SingTel, according a report in The Independent, could be making a run at Cable & Wireless Worldwide (LSE: CWP.L).

Although the report did not reveal any sources, SingTel has talked to Asian and European banks about what it could do with CWW. This new development comes little more than a week after rumors emerged that AT&T could make a bid on CWW as a way to possibly expand its own international reach.

News of a potential marriage with AT&T and now SingTel has boosted CWW’s stock standing. Since Cable & Wireless split itself up into two companies–an enterprise unit and Cable & Wireless Communications, which provides consumer services in the Caribbean–CWW’s shares have struggled. CWW’s stock problems were exacerbated when it revealed in July that the UK government, which consists of 12 percent of CWW’s revenue, was making cutbacks.

Regardless of near-term stock issues, one unidentified London-based analyst said that SingTel could leverage CWW’s assets to expand their Asian presence. “SingTel has quite a well-developed data business in India and South East Asia, which are areas of focus for C&W. So it would be sensible in terms of the mix,” he said in a Reuters article.

Indeed, $3.5 billion of CWW’s revenue in 2009 came from its India, Middle East, Africa and South East Asia holdings.

For more:
- Reuters has this article

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AT&T’s Q2: IPTV, business services save the wireline day
Cable & Wireless puts Move on IPTV

Source:Fierce Telecom

Joseph Nacchio, Qwest’s (NYSE: Q) former disgraced CEO, won another battle as the Securities and Exchange Commission settled their case with the once high-flying executive.

In its lawsuit, the SEC claimed that Nacchio and other executive colleagues falsified what percentage of the service provider’s revenue from 1999-2002 was one-time and recurring.

While the settlement still needs a federal judge’s approval, documents that were filed last Thursday in a Denver federal court revealed that Nacchio would not admit guilt, but that he would never hold an executive post at another public company.

Nacchio, who is currently serving a six-year prison stint which a judge in June reduced by two months, was required to pay a $19 million fine and forfeit $44.6 million related to his insider-trading activities.

For more:
- abcnews has this article via AP

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Nacchio’s new prison date: April 14

Source:Fierce Telecom

Competitive service provider Lightower has completed its acquisition of Veroxity Technology Partners, a provider of fiber based data and Internet connectivity.

Lightower’s acquisition comes with a number of benefits. Not only will Lightower immediately expand its fiber footprint and customer base in the Boston metro market, but also expand its New England and New York City network presence and national long haul network that connects major U.S. cities.

Specifically, Lightower will add 2,000 network route miles to its current 4,500 network route mile network and fiber connectivity into major data centers and commercial buildings. In total, the combined Lightower network will cover over 6,500 network route miles with service to over 2,000 commercial buildings.

While the Veroxity purchase is its most recent deal, Lightower is no stranger to the acquisitions game. Currently owned by both M/C Venture Partners and Pamlico Capital, Lightower previously acquired both DataNet Communications and Keyspan Communications in 2008.

For more:
- see the release here

Related articles:
Lightower Fiber Network expands footprint with Veroxity acquisition
Lightower ups capacity at Telx’s New Jersey Colo site

Source:Fierce Telecom

Fiber to the home (FTTH) may hold great promise with an unlimited bandwidth capacity, but a new report from Analysys Mason argues that service providers should take a conservative approach to last mile fiber and instead try to squeeze more out of their existing copper networks.

Analysys Mason points out that consumer’s ongoing adoption of mobile services and devices will make it challenging for wireline operators to recoup their FTTH investments. In the near-term, the research firm suggests that service provider should continue to conduct FTTH trials, while leveraging hybrid copper/fiber technologies including VDSL2.

Of course, service providers remain divided on this issue. While AT&T (NYSE: T), Telekom Austria (NYSE: TKA), BT (NYSE: BT) and Qwest (NYSE: Q) are deploying a mix of both VDSL2 and FTTH, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has taken an all FTTH approach for its broadband future.

