Today's Top Stories Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) on Thursday promoted two of its existing executives--Gary B. Moore and Rob Lloyd--to president, signifying yet another sign of the vendor's ongoing realignment of its organizational structure. By taking the title of president and chief operating officer, Gary Moore, who Cisco says was one of the people behind the company's ongoing transformation, will oversee the company's operations and drive its long-term strategy. In addition, Moore will oversee Cisco's services, IT, supply chain, marketing and communications, human resources, corporate affairs, transformation office, legal, government affairs and corporate planning functions. As president of development and sales, Rob Lloyd will lead Cisco's efforts in those functions. Cisco has said it's trying to align its products with its customer's requirements and speed up its time to market. Reporting to Lloyd will be three other executives: Pankaj Patel, Cisco's current executive vice president and chief development officer; Chuck Robbins, who will take on Lloyd's former role as the head of worldwide sales; and Wim Elfrink, executive vice president and chief globalization officer, who will continue his focus on emerging solutions and the development of new markets. Cisco said the rest of its executive leadership team will remain intact. These latest appointments come just after Cisco's CEO, John Chambers, indicated he would step down in a few years. Late last month, Chambers told Bloomberg he might retire in the next two to four years, adding that Cisco's board of directors are reviewing about 10 possible candidates every quarter. Some of the potential candidates being considered for Cisco's top post include Moore, Lloyd, Robbins and Edzard Overbeek, senior vice president of global services. While Cisco realigned its management structure, a number of other key executives left the company, including Ned Hooper, a possible successor to Chambers who took on the chief strategy officer role in 2009 but exited the company in July to found his own investment venture. Chief Marketing Officer Susan Bostrom and Charles Carmel, the former vice president of corporate development at Cisco who helped drive over 30 of the vendor's acquisitions, including Scientific Atlanta, also left last year. For more:
- see the release Special report: Wireline in the second quarter of 2012 Related articles:
Cisco's Chambers signals potential heirs to the CEO throne
Cisco's fiscal Q4 revenues get boost from data center equipment, IP router sales
Cisco to lay off 1,300 workers
Cisco adds Benioff, Johnson to board of directors
Core switches to drive revenue growth in the Fibre Channel market Read more about: Cisco
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Integra Telecom on Wednesday introduced a new Hosted Voice Service solution, providing fully managed and integrated voice, data and equipment for any size business. As a managed service, Hosted Voice Service eliminates the need for a business to deploy or acquire its own on-site PBX or IP PBX, which would require the company to stay on top of constant maintenance and upgrade cycles. By handing over its voice service management functions to Integra, a business can get its PBX-like functions from one service provider, with simplified billing and a fixed monthly fee. Joe Harding, senior vice president of marketing at Integra Telecom, said in a release announcing the service that "[t]his offering allows businesses to focus on their growth and day-to-day priorities, leaving network support and management in the hands of one trusted provider." Delivered through its partnership with softswitch vendor Metaswitch Networks, Hosted Voice Service is applicable to both single-site and the multi-site medium and large businesses that Integra has begun to target more aggressively over the past two years. Hosted Voice Service offers four major features: an integrated voice/data circuit up to 100 Mbps, per-line feature package bundle and optional à la carte features, fully managed customer premise equipment (CPE) and service management through one web portal. Adding hosted voice services is another important move for the CLEC, especially as it looks to penetrate larger, more complex accounts and continues to pursue more small to medium business (SMB) customers. It also plays well into its aggressive on-net fiber network build out, which currently connects 2,000 enterprise buildings and data centers. In addition to complementing its existing portfolio of managed PBX and premise-based equipment services, the move also helps round out the company's growing set of managed and cloud services, one that currently includes Cloud Firewall Service, Managed PBX, Online Data Storage and Collaboration & Messaging Service. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Integra Telecom partners with Metaswitch and steps into IP-based world
Integra Telecom partners with Verizon Wireless to deliver VPN wireless backup
Integra Telecom to provide Ethernet services to Washington state
Integra grows on-net fiber presence to over 2,000 buildings
Integra Telecom expands the reach of its Ethernet over Copper network Read more about: Integra Telecom
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Sovernet, a subsidiary of holding company Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. (ATN), on Thursday announced it has chosen to light up Ciena's (Nasdaq: CIEN) IP networking and Packet-Optical Transport systems to support its statewide fiber network. Over its statewide middle mile network--one that will include Ethernet and 100G capabilities--Vermont-based Sovernet will provide an array of broadband data and voice services, in addition to carrier services, including transit, high-capacity transport, cellular backhaul, waves and Internet connectivity. Similar to other middle mile network providers, including Colorado's EAGLE-Net, Sovernet is targeting community anchors and business customers throughout Vermont that are looking for alternative higher speed optical service options. Ciena and its network integration partner LightRiver will deploy Ciena's 5150 Service Aggregation Switch and its 3930 and 3931 Service Delivery Switches, which are set to be completed by June 2013 and which will connect to the 6500 Packet-Optical Platform