Today's Top Stories Integra Telecom on Wednesday announced that Searchlight Capital Partners has purchased a large equity stake in the CLEC.
Under the terms of the agreement, Searchlight will acquire all of the equity interests that were held by Goldman, Sachs & Co., Integra's largest shareholder. Led by senior partners formerly with investment management firms and that have investment experience in the telecom sector, Integra is Searchlight's third announced investment.
After meeting customary closing conditions, Searchlight expects the deal to close in Q4 2012. Houlihan Lokey served as financial advisor to Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Searchlight is being advised by Jefferies and Kirkland & Ellis LLP in connection with the transaction. Other than thanking Kevin O'Hara and his management team for their work to reinvigorate the company, Searchlight would not provide any further comment about its purchase.
The transfer of the equity stake in Integra to Searchlight comes at a time when the CLEC continues to transition itself from selling services mainly to small to medium businesses (SMBs) to one that can serve larger business customers and wholesale carrier customers via its Electric Lightwave (ELI) division, which was just renamed Integra Wholesale. Getting to this point only came after a roller coaster ride of various management team changes that occurred over the past year. Following the departure of one of Integra Telecom's founders and CEO Dudley Slater, former Integra chairman Tom Casey who took over the CLEC to execute its larger business drive, only to abruptly leave to join pigment company Tronox Inc. But in December, 2011, Integra continued on with its larger business service market drive by naming one of Level 3 Communications' founders, Kevin O'Hara, as its CEO.
Since becoming CEO of Integra, O'Hara has been continually looking for ways to leverage its existing set of IP network and fiber assets to pursue opportunities in vertical market segments such as health care, education and state government agencies. To better serve the more rigorous larger business industry segments, the service provider has been making a number of new product and network expansions. On the network side, Integra has been not only expanding its fiber footprint into more buildings for fiber-based Ethernet, but also equipping more ILEC central offices (COs) in its serving area with Ethernet over Copper (EoC). Besides Ethernet, it has also begun offering a set of optical wavelength and even dark fiber services. "Integra had an amazing set of assets, and it was those assets that caused a strategic discussion about as you go forward do you want to continue to compete where your primary battleground is on the lower end of the market, not just SMB but even the lower end of enterprise where you probably most vulnerable to the cable companies," he told FierceTelecom during the recent COMPTEL Plus event in Dallas. "We began a process a couple of years ago to try and get the company moving in a direction that was more facility-based and move up market with a combination of enterprise and wholesale."
In addition to driving product development, O'Hara has been revamping its management team, appointing telecom veterans Martha Tate as VP of its wholesale division and Ken Smith as the executive VP of sales. For more:
- see the release Show coverage: COMPTEL Fall 2012: Continuing coverage from Dallas Related articles:
Integra Telecom appoints Kevin O'Hara as new CEO
Integra Telecom names Comcast exec Martha Tate as its new wholesale chief
Integra Telecom expands the reach of its Ethernet over Copper network
Integra Telecom appoints telecom veteran Ken Smith EVP of sales
Integra Telecom lights up optical wavelength service suite Read more about: Acquisition, Integra Telecom
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Cross River Fiber, an emerging dark fiber provider, on Wednesday announced that it is building a low-latency fiber connection into Telx's colocation facilities in Clifton, N.J. to target new opportunities in the financial trading industry. Providing a connection to Telx's NJR2 at 100 Delawanna Ave and NJR3 data center at 2 Peekay, the New Jersey-based provider said that the new routes are being purposely built to "significantly reduce latency to NYSE's Mahwah facility from current fiber optic routes." The CLEC is able to offer these alternative lower latency routes to NYSE's Mahwah facility because both of them pass directly through Clifton on their way to financial exchanges in Secaucus and Weehawken. What's more, customers will be able to get a direct path from Telx's Clifton facilities to the Mahwah facility, something that other providers have struggled to do on the existing Mahwah to Secaucus route. These latest network routes, which follow Cross River Fiber's deployment of what it claimed were the "shortest routes" between all New Jersey-based data centers, will provide customers with low latency connectivity to area financial exchanges. Of course, these new routes are just part of a broader strategy the CLEC is taking to target area financial exchange companies. Already operating a large campus environment at 100 Delawanna, Cross River Fiber is also constructing a three-story data center (NJR3) which will provide 215,000 gross square feet of colocation space. Extending these new fiber routes with Telx, a major interconnection and data center services provider, gives it instant access to a new set of customers that are looking for alternative carriers for their trading traffic. For more:
- see the release Special report: Wholesale provider leaders to watch in 2012 Related articles:
Cross River Fiber expands N.J. backbone to address health care opportunities
CrossFiber snags $13.4M in new funding to target data center, network providers
Cross River Fiber capitalizes on NYSE Euronext's new data center rules with New Jersey fiber routes Read more about: Telx
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Dallas -- Tower Cloud, an alternative wireless backhaul specialist, on Tuesday announced that it completed a 1,225 route network serving the I-75 corridor in South Georgia. With this latest network buildout, Tower Cloud said it will be able to address a number of major markets between Macon and Valdosta, including extensions to Thomasville, Waycross and other rural markets in the state. Initially, the new South Georgia network will serve as a backbone for 13 fiber rings and support over 300 cell sites stretching from Thomasville to the west and Waycross to the east. In addition, the regional network includes five new metro markets of Americus, Thomasville, Tifton, Valdosta and Waycross. With this buildout complete, Tower Cloud now serves 14 markets in the Southeast. George Townsend, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Tower Cloud, said in an interview with FierceTelecom that he's seeing continual demand for wireless backhaul in the rural markets it has been targeting. "In all of these rural markets we're serving in Georgia, we have 1,225 route miles and we have about 300 cell towers with multiple wireless operators we're going to be serving," he said. "We're starting to really see the bandwidth grow. When we first won the award it was 50 Meg and it will be 100-plus by the time we turn it up." Townsend added that "because there are less cell towers in the rural markets, we see higher demand than we see in the metro markets that are more densely built." As it has done with other network build outs in its territory, Tower Cloud built this latest network through a partnership with a number of local independent ILECs, including Alma Telephone Company, along railroad rights of way. Part of this recent build included stitching together the networks of 11 rural ILEC partners. Teddy Solomon, Chairman of Alma Telephone Company, said in a press release about the latest build out, that its partnership with Tower Cloud "will result in greatly enhanced wireless services through our region and will encourage additional economic development." Townsend said that while initially some rural ILECs were a bit concerned about working with Tower Cloud, he's seeing more of them buying into their partnership program. "We went and worked with the rural providers who had fiber and struck partnerships with them, and if you talked to them today they would say it has become a better partnership than they initially envisioned," he said. "When we first came into the market many of them were like 'who is this guy coming to steal and pillage our markets and take our networks, but with the revenues we're getting we are becoming one of their largest customers.'" While wireless backhaul is Tower Cloud's primary focus, Townsend said they are considering how their network could serve other area constituents for lit fiber services, particularly the military and universities that have facilities near their fiber. "We are starting to get inquiries from the military where they have needs to get from one base in Georgia to a base in North Carolina or to Washington, D.C.," he said. Townsend added that "if you start looking at colleges and universities in some cases we have 171 that are less than 2 miles from our fiber so we're very interested in working with those guys." For more:
- see the release Show coverage: COMPTEL Fall 2012: Continuing coverage from Dallas On the Hot Seat: Taking a new look at wireless backhaul with Ron Mudry of Tower Cloud Related articles:
Tower Cloud gets $17M in new funding, expands its Georgia network presence
Tower Cloud rakes in $49M in funding, expands Atlanta backhaul network
Broadband Forum introduces MPLS wireless backhaul network specification Read more about: Fiber Network, Tower Cloud
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Seaborn Networks has tasked Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) with building out Seabras-1, a proposed 10,700 km submarine cable system that's designed to provide a direct network route between New York and Sao Paulo, with a branch to Fortaleza, Brazil. With the network slated to go live in 2014, Seaborn and Alcatel-Lucent said they have begun the process to get necessary building permits and marine survey work. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide network equipment in addition to project management, system design, installation and system commissioning services. For this initiative, Seaborn will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's integrated 100G wet plant of cable and high bandwidth repeaters, power feed equipment, and its 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal equipped with its optical coherent technology. Given the unpredictable nature of future bandwidth demands, the 1620 LM will allow Seaborn to upgrade system capacity as needed without interrupting existing customer traffic. Upon completion, the 100G-capable Seabras-1 system will give service providers and other vertical industry segments such as the financial trading a low-latency network link via a 10, 400 km segment between Sao Paulo and New York. By building out the 350 km branch to Fortaleza, Seaborn Networks said it can also enhance traffic protection in the region.
