ability to apply their own QoS to the service. At the same time, Verizon Global Wholesale can provide ATM networks for competitive providers that lack such capabilities. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/21/2010 07:52 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Vertical Systems cites Ethernet exchanges as new trend to watch |
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Vertical Systems Group, which is known for its coverage of carrier Ethernet trends, is setting its focus on the emerging Ethernet Exchange market segment. Defining the market segment as a carrier-neutral marketplace solution to standardize and simplify Ethernet service interconnection among service providers, Vertical's initiative will track drivers and risks, customer segmentation, deployment timing and Ethernet Exchange ports and revenue projections. While Vertical derived its projected Ethernet end-points from Vertical's databases of enterprise network installations and commercial sites, actual projections will be released at a later point. Establishing External-Network to Network Interconnections (E-NNI) to extend a respective carrier's Ethernet reach has been an ongoing issue when they get a customer requirement that extends outside of the respective network footprint. When service providers got such requests they had to establish a one-off arrangement with a service provider partner to complete the connection in that off-net location. However, E-NNI arrangements won't be completely replaced by Ethernet exchanges. Instead, the Ethernet exchange--as championed by existing data center providers (Equinix and Telx), peering operators (Neutral Tandem) and Ethernet exchange specialists (CENX)--will be a complementary tool service providers can use along with traditional E-NNI arrangements. To date, the majority of the carrier arrangements with the Ethernet exchanges, with the exception of Verizon, has been from the competitive carrier community, including traditional CLECs (Covad, RCN Metro and Transtelco), competitive wholesalers (Intellifiber) and more recently cable (Cablevision's business arm Optimum Lightpath). These carriers are leveraging the Ethernet exchange to fill in what Vertical says are "selected gaps in their Ethernet footprints." Rosemary Cochran, principal at Vertical Systems Group, said the Ethernet exchange idea, while relatively new, could help make the interconnection process perhaps a bit easier for carriers expanding their respective Ethernet footprints through carrier partnerships. "The major driver for Ethernet exchanges has been because doing bilateral interconnect agreements is painful," she said. "Establishing interconnect agreements is something that's being done and has been done because no service provider is everywhere." For more: Related articles:
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| 07/21/2010 06:46 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alcatel-Lucent lights up China Telecom's, China Mobile's FTTH networks |
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Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) standings in China's wireline broadband market got a lift this week by winning Fiber to the Home (FTTH) contracts with both China Telecom and China Mobile. Although neither service provider would reveal financial terms of the deal, China Mobile will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's PON gear in 14 provinces, while China Telecom will deploy it in 18 provinces. Both contracts were brokered through Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's China subsidiary. The two service providers will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU) platform in addition to its optical network units (ONU) in addition to professional service capabilities such as deployment, integration and maintenance. Despite seeing slowdowns in Europe and the U.S., China has been a major growth market for Alcatel-Lucent. Last July, Alcatel-Lucent secured contracts with China Mobile to provide its PON-based FTTH gear for a 10 city deployment across the provinces of Guangdong and Anhu in addition to trials with China Telecom. Growth in China's wireline broadband market will likely continue as China Telecom, for one, previously announced that it would deploy an 18 million line FTTH network with 100 Mbps in major cities and 12 Mbps minimum to 70 percent of users in towns and cities it currently serves. For more:
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| 07/21/2010 04:38 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Telefonica's Telesp will invest $519 million in Brazil broadband network |
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Telecomunicacoes de Sao Paulo (Telesp), the Brazilian arm of Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), plans to plunk down $519 million to expand broadband networks and services throughout Brazil this year. As one of the largest regions it serves in Latin America, Telefonica continues to make large financial commitments to expand services in Brazil. Telefonica announced in May that it would spend a total $2.78 billion to build out wireline and wireless network infrastructure in Brazil this year. Since entering the Latin American telecom market in the 1990s, Telefonica has invested over $110 billion in the region. Last year, Telefonica, which also has a 50 percent stake in Brazil's largest wireless operator Vivo Participacoes, invested $1.92 billion in Brazil's telecom market. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/21/2010 04:02 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NTELOS buys FiberNet from One Communications |