However, even within these two camps there are various shades of grey. While Telekom Austria and BT are keen on leveraging their existing copper with continued investments in ADSL2+ and VDSL2, they are simultaneously rolling out FTTH in both Greenfield and Brownfield markets. And while Verizon has been FTTH’s lead advocate, the service provider earlier this year announced that it would focus its attention on either areas where it currently has its FTTH-based FiOS service or where it agreed to provide the service through a previously arranged franchise arrangement with a city or town.

For more:
- Telecompaper has this article

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Verizon FiOS deployment drive to focus on established communities
AT&T boldly goes to the edge of the, well, U-verse: A conversation with U-verse VP Jeff Weber

Source:Fierce Telecom

Telekom Austria (NYSE: TKA) had set a high rollout bar for its Fiber to the X (FTTX)-based ‘GigaNet’ network, but the service provider reports that it has surpassed that goal by reaching 1.5 million, or 36 percent, of homes and businesses within the country. This latest milestone surpasses Telekom Austria’s initial 750,000 homes and businesses goal.

“One year ago, we started the implementation of a nation-wide broadband rollout plan targeting 750,000 households and commercial businesses until year-end 2010,” said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of the Telekom Austria Group in a release. “As of today, we have already exceeded this target and reached the 1.5 million mark.”

Going forward, Telekom Austria expects to have two million homes and businesses connected to the GigaNet network by 2013.

To stay on pace with its broadband goals, Telekom Austria just updated another 190 switching centers in its densely populated urban areas with its VDSL@CO technology, bringing it to 687 VDSL@CO locations. In August, Telekom Austria said it would expand its FTTX footprint with VDSL2 to cover 40 percent, or 1.59 million of the country’s homes by the end of the year. Complementing its VDSL2 deployment will be its FiberCities project. Initially set to be rolled out in Villach and Klagenfurt, Telekom Austria expects to reach 97,000 homes.

For more:
- see the release here
- TeleGeography has this article

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Rumour Mill: Russia’s MTS bids for Telekom Austria

Source:Fierce Telecom

Canada’s incumbent fixed line operators, including Bell Aliant (Toronto: BA-UN.TO), Bell Canada (NYSE: BCE), Telus (Toronto: T.TO) and MTS Allstream, must pay back residential phone customers located in urban areas who were charged too much between 2002 and 2006–a total amount of CAD $311 million ($295 million) the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) ruled Tuesday.

The overpayments were part of a program created by telecom regulators in 2002 that kept incumbent operators’ residential phone rates artificially high to entice new, lower-priced competitors to enter the market. In a scheme which conjures up images of a recent beer commercial with two dapper gents yelling “Brilliant!” at each other, premiums imposed by the CRTC on these rates were collected and funneled off into funds to support various communications initiatives, Canada.com reports.

After the program ended in 2006, operators, consumer groups and the CRTC battled over the remaining funds in the surplus account.

Under the ruling, the operators must rebate phone customers in urban areas up to CAD $90 ($85) each. In addition, the incumbents will spend millions more dollars to deploy broadband networks across the country. Bell Aliant will bear the brunt of the repayment and broadband expansion–paying nearly CAD $250 million ($237.1 million) in rebates and taking on 55 percent of the broadband deployment, which adds up to 112 communities in Ontario and Quebec at a cost of CAD $306 million ($290.2 million).

For more:
- Telegeography has this story
- see this story

Related articles:
Canada’s CRTC mandates carriers open their last mile fiber to competitors
Telus upgrades Vancouver network to challenge Shaw Cable

Source:Fierce Telecom

AT&T U-verse continues its growth in the multi dwelling unit (MDU) space as it announced a new agreement with Regency Apartments to bring triple play services to the new Windsor West Apartments in southwest Champaign, Ill.

The agreement is part of AT&T’s Connected Communities program, which forms strategic marketing relationships with regional and national builders, developers, home owners associations and so on to deploy U-verse services–including voice, high-speed Internet and television–to residents.

Windsor West Apartments is one of the first Illinois communities to receive next-generation services via fiber directly to its 316 apartment units.