To date, Seaborn has completed two rounds of funding, although it has not revealed the dollar amount.
Even before one link on the network has been built, Seabras-1 has managed to attract Tata Communications (NYSE: TCL) and Sidera Networks to the table—two service providers that plan to use the cable system as a way to extend their respective networks into Latin America. What's interesting about Seaborn's Seabras-1 is that Brazil's state-owned telco Telebrás is also going to build U.S.-to-Fortaleza submarine cable as part of a larger plan to improve the country's Internet connectivity with four main regions: the United States, Europe, Africa and the Southern Cone. Similar to other large-scale submarine cable projects, including the Trans-Pacific Express (TPE), Telebrás is also looking for network partners to help build their network. However, Larry Schwartz, CEO of Seaborn Networks, would not say at that time if his company has spoken to the Brazil-based telco about establishing an alliance after Telebrás announced it would be building out its own new submarine cable network. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Seaborn Networks to provide New York City to Sao Paulo submarine route
Brazil's Telebrás to build U.S.-to-Fortaleza submarine cable
Submarine cable operators protest FCC's USF contribution proposal
Seaborn Networks completes second round of funding
Sidera Networks taps into Latin America low latency opportunity via Seaborn agreement
Seaborn Networks to build U.S.-to-Brazil submarine cable network Read more about: Alcatel-Lucent, Seaborn Networks
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Dallas -- EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK) on Tuesday unveiled an initiative to expand its network with a Memphis, Tenn.-to-Chicago long-haul fiber route that it said is set to be completed by the end of the year. As part of this network build out, the CLEC will also build an additional fiber ring in Memphis, which is slated to be built in early 2013. By building the new Memphis-to-Chicago long-haul network route, the CLEC will not only extend its network reach with up to 10G speeds between these two cities, but also will be able to provide additional network diversity and redundancy to existing and new customers along that route. Set to be built as a Wave/SONET-enabled OC-192 ring on the 10G backbone, EarthLink says the network is designed to deepen its reach into the Memphis market and access to other traditional carriers and potential Fiber to the Tower (FTTT) wireless backhaul opportunities with area wireless operators. "This long haul route encompasses major wireless centers and importantly, provides a redundant connection point between our Northeast and Southeast fiber networks," said Jim O'Brien, Executive Vice President of Infrastructure Engineering & Operations for EarthLink, in a press release announcing the new build out. Providing that redundant connection point between the Northeast and Southeast fiber networks--which EarthLink created when it purchased the assets of three other competitive providers, namely ITC^Deltacom, One Communications, and STS Telecom--is a key attribute as it looks to attract more carrier and business customers. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
EarthLink revenue slips 2% sequentially to $338M in Q2 2012
EarthLink introduces IT help-desk service
Earthlink, Alcatel-Lucent among providers to settle voicemail patent suits with Klausner
EarthLink taps XO veteran Michael Toplisek to head IT Services division
EarthLink addresses business cloud security with new workspace service suite Read more about: Earthlink
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