FiberToTheWhatever.com News
The most comprehensive news aggregator for fiber to the home (FTTH), FTTx, and all things fiber on the web.
| 03/10/2010 01:59 PM |
DOCSIS 3.0's 'Sweet' Economics - European carrier pays $20 per home passed to upgrade |
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Liberty Global is spending on average about $20 per home passed for its rapid network buildout of Docsis 3.0, the platform the operator is using to deliver downstream speeds of 100 Mbit/s or more in portions of Europe. "The economics are quite sweet for Docsis 3.0," says Timothy Burke, Liberty Global's VP of strategic technology, who highlighted those costs at the recent Cable Next-Gen Broadband Strategies 2010 event in Denver. Liberty is using the EuroDOCSIS standard, which uses 8MHz-wide channels as opposed to the 6MHz-wide channels used in North America.That total doesn't include the cost of DOCSIS 3.0 modems, though DOC 3 modem costs dropped 30% last year alone, and a number of models can now be had for $50 in the UK (The Motorola SB6120 can be had for $85 here in the States). Next up for many cable operators: improving cable upstream speeds.read comment(s) 
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| 03/10/2010 11:35 AM |
Alexandria, Virginia Wants Their FiOS - Cities neglected by first installation wave a little annoyed... |
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After Euille inquired about when Fios could move forward in the city, Robert Woltz, Verizon's president for Virginia, sent a response that was dated Feb. 18 but received by the city March 9, explaining that Verizon had enough agreements in place to meet its goals for national deployment. "As a result, we will not be able to add the city of Alexandria to our existing portfolio, and at this point, I do not know when that will change," the letter read. Verizon of course is in the midst of a massive company refocusing that involves selling off (and neglecting according to unions and regulators) a lot of unwanted copper-based DSL and landline markets. Instead, Verizon's focusing on filling in the FiOS gaps with LTE wireless broadband service, which of course raises a lot of questions about the other 50% of Verizon's copper-based network that has yet to be upgraded. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg has publicly stated he'd like to see FiOS adoption rates hit 40% before deciding on the next wave of FiOS deployment.read comment(s)
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| 03/10/2010 08:29 AM |
Zayo Enterprise Networks puts fiber in Denver businesses' diet |
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If anyone thinks there's a fiber glut, they obviously have not talked to Zayo Enterprise Networks. To keep up with new business service demands, the competitive provider is pumping 100 miles of new fiber routes in its Denver market to bring power up its 'Fiber-to-the-Enterprise' initiative. A key part of the fiber deployment will be BTI Systems' packet optical network platforms (PONP) and carrier Ethernet platforms. Zayo will leverage BTI 7000 Series packet optical networking platform and the BT 700 Series Ethernet demarcation and aggregation devices to deliver 1 Gbps and higher Ethernet and IP services to Denver area business customers. While much of the attention around PONPs have centered on large service providers (Verizon), competitive providers such as Zayo are finding these platforms have great utility to deliver alternative metro connectivity to various vertical market segments, including healthcare, school districts and government agencies. For more:
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| 03/10/2010 07:57 AM |
Time Warner Cable 50 Mbps Arrives in Buffalo, Dallas - Expect a flurry of market announcements shortly... |
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| 03/10/2010 06:27 AM |
FCC Will Release Broadband Plan One Day Early - Next Tuesday, March 16, at 10:30 EST |
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| 03/10/2010 05:58 AM |
ACTA Faces Huge Setback In Europe - EU Parliament votes 663 to 13 against |
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"This Parliament will not sit back silently while the fundamental rights of millions of citizens are being negotiated away behind closed doors. We oppose any "legislation laundering" on an international level of what would be very difficult to get through most national legislatures or the European Parliament," added Lambrinidis. The past few weeks have seen a strong push in the European Parliament to have ACTA negotiations made more transparent, and to ensure that the rules don't force ISPs to impose "three strikes" rules that would require they boot copyright infringers from their networks.read comment(s)
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| 03/10/2010 05:25 AM |
Wednesday Morning Links - |
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| 03/10/2010 05:24 AM |
TV Providers Petition FCC for Help in Fee Dispute - Suddenly government regulation is apparently ok... |
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Time Warner said it would ask the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to "address skyrocketing consumer costs by establishing a new framework for resolving retransmission consent disputes and ensuring that consumers are not caught in the middle. "Specifically, we plan to ask the FCC to consider arbitration and forcing continuation of carriage during a dispute." Of course during Time Warner Cable's recent dispute with Fox over the network's desire for a new per-subscriber fee, Time Warner Cable seemed more than willing to "get tough" against broadcasters, even if that meant consumers losing access to channels. As we've been exploring, neither side in these disputes are faultless, and the end result of these disputes winds up being higher TV rates for consumers -- no matter which company "wins." Verizon, Cablevision and Time Warner Cable have some consumer advocate support in their effort to get the FCC to act. Consumer advocacy firm Public Knowledge issued a statement urging the FCC or Congress to "examine the current retransmission consent process and consider whether the system needs adjustments to ensure that viewers are not disenfranchised." Something tells us they're a little late. read comment(s)
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| 03/10/2010 05:20 AM |
The NFL Dumps Sprint, Prefers Verizon's Huge Bag Of Money - Verizon now the exclusive wireless carrier of the NFL... |
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| 03/10/2010 05:03 AM |
Global Crossing upgrades submarine network routes |
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Growing demand from enterprise and service provider customers for more IP and Ethernet transport has prompted Global Crossing to expand the capacity on three of its Mid-Atlantic Crossing (MAC), South American Crossing (SAC) and Pan American Crossing (PAC) submarine cable systems. Expected to be implemented over the next six months, with some segments ready as early as this May, the network upgrades will boost capacity between Latin America, North America and Europe. One region that these new upgrades will satisfy is Latin America where carriers are either looking to route traffic within the region or a service provider that needs network access into the U.S. to serve one of their multinational enterprise customers. "The Latin American market is poised to sustain strong growth," said John Legere, Global Crossing's CEO in a release. "The investments we are making are in response to the continued demand Global Crossing is experiencing across our global network for broadband services such as video over IP, social media and content delivery networks." For more:
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| 03/09/2010 10:25 PM |
Frontier-Verizon deal faces opposition in Illinois |
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Frontier's ambition to become one of the largest independent service providers through acquiring Verizon's rural lines hit a snag this week when an administrative judge in Illinois ruled that its state's regulators should not approve the deal. With nearly 600,000 customers, Illinois is a sizeable market in the 14-state territory that Frontier wants to acquire from Verizon. Now, the deal is in the hands Illinois' Commerce Commission. According to the Herald-Review, the regulator will make a decision to either amend or adopt Tapia's report by late April. Illinois is not the only state to question the Frontier-Verizon deal. In West Virginia, unions and the attorney general also questioned Frontier's ability to maintain customer service and expand broadband availability. Despite the protests to the deal Verizon argued that its sale of its lines to Frontier is in the public interest and should be approved. "Based on the record in this case, we believe the commission should not adopt the administrative law judge's recommendation, but instead should issue an order that approves the transaction, as regulatory commissions in six other states have already done," said Carl Erhart, president of Verizon's Central region in a statement. For more:
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| 03/09/2010 09:47 PM |
AT&T conducts 100 GigE dress rehearsal |
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AT&T's completion of its 100 Gbps backbone trial is another indicator that large service providers are realizing they need more horsepower to sate the seemingly endless appetite for wired and wireless applications. A key part of the trial was to test Cisco's newly minted CRS-3 Carrier Routing System to demonstrate single-flow 100-Gigabit Ethernet backbone link operating at the IP layer. In addition, AT&T leveraged Opnext 100 Gbps CFP client side modules and Ixia's K2 traffic generator/analyzer to test a single-carrier 100 Gigabit transmission with real-time coherent processing on a 900-km long-haul transport link. But while the trial is new, AT&T is not a 100 Gbps networking novice. Following the deployment of 40 Gbps network in 2008, AT&T conducted two lab trials of 100 Gbps technology. Of course, AT&T is not the only provider with 100 Gbps transmission ambitions. Fellow RBOC Verizon Communications not only conducted another 100 Gbps field trial in its Dallas, Texas market, but also last December upgraded a European long-haul route with 100 Gbps capabilities.