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NTELOS (NASDAQ: NTLS), a regional integrated wireless/wireline operator in West Virginia, is the victor in the race to acquire One Communications' FiberNet business for about $170 million. By acquiring FiberNet, NTELOS will add about 3,500 route fiber network miles that cover all of West Virginia and into surrounding areas in Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. FiberNet was swept up into One Communications when it was formed during the merger of CTC Communications and Choice One Communications--which included a deal to acquire FiberNet's parent Conversent Communications in 2006. FiberNet's agreement to be acquired by NTELOS comes after a report emerged in the Charleston Daily Mail last month that it was looking for a buyer. To fund the acquisition, NTELOS will use a combination of a permitted incremental term loan under the existing senior credit facility, availability under the undrawn revolver and cash on hand. After clearing FCC, necessary state regulatory approvals and antitrust approvals, NTELOS expects to close the deal in the fourth quarter this year. "In addition to immediate financial contributions from the embedded customer base, this acquisition will provide NTELOS with new opportunities within our core business of providing high bandwidth services to large enterprises, government customers and carriers," said Frank L. Berry, NTELOS executive vice president and president of wireline operations in a release. "Consistent with our strategic growth vision, by increasing FiberNet's customer penetration and usage across our service area, we will further leverage operational and back office platforms already in place." This is not the first major acquisition for NTELOS, however. Last October, the regional provider doubled its fiber network reach by acquiring a large portion of Allegheny Energy's fiber assets, a move that instantly doubled its fiber network from 2,300 to 4,500 route-miles. FiberNet may be the latest deal in the ever-consolidating competitive service provider market, but it certainly won't be the last. Other rumors emerged in June that at least three other regional fiber providers--KDL, Alpheus and Fibertech, whose networks were built during the late 1990s Internet boom--are also up for sale, but nothing has been confirmed yet. For more:
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| 07/21/2010 03:12 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AT&T brings California State University at Fresno into its U-Verse |
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Students living at the Campus Pointe development at California State University at Fresno will be able to tap into a triple play bundle courtesy of AT&T (NYSE: T). Delivered to the university through an agreement between Apartment Renovation Group and RPM Management, AT&T's U-Verse service bundle, a package that includes a mix of high-speed Internet, AT&T Voice digital home phone and TV, including 130 high-definition channels and DVR recordable programming, will be available to 550 residents at Campus Pointe. In a single stroke, AT&T gains a sizeable chunk of business for U-Verse. Campus Pointe is an ambitious university living unit project that will include 550 housing units that the university envisions will be able to hold 1,400 students and seniors in addition to a Hyatt Hotel with 200 available rooms. For more: Related articles:
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| 07/20/2010 08:02 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FCC: Broadband providers need to step up rollouts |
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The FCC's broadband plan may hold the promise of giving all Americans an equal chance to get a broadband connection, but getting there is anything but easy. And while an unnamed senior FCC official said the report is not meant to be critical of the service provider's efforts, the cries of telecom service provider industry groups are already being heard. USTelecom's President Walter McCormick said in a statement that while he does not dispute the fact there's still work to do to connect the remaining pieces of the population that can't get a wireline broadband connection, "it is inconsistent with the commission's own data to conclude that deployment is not progressing in a timely and reasonable manner." One of the obvious challenges that the large service providers, including even Qwest (NYSE: Q) and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) whose respective territories include remote markets, is that it costs a lot to extend broadband facilities to smaller cities and towns that lack the density of larger cities and towns. That's not to say Qwest and Windstream aren't making efforts to expand broadband availability, however. Although both service providers opted to not to participate in the first round broadband stimulus funding round because of the rules over "unserved" and "underserved" areas, Qwest and Windstream did both apply in round two to expand broadband availability in the remote areas they serve. Outside of the larger carriers, there are some success stories emerging in the Tier 3 service provider market. Lenora, Kan.