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2013/11/01

| 11.01.13 | AT&T broadens fiber reach in Louisiana

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November 1, 2013

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Today's Top Stories:
1. AT&T extends fiber reach into 50 Louisiana office buildings
2. Lumos lights metro Ethernet in Richmond, expands Western Pa. fiber upgrade
3. Bell Aliant IPTV revenue grows to $11.5M, adds 16,300 FibreOP TV customers
4. FCC earmarks $32M to expand broadband in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska
5. TDS Telecom's Q3 revenues rise to $234.5M on gains in IPTV, managed services

Spotlight:
Cable's drive to build its own Aereo-like service is full of challenges

Also Noted:
Ciena touts "Smart Raman" for optical networks; Former FCC chief Kennard joins Grain Management Much more...

News From The Fierce Network:
1. Google Fiber launches apps for iPhone, iPod Touch
2. Verizon could be Intel's white knight
3. European operators see LTE Broadcast in their future
4. More headlines...

Special Report:
Wireline telecom scare fest: What's keeping telco executives up at night?
What's making wireline telecom executives scared to turn out the lights? We're serving up five telecom tales that are arousing anxiety in this industry segment. These chilling market scenarios have dominated the headlines in 2013. Read more


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This week's sponsors are FierceWireless, FierceTelecom & FierceCable.

Fierce Innovation Awards: Telecom Edition. Winners Announced Live

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Sponsor: Oracle

Marketplace

> Whitepaper: OTA Updating Simplified - Using SaaS to Update Android Devices
> Whitepaper: The 3 Ps - The Benefits of Integrating Yume's SDK for App Developers
> eBook: eBrief | Next-Gen Program Guides
> eBook: Transitioning to 100G and Beyond: The Big Picture
> Whitepaper: Your Guide to iOS 7
> Whitepaper: Next-generation Network Security
> Whitepaper: End-to-End Service Management for Unified Communications
> Whitepaper: Customer Experience for Service
> Whitepaper: How to Transform Your Mobile Customer Care Strategy
> eBook: Partnering For DPI Deployment

Jobs

> Account Executive – Cablevision - Edison, NJ
> Need a job? Need to hire? Visit FierceWirelessJobs

This week's sponsor is Riverbed.

Whitepaper: End-to-End Service Management for Unified Communications

As part of Riverbed Performance Management solutions, Riverbed OPNET Unified Communications Xpert allows continuous monitoring of voice and video quality so you can catch and fix problems before they become an issue. Learn More

Today's Top Stories

1. AT&T extends fiber reach into 50 Louisiana office buildings

By Sean Buckley Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

AT&T (NYSE: T) has lit up 54 multi-tenant office buildings in Louisiana as part of its fiber to the building (FTTB) drive, extending fiber-based services to over 2,600 business customer locations in the state.

This latest fiber connection milestone is part of its $14 billion Project VIP initiative to expand its wireless and wireline IP networks. It has set a goal of bringing fiber to an additional 1 million business customer locations throughout its 22-state wireline serving area.

Businesses that are connected to AT&T Fiber Ready Buildings will be able to a larger suite of security, network and cloud-based services such as Ethernet and IP/VPN.  They will be able to get symmetrical Ethernet of up to 1 Gbps.

AT&T has been making similar strides in other areas, such as North Carolina where it installed fiber into 93 new multi-tenant units in the state.

Providing greater access to fiber means that AT&T can sell higher speed Ethernet services to more customers that reside in these buildings.

During the third quarter, the telco reported that next-gen business services, which include Ethernet and IP VPN, grew 15.7 percent vs. Q2 2013. These services represent an $8.6 billion annualized revenue stream and make up more than 24 percent of wireline business revenues.