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| 03/09/2010 04:09 PM |
Tuesday Evening Links - |
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| 03/09/2010 03:07 PM |
Qwest plugs more Arizona regions into VDSL2-based FTTN |
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Qwest has been hard at work lately in expanding the availability of its FTTN-based service in its respective local service territories, and its latest deployments in Phoenix and Tucson, AZ areas reflect that ongoing trend. For more:
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| 03/09/2010 02:45 PM |
FCC Hopes To Use Some Spectrum For 'Free or Cheap' Wireless - But you might want to see if they can fix the USF first... |
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U.S. regulators may dedicate spectrum to free wireless Internet service for some Americans to increase affordable broadband service nationwide, the Federal Communications Commission said on Tuesday. . . One way of making broadband more affordable is to "consider use of spectrum for a free or a very low cost wireless broadband service," the FCC said in a statement. Looking at the actual FCC statement (pdf) however, there's no real explanation of how exactly the agency hopes to do this. The statement also suggests that the FCC will "consider" such a plan, not neccessarily that they'll implement it. With spectrum obviously a limited resource, clearly the FCC's thinking about some kind of subsidy package to the nation's telcos if they provide cheaper service. Of course the FCC already plans to subsidize carriers as they examine "reforming" the long broken USF system. That reform, according to several people familiar with the plan, could involve a new monthly fee on broadband connections used to expand the plan to cover residential broadband (right now it covers only rural phone service, and broadband provided to schools). We're told the fee is slated to be somewhere around $1 a month per person, but could be higher when the final plan is unveiled. However, "free or low cast wireless service" seems like a long shot. Reforming the USF is a very complex and difficult task in and of itself, given the fund (and the e-Rate program) has a bit of a history as a poorly supervised mess, according to GAO studies. $25 billion has been dumped into e-Rate alone since 1998, though the FCC for many years didn't track where it went. That means that maybe that money helped, or maybe it didn't. Maybe it just found its way into the pocket of a phone company, or maybe it helped buy a high school PC in Pensacola, Florida. One thing we know is that AT&T and Verizon have been lobbying Uncle Sam very hard for several years to ensure they get a bigger chunk of the USF pie. From the looks of things they're going to get it to the tune of several billion per major incumbent annually, according to one plan source. Getting more money for incumbents will be the primary goal. Maybe consumers will see that money put to use in tangible ways like "free or cheap" wireless service -- but maybe they won't. read comment(s)
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| 03/09/2010 01:06 PM |
Illinois Next Up To Approve Verizon/Frontier Deal - Though Judge's report finds the deal isn't good for consumers or Frontier |
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Lisa Tapia said in the 46-page report that allowing Frontier to purchase the Verizon lines in Illinois "will diminish Frontier s ability to perform its duties to provide adequate, reliable, efficient, safe and least-cost public utility service." She also concluded the acquisition also could hurt Frontier s ability to raise capital by taking on the additional financial obligations. Opponents and supporters filed hundreds of pages of testimony prior to release of the recommendation. Unions and consumer advocates continue to protest the deal, given the debt and huge influx of support issues will likely put broadband expansion and upgrades on the back burner. Of course the alternative (having Verizon stay in markets it doesn't want to upgrade) isn't particularly compelling either. Despite repeated warnings and studies within regulatory agencies showing the negative impact of the deal, regulators in six states have proceeded to unanimously approve the deal anyway. In other words, expect Illinois regulatory approval in short order. read comment(s)
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| 03/09/2010 11:06 AM |
Cisco Changes The Universe And Mankind Forever! - Well ok, not really. They just unveiled a new, really fast router... |
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| 03/09/2010 09:46 AM |
CenturyLink catches the 40 Gbps service wave |
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At next week's Spring Comptel show in Nashville, Tn., it's likely the talk on the show floor will center on how wholesale carriers are ramping up networks to satisfy mobile operator's wireless backhaul needs. One carrier that's responding to that need is CenturyLink, which has deployed 40 Gbps Waves on its existing IXC long-haul transport network. Currently offering 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps Waves, CenturyLink says the new 40G Waves service will be there to handle the coming onslaught of wireless network traffic that's going to continue to rise with the advent of 3G and 4G wireless services. Complementing its existing OC-12/48/192 and 50 Mbps to 10 Gbps Ethernet offerings, the new 40G service eliminates the need for multiple 10 Gbps links. Along with fellow tier 2 ILEC Windstream, CenturyLink has been making aggressive investments to sate the wireless operator's appetite for new wireless backhaul alternatives. For more:
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| 03/09/2010 08:59 AM |
Cisco unveils long-awaited CRS-1 upgrade |
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Cisco's long-awaited follow up to its flagship core router CRS-1 came today with the debut of its new CRS-3 core router. Offering up to 322 Tbps of capacity, Cisco says the CRS-3 offers unified service delivery of Internet and cloud services with intelligence spanning service provider IP NGNs and data center. Already, the CRS-3 has gotten the attention of AT&T, who tested the product in their recent 100 Gbps Ethernet field trial. Conducted on a live route between New Orleans and Miami, AT&T's trial signifies the ongoing movement large carriers are making to advance their networks to support the growing mix of consumer and business wireline and mobile applications. Also lending a hand in AT&T's 100 Gbps deployment were Opnext with their 100 Gigabit CFP client side modules and Ixia's "K2" 100 Gigabit traffic generator and analyzer. Interestingly, AT&T's trial follows a similar live trial that Verizon conducted with Juniper and NEC this month on network routes in its North Dallas, Texas market. For more: Related articles
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| 03/09/2010 08:12 AM |
Telefonica considers joint bid on Mexican fiber auction |
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To challenge Mexico's telecom monopoly Telmex for network backbone capacity, Telefonica is considering an alliance with other competitive and even regional cable operators to bid on the Mexican government's sale of two fiber strands owned by the country's electric monopoly Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). With this fiber network, Telefonica and other telecom operators will be able to bypass Carlos Slim's Telmex, which currently controls 80 percent of Mexico's wireline market, for their backbone capacity. Although no formal arrangement has been announced, Mexican cable operator Megacable's management said they would partner with Telefonica, broadcaster Televisa and other smaller area service providers to jointly bid for the fiber strands in the government-run auction. "We may go together," said Francisco Gil, head of Telefonica's Mexico operations in a Reuter's article. "There could be a consortium." For more:
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| 03/09/2010 07:44 AM |
Tax confusion could hamper broadband stimulus deployments |
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Service providers and communities that were lucky enough to get a broadband grant in the first round of grant awards may have gotten through one hoop to fulfill their broadband ambitions, but they are facing uncertainty over whether those grants will be taxed by Uncle Sam. A similar shroud of confusion hangs over the $7.2 billion in broadband grants that are being doled out by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS). NARUC argued in a letter to the Treasury that taxing the grants could have detrimental effects not only to the grant winners, but also to consumers by increasing "costs to utility ratepayers NARUC's members are charged to protect." To resolve the tax issue, NARUC is asking the NTIA and RUS to meet with the Treasury to clarify what is taxable and not taxable. For more:
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| 03/09/2010 04:40 AM |
GSA puts $35B Connections II vehicle on the track |
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By officially releasing a draft request for proposals this week for the upcoming Connections II contract, the General Services Administration (GSA) believes that government agencies will have a "one-stop shop" for telecom and networking products and services. As a successor to the Connections contract that expires next year, Connections II will complement the woefully behind schedule telecom services Networx contract (currently held by AT&T, Qwest, Verizon, Level 3 and Sprint) with a set of IT networking capabilities, including: communications and networking; IT operations, administration and management support; customer service and technical support; and building/campus facility preparation. With an estimated price tag of $35 billion, the GSA Connections II RFP said it will cover "all labor and equipment necessary to support communications and networking solutions at the LAN, building, campus, and enterprise level." For more:
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| 03/08/2010 02:51 PM |
What's a Telco to do? |
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By Keith Willetts, Chairman and CEO, TM Forum All that changed in the 1980s with the breakup of AT&T and the rise of the CLECs and other alternative service providers. We can argue back and forth whether deregulation was a good thing or if it horribly mucked things up for the communications industry, but the ramifications of the major change for the telcos is still being felt today over 25 years later. One such impact to CSPs is having to look in the rear view mirror at the competition while keeping one eye on the road ahead to make sure they are adopting the latest technology and doing all they can to hang onto existing customers and make progress on gaining new ones. But then something like the iPhone has to come along and throw a gigantic wrench into the operation. As hot a device as the iPhone is, it was really just a drop in the bucket. iPhones, other smart phones and now tablet computers like the new iPad are all putting severe strain on operators' already-extended networks. AT&T customers in big cities are constantly complaining about really poor 3G service, so you can imagine that as prices come down on mobile data devices and they get into more hands, this situation will only get worse. That is unless the telcos are willing to make the hard choices needed to survive. The bandwidth crunch In addition to driving out costs, providers need to spend serious cash to upgrade their infrastructures to accommodate all the devices that will want lightning-fast speeds. So operators will need to upgrade their network infrastructures, but even that is not enough. They will also have to look into automating a lot of their processes and rationalizing and simplifying a lot of the back end. The delicate balance between process automation and spending every spare cent on the network won't be an easy one, but if operators consider outsourcing or other creating methods, they have a fighting chance. Just recently in the UK, O2 announced it would move its network operations to BT's 21C network. This would cover both fixed-line and mobile traffic, which is a pretty significant outsourcing project. Also in the UK, Vodafone and T-Mobile have agreed to network share; and in Australia, Vodafone and 3 have some to the same agreement. Operators are taking drastic measures to cope with the massive increase in bandwidth demand, flat revenues and a non-existent cavalry coming over the hill to save the day. It's going to be an interesting rollercoaster ride, especially as LTE joins the mix. Verizon, Vodafone and a number of other providers will be rolling out 4G by the end of next year, and by the middle of 2011 we'll be swimming in bandwidth. But in what ought to be a golden future for providers--where mobile devices are driving their core product: the network--they can't just go out to the market and say they are increasing their network capacity and now you have to pay accordingly. Consumers will simply move onto the next service provider. Bandwidth alone won't solve today's telco woes. But the combination of increased bandwidth, lower operating costs, automating and simplifying processes and other lean measures is a good start to getting operators back on track. Keith Willetts is a regular FierceTelecom columnist and Chairman and CEO of the TM Forum. If you want more information about the TM Forum, please go to www.tmforum.org.
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| 03/08/2010 01:18 PM |
ConnectedLyfe Officially Launches as a New Triple-Play Provider on UTOPIA |
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Last month, I reported that ConnectedLyfe would be a new service provider on UTOPIA. Today, the press release is out to make that launch official. ConnectedLyfe has also updated their website with some details as to what they will be offering. It looks pretty run-of-the-mill as far as services and pricing, but this little tidbit [...]
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| 03/08/2010 09:45 AM |
Verizon brings the 100 Gbps show to Dallas |
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Verizon is serious about 100 Gbps networking, and its latest field trial in North Dallas, Texas is another proof point in the service provider's desire. In the latest trial, Verizon worked with Juniper Networks, NEC Corporation of America, and Finisar Corp. to apply standards-based optics end-to-end and 100 Gbps native router interfaces. Following a deployment of a 100 Gbps link between Paris and Frankfurt, Germany that it implemented in December, Verizon transmitted data over a 1,520-km optically amplified section of its network in North Dallas for this trial. One of the bigger implications of the trial is that it is being used to validate the 100 Gbps transfer rate standard set to be ratified by the IEEE and ITU-T this June. During the trial, Verizon demonstrated end-to-end traffic flow, including live video traffic through a 100 Gbps interface on the Juniper T1600 Core Router to the NEC SpectralWave DWDM system, which was equipped with 100G real-time coherent transponders. Verizon then made a connection between the router and the DWDM system through Finisar 100G CFP optical transceiver modules. Instead of migrating to 40 Gbps, it's clear that the larger service providers are set on taking a detour directly from 10 Gbps to 100 Gbps--a process that Verizon argues is less costly than upgrading its networks with more 10 Gbps links. Since 2007, Verizon has been conducting various live 100 Gbps trials on its network. And while it has not set specific timelines yet, the service provider told FierceTelecom in a previous interview about its European 100 Gbps deployment that it plans to upgrade other 10 Gbps showing signs of exhaustion to 100 Gbps in the U.S. For more:
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| 03/08/2010 09:21 AM |
ADVA Optical brings light to KDDI's managed WDM service |
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To power its "Managed WDM Service," KDDI is deploying ADVA Optical's FSP 3000 WDM solution. Already adopted by various large enterprises, KDDI will leverage ADVA's platform to deliver optical services from the Kanto area in Japan. Built on advanced optics, the new "Managed WDM Service" will provide 1- and 10 Gbps Ethernet and 1- and 2 Gbps Fiber Channel interfaces. By updating its network with ADVA's WDM gear, it will be better prepared to address the need for a diverse set enterprise network protocols, including native Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel. "We selected ADVA Optical Networking to deliver our primary solution because we needed a highly reliable network," explained Mr. Yasuhisa Yamada, director of the Data Network Product Planning Department from KDDI in a release. "Enterprise customers today cannot tolerate network downtime, and they need the flexibility to expand network services as their business changes."
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| 03/08/2010 08:38 AM |
FCC wants to shift USF focus towards broadband |
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In order to increase broadband speeds and availability under the proposed broadband plan it will turn in to Congress next week, the FCC wants to reallocate the $4.6 billion currently used to provide rural voice service toward subsidizing broadband connections under the current $8.7 billion Universal Service Fund (USF). While there are still no specific details on how the FCC will achieve this goal, Carol Mattey, an FCC senior policy adviser, said the change will take place over 10 years. Not surprisingly, Verizon--a champion of USF reform--applauded the FCC's recommendations. "The broadband team's recommendations are bold and practical," said Kathleen Grillo, Verizon senior vice president of federal regulatory affairs in a release. "The commission appears to want to take these tough problems head-on and provide a rational framework for repairing the broken subsidy systems. The industry should support this proposal. It makes sense to focus limited Universal Service Fund resources on broadband, rather than layering new support on top of existing voice subsidies." For more:
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| 03/08/2010 08:04 AM |
AT&T Southeast, CWA ratify core wireline agreement |
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After failing to ratify a tentative agreement they reached last December, AT&T wireline workers in the Southeast Region (CWA District 3) Friday voted to ratify a three-year agreement between the Communications Workers of America and AT&T. This latest agreement covers about 30,000 CWA members in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Prior to reaching this agreement, Southeast employees worked under the terms of a contract that expired on August 8, 2009. In February, AT&T had reached an agreement with the CWA that provides a 3 percent base salary increase in the first two years and a 2.75 percent increase in the third year, in addition to pension increases over the next three years. With this agreement in place, six of the seven bargaining units, representing nearly 97 percent of the 120,000 employees covered under AT&T's core wireline contracts, now have ratified agreements. As AT&T continues to see its traditional wireline revenues decline, the service provider has been working at signing contracts with its wireline workers in all of its regions. To date, AT&T and the CWA have ratified agreements in AT&T's Midwest, West and Southwest regions, as well as with AT&T Corp., which covers employees across the country. Still, AT&T has yet to reach an agreement with its East Region (CWA Local 1298).
