Beyond our control
By: By Ed Gubbins
Since we reported that Houston’s Optical Entertainment Network had abruptly and mysteriously discontinued service earlier this month, many of you have contacted me wanting more information on what had happened to the company. Get in line...
SureWest East
By: By Ed Gubbins
Two weeks ago I reported on SureWest Communications’ stated desire to scale its fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) business through acquisition. At the time, I offered the only potential candidates I could think of, under time pressure, that might appear on SureWest’s short list...
It's an upstream world
By: By Vince Vittore
Forget what you know about network engineering because it's worthless...
Hammerhead shows its claw
By: By Ed Gubbins
As the folks at Hammerhead Systems briefed me on their new system for interworking PBT and MPLS, a spokesperson pointed out that it addresses two of the biggest criticisms of PBT so far from entrenched MPLS router vendors: namely, that it’s a just point-to-point technology, and it can’t handle multicasting...
FTTN the favorite
By: By Ed Gubbins
AT&T’s pronouncement today that it will lower its deployment projections and raise spending on its fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) network will no doubt get a lot of attention. What probably won’t surprise anyone, however, is that BellSouth is essentially becoming the third of four Bell carriers to adopt FTTN, leaving Verizon (the carrier with the oldest copper) the only Bell to favor FTTP instead...
Qwest’s fiber first
By: By Ed Gubbins
Plenty of head-scratching followed Qwest’s description today of its fiber-to-the-node strategy. The company is moving ahead with a relatively modest but not inexpensive FTTN rollout, but those plans don’t appear to include a terrestrial video service offering...
Tough choices at Alcatel-Lucent
By: By Ed Gubbins
In her book Tough Choices, Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, recounts the way she helped cement the cultural integration of one of telecom's largest acquisitions using nothing more than a pair of cowboy boots and a knot of men's socks...
Sixty-five percent
By: By Ed Gubbins
TheStreet.com is reporting that AT&T has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a possible acquisition of EchoStar (or its DISH satellite video business), a hypothetical that has been the subject of much rumor and speculation in recent weeks...
No one can hear you now
By: By Carol Wilson
I spent considerable time last week listening to established competitive service providers talk about the eminent danger of rulings in Washington such as last Thursday's partial victory by AT&T in a broadband forbearance ruling...
Fiber and the flood
By: By Ed Gubbins
Last week’s Fiber-to-the-Home conference was turgid with talk of a coming deluge of traffic that threatens to choke today’s telecom infrastructure...
Broadband before its time
By: By Peter Bernstein
Almost 20 years ago, I helped write Probe Research's landmark study, “The End of the RBOCs,” in which we argued that one of the then-seven Bell companies would sell its outside plant in exchange for regulatory freedom to offer any service. This was a novel concept, and it made perfect sense. But it was totally premature...
Filling the pipe
By: By Ed Gubbins
"Filling the pipe" is the tag line for this year's Fiber-to-the-Home Conference, being held this week in Orlando. With a decided focus on content, the show is focused on which services will drive consumers to make the most of their fiber broadband connections. So what are some of the things that will fill the pipe?...
The ‘Wal-Mart-ization’ of voice service
By: By Rich Karpinski
Will contacting your local and long-distance carrier (or even your cable or VoIP provider) for a voice service hook-up soon become a thing of the past? It could be, if the growing number of companies providing voice alternative products have any say...
Dark horse
By: By Ed Gubbins
On the down slope of the telecom bubble, as things started to look grim in the CLEC sector, the two names that kept coming up as likely survivors in that bloodbath were Allegiance Telecom and McLeodUSA...
AT&T and WiMAX
By: By Kevin Fitchard
The latest little nugget of speculation circling the industry is that AT&T is about to launch WiMAX services in the near future, something I admit would be a distinct possibility, though the story would be a lot less exciting than it sounds...
Beachhead
By: By Ed Gubbins
Tellabs may have to keep going it alone for a while, according to UBS Investment Research...
Stay the course
By: By Tim McElligott
There is no way anyone is going to step in and block the $2.7 billion sale of access lines between Verizon and FairPoint Communications. There is no reason to block it...
Copper and robbers
By: By Ed Gubbins
Copper theft is becoming epidemic. Embarq last month began offering a $5000 reward for information leading to the prosecution of copper cable thieves...
Be there
By: By Ed Gubbins
Cisco Systems is holding an analyst day tomorrow, a particular focus of which is expected to be its “telepresence” products for three-screen, high-definition videoconferencing (though the company would prefer you don’t call it that)...
The old new guy
By: By Ed Gubbins
Edward Mueller seemed to be having a good time during the conference call yesterday in which he was introduced as the new chief executive officer of Qwest Communications...
Ground floor
By: By Ed Gubbins
When people talk about “getting in on the ground floor” of something, they’re usually talking about a rare and rewarding opportunity, as if the ground floor wasn’t the same one used by everybody else forever afterward to enter the same plac...
No big dig at Qwest
By: By Carol Wilson
In what seems likely to be his last earnings call as Qwest Communications’ chairman and CEO, Richard Notebaert didn’t pull any punches...
Nokia Siemens Naperville
By: By Ed Gubbins
During their second-quarter earnings conference call today, Tellabs executives understandably didn’t say much about recent rumors that the company is entertaining acquisition offers from Nokia Siemens Networks ...
Imagine Nations
By: By Ed Gubbins
In a panel discussion at the NXTComm trade show last month, Daryl Dunbar, director of British Telecom's 21st Century Network initiative, told the audience, “Imagine the BT experience in the U.S. or in Asia. You can envision a world where the consumer has a consistent experience regardless of what network they're on.” ...
Who’s complaining?
By: By Ed Gubbins
Reading the news this week that Sprint had discontinued service to customers who frequently called customer service, I couldn’t help but wonder what this augurs for the future...
