Lucrative roaming solution
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Right smack in the middle of Texas, away from the urban centers of Austin and Dallas, one of the most sophisticated cellular networks is operating...
Tough enough
By: By Carol Wilson
Most companies probably would not want to be known as cutthroat. But in one part of Montana, the cutthroat trout is a good catch, and Cutthroat Communications is a company providing high-speed communications lines to an underserved population...
Broadband may be growing faster than we think
By: By Tim McElligott
As it is, and may always be, with science: We still don't know what we don't know. Turns out it's the same with technology, as demonstrated in recent Pew Research reports about broadband...
Mixing satellite TV into the wireline triple-play
By: By Sarah Reedy
Where terrestrial triple-play services are not economical (in rural areas, for example), the lingering question for telcos becomes: How can they seamlessly integrate a partner’s satellite TV service with their own terrestrial services such as video-on-demand (VOD)?...
RLECs see no revenue growth in 2008
By: By Ed Gubbins
Two of the rural telco sector’s largest carriers -- Embarq and Windstream -- have predicted flat or declining revenues for 2008...
Broadband Census launches grassroots effort
By: By Carol Wilson
A veteran journalist is attempting to determine for himself just how accurate the Federal Communications Commission’s rosy reports of competitive broadband services really are. Drew Clark set up his own limited liability corporation, Broadband Census LLC, to try to answer the question of how much broadband access is really available in the U.S....
700 MHz Auction: As open access nears, bidders back off
By: By Kevin Fitchard
The price of the nationwide C-block license in the 700 MHz auction ticked upward today, but it got nowhere near the $4.6 billion reserve price necessary to trigger the open-access provisions of the highly valuable spectrum property...
Churn plagues Provo's muni fiber network
By: By Ed Gubbins
Defending the city's wholesale fiber-to-the-premises network initiative this month, Lewis Billings, the mayor of Provo, Utah, told local press that subscriber growth has been substantial over the life of the project...
CLECs heat up new year
By: By Carol Wilson
Competitive service providers started 2008 with a flurry of announcements, indicating a determination to push hard for market share...
700 MHz auction starts with bangs, whimpers
By: By Kevin Fitchard
As Auction 73 shut down after its first week, things didn’t look good for the planned public safety/private network. After attracting a $472-million bid in the auction’s opening round, it has languished through round 4 as the other nationwide band, block D, and the individual market licenses attracted all of the attention...
TDS following in Sprint's footsteps - TDS and Madison WiMAX
By: By Kevin Fitchard
Telephone and Data Systems has launched a WiMAX network in Madison, Wis., tapping into the economies of scale generated by Sprint's upcoming Xohm launch...
Grande’s Texas triple-play network goes up for sale
By: By Ed Gubbins
Texas cable overbuilder Grande Communications announced today it was pursuing “strategic alternatives,” potentially selling its fiber network and triple-play business...
Anticipation grows for Tellabs M&A
By: By Ed Gubbins
After having cooled in the second half of last year, expectations for a Tellabs acquisition are rising once again with the start of the new year...
Alcatel-Lucent scores U.S. Cellular win
By: By Kevin Fitchard
U.S. Cellular is renewing its CDMA infrastructure contract with Alcatel-Lucent but to what extent neither the vendor nor the carrier is letting on...
Pac-West bounces back again
By: By Carol Wilson
The new CEO of Pac-West Telecom is promising a financially healthier company with ambitious plans for the Western region...
MetaSwitch gets cash infusion
By: By Carol Wilson
Data Connection Ltd., the parent company of softswitch maker MetaSwitch, is getting its first large infusion of cash from private equity firm Francisco Partners, and its partner firm, Sequoia Capital, to expand its successful North American operation into the global stage...
Qwest charts different video course
By: By Carol Wilson
While AT&T and Verizon aggressively deploy video services via their U-Verse and FiOS TV offerings, respectively, Qwest Communications is pursuing a very different video strategy...
Citizens CEO: No consumer ‘softness’ here
By: By Ed Gubbins
Citizens Communications is not seeing the same economic “softness” in residential markets that AT&T reported yesterday, according to Maggie Wilderotter, Citizens’ chief executive officer, who spoke late yesterday at the same investor conference...
FairPoint awaits Maine decision after Vermont rejects Verizon sale
By: By Tim McElligott
FairPoint Communications continues to battle resistance in its bid to acquire 1.6 million access lines in the New England area from Verizon Communications. Regulators from Maine’s Public Utility Commission delayed a scheduled hearing today until some time next year. ...
NTCA throws support behind Adelstein
By: By Tim McElligott
President Bush announced on Friday he would re-nominate Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein for another five-year term at the Federal Communications Commission. Representatives for rural telecom providers are all smiles...
Embarq uses ‘naked DSL’ to slow line loss
By: By Ed Gubbins
Embarq began offering so-called “naked DSL” service this month as a tool to retain customers who no longer want landline voice service...
Small telcos feel merger pressure
By: By Ed Gubbins
In the wake of major-carrier consolidation, merger activity among small and regional telcos is escalating and should continue next year...
Targeted advertising could offer new value
By: By Sarah Reedy
The traditional model of advertising is slowly beginning to give way to addressable ads that viewers want to see...
Falling prices tempt RLEC consolidators
By: By Ed Gubbins
While integrating its acquisition of CT Communications, executives of Windstream Communications reiterated the case for future acquisitions this week, and some analysts say recent changes in the market could encourage further consolidation among rural carriers...