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| 03/08/2010 05:20 AM |
Alcatel-Lucent: 200 million DSL lines and counting |
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With the installation of a VDSL2 line at Telefónica, Alcatel-Lucent now has shipped its 200 millionth DSL line. The new line, which is part of Telefonica's global network transformation project, will be used to deliver a mix of broadband data and video services. To commemorate the company milestone, Jürgen Lison, Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent's fixed access activities, gave a gold-plated VDSL2 line card to Vicente San Miguel, Telefónica's CTO, during an official ceremony in Madrid. According to Dell'Oro's Q4 access report, Alcatel-Lucent continues to dominate the DSL (both VDSL2 and ADSL) market through its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM). In addition to Telefonica, Alcatel-Lucent's ISAM has found a home at a number of other sizeable service providers including Fastweb (Italy, DSL), Sasktel (Canada, VDSL2), and Telekom Austria (Austria, VDSL2). For more:
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| 03/08/2010 04:53 AM |
tw telecom gets on the debt refinancing train |
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tw telecom has decided to refinance its debt by selling $30 million worth of senior notes. The Denver-based CLEC plans to pay off debt that's due in 2014 with a 9.25 percent interest rate. Set to close on March 17, the new offering includes an eight percent interest rate and matures in 2018. It appears that 2010 is becoming the right time for CLECs and ILECs to refinance their debt as the capital market freeze appears to be showing signs of thawing out. Last December, Birch Telecom moved to raise $100 million, while wholesale provider Level 3 plans to raise $640 million and Qwest is going to purchase $1.2 billion in debt. But not everyone is jumping on this bandwagon. Huntsville, Ala.-based CLEC Deltacom decided against conducting a debt offering because it believes capital costs are too high. Related articles
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| 03/05/2010 09:36 AM |
Net neutrality comes to Ofcom's attention |
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It appears that the U.S. is not the only country pushing for net neutrality. Across the pond, the U.K.'s telecom regulator Ofcom is now weighing what a net neutrality plan would mean to its communications market. What's prompting Ofcom's CEO Ed Richards to look more closely at net neutrality has been the growing contention by media companies that their bandwidth hungry content should not be singled out, while service providers believe that they should be compensated by anyone that wants to carry content on their networks. In one case, the BBC argued that incumbent service provider BT was "throttling" the download speeds of its iPlayer service. BT shot back saying that content providers shouldn't be entitled to a "free ride" on networks that they have spent billions of dollars to build out. While Richards said Ofcom will put out its findings this spring, he's not sure that the U.S.' proposed approach would be a good fit for the U.K. and Europe overall due to competitive structure of its communications market. Richards added that it would be "even harder to justify blanket net neutrality rules when we consider the risks they could pose to potential collaborative and desirable investment in networks." For more:
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| 03/05/2010 08:59 AM |
Abry partners to acquire RCN for $1.2 billion |
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RCN, one of the original so-called cable overbuilders to emerge in the mid-1990s, has agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Abry Partners for about $1.2 billion. News of the acquisition has been greeted favorably by investors as the company's shares rose 23 percent. Expected to close in the second half of the year, RCN is allowed to solicit other offers through April 14. Selling itself out right now is not a bad idea for RCN. While RCN has been diligently expanding its optical network to serve its residential and business customers, it has not only reported 14 consecutive quarterly net losses but had to shoulder a tough economic slowdown. For more: Related articles
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| 03/05/2010 08:22 AM |
NCTA contends broadband stimulus funding is being misallocated |
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One of the big problems with the broadband stimulus program is the lack of clarity on what actually is an "unserved" and "underserved" broadband area. Case in point is the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and member company Eagle Communications' protest of a $101 million broadband grant given to Rural Telephone Service Co. While individual service providers have continually lodged protests against various projects, this is the first one where the NCTA has asked for a review of one of the grants. Eagle Broadband's president Gary Shorman told the leaders of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the Rural Utilities Service in a letter that instead of targeting an unserved or underserved community, the majority of the money being spent is on Hays, Kansas, an area he says is "already one of the best-served communities in western Kansas." Instead of building out broadband facilities in other rural areas that are 99.5 percent unserved or underserved, Rural Telephone Service Co. will be overbuilding in Eagle's territory. For more:
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| 03/05/2010 07:41 AM |
GTA TeleGuam pumps $10 million into network infrastructure |
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With five years under its belt as a private company, the former state-run GTA TeleGuam is eager to bulk up its wireline/wireless network holdings to stay on par with a host of other competitive providers. The timing can't be any better as the country's population is set to expand when the U.S. government transfers marines to Guam from Okinawa. To raise its competitive profile, the service provider will invest around $10 million this year on its 3G wireless network and on expanding the coverage of its Guam Digital Television (GUdTV) service. Because of the various restrictions the government placed on it when it was a state-run operator, GTA TeleGuam is finding itself having to get into the ring with aggressive competitors including NTT DoCoMo. "GTA TeleGuam has been playing catch-up to larger competitors in the fastest growing communications market segments," said Rolando S. Certeza, executive vice president of sales and marketing for GTA TeleGuam in a release. This latest investment signals an ongoing trend at GTA TeleGuam. Since being privatized in 2005, GTA TeleGuam has invested $75 million to transform itself from a state-run voice-centric provider to an integrated service provider. In addition to pay-TV and wireless telephony, the service provider offers traditional POTS and DSL-based broadband service, and is modernizing its copper and fiber networks. For more:
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| 03/05/2010 06:03 AM |
AT&T won't pursue suit against homeowner for slippery walkway |
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AT&T has decided to not pursue litigation against a Chicago-based property owner after one of the phone giant's technicians broke his leg after falling on a slippery walkway. Thinking that all AT&T technicians were bonded and insured, Chicago resident Steve Czerwein was a taken aback when he received a letter from AT&T stating that he would have to foot $3,000 in medical expenses. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Czerwein, who rents a home to an elderly couple stated that a snow removal service had shoveled and salted the walkway two days earlier. Had AT&T pursued him for the disability payments, Czerwein would have had to file a claim and subsequently his rates would have gone up. Czerwein got the last word, however. Feeling he was being "bullied" by a large company, Czerwein decided to air his case on a local radio station. After telling his story, Sedgwick Claims Management Services, which administers AT&T's workman's compensation program, sent him a letter apologizing and saying it would not pursue the case further. For more: Related articles
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| 03/05/2010 04:27 AM |
Ciena fails to hit Q1 target |
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Just as it gets ready to put the lid on its Nortel Metro Ethernet Network (MEN) deal, Ciena's shares were down 9.2 percent yesterday when it reported that it failed to meet its sales targets and a wider-than-expected Q1 loss. During the quarter, Ciena reported $175.9 million in revenue, but suffered non-GAAP losses of $11.4 million, or 12 cents per share. These losses were wider than analyst expectations of 7 cents a share. Ciena's CEO Gary Smith attributed the lower results to "delays associated with initial deployments of new platforms with certain customers." While Ciena did not reveal what these new platforms were, a story in LightReading theorizes the delays could be related to either its CoreDirector FS upgrade or its next-gen packet optical transport system (POTS), the Ciena 5400, which is slated to be generally available in the first half of this year. Despite these deployment delays, Smith was upbeat about the company's growth prospects. "While global market conditions still indicate some uncertainty, we see some signs of improvement, particularly in North America," he said. Excluding the acquisition of Nortel's MEN division, Ciena has forecast revenues between $185 million to $195 million. Analysts forecast $194 million for Ciena's Q2 earnings. For more: Related articles
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| 03/04/2010 03:53 PM |
"Huval: LUS Fiber 'well above' target" |
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| 03/04/2010 03:17 PM |
"Cabling America: Fibre in paradise" |
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| 03/04/2010 05:40 PM |
BREAKING: Gov. Herbert Supports a Google Partnership with UTOPIA |
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In what is another positive piece of news for UTOPIA, Utah Governor Gary Herbert issued a letter today urging Google to partner with UTOPIA. In his remarks, he referred to UTOPIA as “a good candidate to partner with Google” and praised both “successfully pursued models of deployment” and their “sustainable and reliable model” which has [...]