-based Rural Telephone/NexTech just won a $101 million broadband stimulus grant to build out a hybrid Fiber to the Home (FTTH)/WiMAX-based broadband network. Regardless of the carrier size, the challenge of extending broadband to remote areas, while real, will require multi-pronged effort that includes not only financial assistance, but also educating consumers and businesses on the value that a broadband connection can bring. For more:
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| 07/20/2010 07:24 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Optimum Lightpath joins CENX's Ethernet exchange |
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Optimum Lightpath has become the latest Ethernet service provider that's decided to ramp the growth of its Ethernet service base by signing onto CENX's carrier Ethernet exchange. With the majority of its footprint being in New York metro and New Jersey, two markets where it currently serves a number of multi-site financial institutions and hospitals, Optimum Lightpath through CENX will be able to extend its reach into an additional 10 million global Ethernet service locations. "Our connection to CENX's New York exchange gives us the ability to quickly and easily establish Ethernet connections to high demand locations far beyond our existing footprint to the rest of the world," said Dave Pistacchio, President of Optimum Lightpath in a release. "This is especially important as our customers, including those in the financial services sector, look to quickly create connections between various office locations and key hot spots around the globe." Pistacchio's point about financial institutions is well taken. While Optimum Lightpath has continued to crank up its Ethernet services for financial companies with a host of low latency offerings, its services could be even more enticing for financial institutions that require network connectivity to the well known financial routes including New York to Chicago route. For more:
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| 07/20/2010 06:54 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
XO Communications introduces online SIP savings tool |
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If you're an enterprise that wants to know how much money you'll save in adopting SIP-based services, XO's (OTC BB: XOHO.OB) Saving Estimator tool could be just the tool you need. With XO's online-based Savings Estimator tool, enterprises will be able to calculate the approximate cost-savings benefit of using XO Enterprise SIP. Ideal for multi-site businesses, Enterprise SIP enables customers to consolidate their distributed voice network into a more centralized VoIP architecture. Given the diverse needs of a multi-site enterprise business, XO's Enterprise SIP Savings Estimator can give a "snapshot" of how much an enterprise could save by adopting SIP-based voice by taking into account the amount of employees, network locations and intra-company long distance calls. What's more, the tool can estimate the cost savings benefits of XO Enterprise SIP, including network management and lower operating costs by reducing the amount of required equipment, in addition to the cost of local voice trunks, long distance and multiple voice and data network connections. Even though enterprise SIP-based services are still arguably nascent, XO has managed to build out a deep VoIP service footprint that's currently available in more than 2,700 U.S. cities. Having a tool in hand that takes into consideration a specific enterprise's unique needs could also give XO's sales team a nice proof point as it tries to sell business customers that are looking to cut more costs as they come out of the recent global economic downturn. For more:
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| 07/16/2010 07:00 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bye Bye, Deadbeat Providers |
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One of the more interesting parts of UTOPIA’s new plans via the Utah Infrastructure Agency (UIA) is to have cities start taking over billing operations directly. In the past, service providers operated all of the billing and then remitted payment to UTOPIA for the wholesale transport. That arrangement works well for most providers, but every [...]
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| 07/14/2010 08:07 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rally Fail: UTOPIA Hijacks Utah Taxpayers Association Event |
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The Utah “Taxpayers” Association thought it would get an upper hand with a BBQ in Orem just before the city council voted on a new construction bond. Unfortunately for them, the plan backfired when UTOPIA made a surprise appearance at the event with their “mobile command center” and started actually talking directly with the meeting [...]
