Mobile phone users will finally be able to access advanced data transfer and high-speed internet on their handsets through 3G technology and broadband wireless access (BWA), post-September 2010. The department of telecom (DoT) has set September as the timeline when successful bidders will be allowed to use the allotted airwaves for commercial operation.

The government on Thursday issued the notice inviting bids from private telecom players to participate in the auction of 3G airwaves, allowing three private players each in 17 circles, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and four in the remaining five circles including Punjab, West Bengal and Bihar. The number of slots up for auction excludes those already allotted to the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL). It has also invited bids for BWA auction, which is scheduled to happen two days after the 3G auction closes. Source

Courtesy: IndiaTelecomNews.com

Ongoing growth in voice and data helped boost Cablevision’s Q4 performance as full year cable revenues were up 5.2 percent to $5.432 billion.

As suspected, Cablevision saw some minor erosion (lost 2,800 basic subscribers) in its traditional video business from aggressive rivals, including Verizon and satellite players–down from 4,000 subscribers it lost last year. On the digital side, Cablevision added 4,800 new subscribers.

But the more impressive growth drivers at Cablevision were telecom services. Cablevision’s Q4 09 net telecom revenues were up 5.5 percent to $1.385 billion, while AOCF grew 11.1 percent to $578.6 million and operating income increased 22.7 percent to $364.6 million. Contributing to this growth trend was the addition of 45,700 Optimum Online Internet customers and 51,400 Optimum Voice phone customers.

Also worth noting was the growth of Cablevision’s Optimum Lightpath business services division. Buoyed by the ongoing expansion of its Ethernet business, Optimum Lightpath’s revenues increased 1.7 percent to $66.3 million.

For more:
- see the release here (PDF)
- Reuters has this article

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Source:Fierce Telecom

Vonage and positive news has rarely, if ever, been a combination the company has seen in its 10-year history. But in Q4, the company bucked its common negative trend by reporting that it actually had net income from its operations for the first time.

Excluding adjustments, the VoIP provider reported $3 million in net income, an increase of $37 million or $0.24 per share versus 2008.

On a sequential basis, company net income was flat but revenue increase rose up to $224 million. Vonage saw average revenue per user increase to $30.54 from $28.33 in the same quarter last year and $29.89 sequentially.

“2009 marks the first year generating net income excluding adjustments. Adjusted EBITDA more than doubled. And, revenues per subscriber have increased while we reduced selling, general and administrative expenses by double-digit percentages,” said Marc Lefar, Vonage Chief Executive Officer in the earnings release. Lefar attributed the quarter’s uptick to an upgraded value proposition, enhancing the customer experience, and reduced costs.

For more:
- see the release here

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Source:Fierce Telecom

Already entrenched in the largest service provider broadband backbone networks, it only makes sense that Cisco Systems would lend its hand to those same customers to build 1 Gbps-capable last mile network. The routing giant’s move comes on the heels of Google’s proposal to build a 1 Gbps open access FTTH system and the FCC’s upcoming national broadband plan that will be submitted to Congress next month.

A big difference with the Cisco proposal is that unlike Google’s proposal that could compete with the large carriers–an argument that company CEO Eric Schmidt has immediately dismissed–the routing giant will work with its existing customers to build this network.

At this point, Cisco is not saying much other than it “looked forward to being part of this exciting transformation” to ultra-high speed broadband.

Cisco could be a white knight for the large carriers who will likely face pressure by the FCC to expand broadband investments when they reveal their plan to Congress. During last week’s National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners conference, the FCC announced its proposed “100 Squared Initiative” which is designed to deliver 100 Mbps to 100 million homes. Other than saying it wants to achieve this 100 Mbps goal by 2020, details on the plan at this point are scarce.

For more:
- Financial Times has this article

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Source:Fierce Telecom

Concerned that America has lost its footing as a technology hub, Intel and 24 venture capital firms have decided to jointly invest $3.5 billion in helping U.S.-based technical startups get off the ground in the next two years.

In announcing the initiative known as the Invest in America Alliance, Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini said in a speech on Tuesday that other countries including China, India, Taiwan, Finland, Korea and the Netherlands, have become “far more potent competitors in the next phase of the global economy.”

Along with providing capital, tech giants Intel, Google, Cisco, Microsoft and 13 other tech companies said they all plan to add more employees to their workforce in 2010. To fulfill this goal, these companies said they will hire 10,050 American college graduates that have earned computer science and engineering degrees.   

For more:
- see the New York Times article here

Source:Fierce Telecom

Following a profitable third-quarter, CenturyLink did not disappoint in Q4 09, but Q1 could be tough for the independent ILEC.

During the fourth quarter, CenturyLink reported that its profit increased to $230.2 million, or 77 cents a share, from $100.1 million, or $1.00 a share in 2009, prior to acquiring Embarq. What’s more, CenturyLink’s operating revenue nearly tripled to $1.84 billion, with its acquisition of Embarq chipping in $1.27 billion.

Big contributors to CenturyLink’s Q4 growth were a rise in broadband subscriptions and improved phone line loss. CenturyLink added about 47,000 new broadband customers during the quarter, up eight percent over Q3 09’s figure of 43,500 new subscribers. In addition, CenturyLink’s access line losses improved 14 percent over Q3 09 and 24 percent versus Q4 08.

“We continue to see strong customer demand for broadband services, including high-speed Internet and Ethernet services, as we added nearly 47,000 high-speed Internet customers during the fourth quarter,” said Glen Post, chief executive officer and president of CenturyLink in the company’s earnings release. “Based on 2009 pro forma financials, CenturyLink generated $3.8 billion of operating cash flow for full year 2009.”

