Today's Top Stories Verizon (NYSE: VZ) recently established a VoIP interconnection agreement with Vonage (NYSE: VG), the latest pact that it hopes will set the foundation for its growing IP VoIP interconnection partnership program. Following the agreement it made with Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) in early 2012, Maggie McCready, Vice President for Federal Regulatory Affairs at Verizon, wrote in a letter to the FCC that Vonage is the "second voluntarily negotiated commercial IP interconnection agreement for VoIP" and that it expects "other agreements will follow." Over the past two years, the telco had put the technical and operational elements together to conduct IP VoIP interconnection.
Perhaps not surprisingly, what's driving Verizon to pursue more interconnection agreements is the growth of its FiOS Digital VoIP service. "When we exchange FiOS Digital Voice traffic with another VoIP provider, it is more efficient for both parties to exchange that traffic in IP format, which allows Verizon to exchange FiOS Digital Voice traffic at a small number of mutually agreed upon points of interconnection for the entire country," wrote McCready. "Our FiOS Digital Voice VoIP customer base continues to grow as customers upgrade from TDM-based service, and as they do, we expect more and more of our traffic will be exchanged with other providers over interconnections in IP." Leveraging the lessons it learned from its implementation of the agreement with Comcast, the telco put together what it calls an "IP interconnection technical Workbook" that it uses as a guide to begin commercial and technical negotiations with other VoIP providers. After sending a number of letters to other VoIP providers inviting them to negotiate new interconnection agreements, a number of players approached them about working together. Today, it is in various stages of negotiating commercial negotiations with nearly 20 service providers. However, not everyone is on board. CBeyond, according to the company, has yet to strike an agreement with the telco. McCready said that the competitive provider has "refused to negotiate with us on a commercial basis unless we agree in advance that the negotiations and any resulting agreements would be subject to Sections 251 and 252 of the Communications Act, demonstrating that even the possibility of regulation is adversely affecting commercial negotiations." It added that a number of other unnamed providers accused them of not agreeing to negotiate terms, claims that Verizon has refuted. "The work we have done in this area and the agreements that we have negotiated and continue to negotiate demonstrate that Verizon is serious about negotiating VoIP interconnection arrangements with other providers who are similarly serious," McCready wrote. For more:
- see the FCC filing (.pdf)
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Vonage buys VOIP provider Vocalocity for $130M
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Telecom vet Lefar takes over at Vonage Read more about: FiOS Verizon, IP interconnect
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Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) has named Karl Strohmeyer as president of its Americas operation where he will be tasked with the management, strategy and growth plan for the region.  | | Strohmeyer (Source: Level 3) | Strohmeyer is best known for the roles he served in during his 12-year stint at Level 3 Communications (NYSE: LVLT).
He most recently served as group VP for the North American enterprise group, one that generated about $2.5 billion annually. Earlier he led Level 3's Global Carrier Channel. In addition to Level 3, Strohmeyer served as the EVP of operations for NetRail and held various positions at BellSouth.