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| 03/04/2010 09:39 AM |
ADVA Optical: Carrier Ethernet sales drove 2009's revenues |
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ADVA Optical Networking fared well in Q4 09 as it reported that revenues totaled $81 million, coming slightly above the $77.2 million it gained in Q4 2008 and $79 million in Q3 09. Prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), ADVA Optical Networking's pro forma income, excluding stock-based compensation and amortization and impairment of goodwill and acquisition-related intangible assets, was $4.2 million in Q4 2009 or 5.2 percent of revenues, also above guidance of between -1 percent and +4 percent of revenues. A big contributor to the company's success for the whole year 2009 was a rise in Ethernet access and carrier infrastructure sales. Those segments produced $316.7 million in 2009, which is 7 percent higher than the $296 million it reported in 2008. "Despite the financial crisis and a depressed macro-economic environment, 2009 was a very successful year for ADVA Optical Networking: We returned to profitable growth, increased our financial strength, further improved our operational efficiency, ramped up our direct relationships with customers and maintained a market-leading position. Most importantly, we drove innovation, an element crucial to our long-term success," said Brian Protiva, chief executive officer of ADVA Optical Networking in a release. While maintaining a cautious outlook for 2010, ADVA Optical expects revenues to range between $77.5 million and EUR $84 million. Protiva added that in 2010, the company "will face a telecommunications industry that is growing incredibly dynamically and is critical for most applications and industries. Bandwidth-hungry Internet applications require massive investments in carrier infrastructure, and the increase in mobile devices as the primary platform for the future delivery of broadband services will create a significant need for high-capacity backhaul networks." For more:
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| 03/04/2010 09:11 AM |
Bankruptcy courts bless Nortel's CVAS sale to GENBAND |
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Another piece in the sad chapter in Nortel's ongoing liquidation came to a close today when the Canadian company got word from both the bankruptcy courts in the U.S. and Canada that they could proceed with the sale of their Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions (CVAS) assets to GENBAND. However, the sale is not a done deal yet. The two companies need approval from Israeli courts. When those approvals come through, Nortel and GENBAND plan to work through the second quarter of 2010 to transfer the assets, products and customer accounts over the GENBAND. For more:
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| 03/04/2010 08:28 AM |
Packet Optical Networking Platforms: One size does not fit all |
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by Eve Griliches, ACG Research Routers with optics OTN switching must be added to the routing switch fabric, either as a separate fabric, or preferably within the same packet switched fabric creating a 'hybrid' which supports both container (OTN) and packet-based switching without latency tradeoff. While bringing optics into a router seems like a cost effective no-brainer approach, it does burden the router with additional expense, and long distance transmission in these types of products has yet to be adequately deployed. Also, many operators prefer separate control planes for their router and optical products, not a combination. Router vendors obviously favor this approach. Packet integration approach The low down Second, the cost goes up significantly as integration becomes more sophisticated and the software to control the product becomes more complex. And, the product(s) still need to be managed within and across the entire provider network. Carrier examples But when we discussed this option with AT&T, the answer was clearly a scalability issue and limitation. To date, AT&T has not seen enough scale out of their optical platforms nor their routing platforms to commit to an integrated platform. Other European vendors are interested, but clearly want to move at a slower pace into the converged products domain and keep the lower layers together and slowly integrate packet functionality into their network. There is another, albeit not an 'integrated' approach to the market, which is the simple 'best-of-breed' multiple product deployment approach. While this was the original and general delivery model, vendors who have stayed the course and kept products separate maintaining that best-of-breed is the way to go, have found that the packaging of their multiple products has resulted in significant discounting, hitting their bottom line and causing them to lose revenue even though they are shipping an increasing volume of product. Future vision
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| 03/04/2010 08:02 AM |
FCC wants $25 billion to expand broadband availability |
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Although there are few details available about the FCC's proposed broadband plan that it will submit next week to Congress, one thing is for sure, it's not going to be cheap. According to a Wall Street Journal article, the agency's plan will propose up to $25 billion to expand broadband access, including $12 billion to $16 billion for a wireless broadband network for first responders. Of course, the bigger question is whether or not Congress would actually act on such a big spending plan during an election year. Andy Seybold, an analyst who is developing his own national broadband plan, thinks the FCC's proposal will fall on deaf ears. "Congress is not going to spend any time with this plan, because it won't get any of the elected officials re-elected, so they'll just get a five-minute overview from their staffs and pass over it," said Seybold in a Computerworld article. Major incumbent service providers (AT&T and Verizon) pledged support for the FCC's plan because people that have seen the draft said it does not include a provision that requires large operators to open their networks to competitors. For more:
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| 03/04/2010 04:58 AM |
European Commission: Broadband should be universally available |
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Most of Europe may be satisfied that remote regions now have access to basic telephone and basic Internet service, but the European Union thinks that the law needs to be updated to include broadband access. Created in 2002, the "telecom universal services law" mandates that any European Union person should be able to get access to traditional wireline phone and dial up Internet service in any region. However, the EU's executive branch thinks that current rules need to include broadband access. Similar to the process that the FCC has taken in the U.S. to craft its own upcoming broadband plan that it will submit to Congress this month, the EU wants to open the discussion floor to stakeholders and other interested public parties. At the end of the month, the EU will hold a public workshop in Brussels where consumers, service providers, and policy makers can all give their two cents on what a universal broadband access law would look like. For more:
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| 03/04/2010 04:26 AM |
Level 3 gets NTIA funding to build middle mile network |
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Level 3 has officially joined the middle mile network winners' circle as the wholesale provider announced this week that it has secured $13.7 million in broadband stimulus funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Association (NTIA). On top of the grant money, Level 3 has committed $4.2 million of its own capital to expand its existing network to provide middle mile services to rural service providers.
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| 03/03/2010 04:22 PM |
LUS and Deconsolidation... |
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| 03/03/2010 01:21 PM |
NTIA, RUS extend deadlines for second round of broadband funding |
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If you're one of the many service providers or local communities worried about getting your application for the second round of broadband stimulus monies in on time, don't worry because the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and the USDA is extending the deadline to apply for some segments of the second round of broadband stimulus funding. This week, USDA and NTIA announced the deadline to apply for Comprehensive Community Infrastructure project funding will be extended to March 26th, but computer center and sustainable adoption applicants won't get an extension. Applicants for the USDA's Rural Utility Service for network projects can now turn in their proposals on March 29th. These extensions are a change in NTIA's initial stance. As of last week, NTIA administrator Larry Strickling said that they would offer no extensions to the deadlines they previously set.
