Today's Top Stories Savvis, CenturyLink's (NYSE: CTL) cloud and data center subsidiary, was named as one of the top managed hosting providers in North America on Gartner's Magic Quadrant where it is directly competing with AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ). Delivering services through its growing base of U.S. and international data centers, Savvis currently offers a set of shared, dedicated, and hybrid cloud solutions to its multi-site business clients. "Savvis can handle extremely complex deals, including large-scale e-commerce and enterprise application hosting needs," wrote Gartner in their report. "It has a very broad portfolio of supported infrastructure, middleware stacks and application environments."
Savvis has performed consistently well for CenturyLink. Operating inside of CenturyLink as the telco's Enterprise Markets – Data Hosting division, revenues rose 12.7 percent year-over-year to $292 million in Q4 2012.
While its main focus is on serving large multinational corporation customers (MNCs), it expanded its cloud and managed service portfolio to a broader audience via the launch of its savvisdirect solution last December. It also expanded its application support capabilities via its acquisition of Ciber last October. The service provider isn't without its issues, however. "Gartner clients have noted a dilution of focus and support quality within the business following the spate of acquisitions during the past two years that have led to the company's current organizational structure," the report said. "Savvis has multiple hosting and cloud IaaS offerings among its suite of services, which can leave customers unsure which line of service is best for their needs." 
For more:
- see the release
- and Gartner's report Related articles:
CenturyLink, CyrusOne scale data center sales reach with Ingram Micro
CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream ask FCC for more CAF-I broadband funding
Gartner: AT&T gets high business marks, but faces new competition Read more about: Managed Services
back to top
FairPoint Communications (Nasdaq: FRP) has renewed its employment agreement with current CEO Paul Sunu for three years, according to a filing the telco made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  | | Sunu (Image source: FairPoint) | Under the terms of the agreement, Sunu will serve as CEO of FairPoint from April 9, 2013 to August 31, 2016 "unless the agreement is terminated sooner." "Mr. Sunu's term of employment under the Employment Agreement shall be extended automatically for successive one-year terms unless notice of termination is given by either the Company or Mr. Sunu prior to the expiration of the term of employment (including any extension thereof) pursuant to the terms of the Employment Agreement," FairPoint said in the SEC filing. "In addition, under the Employment Agreement, Mr. Sunu shall be nominated to the Board (and shall so serve if elected)." He will receive an annual base salary of $800,000, which will be reviewed every year by the telco's compensation committee and can be increased after consulting with independent directors on the board. His target level bonus under the annual incentive plan is 100 percent of the base salary payable to him during the applicable performance period. He is also eligible for a maximum bonus of up to 150 percent of his base salary in addition to being able "to participate in the benefit and other plans made available generally to the Company's other senior executives, including but not limited to the FairPoint." In 2012, Sunu earned $4.2 million in total compensation, including his baseline salary of $750,000. Other forms of compensation in 2012 included a $157,220 bonus, $1 million in stock options, $2.2 million awarded as stock and $103,783 from other types of compensation. For more:
- see the SEC filing Related articles:
Fairpoint axes 90 more employees in New England region
FairPoint, Maine lawmakers jointly tackle lottery scams
FairPoint extends wholesale Ethernet reach into Boston
FairPoint's Q4 revenue driven by broadband, Ethernet services Read more about: Fairpoint Communications
back to top