featuring WaveLogic coherent optical technology with subtending G.8032 rings to provide increased network scalability and programmability. By deploying these solutions, Sovernet will have what Ciena calls an OPn network architecture and a common method to deliver a large array of Ethernet services. Ciena claims the OPn network concept will provide support for next-gen and packet-based services while accelerating and automating service creation and activation. In addition to the network gear, Ciena is providing Sovernet with its OneControl Unified Management System and a range of professional services for this deployment, including ongoing testing and support, via its Ciena Specialist Services portfolio. Sovernet's new 800-mile middle network was made possible by a $33.4 million grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program. This new network will serve area businesses and over 340 community anchor institutions, including schools, libraries, public safety towers and state-owned buildings. For more:
- see the release
Special report: Wireline in the second quarter of 2012 Download our eBook: Looking beyond 100G Related articles:
Ciena results, 4Q forecast a downer for telecom sector
Optical transport equipment market declines 5%
XO incorporates Ciena into its 100G metro, regional network plans
Vodafone New Zealand selects Ciena to upgrade data network to 100G Read more about: Ciena
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tw telecom (Nasdaq: TWTC) on Thursday was awarded two contracts with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for both Internet connectivity and wavelength services supporting the federal government's Trusted Internet Connectivity (TIC) strategic initiative. The two elements of tw telecom's contribution to the TIC initiative are worth up to $11.67 million over the next five years. The service provider will supply Ethernet Internet Services (EIS) and 10G wavelength services for medical and health-related data connectivity to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Indian Health Services (IHS) in Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Albuquerque, N.M. In the first segment, which is evaluated at $7.49 million over the next five years, tw telecom will deliver EIS for the Washington, D.C., and Atlanta TIC sites. The second five year contract, which is worth $4.18 million, is for Wide Area Network (WAN) Cloud A network connectivity for 10 Gig wavelength services to the Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Albuquerque, N.M., TIC sites. These services address two key concerns for HHS: keeping up with anticipated network growth and securing the Operating Divisions (OPDIV) medical data. These requirements are crucial for HHS: The agency's HHS' Medicare program is the nation's largest health insurer, handling more than one billion claims per year. Securing this contract with HHS is another major win for tw telecom at a time when government agencies are being more conservative about the money they are spending on telecom services. It also proves the company can win big accounts with its expansive set of fiber and Ethernet networks. In addition, the contract ups tw telecom's profile in the government communications market, which has typically been dominated by the big three service providers--AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). For more:
- see the release Special report: Wireline in the second quarter of 2012 Related articles:
tw telecom Q2 revenues rise 7.7% on strong Ethernet, IP VPN sales
tw telecom sets stage for network service automation
tw telecom serves up new Ethernet interconnection product
tw telecom Q1 2012 revenue grew 7.9% on Ethernet, IP/VPN sales Read more about: tw telecom
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Lumos Networks (Nasdaq: LMOS) on Thursday unveiled plans to interconnect its network with another network partner in the Southeast, creating a new path from Ashburn, Va., to Atlanta. Targeted at area service providers and data center providers that need access into the Southeast markets, Lumos and its unnamed partner said they are providing an alternative redundant route to the I-95 corridor that's been plagued by impairments and outages, including some weather-related incidents earlier this year. Joe McCourt, executive vice president and chief revenue officer for Lumos Networks, said in a release announcing the agreement that the new route will provide two potential benefits: greater reliability and a set of higher speed optical services. "We're excited to provide more reliability to those seeking to reach Ashburn from Atlanta and points in between," he said. "Interconnecting two major internet cities takes our already robust network to a whole new level. Today, we can provide speeds to 10Gig wavelengths and larger configurations are expected in the next few months." Although Lumos did not reveal who its network partner is, the telco did say it plans to complete the network buildout, one it believes will facilitate a number of new wholesale, enterprise and educational opportunities, by Q4 2012. Having aggressively built out its five-state, 5,800-mile Mid-Atlantic network via its own organic efforts and through key acquisitions, including the former One Communications' FiberNet unit and Allegheny Energy's fiber assets, the new route will be particularly attractive to its multi-site business and even wholesale wireless backhaul customers that want to expand their reach into the Southwest market. Inside its own region, Lumos continues to become an attractive alternative for both enterprises and wireless operators alike. As of the end of Q2 2012, Lumos had 1,091 on-net buildings connected to its fiber network and doubled the number of FTTT installations, from about 150 at the end of 2011, to approximately 300 wireless towers. For more:
- see the release Special report: Wireline in the second quarter of 2012 Related articles:
Lumos Networks revenue declines slightly in Q2 to $50.8M
Lumos Networks bolsters off-net Ethernet reach via Equinix's Ethernet Exchange
Lumos names Joseph McCourt to senior post
Lumos Networks sees 16% rise in wholesale, data service revenues in Q1 2012
Lumos Networks gets into the colocation/data center game Read more about: Lumos Networks
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