For more:
- see the release

Special report: AT&T's $14B Project VIP: breaking out the business service, U-verse numbers

Related articles:
AT&T U-verse revenues rise 28 percent to $3.1B, subscribers top 10 million
AT&T U-verse subs top 9.4 million in Q2, 45 Mbps speeds coming soon
AT&T forecasts strong U-verse adds in Q2 2013
AT&T Q1 consumer wireline revenues rise 2% to $5.5 billion on strong U-verse gains

Read more about: AT&T
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2. Lumos lights metro Ethernet in Richmond, expands Western Pa. fiber upgrade

By Sean Buckley Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Lumos Networks (Nasdaq: LMOS) continues to make progress with its "edge-out" market strategy to expand its fiber network by completing the launch of metro Ethernet in Richmond, Va., and the upgrade of its fiber assets in Western Pennsylvania.

In Richmond, the service provider is now offering metro Ethernet services to its business and wholesale carrier customers. This service will be offered over its 110 mile fiber Ethernet metro ring in Richmond. Previously, the telco had operated a network that consisted of rented dark fiber facilities from other service providers.

Already, the service provider has won two contracts with national hospital provider HCA and the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System.

It will provide Ethernet to 10 locations for national hospital provider HCA. Lumos will then connect 5 key VCU Health Systems facilities, satellite locations and critical care locations to its Richmond Data Center.

"We announced 10 locations for HCA, and it's always a big milestone when you have your first customer in on that network so it's not just on paper," said Craig Drinkhall, vice president of product and engineering at Lumos, in an interview with FierceTelecom. "They were a company that helped drive us to that location."

Set to be completed in Q1 2014, VCU's buildings will be linked directly to the telco's fiber network through Ethernet.

"The Virginia Commonwealth University system was one we found out about and once we went in there and started announcing to people and proves the point that once we announce this connectivity that other customers come in and it's not just what's happened in that one city," Drinkhall said. "It's the connectivity to the other places so were connecting VCU to our entire network in Virginia."

While it is using dark fiber facilities from other local service providers in the city, Drinkhall said they are in the process of "building fiber connectivity to and from Richmond."

Similar to its Richmond metro network, Lumos has made Western Pennsylvania fiber assets 100G capable and has expanded the amount of  "on and off ramps" on the network to broaden its reach. In addition, it has completed two key routes from Pittsburgh, including to Harrisburg, Pa., and Ashburn, Va., as a way to connect to the city's large base of data centers.

The Western Pennsylvania market is not exactly new to Lumos. Its predecessor company nTelos enhanced its existing long-haul route by purchasing 2,200 route fiber miles that reside mainly in central and Western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia from Allegheny Energy in Oct. 2009.

"We had the assets we already had there and bought some more assets from Allegheny Communications, but those were mainly long haul assets," Drinkhall said. "To be able to sell metro Ethernet to medium and large enterprises and Fiber to the Cell, we needed to create a lot more aggregation points to be able to get into that network in those places to provide services to customers."

In particular, carrier and enterprise customers were asking for optical wavelength services.

A key part of the expansion was to create an extension to Ashburn and build out the aggregation points to help customers get on and off the network. It closed that gap by establishing a new link from Altoona to Harrisburg.

Drinkhall said that what will differentiate Lumos from pack is network redundancy and diversity.

"We have built our network paths in mind to provide unique paths in and out of those markets," he said. "We can route circuits around Pittsburgh and not have to go through the city where most of the carriers have their PoPs."  

These networks couldn't come at a better time. In Q3, the service provider reported that carrier and enterprise data revenues rose to $15.4 million and $10.2 million, respectively. 

For more:
- see the Western Pa. release
- and the Richmond release

Related articles:
Lumos Networks revenue drops to $51.6M, but maintains 2013 guidance
Lumos targets wireless backhaul, business opportunities with reserve E-Line service
Lumos Networks' strategic data revenues jump to $29.9 million
Lumos serves up 100G wavelength services

Read more about: Metro Ethernet, 100G
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3. Bell Aliant IPTV revenue grows to $11.5M, adds 16,300 FibreOP TV customers

By Sean Buckley Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

Bell Aliant's IPTV service continues to be a major growth engine as Q3 revenue grew 56 percent year-over-year to $11.5 million with the addition of 19,300 new FibreOP TV customers.

At the end of the quarter it reached a total of 142,100 FibreOP IPTV customers, part of which were those subscribers that migrated from its fiber to the node (FTTN) TV service to a fiber to the home (FTTH) platform. Total IPTV customers reached 163,300 at the end of September 2013.