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| 03/03/2010 09:16 AM |
Telstra strikes out against changes to Australia's NBN plan |
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Just when it looked like the Australian government and Telstra might have been nearing an agreement over its place in the country's broadband future, the tide turns yet again. This time, Telstra is protesting the government's recent change to the country's National Broadband Network (NBN) plan. At issue is a provision in the draft legislation that would allow the government-run provider to offer both retail and wholesale services. "Although this is only draft legislation, it raises for the first time the prospect of NBN Co. becoming a government-funded retailer, not just a wholesale network provider," Telstra's top executives wrote in a letter addressed to government official, as reported in the Herald Sun newspaper. "We are very concerned about this potential change in the Government's position." This latest tussle with the government is not sitting well with investors as Telstra's shares plummeted in the past week. Telstra faces a number of challenges as Australia pursues its $386 billion broadband expansion ambitions. In addition to selling off some of its assets into the NBN, the government is forcing the incumbent to separate its wholesale and retail divisions, a process that it says will take at least five years to finish. For more: Related articles
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| 03/03/2010 08:43 AM |
Charter found profitability in 2009 |
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Having to file for bankruptcy organization when it was facing a large debt load, it's clear 2009 was a tough year for Charter Communications. But it looks like things are looking up for Charter in 2010. Since emerging from Chapter 11 in November, Charter was able to come out fighting with a $12.7 billion profit for Q4 09. Filing for bankruptcy protection seems to have worked in Charter's favor. Not only did it enable the MSO to take $8 billion in debt off the table, but now heavy debt issues won't get in the way of growing subscriber revenue. Fueled by gains in telephony, broadband data and commercial service revenue, Charter reported that revenue rose 3.3 percent, while annual revenue was up 4.3 percent. At the same time, Q4 basic video ARPU increased 8.1 percent to $117.43. In total, Charter has 4.8 million basic video, 3.2 million digital video, 3.1 million broadband data and 1.6 million telephone customers, respectively. For more:
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| 03/03/2010 08:08 AM |
Fastweb's founder fights money laundering charges |
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Italian competitive broadband provider Fastweb's founder Silvio Scaglia may have become one of Italy's richest men, but now the so-called "telecom wizard" is facing accusations that he was part of a wide-reaching money laundering scheme. Currently being housed in a small cell in Rome's Rebibbia jail, Scaglia is one of 56 people being investigated under a probe that includes other Fastweb employees and Telecom Italia's Sparkle unit. Italian authorities allege that Scaglia belongs to a $2.7 billion ring that laundered money through phony sales and purchases of telephone services from 2003 to 2006. When questioned by a judge yesterday, Scaglia denied any knowledge that any illegal activity was going on at his company. "From his point of view, as head of the company his role was not to check every commercial operation that was carried out," said Scaglia Piermaria Corso in a Reuter's article. Because of the ongoing probe, Telecom Italia SpA had to delay reporting its Q4 09 results. For more:
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| 03/03/2010 07:28 AM |
Back to basics--Voice strategy reconsidered |
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By Frank J. Bernhard Apparently the business for voice is still an agrarian staple of the telecom economy as Skype continues to demonstrate favorable growth connections in the company's latest earnings and market penetration announcements. While most of the attention paid this year has turned to mobility, the lucrative underpinning of international calling is back on the radar as a profit generator in a recessionary period. And right about now, profitability remains the central point of investor speculation on voice futures. With downward pressure on ARPU across all telecom sectors, the positive upside curve for voice calls shows the realization that broadband and innovation through the Web is starting to emerge. Take Google Voice and others that demonstrate how the desktop can in fact be used for more than just an email--the notion of convergence comes full circle to the consumer. And given that wired plumbing is gaining intelligence, we expect a resurgence in spend for voice services that nimbly adapt to the presence and design of subscribers. All of this comes at a cost to operators, albeit a lower one today. As most voice networks offer an unlimited entrée of calling profiles, smart carriers recognize the strategic imperative to own the wired premise as well as the mobile subscriber. Cincinnati Bell followed suit to AT&T and Verizon last fall with their "Why-Pay-for-Two" promotion that aimed to shore up wireline losses while improving the value proposition to the dollar-conscious customer. Playing to the sensitivity of price for wired and wireless broadband, this bundling approach harkens to a similar tactic by network providers to expand subscriber roaming at WiFi hotspots. That bodes well for some but it has lessened the buying interest of other consumers. If carriers opt to succeed with voice platforms, they can win the long-run game by applying a few novel concepts:
Sailing out of a stalled, global economy is not without unique challenges. And winning the race by price itself is sometimes a less-than-successful stretch to cross the finish line. Guard your future by recognizing how voice is the killer app of humans, and steer your strategy in a favorable direction by extending the communications canvass. Frank J. Bernhard is the author of FierceTelecom's bi-weekly Telconomics column. He is a technology economist and managing principal of OMNI Consulting Group's telecommunications practice based in Davis, California.
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| 03/03/2010 05:18 AM |
Force10 Networks gears up for IPO |
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It has been little over a year since Force10 Networks was acquired by Turin Networks and now the new company hopes to raise $143.8 million in an initial public offering. Underwriting the IPO is an all star team that includes J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank Securities and Barclays Capital. When it completes the IPO, Force10 will be traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FTEN. Force10 plans to leverage the proceeds from the IPO to acquire other companies in the switching and routing space.
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| 03/03/2010 04:50 AM |
Analysis says wireless/wireline telephony will see "modest growth" |
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Although it's clear that many vertical market segments will continue to keep a tight rein on their purse strings in 2010, Insight Research's new report "Telecom Services in Vertical Markets, 2009-2014" reveals that business spending on wireline and wireless telephony will hit $146 billion in 2010. However, there's a stark contrast in spending for what businesses will spend on wireline and wireless services. Wireless services will dominate the market, accounting for about 44 percent of the U.S. business telecom service spend in 2010. While business wireless service revenues are forecast to grow 18.4 percent annually from 2009-2014, wireline business telephony growth will remain flat. Four vertical segments will dominate wireless spending during this period: construction; financial, insurance, and real estate; professional business services; and transportation. These findings should not be all that surprising since these vertical segments are by nature mobile. "The year 2009 was all about cut backs and retrenchment in every industry sector we examined," says Robert Rosenberg, President of Insight Research in a release. "However, it is the continued demand for wireless services that will keep the telecom industry in the black over the next five years--and that demand is going to be uneven across the various business sectors." For more:
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| 03/02/2010 03:01 PM |
Mass.-based OpenCape wins $32 million broadband grant |
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Businesses, schools and public safety providers that reside in the Southeast, Massachusetts region will soon be getting a new bandwidth infusion as the OpenCape Corp. has been awarded $32 million in Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) to build a hybrid fiber/microwave middle mile network. With the funding grant, OpenCape will build a 350 mile wired fiber network, a wireless microwave network and a regional data center. The $32 million BTOP grant will be matched with $8 million in funds from Massachusetts, RCN Metro Optical Networks and Barnstable to build this middle mile network that will support businesses, education, public safety and government needs in Southeast Massachusetts. Along with providing greater network capacity to the region, OpenCape believes that the network will provide an economic stimulus in cities such as Fall River and New Bedford where unemployment is nearly 15 percent. "OpenCape is the product of years of work and collaboration by organizations and individuals across our region," said OpenCape's President, Dan Gallagher. "It's a vital part of the region's long term growth and competitiveness strategy and we are excited to have assembled all of the necessary funding to immediately begin building the OpenCape network." For more:
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| 03/02/2010 01:19 PM |
Voonami Offering Virtual Desktop Service on UTOPIA |
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Voonami shot out a press release today announcing that they are now offering virtual desktops over UTOPIA. Basically, you have a remote desktop session on one of their servers with all of your data and applications which can then be accessed with almost any client. This is the holy grail of cloud services and is [...]
