Today's Top Stories Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) is handling about 300,000 conversions from copper to fiber per year but it still has about 1 million homes left to convert to fiber before it wraps up its entire conversion plan that it has been working on for three years, said a top company executive today. Speaking at the Oppenheimer 17th Annual Technology, Internet & Communications Conference, Fran Shammo, Verizon's CFO and EVP, said that he expects it will take at least another 18 to 24 months to complete that transition to fiber and that cities like New York City and Washington, D.C., will take a very long time to convert to fiber because of the legacy copper plant that is there. Shammo added that the company has about 10 switches in its portfolio that it plans to take out of service, noting that it's a long process because many enterprise customers have features in the legacy system that they cannot get on IP. However, he said that there are many more features that they will have on the IP network once they make the transition. "We are working with them to convert. This has to be gradual," Shammo said. The company also is seeing an increase in revenue from the customers that have made the conversion to FiOS. Shammo said that many customers are increasing their broadband speeds once they are on the FiOS network and generating from $13 to $15 more per month in revenue for the company. Shammo said that the company is seeing an increase in demand for Ethernet, particularly on the wholesale side, where its seeing a lot of demand for fiber to the wireless cell sites. Interestingly, Shammo said that Verizon is interested in selling off non-strategic parts of its business. "We will look at non-strategic assets to spin off," he said. "Everything is on the table." However, he said the company is not currently looking at a REIT structure similar to Windstream. Windstream recently announced it would spin out certain assets, including its fiber and copper networks and other real estate, as a REIT. For more:
- see this webcast Related articles:
Will AT&T, Verizon follow Windstream down the REIT asset path?
Verizon wraps 100G Ethernet network interface device trial
UPDATED: Verizon takes 100G optical into its metro networks
Verizon, NEC conduct Terabit speed optical transmission field trial
OIF puts Ethernet over OTN on display at Interoperability 2012 event
In detail: Tracking the 100G path Read more about: Verizon Communications, FiOS
back to top
| This week's sponsor is IBM. |  | SmarterCommerce Webinar: File Synch / File Share for the Enterprise — Taken to the Extreme
Join this webinar to discover how to develop your own innovative approach to managed file transfer. Find out how to bring new levels of efficiency, visibility and collaboration to every process – and reach new heights of success for your business.
Click here to watch this on-demand webinar today! |
Cable MSO Suddenlink is investing $250 million to upgrade its network and make 1-Gig service available to its customers in its 16-state footprint that includes Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. Company CEO Jerry Kent said that he plans half of the 1-Gig launches to occur in 2015 and the remainder in 2016. The company's goal is to be able to offer 1-Gig service to nearly all its customers. "While companies like Google and AT&T are offering or planning to offer 1 Gigabit service in a relatively few, selected neighborhoods in urban and large suburban cities, we will take it to small and mid-sized markets and rural areas--and in those communities, it will be available to 100 percent of our customers," Kent said in a prepared statement. The initiative, known internally at "Operation GigaSpeed," will be funded by an investment of nearly $250 million, which was approved by the Suddenlink board of directors last week. The funds will also be used to convert Suddenlink's network to all-digital video as well as for in-home equipment. In June Suddenlink said it was using its DOCSIS 3.0 platform to launch a new 300 Mbps service tier in two areas of Texas where there's growing competition to provide customers with higher speed broadband service tiers. Specifically, that service is available in Leander and Pflugerville and is expected to come to Georgetown soon. For more:
- see this press release Related articles:
Suddenlink: 250,000 IP voice customers and counting
Suddenlink boots up 300 Mbps service in suddenly hot Texas broadband market
FiberLight brings fiber to 600 cell sites, installs 5,500 route miles across Texas
AT&T extends FTTH network to University of Texas student housing development Read more about: Suddenlink
back to top
AT&T (NYSE: T) said it is launching its GigaPower network in Miami, giving residential and small business customers access to symmetrical broadband speeds of up to 1-gigabit per second. The Miami launch is part of the company's GigaPower initiative that it launched late last year in which it promised to deliver its ultra-fast fiber service to up to 100 cities across 25 markets nationwide. Earlier this week AT&T upgraded its GigaPower service in Austin, Texas, to 1-Gbps to combat competition from Grande Communications and Google Fiber (NASDAQ: GOOG). AT&T first launched GigaPower in Austin last December starting with symmetrical speeds of 300 Mbps. The company has not given specific subscribers numbers but has said it has "tens of thousands" of households in Austin using the GigaPower service. AT&T said it is deploying additional fiber to its existing network in Miami to meet growing demand for ultra-fast broadband. In addition, the company has said it is considering other areas of Miami as well. Hialeah, Hollywood, Homestead, Opa-Locka and Pompano Beach are also candidates for the service. AT&T will expand the GigaPower network to Dallas and Fort Worth this summer. It also plans to deliver GigaPower to Houston and San Antonio, as well as Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem in North Carolina; Nashville, Tenn., and Overland Park, Kan. Additionally, AT&T has said that upon approval of its proposed acquisition of DirecTV, the company will expand GigaPower to an additional 2 million customer locations. For more:
- see this release Related articles:
AT&T begins upgrading Austin customers to 1 Gbps service
AT&T to roll out Austin 1 Gbps FTTH service in mid-2014, but pricing not revealed
AT&T extends 1 Gig service to Charlotte, N.C.
