Today's Top Stories An Ontario Superior Court on Monday dismissed charges of fraud against three former senior executives at telecom equipment supplier Nortel. Former CEO Frank Dunn, former CFO Douglas Beatty and former Controller Michael Gollogly had been embroiled in a five-month-long trial during which prosecutors contended the three had misrepresented the company's financial results from 2000 to 2004, allegedly receiving bonus payments and defrauding investors. The former executives were said to have improperly reported losses and profits to artificially create cash and stock bonuses worth a total of CAD 12.8 million (USD 13 million). Justice Frank Marrocco, however, said the prosecutors did not meet the burden of proof and he was therefore acquitting the three men, according to a Reuters story. "I am satisfied that, during the time-frame of the indictment, there was at Nortel a culture of conservatism, in the accounting sense of that term," Marrocco wrote in his decision. Global Toronto reported that the men felt "vindicated" by the decision, according to Beatty's lawyer, Greg Lafontaine. "There was no fraud at Nortel," Lafontaine continued. "No fraud at Nortel at all." This judgment marks the end of another chapter in Nortel's beleaguered past, which has included "various probes into accounting irregularities," according to the Wall Street Journal. In addition, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 after dealing with "overcapacity, industry price-cutting and a wave of mergers that bolstered competitors." For more:
- read the Reuters article
- see the Wall Street Journal piece
- check out Global Toronto's story Special report: Worst wireless CEOs of all time Related articles:
After years of delay, three ex-Nortel execs go to court on fraud charges
Ex-Nortel CEO, CFO battle for legal relief Read more about: Fraud, nortel
back to top
| This week's sponsor is Aricent. | 
| Webinar: Capitalizing SON – How to Implement SON for LTE to reduce OPEX and Increase Revenue
Tuesday, January 29th, 11am ET / 8am PT LTE is the fastest growing communication technology of all time. In this webinar our experts will discuss how Network Equipment Manufacturers can leverage the concept of Self Organizing Networks (SON) to not only manage highly complex LTE networks but also reduce operational expenditures and enhance customer satisfaction. Register Today! |
Cologix, a neutral interconnection and colocation provider, on Tuesday broadened access to its Standard Connections product to more U.S. and Canadian cities. Initially available in Toronto, the service will now be available in Cologix's carrier hotel data centers in Dallas, Minneapolis, Montreal and Vancouver. With Standard Connections, the service provider's customers can leverage leased access into a Cologix-controlled environment to colocate a single Ethernet switch or router. The advantage of Standard Connections, says Cologix, is that customers that need to expand their market presence and reach would be able to get immediate access to an array of network providers in its Meet-Me-Rooms as well as the network customers on the colocation floors. Existing and new customers will be able to buy the Standard Connections product at 1950 North Stemmons in Dallas, 511 11th Ave. South in Minneapolis, 1250 Rene Levesque West in Montreal and 555 West Hastings St. in Vancouver. At these locations, customers will have access to the product, which includes individual rack units for network switches or routers, redundant UPS power and a cross connect to bring the leased access from one of the network providers in Cologix's Meet-Me-Room to the point of presence. While the company is entering new markets, the Standard Connections product is far from new, as it already is being used by 100 customers, including Hurricane Electric. Reid Fishler, director at Hurricane Electric, said having a "presence at Standard Connections has enabled us to broaden our network reach through the opportunity for additional peering relationships, while continuing our strategic global expansion." Besides Hurricane Electric, U.S.-based XO Communications and AboveNet--now Zayo--which are looking to establish a broader presence in Toronto, are also leveraging Cologix's services. XO, for instance, is using their interconnectivity services to target four key market verticals--finance, high-tech, media and telecommunications--that require service inside Toronto or high-speed access to markets in the United States. With Gartner estimating that "almost 40 percent of the Canadian telecom passing traffic passes through Toronto," the market is important for Cologix. By expanding its services in additional Canadian and U.S. cities, it can now build on the momentum with the Standard Connections service it had in Toronto and apply what it had learned there in its new markets. For more:
- see the release
Related articles:
XO extends service reach into the Toronto market
AboveNet extends service reach into Toronto
Cloud providers should find lucrative opportunities among Russian enterprises, says Frost
Equinix to spend $43 million on new Tokyo data center
FiberMedia launches cloud channel partner program Read more about: Zayo
back to top
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 7 ruled that Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) is entitled obtain a large piece of the injunction bond from its wholesale service customer U.S. D.I.D. Corp., a telecom service reseller. Last May, U.S. D.I.D. issued a $314,672.80 bond when it obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) after Windstream threatened to cut off the competitive carrier's service "on the ground that U.S. D.I.D. was reselling services in violation of an express provision prohibiting resale in the retail customer contract between the parties." This TRO was obtained to prevent Windstream from suspending services or increasing costs. However, on June 21 the court quickly vacated it because the company did not provide enough evidence to support its claims. "The Court held, among other things, that [the] Plaintiff had failed to demonstrate either a likelihood of success on the merits or