Q1 2010, however, won’t be as fruitful. Citing more voice access line loss, the company has forecasted earnings of 84-88 cents based on revenue of $1.77 billion to $1.80 billion. This is slightly below analyst expectations of 87 cents a share on revenue of $1.82 billion.

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

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Source:Fierce Telecom

Vertical Systems Group’s latest stat flash about the penetration of fiber into businesses once again illustrates the ongoing and unfortunate fiber disconnect that exists between the big ticket enterprises that can shell out hundreds of thousands and dollars and the smaller office that probably struggles to afford the price of a telco T1 line. And if you ever get a chance to talk with Rosemary Cochran, Principal at Vertical Systems Group about business services trends, especially Ethernet, chances are she’ll tell you that fiber availability belongs to a concept that Vertical calls the “three gaps” to Ethernet. Those three gaps are quite simply: fiber availability, speed and pricing.

Given the fact that fiber is the optimum medium to support higher speed services such as Ethernet that typically begin at 10 Mbps and above, there’s a large disparity between low-speed connections (T1 and lower) commonly used today and the 10 Mbps Ethernet entry point.
Pricing is also an issue. SMBs, especially those on the smaller end with a dozen or so employees, can’t pay for a 10 Mbps Ethernet line and probably don’t even need that much speed–instead requiring somewhere in between 2-10 Mbps.

It would be easy to ask what does an SMB need with a fiber-based connection? Okay, so maybe the corner pizza shop doesn’t need a 2-10 Mbps fiber-based connection, but there are a number of very sophisticated vertical segments in the broader SMB segment that could benefit with a connection beyond 1.5 Mbps.

Typically, the options for businesses have been relatively static. If you can’t afford to purchase, or don’t need a full 45 Mbps-based DS-3, the local telco is more than happy to sell you multiple T1 lines, an option that quickly proves to be an expensive service to manage.
Take Next Generation Radiology. Having few options, NGR had to initially put three T1s at each of its four sites, a solution that became nothing more than a band aid. NGR found hope in Cablevision subsidiary Optimum Lightpath’s 10 Mbps fiber-based Ethernet service. “By putting in the 10 Mbps pipes, we were able to get rid of 12 T1s and three fat pipes,” explained Frank Robbins, IT administrator for Next Gen Radiology. “It got rid of a tremendous amount of hardware for me.”

Then there are other SMBs that only have one office and aren’t located in OLP’s territory. There is some hope for those that want higher speeds beyond T1, but can’t afford the rigid jump to a 45 Mbps DS-3 connection. One option is bonded copper. Pioneered initially by the former BellSouth (now AT&T) and XO Communications, a growing number of competitive providers and independent telcos (ONE, Integra Telecom, and Windstream) all offer Ethernet over Copper solutions in bandwidth increments that can go as low as 2 Mbps up to 10 Mbps and beyond if required. Then, there are the cable guys. Large MSOs (Cox, Comcast, Time Warner and Charter) initially have been targeting the SMB space with both DOCSIS 2.0 and 3.0 cable modem service with up to 50 and increasingly 100 Mbps services in addition to Ethernet over HFC services.

Large operators aren’t the only ones getting on the high speed SMB services train. Ironically Oregon-based independent ILEC Canby Telcom already can provide both large businesses fiber-based Ethernet and related speeds (10, 50 and 100 Mbps) services they often can’t get in other regions. “At their corporate headquarters in a different state they can’t get Ethernet even though they want Ethernet here and put a WAN they can’t complete the network because of their local larger telephone company,” said Keith Galitz, president of Canby Telcom.

All of this points to the reality that while fiber is great if you can get it, for most SMBs the availability gap is something that’s not going to be easily overcome anytime soon. -Sean

Source:Fierce Telecom

While Verizon will give wireline technicians and other support staff it lays off later this year some kind of goodbye severance package, they’ll find it hard to swallow what former COO Denny Strigl is getting in his retirement package.   

According to a preliminary proxy statement Verizon filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Strigl will get a cool $18.55 million.

Strigl, who retired at the end of 2009, spent 41 years with Verizon and its former incarnations of New York Telephone and Bell Atlantic. Among his many achievements were his pioneering efforts to roll out wireless services at both the former Ameritech (now AT&T Mobility) and Bell Atlantic Mobile (Verizon Wireless). In addition, Strigl helped craft what is now known as Verizon Business through its acquisition of the former MCI in 2005 and its deployment of its Fiber to the Premises (FTTP)-based FiOS network.  

News of Strigl’s retirement package, which Verizon says it will dole out in early July, coincides with the company’s plan to lay off about 13,000 employees this year as a result of declining sales in its wireline unit.

For more:
- xChange has this article

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Source:Fierce Telecom

Qwest may not be interested in pursuing the same TV strategy of its fellow RBOCs AT&T and Verizon, but its $10 million investment in startup ZillionTV shows that video is very much a part of its service arsenal.

But instead of building out a network to support TV service–a prospect that company CEO Ed Mueller says is too expensive–Qwest will deliver the IP-based ZillionTV Video on Demand (VOD) service in its 14-state ILEC territory over its DSL broadband connection. As a champion of over the top video, Qwest’s move reiterates the strategy Mueller laid out in its Q2 09 earnings call.  

Expected to launch in the second half of this year with service provider partners, including Qwest and rumored trials with Frontier and Verizon, Zillion will also offer its service directly to consumers so it can extend its advertising-supported service.

It appears that not all is well in the ZillionTV camp, however. Although the company’s products ZillionTV set-top and RemoteZillionTV advertise they will offer 15,000 movies and TV shows via relationships with major studios, the company appears to be struggling financially as it let more than one-third of its workforce go last year.

For more:
- Multichannel News has this article

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Source:Fierce Telecom