AT&T makes San Antonio the next stop for its 1 Gig fiber-based broadband service
AT&T gets green light to bring 1 Gig fiber-based broadband service to Nashville Read more about: GigaPower, AT&T
back to top
tw telecom, which is being acquired by Level 3 Communications, is expanding its Ethernet network to Philadelphia, giving local businesses access to the company's business Ethernet and intelligent network services. The expansion is part of the company's plan to accelerate its metro-fiber footprint into new markets as well as increase its coverage in existing markets. Specifically, tw telecom services are now available in data centers at the following locations: - Amerimar, 401 North Broad Street
- Digital Realty Data Center, 833 Chestnut Street
- Tierpoint, 4775 League Island Blvd.
- Xand Data Center, 1000 Adams Ave., Norristown
Besides Philadelphia, tw telecom has also recently launched services in Salt Lake City and Richmond, Va. It also plans to enter two additional new markets--Cleveland and Boston--this year. The company is also increasing the density of its footprint in many of its existing markets. Earlier this summer it expanded its reach in Kansas City, Mo. Upon completion, these network builds will broaden its local on-net network presence, which is one of the key factors why Level 3 is purchasing the firm. The service provider ended the second quarter with about 34,000 fiber route miles, the majority of which it said were metro miles. For more:
- see this press release Related articles:
tw telecom enterprise revenue grows 7.8% to $419M in Q2
tw telecom revenue rises to $408.3 million on strong enterprise, Internet growth
tw telecom to extend Kansas City network reach
Level 3 lays out its management structure after tw telecom acquisition closes Read more about: tw telecom
back to top
Thinking Phone Networks has acquired Whaleback Managed Services, bolstering its status in the emerging Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market. Portsmouth, N.H.-based Whaleback has focused on providing managed, cloud-based services--including telephony, conferencing, messaging and contact centers--to medium-sized businesses. Its offerings have resonated with a mix of verticals such as healthcare, financial services, real estate, specialty retail and non-profits across the U.S. During the transition, Thinking Phone said that Whaleback users won't experience any service interruptions, but will be able to gain access to its suite of enterprise-class mobile services, integrated text messaging, an expanded web portal, business analytics, video and enhanced contact center integration. In addition, customers will continue to be able to access support services from Whaleback's New Hampshire-based Managed Service Center. "Our mission is to empower our business customers to capitalize on the disruptive shift in communication that is being driven by mobility in the enterprise," said Steve Kokinos, Thinking Phone Networks' president and CEO, in a release. "The team at Whaleback shares this vision and the combination of the two companies will further support our ability to innovate and grow as a leader in the space." Financial terms of the deal were not revealed. It appears that Thinking Phone Networks wants to cash in on the growing UCaaS market. According to Synergy Research Group, UCaaS is growing annually at a rate of nearly 30 percent and currently accounts for about 8 percent of all managed and hosted business voice subscribers. For more:
- see the release Related articles:
Hybrid cloud deployments become larger factor in UCaaS growth, says Synergy Research
Synergy: UCaaS is growing nearly 30 percent annually
Public cloud leads UCaaS market, private cloud growing faster
Week in research: UCaaS subscribers reach 1.6M; bundled services take off in Latin America
Alteva crafts UCaaS product for the law firm segment Read more about: Unified Communications, Phone Networks, Synergy Research Group
back to top
| 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Keep a civil tongue.