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| 07/12/2010 07:00 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Broadband Stimulus is an Abject and Absolute Failure |
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I usually spend a lot of time checking my non-broadband opinions at the door. If anyone cares about my political leanings outside of telecommunications, they can find my other blog with great ease. In this case though, I’ve got more than a few choice words for the broadband stimulus and how it has failed to [...]
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| 07/10/2010 08:00 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Is Google Sweet on UTOPIA? |
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The Salt Lake Tribune reports today that Google had a few UTOPIA executives come out to their offices last month to discuss how UTOPIA operates. The article insinuates that this may mean that UTOPIA is near the top of the heap in Google’s search for a location to build a fiber-optic network. As tantalizing as [...]
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| 07/09/2010 02:43 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Utah Infrastructure Agency Moving Forward |
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Remember UTOPIA’s new plan to shift the cost of the network from the cities onto subscribers? It’s been moving forward in the form of the Utah Infrastructure Agency, a way for cities to bond for construction without having to put taxpayers as a whole on the hook. So far, West Valley City, Lindon, Midvale, Layton, [...]
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| 07/01/2010 06:29 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Putting the Watchdog on a Leash |
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It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of the Utah “Taxpayers” Association. Their frequent stretching of the truth and cowardly dodges of criticism sometimes make my blood boil. Apparently I’m not alone. A reader pointed out a new blog, Stop UTA, that’s going to be a watchdog on their activities and point out their [...]
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| 11/02/2009 04:45 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fiber Cable Products - Fibre Patch Cables, Fibre Trunk Cables |
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All our fibers cables are made to meet EIA/TIA standards and in fact some network manufactures use our cables for performance testing. Our fiber cables come with a part & serial number at each end.
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| 11/02/2009 04:45 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gigamon GigaVUE-2404 Network Data Access Aggregation Tool |
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Data Access Aggregation Tool for 10G data center networks. Aggregates, replicates & filters traffic flows across multiple passive monitoring tools.
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| 11/02/2009 04:44 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dual Bi-Directional WAN Emulation & Network Simulation |
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Gigabit WAN emulation and network simulation. Network emulator accommodates the following IP interfaces: 10/100 Ethernet, 10/100/1000 Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet T1, E1, DS3, OC3, and OC12. More...
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| 11/02/2009 04:43 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Storage Emulation for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Fibre Channel and SAS |
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The industryâs most advanced storage emulation solutions for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Fibre Channel & SAS. Highly configurable systems have unique ability to emulate actual storage devices.
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| 11/02/2009 04:42 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gigabit Network Access TAP System |
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Network TAPs, Fibre TAPs, Copper TAPs, Aggregation TAPs - The 2U High Density Chassis provides the high density of TAPs and the configurable flexibility you need in an enterprise Access Solution.
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| 11/02/2009 04:42 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gigamon GigaVUE-420 Network Access Aggregation Data Access Tool |
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A cost effective way to secure/monitor data centers. Network Engineers who have problems of multiple network segments to monitor, many tools to deploy, too few SPAN ports/TAPs can solve these issues.
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| 11/02/2009 04:41 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NextGig Systems, Inc. |
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NextGigSystems.com provides industry leading network connectivity, monitoring and test solutions for IT professionals and storage development engineers.
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| 11/01/2009 05:00 PM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Free Testing FCoE Designs Webinar Series |
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Course: 20 Oct 2009 - 3 Nov 2009, Web Based All Are Welcome, United States.
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| 09/15/2009 01:13 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 Channels BNC To Fiber Video Converter |
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4 Channels BNC To Fiber Video Converter
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| 09/15/2009 01:12 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8 Channels BNC To Fiber Media Converter |
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8 Channels BNC To Fiber Media Converter
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Free Dreamweaver template courtesy of JustDreamweaver.com
Integra Telecom, a competitive service provider serving the Western U.S., did not have to look to far to find its new EVP and COO. Instead, the CLEC decided to promote Steve Wachter, who came to Integra through its acquisition of Eschelon Telecom in 2007.