Thursday, September 30, 2010

EarthLink to Acquire ITC^Deltacom for Fiber Net in Southeast

EarthLink announced plans to acquire ITC^DeltaCom, a leading provider of integrated communications services to customers in the southeastern United States, for $3.00 per share in cash - representing a implied value of approximately $516 million, including assumption of $325 million in debt.


The acquisition will enable EarthLink to create a leading IP infrastructure and solutions company by combining its existing ISP and IP-focused businesses with Deltacom's integrated communications business.


Deltacom operates a 16,400 mile fiber optic infrastructure in the Southeast -- over 75% of which is owned or controlled under Indefeasible Right of Use (IRU) agreements -- including a 14-state SONET backbone with 35 metro fiber rings, 294 collocations and 20 voice and data switches. Deltacom currently serves over 32,000 small and mid-size businesses, multi-location enterprises, government agencies and wholesale customers in the southeast with services including MPLS and IP.


"The capabilities we acquire with this acquisition will be complemented by our existing New Edge Networks business as we combine our nationwide MPLS network capabilities with Deltacom's state-of-the-art infrastructure. The combined company will be especially well positioned to serve Fortune 1000 companies across the country, one-quarter of which are headquartered in Deltacom's footprint. In addition, the Deltacom assets will enable us to further reduce our consumer ISP cost structure, which we believe will result in additional incremental cash flow from that business in years to come," said EarthLink Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rolla P. Huff.
http://www.earthlink.com/http://www.deltacom.com/

Bell Labs Achieves 606 Gbps Optical OFDM Transmission

Researchers at Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs have attained a record optical transmission of 606-Gbps line rate at high spectral efficiency with an optical orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transponder running over a distance of 1,600 km of fiber. The system uses OFDM with PDM 32-QAM subcarriers and detects the entire 606-Gbps multiplex in a single coherent detection step.


The research reported in a paper presented at the recent European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC) in Turin, Italy.


"This new optical transmission record is very impressive and state-of-the-art," said Gee Rittenhouse, Head of Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs Research. "But more meaningful is that these technologies represent the leading edge of a transformation in communications networks that will enable us to keep up with future demand."http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Dialogic Completes Acquisition of Veraz

Dialogic Corp. completed its previously announced acquisition of Veraz Networks.


The merged company, headquartered in San Jose, CA, is now named Dialogic and is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: DLGC).


Nick Jensen leads the company as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (formerly Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Dialogic), and Doug Sabella is the President and Chief Operating Officer (formerly Veraz President and Chief Executive Officer).


Veraz Networks supplies application, control, and bandwidth optimization products for service providers. The Veraz MGN separates the control, media, and application layers while unifying management of the network, thereby increasing service provider operating efficiency. The portfolio also includes its ControlSwitch, Network-adaptive Border Controller, I-Gate 4000 Media Gateways, the VerazView Management System, and a set of prepackaged applications.


Dialogic, which traces its origins back to 1984 and the beginning of computer telephony integration (CTI), currently supplies a range of media and signaling products for network equipment manufacturers providing video, voice, conferencing, and fax, along with network-edge infrastructure products. These products include TDM-IP voice and video gateways; SS7 and SIGTRAN signaling; and IP-to-IP border elements with security services, such as SIP mediation.


The merged company will offer communication solutions both to service providers and to other network equipment suppliers. Its technology expertise encompasses stand-alone media, including video, signaling and security solutions, as well as integrated media, signaling and security.


"While the capability of mobile networks around the world has been steadily expanding, the future will bring even greater demands on these networks due to the unprecedented growth in global mobile data and video traffic," said Jensen. "By combining Dialogic's proven expertise in enabling applications for voice and video with Veraz's leadership in voice and data session control, security and transport, we've created a company that gives our customers the technologies to maximize the multimedia capabilities of 3G/4G networks. In fact, over 2 billion mobile subscribers today communicate on the networks of service providers who have built their solutions on Dialogic products."http://www.dialogic.com

Neutral Tandem Completes Acquisition of Tinet

Neutral Tandem, which provides tandem interconnection services to wireless, wireline, cable and broadband telephony companies across the U.S., completed its previously announced acquisition of Tinet SpA, an Italian based global carrier exclusively committed to the IP Transit and Ethernet wholesale market.


The deal expands Neutral Tandem's IP-based network internationally, enabling global end-to-end delivery of wholesale
Voice, IP Transit and Ethernet solutions.


"We believe that this deal will allow us to leverage our core competencies, expand our global footprint, accelerate our Ethernet initiatives and move beyond voice into data solutions," said Rian Wren, President and CEO of Neutral Tandem.


Based in Chicago, Neutral Tandem serves 155 markets in 189 LATAs across the U.S., including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, New York City and Washington D.C.


Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group, has a network presence and customers in EMEA, Americas and APAC.
http://www.neutraltandem.com
http://www.tinet.net

Zayo Completes Acquisition of American Fiber Systems

Zayo Group completed its previously announced acquisition of American Fiber Systems, adding approximately 1,000 route miles of metropolitan fiber footprint and over 600 incremental buildings. AFS operated in nine markets, six of which are new markets for Zayo Group and three of which bolster Zayo's network in existing markets. Financial terms were not disclosed.


AFS, which is based in Rochester, NY, operates in 6 new metropolitan markets for Zayo -- Boise, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Nashville, Reno and Salt Lake City. Zayo noted that the AFS customer base is weighted towards the carrier, wireless and other wholesale segments, similar to the sales and marketing approach of the Zayo Bandwidth business unit. Over 80% of monthly recurring revenue is "on-net" via AFS fiber.


With the addition of AFS and the recent acquisition of AGL Networks, Zayo now has over 22,000 fiber route miles and operates in 150 markets including dedicated fiber solutions in 60 metro markets.
http://www.zayo.com

Neutral Tandem -- Building Global Carrier Ethernet Exchanges






Interview with Surendra Saboo, EVP & COO, and John Bullock, VP of Engineering & Operations, Neutral Tandemhttp://www.neutraltandem.com