"Karl has a proven track record in managing large scale organizations and has experience with both enterprise and service provider markets--important customer segments for Equinix," said Steve Smith, CEO of Equinix, in a release. Hiring Strohmeyer comes at a time when Equinix has been aggressively growing out its presence in the Latin American market, particularly in Brazil. Through its ALOG subsidiary that it purchased in 2011, the service provider built a second International Business Exchange (IBX) in Rio de Janeiro. Known as RJ2, the new center will enable it to more rapidly respond to customers that are either extending their presence in the region or making a move there. Strohmeyer is the second of two high-profile telco executives to join the Equinix team in recent months. The data center provider lured Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) Ihab Tarazi to the CTO post in late October. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Equinix names Verizon veteran Ihab Tarazi as CTO
Equinix enhances Rio presence with second data center
Equinix, Digital Realty take charge of colocation market, says research firm Read more about: Level 3 Communications
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Telstra Global (ASX: TLS.AX) has incorporated 100G optical technology on the UNITY submarine cable route, a move that will enable it to deliver higher speed services and greater diversity to its growing base of trans-Pacific and Asia Pacific customers. UNITY is a five fiber pair trans-Pacific submarine communications cable that links Chikura cable station in Japan and One Wilshire, a major carrier hotel location in Los Angeles. The service provider uses the UNITY cable route for two purposes: serving customers in and out of the Asia Pacific region and as a core route for its global IP and transmission backbone. This new investment is part of a growing trend for Telstra Global to more effectively address both Asia Pacific customers growing their presence in the U.S., or U.S.-based customers expanding their reach into Asia Pacific. Having a 100G connection on UNITY will complement the effort Telstra Global has made to deepen its service footprint within the U.S. market. It most recently established a new Network to Network Interconnection (NNI) agreement with domestic provider CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL), giving it access to access to 73 of its U.S.-based VPN points of presence (PoPs). For more:
- see the release Related articles:
CenturyLink deepens Telstra Global's U.S. reach via NNI arrangement
Lightower, PCCW establish E-NNI agreement, extend Ethernet reach
Pacnet penetrates U.S. market with tw telecom E-NNI agreement Read more about: Telstra
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Traditional telcos and cable operators, including AT&T (NYSE: T), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) continue to see triple play service bundles as a way to keep customers from churning and driving up ARPU (average revenue per user). According to a new Digital TV Research report, triple-play subscription revenues will reach $144 billion in 2018, up $80 billion from 2012. Triple play revenues will make up 70 percent of total subscription revenues by 2018, up from 52 percent in 2012 and 36 percent in 2008. Overall service bundles will drive up total subscription revenues 65 percent from $124 billion in 2012 to $205 billion in 2018. Growth rates vary by region. The United States will account for only 42 percent of the global triple play revenues by 2018, down from 59 percent in 2008. During Q3 2013 both AT&T and Verizon reported strong uptick in overall wireline subscriber ARPU. AT&T reported that consumer ARPU for U-verse triple play customers continues to be more than $170 a month, while Verizon's ARPU rose 8.7 percent to $112.86. Despite their gains, Digital TV said that cable will continue to remain a strong competitor by contributing "nearly two-thirds of triple-play subscribers by 2018." While triple-play penetration will be higher DSL and fiber homes (71 percent by 2018) than in cable homes (42 percent), cable will double from 18 percent in 2012. Taking a solid second place to the U.S. is China, which the research firm forecasts will have 115 million triple-play subscribers by 2018, or 34 percent of the global total. For more:
- see the release Special report: Grading the top 13 wireline service providers in Q3 2013 Related articles:
Verizon bucks Q3 seasonal trend as FiOS drives wireline revenues to $3.7B
AT&T U-verse revenues rise 28 percent to $3.1B, subscribers top 10 million Read more about: Comcast, Verizon
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Verizon (NYSE: VZ) began running ads over the weekend for a FiOS promotion in which it is offering its triple-play package for just $79.99 monthly for the first year of service. The telco, which normally charges $114.99 for its FiOS TV, broadband and voice service bundle, said it would also offer prepaid Visa debit cards of $300 to new subscribers. New subscribers that take the offer will receive monthly credits of $35 on their bills for their first 12 months, and credits of $25 monthly during the second year, according details of the promotion Verizon posted on its website. Verizon's offer undercuts some of the promotions that its rivals are marketing. Cablevision is currently pitching an $84.95 monthly triple-play for the first year of service, but its offer doesn't include a pre-paid debit card. And Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) is marketing a $120 monthly Xfinity Extreme tripe-play which includes a multi-room DVR and broadband speeds of up to 250 Mbps. However, earlier this month Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan said that the company was moving away from discounting its triple-play bundle. "The customer that has been bouncing from one company to another on promotional discounts has hit a dead end with us," Dolan said on Cablevision's third-quarter earnings call. For more:
- see promotion on Verizon.com Related articles:
Dolan: Pay TV subs shopping for promotional discounts 'hitting dead end' at Cablevision
Google Fiber launches subscriber acquisition push in Kansas City
Frontier: Cable operators not matching discounted broadband offer Read more about: FiOS
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