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| 03/02/2010 09:23 AM |
Packet Optical Networking Platforms find their niche |
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| 03/02/2010 08:44 AM |
Alcatel-Lucent spruces up management team with CMO post |
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As it continues down its turnaround path, Alcatel-Lucent has decided to appoint Stephen Carter as the company's newly created Chief Marketing, Strategy and Communication Officer. When Carter officially joins the company in April, he will have global responsibility for Alcatel-Lucent's marketing, strategy and communications. Carter is not a newcomer to the telecom industry. Prior to taking the new post at Alcatel-Lucent, Carter is best known as the architect of the U.K.'s "Digital Britain" report and as the director of Ofcom, U.K.'s telecom regulator. He also spent time as a managing director for the former NTL Communications, now Virgin Media. For more: Related articles
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| 03/02/2010 08:02 AM |
CENX turns up Ethernet voice exchange service |
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With a number of high profile carriers already tuning into its carrier Ethernet exchange service, CENX is now attacking the lucrative voice market with its Carrier Ethernet Neutral Voice Exchange service. Traditionally, service providers that needed to exchange Ethernet or voice traffic had little choice but to go to a one-off bilateral exchange or a multi-service provider "voice tandem" that charges on a per-minute basis. "Basically all of these guys are offering flat-rate calling plans, but they have to pay on a per-minute basis to exchange [Ethernet] traffic," said Nan Chen, CENX co-founder and Chief Executive Officer xChange article. "It's out of step with their business model, and their margins get squeezed." Instead of using direct TDM connections (T1, DS3 or SONET) or legacy voice tandems, CENX's Voice Exchange service will allow service providers to connect on a one-to-many basis with other carriers over a 1 or 10 Gbps Ethernet connection. What's more, the neutral Voice Exchange service bills service providers on a direct connect (capacity-based flat rate charges versus minutes-used based charges). For more:
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| 03/02/2010 04:33 AM |
Dell'Oro: Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent and Arris led Q4 broadband equipment sales |
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Demand for higher broadband speeds coupled with the ongoing competition prompted both cable and telcos to continue spending money on broadband network infrastructure, argues the Dell'Oro Group in its Q4 access report. During Q4 09, cable (DOCSIS 3.0 CMTS), fiber to the X (EPON and GPON OLTs) and copper-based broadband (VDSL DSLAMs), grew 10 percent sequentially and 18 percent over Q4 2008. "Upgrade projects driven by competition, increasing Internet traffic, government incentives, and operators' desire to enable new revenue-generating services are all having a positive impact on equipment demand," said Tam Dell'Oro, President of Dell'Oro Group in a release. "High bandwidth VDSL, PON and Cable DOCSIS 3.0 access concentrator equipment are being deployed for these upgrades." Leading Fiber to the X equipment (both EPON and GPON) sales was Huawei, a factor Dell'Oro attributes to its dominant presence in China's telecom market. But in the U.S. Fiber to the X market, Alcatel-Lucent took the lead in VDSL and the second spot in GPON as the main vendor for AT&T's U-verse and Verizon's FiOS services. On the cable side, Arris held its lead over Cisco for the third quarter in a row. For more:
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| 03/01/2010 10:10 PM |
Frontier sets up shop in Washington, D.C. |
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By opening a new office in Washington, D.C., it's clear that Frontier Communications--which will become one of the largest independent ILECs when it eventually completes its acquisition of Verizon's rural lines--wants to be close to the FCC and other federal regulatory and congressional powers. "Opening this office is a natural step for Frontier, since we already spend significant time in D.C.," said Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman and CEO of Frontier in a release. "We believe a local presence will allow us to enhance our relationships with the FCC, members of Congress and their staffs and the many agencies and partnerships in the area that play an important role in developing and implementing communications policy." For more: Related articles
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| 03/01/2010 08:56 PM |
Belgacom considers move into the electricity business |
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Belgacom is looking for a new business venture to play in and it thinks that electricity could be the answer. According to a report in Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, the former state-run telephone monopoly is carving out a deal to resell energy services from the country's electricity and gas supplier Lampiris. Along with reselling energy services, the report adds that Belgacom might even purchase a piece of Lampiris, a company that purchases electricity from other independent Belgian energy companies. Belgacom's desire to get into the energy business seems to be a signal of an emerging trend of telecom operator's involvement in the electricity business. Already in Europe and in the U.S., a number of established wireline (Qwest and AT&T) and wireless service providers (Sprint) are either considering providing an energy management service for consumers or providing backhaul network connectivity to the utilities themselves. Similar to Belgacom, U.S.-based competitive business service provider PAETEC Communications not only offers a range of energy and energy management services through its Energy Division, but it also just purchased New York-based Energy Partners. For more:
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| 03/01/2010 03:24 PM |
Lantiq gets cash infusion from Deutsche Telekom |
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Deutsche Telekom continues to spread the home networking investment love. This time, the German telco's VC division T-Ventures has made a strategic investment in Lantiq, Infineon's former wireline division. While T-Ventures did not reveal how much it is investing in Lantiq, the German company seems to have a soft spot in vendors that supply wireless and wireline-based home networking products. Other home networking-like investments that T-Ventures has made include femtocell gateway vendor Ubiquisys and Fixed Mobile Convergence specialist Kineto. According to a Light Reading Europe article, the two companies already have a relationship as Lantiq provides chipsets to the CO and customer premise equipment it currently uses to provide DSL broadband services to its customer base. For more:
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| 03/01/2010 02:44 PM |
Breaking down barriers to IMS via sophisticated testing |
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by Tom Maufer, NGN IMS Forum There is no doubt that such questions are important and necessary to quantify the readiness of a component to do its job under challenging circumstances. However, legacy test tools usually focus on sending traffic that is standards-compliant. There are at least two pitfalls in the previous sentence: 1) Most real implementations have bugs that result in traffic being generated that might be close enough to the standard to mostly work, but that isn't what the load-oriented tools test. Their results are strictly only applicable when the traffic is perfectly compliant with the standards. 2) Test tools that transmit standards-compliant traffic must evolve at the pace of the standards. Having worked in the IETF and IEEE, I can tell you that the process is not speedy. It is deliberate, because the most important aspect of the deliverable is that the standard be correct. However, legacy test tool vendors that want to deliver solutions based on standards will have to either wait for them to be "close enough" and then revise their tools (meaning that results from different versions of their tool may not be strictly comparable), or wait for them to be done, and possibly lose in the marketplace. There is a hidden pitfall, too, in that the test tools that are focused on testing protocols in isolation are, by definition, not testing the service holistically. They will always miss the forest for the trees. In fact, testing the relevant applications like IPTV or transport like LTE in conjunction with IMS becomes increasingly important. IMS involves SIP (with 3GPP extensions), as well as Diameter (many interfaces, again with a 3GPP flavor), and other protocols, from the essential but mundane (Routing, etc.) to the essential (MGCP and H.248, for interfacing to the legacy telephone network; DNS, for resolving names but also for ENUM and other telephony issues). Testing IP Services holistically involves a core element of modeling the service in a meaningful way. That means that a testing solution must not be restricted to only testing one protocol at a time. The test tool is effectively the conductor of an orchestra, making the right protocol exchanges happen in the right order, under the right circumstances. Once a model exists that is comprehensive enough, one wants to leverage that into multiple types of testing. For instance, one test methodology popular in software testing is called "data-driven" testing. The idea is that each test case involves setting a group of parameters with particular values and bundling one or more assertions with each test case so that the test tool can evaluate a pass/fail criterion with each set of parameter values that define that particular test case. Lastly, the other important attribute of testing based on a model of the IP Service is the ability to re-use the same basic model to do multiple types of testing, such as the data-driven testing outlined above. One could imagine being able to use the model for conformance and interoperability testing, for regression testing, and for many other types of stateful testing - at the service level, not at the component level! IMS is a service that involves a carefully orchestrated set of protocols to offer a seamless user experience. Users don't interact with SIP. They make phone calls. Users don't interact with LDAP or Diameter... they use their Address Book or Contact database. These services have to work flawlessly for the user, so the test equipment should interact with the service as a user would. It should be able to test subsets of the service at any meaningful level of granularity. Tom Maufer--a monthly FierceTelecom columnist--is a Board Member of the NGN IMS Forum and Director, Solutions Architecture, at Mu Dynamics. Tom can be reached at tmaufer@mudynamics. com.
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| 03/01/2010 09:58 AM |
PAETEC furthers energy play with Energy Partners acquisition |
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PAETEC might be initially known for its competitive business provider skills, but its acquisition of Amherst, N.Y.-based electric supplier U.S. Energy Partners for about $3 million points to the idea that telecom and energy are complementary. E.J. Butler, Jr, PAETEC's Chief Operating Officer, said that the argument to combine energy with telecommunications services illustrates the fact that the "average customer spends four times as much on energy as they do on telecommunications." Such a trend is not that surprising given the ongoing build outs of customer service centers and data centers by larger businesses customers. By acquiring the privately held U.S. Energy, PAETEC gets access to 3,500 electric customers in Western New York State. The service provider will act as a broker of energy services to its existing communications customers in the region. However, PAETEC is no stranger to the energy business. In addition to running its PAETEC Energy division, PAETEC in 2008 acquired electric and gas brokerage company VARO Technologies. Going forward, PAETEC plans to add more sales bandwidth to its Energy Division.
