Today's Top Stories Verizon (NYSE: VZ) continues to make progress with migrating what it calls "chronic" copper customers to its FiOS fiber to the home (FTTH) network, an effort that helped it eliminate 600,000 repair dispatches in 2013 alone. The telco estimated that as a result of this effort it achieved $100 million in savings. For this year, it said that it is close to exceeding its goal of migrating 300,000 residential customers from copper to fiber. Since it began the program last year, it has migrated 500,000 lines overall. It has 6.2 million customers connected to fiber vs. 6.1 million on copper. Besides the operational savings, what's also interesting about this migration is that those customers that get transferred to the fiber-based service tend to purchase higher speeds and bundle two or three services. During the third quarter, the telco reported that over 40 percent of its existing FiOS customers subscribed to a Quantum tier between 50-500 Mbps. "What we're seeing is that as these customers move over they are voluntarily buying up in speed," said Fran Shammo, CFO and EVP of Verizon during the Morgan Stanley 13th Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. "We're seeing about a $20 to $30 ARPU increase once they move over from copper onto FiOS and that's just strictly on a double play." Besides the operational savings, Shammo added that "based on the FiOS successfulness, the wireline margin will start to increase in 2014." For more:
- see this post Related articles:
Verizon's Shammo: We won't buy other providers to expand internationally
Verizon's Shammo: Customers are buying FiOS speeds of 50 Mbps, above
Verizon bucks Q3 seasonal trend as FiOS drives wireline revenues to $3.7B
Verizon FiOS additions drove up consumer revenue 4.3% to $3.6 billion Read more about: IP Migration
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Ixia's legal and financial tangles continue to mount as the test and measurement company received a noncompliance notice from the Nasdaq stock exchange because of its delay in filing its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30. This news follows the resignation of the vendor's President and CEO Victor Alston. Alston stepped down from his post in late October after the company's audit committee determined that he misstated part his academic credentials, age and early employment history. Ixia said in a 12b-25 Notification of Late Filing with the SEC on Nov. 13 that it "is conducting an email review and performing additional procedures to ensure the accuracy of its financial information and appropriateness of its financial reporting." The vendor said it will submit a plan to Nasdaq to regain compliance with the stock exchange's listing rules within 60 days, or by Jan. 18, 2014. In related news, The Shareholders Foundation announced on Monday they filed a lawsuit against the vendor on the behalf of investors that purchased Ixia common stock. The suit alleges that the vendor violated federal securities laws in connection with certain false and misleading statements made between April 29, 2010 and Oct. 24, 2013. "The plaintiff alleges that the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that Ixia improperly recognized revenues related to its warranty and software maintenance contracts, that Ixia's Chief Executive Officer ... misstated his academic credentials and employment history, that Ixia lacked adequate internal and financial controls, and that as a result of the foregoing, Ixia's statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times," The Shareholders Foundation wrote in their suit. During the third quarter, the vendor reported total revenue grew to $115.4 million, up from $110.6 million in Q3 2012. For more:
- see the Nasdaq release
- and the shareholder release Related articles:
Ixia deepens network app visibility, enterprise capabilities with Net Optics acquisition
Ixia CEO Alston resigns over misstated academic credentials
Ixia acquires BreakingPoint Systems for $160M, bolsters security testing power Read more about: Ixia
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Level 3 Communications (NYSE: LVLT) is adding 1,700 new square meters of space to its data center in Bogota, Colombia to accommodate local businesses' desire for cloud-based services. Since this expansion takes place in one of its Premier Elite data centers, the service provider can use it to grow its Dynamic Enterprise Computing (DEC) cloud service to host an array of managed services. "Demand for colocation, housing, hosting and value-added services continues to grow in Colombia as the adoption of cloud-based applications increases," said Gabriel del Campo, Level 3's senior vice president of Data Centers for Latin America, in a release. The new center complies with Columbia's building code specifications for earthquake preparedness and industry guidelines (EIA/TIA 942) for energy and environmental conditioning from the Uptime Institute for a Tier III data center. Because it was built with the 2N philosophy (system + system), Level 3 said it can ensure what it claims to be higher redundancy and reliability for clients that house their data at this facility. This new data center expansion is part of what has been an aggressive facilities expansion effort in Latin America. Earlier this week, the service provider announced that it would enhance its fiber, Ethernet network in four regions, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Level 3 expands Latin America fiber, Ethernet network to accommodate surging business growth
Level 3 CNS revenues climb to $1.4B, helping narrow losses
Level 3 gives enterprises direct network access to cloud services
Level 3 introduces SIP-based voice migration option for businesses Read more about: Level 3 Communications
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United Fiber & Data (UFD) has put the final touches on its northern New Jersey fiber network build, reaching through Harrison, across the Passaic River and landing on the banks of Newark. This route is one lateral of a redundant ring the service provider is building to a Newark-based carrier hotel located at 165 Halsey Street. A key focus of the network is to serve the area's financial community. It connects Newark to Manhattan and other high-profile trading and financial exchange locations in the New York and New Jersey region. UFD will offer three main services--dark fiber, colocation and data center--to both service providers and industry verticals such as healthcare, education and the financial trading industry. With this route complete, UFD said it has begun working on the next phase of its network build, which includes pulling cable under the streets of the city of Newark over the next few weeks. In addition, UFD is building a separate Passaic River cross segment connecting New York and Ashburn, Va. Bypassing the traditional I-95 corridor, the network will route through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland. As the a newcomer to the fiber-centric provider market, UFD will face a number of viable competitors including Lightower, which expanded its foothold along the East Coast via its acquisition of Sidera last year. For more:
- see the release Special report: The Contenders: Dark fiber providers add a new layer of flavor on the network cake Related articles:
United Fiber & Data enters low latency network game
Fiber to the Tower - Top wireline technologies in 2013 Read more about: dark fiber
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Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG) launched a campaign aimed at boosting its subscriber count in the Kansas City area by the end of the year, announcing Wednesday that it will give new customers who order its 1-Gig Internet and pay TV service by Dec. 22 a free Nexus 7 tablet. "The tablet will eventually double as your Google Fiber remote, but we bet that you'll be able to find some other useful things to do with it in the meantime," Rachel Hack, Google Fiber Kansas City community manager, wrote in a blog post. She noted that Google may not be able to install its service in new homes until spring 2014. The promotion is available to all 180 Google "fiberhoods" in the Kansas City area, including those where deadlines have already passed for signing up for Google Fiber, Hack said. Google's move could help it compete with Kansas City incumbent Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), which recently kicked off a promotion with Samsung in which it is offering new subscribers free Galaxy tablets. Google is charging $120 monthly for its Internet and pay TV bundle, the same price it placed on Google Fiber when it launched in fall 2012. For more:
- see the blog post Related articles:
TWC: New subs will have to wait 60 days for free Samsung Galaxy tablets
Google Fiber to begin taking orders from Comcast Provo subscribers in January
Google Fiber launches $10 monthly sports tier
Google Fiber kicking off mobile marketing tour Read more about: Google Fiber, Time Warner Cable
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Biltz: Lumos' focus on customers key to its transformation to a fiber-centric provider
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