On the FTTH expansion front, Bell Aliant passed an additional 45,000 premises with FTTH, down from 47,000 in Q3 2012. This brought FTTH coverage to 770,000 premises at the end of September.

One area that benefitted from its ongoing FTTH drive was Newfoundland. Bell Aliant spent $11.6 million to bring FibreOP to additional homes and businesses in that community.  

The service provider said that capital expenditure pressures from higher FibreOP "customer connections in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter in 2012 were offset by improved installation efficiencies."

Overall Internet revenue rose 4.8 percent, or $5.75 million, with resident high-speed Internet average revenue per customer (ARPC) up 3.4 percent from the same period a year ago. It said the increase in high-speed Internet ARPC was due to "selected pricing action and customer demand for higher bandwidth bundles and other services, offset by increased promotional pricing."

During the quarter, the telco added 19,300 net new FibreOP customers, bringing total FibreOP Internet customers to 166,000 at the end of September. While the existing Bell Aliant FTTN and DSL customers that migrated to FibreOP don't contribute to overall high-speed broadband customer growth, they do contribute to improved customer retention and growth in overall customer ARPC.

"The progress we are continuing to make with our fiber-to-the-home strategy is a significant contributor to our improved customer activation results," said Karen Sheriff, president and CEO of Bell Aliant, in the earnings release. "We continue to gain confidence that our FTTH strategy is the right one to return us to growth.

Overall net high-speed Internet customer additions were 11,600 in the third quarter of 2013, up from 7,500 in the same quarter of 2012, bringing total high-speed Internet customers to 944,900.

As expected, the company reported that legacy local and long-distance voice revenues declined again. Driven by a 5.7 percent decline in Network Access Services (NAS), local service and long distance revenues declined $16.3 million (5.6 percent) and $9.5 million (11.5 percent), respectively.

While the service provider has forecast that Q4 year-over-year results are "expected to be softer than previous quarters," it has maintained its 2013 revenue guidance of $2.62 to $2.68 million.

Shares of Bell Aliant were listed $26.41, down 35 cents, or 1.31 percent, at the end of trading on the Toronto stock exchange.

For more:
- see the earnings release

Earnings summary: Wireline telecom earnings in the third quarter of 2013

Related articles:
Bell Aliant spends $11.6M to bring FTTH service to 5 Newfoundland, Labrador markets
Bell Aliant FTTH passes 725,000 premises in second quarter
Bell Aliant to bring FTTH service to 20,000 users in North Bay, Ontario
Canada's CRTC denies BCE, Bell Aliant's payphone rate increase

Read more about: third quarter earnings 2013, IPTV
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4. FCC earmarks $32M to expand broadband in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska

By Sean Buckley Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

The FCC is making $32 million in Connect America Fund (CAF) grants available to enable service providers in Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska to bring broadband service to over 42,000 "underserved" homes and businesses

The new allocation is part of what the regulator says is a "jump-start" to extend broadband service to these areas via the CAF.

Under the plan, the FCC will break out the allocations in specific increments to each state: It will provide $31.6 million to Puerto Rico to reach 40,736 homes and businesses; $1 million to Hawaii to reach 1,317 homes and businesses in Hawaii County; and $174,000 to reach 316 homes and businesses in Alaska's Yukon-Koyukuk Borough.

Alaska Communications and Hawaiian Telcom (Nasdaq: HCOM), the two dominant telcos in Alaska and Hawaii, could not be reached for comment on the new funding allocation.

"I'm delighted we can provide an infusion of funds to connect communities in Alaska, Puerto Rico and Hawaii to jobs and other opportunities as we work with our partners in the private sector to build out broadband networks that will reach all Americans," said FCC Acting Chair Mignon Clyburn, in a release.

After the FCC altered the rules on how the CAF funds could be spent, three of the largest U.S. telcos, AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) accepted CAF-I allocations earlier this year.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
AT&T accepts $100M from FCC's Connect America Fund to expand rural broadband
CenturyLink takes $54M in CAF funds to expand rural broadband reach

Read more about: Connect America Fund
back to top


5. TDS Telecom's Q3 revenues rise to $234.5M on gains in IPTV, managed services

By Sean Buckley Comment | Forward | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

TDS Telecom (NYSE: TDS), the wireline subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc., reported that wireline revenues climbed to $234.5 million due to additions of more residential IPTV subscribers and managed business service customers.