Related articles:
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AT&T boldly goes to the edge of the, well, U-verse: A conversation with U-verse VP Jeff Weber

Source:Fierce Telecom

XO Communications (OTC BB: XOHO.OB) has just completed its trial of 100 Gbps coherent optical transmission on a 1348 km route on its U.S. network.

During the trial, XO leveraged Infinera’s (Nasdaq: INFN) 500 Gbps photonic integrated circuits (PICs), which integrate five 100 Gbps channels. The Infinera 500 Gbps PICs transmitted and received a 100 Gbps signal on a 1348 production network between the Denver and Dallas segments of its fiber network.

Built with Infinera’s 100 Gbps-ready ILS WDM line system that it claims can scale up to 8 Tbps of fiber capacity, the system simultaneously carried 10 Gbps and 100 Gbps channels. To gain error-free urepeatered transmission over ultra-long haul distances like XO’s Denver to Dallas route, the 100 Gbps channel was transmitted using PM-QPSK modulation and coherent detection.

Not surprisingly, XO, an aggressive advocate of optical-based network services that’s been leveraging Infinera in its optical network, sees the trial as s proof point to leverage 100 Gbps systems to meet its business and carrier customer needs.

“XO Communications looks forward to the increased capacity and superior efficiency we anticipate these 100G systems will deliver, as we work to meet growing bandwidth demands from our enterprise and wholesale service provider and mobile wireless customers,” said XO Communications Chief Technology Officer Randy Nicklas in a release.

For more:
- see the release here

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Source:Fierce Telecom

BT (NYSE: BT) has found that its acquisition of Ribbit, one that gave the provider its Google Voice-style Onevoice product, could also have utility for its large business customers.

As part of its Onevoice expansion drive, BT is going to bring its SIP trunking service to a number of new European countries and the U.S. Providing connectivity between its Onevoice VPN and its domestic voice services, BT’s SIP trunking service is a migratory service that allows a business to leverage its existing PBX with VoIP capabilities so users can place and get calls through the PSTN, on their respective local area network (LAN).

BT will extend the SIP trunking service, which is currently available in the UK, to a number of European countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France and the U.S. In addition, BT plans to bring the service to other countries such as Spain in the next few months.

Set to be a foundation for emerging Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) services, BT’s SIP trunking product has received global Microsoft qualification of BT Onevoice for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

Although the global economic meltdown has prompted large multinational corporations (MNCs) to cut back on services, the new service could resonate with these companies as they look for ways to consolidate, integrate and optimize their voice infrastructure.

For more:
- see the release here
- Computer Weekly has this article

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Source:Fierce Telecom

China Telecom Americas (NYSE: CHA) is looking to gain a stronger foothold in the U.S. Ethernet market and it has found that solution in Ethernet exchange provider CENX. Initially, China Telecom Americas will connect with CENX at its New York and Los Angeles exchanges.

“Connecting with CENX enables China Telecom Americas to extend our reach through a diversified platform.” commented Donald Tan, president of China Telecom Americas in a release. ”As an additional way to interconnect with our partners, we are able to respond to our customers’ needs in a more scalable and efficient manner.” 

Indeed, by establishing a connection with CENX, China Telecom Americas and its parent could tap into new revenue opportunities for both American and Chinese-based MNCs that want more Ethernet connectivity for their satellite locations. In turn, U.S.-based service providers could also connect into other domestic business sites, and more importantly, to China and the 73 other countries China Telecom serves.

Given that the majority of CENX’s publicly announced connection arrangements outside of Verizon have been with competitive carriers, the agreement with CTA also gives CENX, which is operating in a still nascent market, another sound proof point with a another large carrier.  

While the release announcing the agreement with China Telecom is focused on its American subsidiary, it’s likely China’s dominant telco will leverage the CENX connections for its own domestic and international Ethernet expansion plans.  

For more:
- see the release here

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CENX, Equinix launch global Ethernet exchange services
CENX: Simplifying the interconnection process – Global Ethernet Report
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Reliance, China Telecom complete cable linking China and India

Source:Fierce Telecom