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| 03/01/2010 09:17 AM |
Welcome FierceCable! |
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With these trends as a backdrop, please join me in welcoming Jim and the start of what I think will be a great new chapter for FierceMarkets. --Sean
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| 03/01/2010 05:12 AM |
Oregon PUC approves Frontier's Verizon local line acquisition |
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With the Oregon Public Utilities Commission's unanimous approval of the transfer of Verizon's local wireline holdings to Frontier, Oregon becomes the sixth state to approve the billion dollar deal. To complete the deal, Frontier still needs the blessing of regulators in Illinois, Washington and West Virginia, in addition to the FCC's approval. Frontier has also received cable television franchise approval from the 41 communities the company will serve in Oregon and Washington State. For more:
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| 03/01/2010 04:31 AM |
Telefonica: Latin American sales boost Q4 profit |
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Amidst falling sales in its home base of Spain, Telefonica's gains in Latin America market helped drive up the European carrier's profit 22 percent in Q4 09. Telefonica's net income climbed to $3.31 billion from $2.72 billion in Q4 08, while sales grew 1 percent to $20.3 billion. Company chairman and CEO Cesar Alierta says Telefonica is betting on Latin America as its revenue growth engine to get more investors interested in the company during one of the worst Spanish economic recessions in six decades. While sales in Spain were down 1.6 percent, in Latin America, Telefonica's sales were up eight percent to 8.6 billion. But maintaining growth in Latin America, suggests a Wall Street Journal article, will be anything but easy. A key setback for Telefonica came in January when it said it would have to take $2.46 billion out of its Venezuelan assets when the country's government devalued the bolivar. A chance at expanding its footing in the Brazilian telecom market was put out when French conglomerate Vivendi outbid it for wireline provider GVT.
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| 03/01/2010 03:42 AM |
COLT: Cost cutting, data services offset voice losses in 09 |
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U.K.-based competitive business provider COLT Telecom was able to overcome slowing voice revenues with a 4.9 percent increase in full-year earnings. For 2009, the COLT full-year earnings of $434 million surpassed its internal forecast of $431 million. COLT's three main business units (Major Enterprise, Small & Medium Business, and Wholesale) saw inevitable ups and downs during 2009. Clearly, the star for COLT in 2009 was its Enterprise Division. During 2009, data revenue in its Major Enterprise Division declined 3.1 percent to $551.1 million with increased Ethernet revenue offset by slowing demand for other data products. The star of its Enterprise Division was Managed services, which saw revenue grow 27 percent from $133 million in 2008 to a little over $169 million in 2009. "In 2009, Colt maintained momentum against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and challenging markets," said Chief Executive Rakesh Bhasin in an earnings release. "We grew Data and Managed Services revenue and delivered improved EBITDA." The provider's Small & Medium Enterprise Division did not fare too poorly during 2009 either. For the year, SME data revenue increased by $8.71 million to $249 million, up from $240 million in 2008. Finally, COLT's wholesale business was up 5.4 percent to $281 million driven by strong demand for Ethernet. For more:
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| 02/25/2010 10:14 PM |
UTOPIA Signs Telesphere as a New Service Provider |
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You heard it here first: UTOPIA has signed a deal with Telesphere to offer business voice and data services. Telesphere specializes in hosted PBX solutions, a nice differentiation between traditional SIP trunks or ATAs sold by most other providers, and has additional presence in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Denver. These kinds of managed services are [...]
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| 02/25/2010 04:25 AM |
Cox: Costs too high for high-speed service |
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| 02/23/2010 07:50 PM |
Dispelling the Rumors: Prime Time Isnât Going Under |
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I’ve had several people now express concern over recent bankruptcy filings in other states by Prime Time Communications. More than a few people seem to be dedicated to fear-mongering that the entire company is about to fold. Unfortunately for the rumor mill, that’s entirely untrue. Here’s what’s really happening.
When a construction company starts a new [...]
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| 02/23/2010 06:32 PM |
UEN Awarded $13.4M in Stimulus Money |
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Utah hasn’t been doing so well in receiving money under the broadband stimulus, but it looks like UEN just scored a winner. According to MuniWireless, UEN will get $13.4M under BTOP to run fiber to 130 elementary schools. So far, it doesn’t look like anyone else in Utah has gotten money under Round 1.
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| 02/19/2010 06:24 PM |
Want to attend NAB2010 in Las Vegas? Readers can go for free |
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I’m very excited to announce a special deal for blog readers: admittance to NAB2010 for nothing at all. The National Association of Broadcasters holds an annual convention in Las Vegas to showcase all of the latest and greatest in content production and distribution for television and film. This year, they have an exhibit area on [...]
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| 02/19/2010 05:08 AM |
LUS/Lafayette to apply for more stimulus funds |
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| 02/18/2010 03:01 PM |
The Forum is Down Until Further Notice |
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I noticed that the forum wasn’t working properly earlier today. Both the RSS feeds and permalinks were broken without notice. An attempted upgrade to a newer version of bbPress did not resolve it (and, in fact, made the problem worse). I’ll let you know when it’s working again.
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| 02/17/2010 04:36 PM |
Spanish Fork Voice Pricing Available |
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Spanish Fork has let a few more details out about their new voice product in a recent article in the Deseret News. The service will be $14.95/mo and long distance will be billed at $0.04/min. Triple play bundles will run around $84/mo, better than most introductory offers from competitors. The city has contracted with Veracity [...]
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| 02/17/2010 12:49 PM |
UTOPIA Announces That They Will Pursue Google Fiber RFI |
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Today on the steps of city hall in West Valley City, UTOPIA announced their intention to pursue an RFI with Google on their ambitious fiber-to-the-home project. Mayors of several of the cities spoke strongly in favor of the idea and provided examples of how UTOPIA fiber is already enriching their cities. Several also pointed out [...]
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| 02/14/2010 10:53 AM |
"LUS: Fiber on right track" |
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| 02/13/2010 08:05 AM |
Regional Fiber UltraBroadband Network in Lousiana? |
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| 02/12/2010 08:54 AM |
Wi-Fi, Buses, and Student Productivity |
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| 02/11/2010 04:51 PM |
Google Hires Baller for I Gig Job |
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| 02/10/2010 12:45 PM |
Google To Fund 1 Gig FTTH! |
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| 02/09/2010 03:44 AM |
Fiber, Fête and Florida |
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| 02/07/2010 07:03 PM |
"LUS: Fiber schedule, meetings, software and more |
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| 02/02/2010 06:28 PM |
LUS wins rate increase, smart grid |
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| 02/02/2010 03:55 AM |
LUS Fiber - SaintsReport Community Forums |
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| 01/28/2010 06:36 AM |
The Bad: St. Mary council demands Internet, cable service for all |
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| 01/27/2010 05:35 PM |
The Good: Fiber To The Home...in Morehouse Parish |
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| 01/20/2010 04:01 PM |
Acadiana "Program aiming at tech gap" |
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| 01/15/2010 04:42 AM |
WBS: "LUS Fiber: Already running a network" |
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| 01/12/2010 05:06 PM |
"Dore clarifies position on LUS rate hike" |
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| 01/07/2010 05:34 PM |
LUS rate hike returns |
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| 01/07/2010 04:04 PM |
"Municipal fiber needs more FDR localism, fewer state bans" |
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| 12/20/2009 04:13 AM |
Getting His Fiber |
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| 12/18/2009 11:16 AM |
"LUS sacks Cox with Saints vs. Cowboys game" |
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| 12/14/2009 06:26 PM |
On "Broadband is not a Utility" |
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| 12/03/2009 05:51 PM |
FUD..It's the same all over |
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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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Free Dreamweaver template courtesy of JustDreamweaver.com
(Editor's note: This article is also included in FierceTelecom's new eBook called Packet Optical Networking Platforms: Maintaining the legacy, next-gen balance. Click 
We've got a lot going on here on the wireline side of FierceTelecom this week. In addition to the launch of our new