"In addition to completing the recent cable and HMS acquisitions, TDS Telecom had continued growth in residential IPTV and commercial managedIP connections," said LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr., TDS president and CEO, in the earnings release. "A combination of revenue growth and cost reductions helped to improve TDS Telecom's profitability in the quarter."

During the quarter, it added 1,700 new IPTV subscribers and 9,000 managedIP subscribers. However, it lost 2,200 video subscribers and 5,800 residential voice subscribers.

Managed service continues to be a major growth target for the company. The service provider continues to pursue a set of organic and inorganic activities to grow this business segment, including its recent $40 million acquisition of MSN Communications.

From an overall financial perspective, TDS Telecom's parent company Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. reported revenues of $1.18 billion, up from $1.37 billion in Q3 2012.

Shares of TDS were listed at $30.13, down $1.05, or 3.37 percent in late Friday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more:
- see the earnings release

Earnings summary: Wireline telecom earnings in the third quarter of 2013

Related articles:
TDS acquires IT services provider MSN Communications for $40M
TDS Telecom revenues rise to $223.4M on strong triple play, managedIP adds
TDS' Fiberville program lures subscribers to IPTV, FTTH
TDS Telecom updates its Mediaroom platform to give subscribers more control

Read more about: Tds Telecom
back to top


Also Noted

TODAY'S SPOTLIGHT... Cable's drive to build its own Aereo-like service is full of challenges

Josh Wein, FierceOnlineVideoCable operators, according to various reports, are thinking of either building their own version of Aereo or striking a partnership with the controversial over the top video player. However, as Josh Wein, editor of FierceOnlineVideo, points out in his latest Editor's Corner both of these scenarios will require more capital to make it a reality. Read more

Wireline news across the web:

@FierceTelecom RT @bbcmag: Broadband adoption spurs economic growth in Minnesota. Post | Follow @FierceTelecom

> Ciena said its new "Smart Raman" solution can ease Raman amplification for service providers as they move to 400G and Terabit capacities. Post

> William E. Kennard, former chairman of the FCC, will join private equity firm Grain Management, LLC this month as a senior advisor in its new Washington, D.C., office. Release

Cable News

> Brushing aside reports that he isn't interested in merging Time Warner Cable with Charter Communications and other cable MSOs, CEO Glenn Britt insisted Thursday that the company would agree to a deal if it made money for shareholders. Article

> Atlantic Broadband will build a TV Everywhere portal for TiVo that subscribers can use to receive personalized recommendations, Atlantic Broadband Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer David Isenberg told FierceCableArticle

Wireless News

> Crown Castle CEO Ben Moreland said that although most Tier 1 carriers' macro LTE buildouts are expected to be largely completed in the next few years, there will still be a lot of cell site activity and amendments. Article

> Google unveiled its Nexus 5 Android smartphone, built by LG, which Google will sell unlocked starting at $349 for the 16 GB model. Article

And finally …A new Blackstone Group report revealed that almost 70 percent of SMBs were using virtualization technologies to move servers from hardware to software. Article

News From The Fierce Network:

> EPA database reveals strategies for successful GHG reductions Post
> Infonetics: Pace surpasses Cisco for share of set-top market Post

Marketplace

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> eBook: eBrief | Next-Gen Program Guides

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> eBook: Transitioning to 100G and Beyond: The Big Picture

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> Whitepaper: Customer Experience for Service

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> Whitepaper: How to Transform Your Mobile Customer Care Strategy

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> eBook: Partnering For DPI Deployment

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Jobs

> Account Executive – Cablevision - Edison, NJ

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> Need a job? Need to hire? Visit FierceWirelessJobs

Announcing FierceWirelessJobs, the new FierceMarkets careers site. Find the perfect job or post your openings at http://www.fiercewireless.com/jobs.


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