More action on the Brazil broadband front as America Movil (NYSE: AMX) said it is studying the possibility of slimming down operations in the country by merging its fixed and mobile carriers and its cable TV operations. Embratel Participacoes, the third-largest wireline telecom in Brazil, will structurally integrate with number-three ranked mobile operator Telecom Americas and cable operator Net Servicos de Comunicacao SA. The three units said that they are "evaluating options" for the merger in a joint statement issued Thursday, according to Telegeography. The move could put America Movil in a much stronger position in Brazil's fast-heating competitive communications market. America Movil last year became the dominant pay-TV operator in Latin America, with 22 percent of the region's 51 million subscribers. The conglomerate did so by wrapping all of its regional operators--Telmex, Telmex Internacional and Net Servicos of Brazil--under the same umbrella. "The proposed merger of operations would create a telecoms giant with the leading position in Brazil's pay TV and broadband Internet markets (NET) and the second-biggest share of the country's mobile phone sector (Claro)," according to a NY Daily News article. Last year, Spain-based Telefonica accomplished a similar merger, joining its fixed-line and mobile divisions in Brazil into a single unit. Despite its pay-TV coup, America Movil's overall revenues dipped slightly in the fourth quarter of 2012, falling 1.1 percent over the previous quarter to MXN 198 billion (USD 16.2 billion). For more:
- Telegeography has this story
- NY Daily News India has this coverage Related articles:
GVT ups Brazil's FTTH competition with 150 Mbps service
America Movil takes over Latin American TV market lead from DirecTV
America Movil Q4 revenues down 1% amidst 1.4 million gain in broadband RGUs Read more about: America Movil
back to top
GVT has introduced a 150 Mbps tier for its fiber to the home (FTTH) service offering in Brazil, exceeding its previous 100 Mbps limit and boosting its competitiveness with Telefonica's Vivo. Although GVT has built a sizeable fiber to the building (FTTB) footprint, the provider said that it uses FTTH when it's delivering 100 Mbps and above to reduce network latency. Available in areas where it already delivers FTTB services, GVT will offer the service will be offered for BRL 299.90 (USD 152) as part of a triple play service bundle. In addition to the new speed, it lowered the price of its existing 50 Mbps service by BRL 50 (USD 25). "These moves reinforce our strategy of innovation in ultrafast broadband with increasingly affordable prices for our customers," said Marco Lopes, VP of marketing for GVT. GVT faces competition from Telefonica's Vivo, which reported last month that its FTTH subscriber base rose from about 1,000 customers in 2011 to 115,000 at the end of last year. Despite a shortage of skilled technicians, Vivo said it will be able to meet its goal of connecting 230,000 FTTH subscribers by the end of the year. Over its FTTH network, Vivo can deliver speeds from 50-200 Mbps and IPTV to the end customer. Last September, Vivo launched an IPTV service over its FTTH network in São Paulo. For more:
- BNamericas has this article Related articles:
Vivendi delays GVT sale after getting lowball offers
Vivo sets 230,000 FTTH subscriber goal amidst worker shortage
Telefonica's Vivo brings 100G to Brazil
Oi SA's broadband plan footprint reaches over 2,000 cities
TIM Brasil completes first phase of FTTx project with ZTE Read more about: Broadband
back to top
Frontier Communications (Nasdaq: FTR) is expanding its tech support services by offering a $15 per month, 24x7 service to address issues that consumers and businesses face, such as problems with their Wi-Fi routers or computer viruses. With its Premium Tech Support, Frontier says that it will have a set of experts available that reside in the U.S. who will provide "a level of coverage not available with standard technical support." What's interesting about the service is that it will be available nationwide to any residential or small- to medium-sized business customer that has computing and networking devices, regardless if they're a Frontier customer or not. The telco, of course, is not alone in its desire to deliver these kinds of support services. AT&T (NYSE: T) offers a similar service called ConnecTech. For $15 a month, the service lets subscribers talk to the company's experts to solve technical isues with computer performance, viruses and malware, connections and home wireless networking. As reported by FierceCable, Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) offers subscribers similar support under its SignatureHome service. However, the cable MSO only offers the service to customers who order its $200 monthly bundle, which includes a wideband Internet connection, a multi-room DVR and premium channels. For more:
- see the release
- and here's FierceCable's take Related articles:
Frontier's West Va. broadband proposal gets state senate backing
CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream ask FCC for more CAF-I broadband funding Read more about: Customer Service
back to top
| 
The Contenders: Municipal fiber providers meeting or beating the incumbent competition
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.