the existence of sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make them a fair ground for litigation," said the court in an oral ruling. Before Windstream could file an answer to the complaint, U.S. D.I.D. dismissed its suit without prejudice. The court said "all of the relevant factors support the conclusion that U.S. D.I.D. dismissed its suit on the basis of a belief that it would lose on the merits." Following the dismissal, Windstream told the court that part of the security bond should be applied to a bill for wholesale services it provided from May 14, 2012, to June 14, 2012. Since U.S. D.I.D. issued the TRO at 11:59 p.m. on May 21, 2012, and it was vacated on June 21, 2012, the court said Windstream's "invoice includes seven days of services that occurred prior to the issuance of the TRO, and does not include seven days of services provided pursuant to the TRO that will not be billed until the July 15, 2012 invoice." Even though U.S. D.I.D. decided to dismiss the case, the court said Windstream was entitled to a portion of the bond. On Jan. 23, the court clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will pay Windstream $22,271.92 of the $314,672.80 bond "for damages caused by the TRO." On the same day, the court will issue a check for $87,400.88 deposited by U.S. D.I.D. in the court's registry. For more:
- here's the New York court's final ruling (.pdf)
- here's the July ruling (.pdf) Related articles:
Windstream sees strong FTTT uptake
Moody's gives Windstream negative rating
Windstream targets cloud, business services with McLean, Va., data center
Windstream Q3 revenues get boost from broadband, business and FTTT sales Read more about: Windstream
back to top
Alpheus Communications, a CLEC serving the growing DASH (Dallas-Austin-San Antonio-Houston) market, has built out its fiber network to a number of new buildings in downtown Houston, furthering its on-net footprint. Business tenants who reside at 1001 Fannin St., Two Allen Center at 1200 Smith St. and 601 Travis St. will be able to get fiber-based Ethernet service with speeds ranging from as low as 1.5 Mbps up to GigE. One of the advantages for businesses is that since the fiber is already installed in these buildings, they won't have to deal with long lead times or pay a premium to have the fiber specially built into their location. Scott Widham, CEO of Alpheus, said in a release announcing the new buildouts that it will continue to expand its "footprint in Houston and other metro areas in Texas through additional investments in 2013." To date, Alpheus' fiber network is connected to more than 300 central offices and POPs (points-of-presence). Last October, the service provider said it has set a goal of connecting 100 buildings in Dallas and Houston to its fiber network. Over the past year, Alpheus has been aggressively expanding its network reach. Last July, the CLEC announced plans to invest over $10 million in 2012 to simultaneously expand its workforce by 30 percent and its fiber network. A key piece of the company's ongoing network expansion in the DASH market is its focus on Ethernet. Leveraging a mix of fiber and copper, the service provider's Ethernet footprint serves over 94,000 buildings. Besides its recent organic buildout efforts, Alpheus has also been active on the acquisition front, buying Houston-based data center service provider Net Star Telecommunications in December. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Alpheus purchases Net Star Telecommunications
Alpheus Communications attracts more reseller agents to channel program
Alpheus continues to branch out into the business service market
Alpheus Communications sees uptick in wholesale service sales, plots growth Read more about: Carrier Ethernet, Fiber Network
back to top
AT&T (NYSE: T) and CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) on Monday became members of a U.S. program that will enable them to extend classified cyber threat information to their business customers as part of a broader security services bundle. Eric Rosenbach, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, told Businessweek the Pentagon already provides classified information on threats to the Department of Homeland Security, which then will give it to companies that have the necessary approvals. Rosenbach added that other companies would like to use the program to protect their critical data. This initiative comes after Congress in November tried to pass a law that would require electric utilities and telecom providers to incorporate voluntary security standards into their operations. However, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce maintains that the proposed standards could create a stifling set of regulations. With the Defense Industrial Base Enhanced Cybersecurity Services program, U.S. companies would be able to get information on cyber threats that was previously only available to government and defense agencies. Linda Johnson, a spokeswoman for CenturyLink, told Businessweek they are "seeing strong demand from private companies" but would not reveal who those companies are. AT&T, however, has not given any details about its involvement in the new initiative. Still, the program is growing. Since being initially launched in 2009 as way for the Pentagon and defense contractors to share unclassified information on data loss and network security, the program includes 71 participating companies with another 22 looking to join the program. Both AT&T and CenturyLink serve very large U.S. and global business customers with a broad set of managed security and cloud capabilities. Having the added ability to sell classified information on threats--especially to large multinational companies--could provide another level of trust and differentiation for service providers as they help customers drive more of their data into the cloud. For more:
- Businessweek has this article Related articles:
AT&T Q3: Consumer, business IP drive up wireline revenues 2%
CenturyLink legacy declines offset by consumer IP, business gains; revenue down 1.3% Read more about: AT&T
back to top
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.