You know the drill. There are lots of good posts about cables, broadband, wireless networks, and data centers floating around out there. We grab a handful of the ones making the rounds in our Slack channels and share with you.
This month we're reading about broadband in the U.S., undersea data centers, AI, Altice, and lots more. Catch up on our reading queue below.
Altice USA recently saw its shocking takeover bid for Canada’s Cogeco rejected by the latter’s controlling shareholders, the Audet Family.
The unusually-structured deal would have seen U.S. cable player Altice retain Cogeco’s U.S. business, Atlantic Broadband. However, it would sell the company’s Canadian assets to Rogers Communications, which came as a surprise to industry observers in both markets.
Market patterns aren’t the only forces impacting carriers. Shifts in strategy, corporate structure, assets, and regulation can also have noteworthy consequences.
We’re seeing this across Latin America right now.
After four months of work, the GlobalComms Team is thrilled to unveil a new section of the GlobalComms Database Service. Users can now explore our hub for all things groups, ownership, and M&A in the world of retail mobile, fixed broadband, and fixed voice.
To mark the new addition, we’re looking at some of the world’s largest multi-country wireless operators and the extent of their reach, as well as major telcos that are still under state control.
As network requirements balloon, global IP transit prices continue to decline. Even in the face of a global pandemic.
But the pace of price erosion over the past three years and the factors driving it vary throughout the world. Declines have been greatest in emerging markets, where prices are highest. Increases in volume, local traffic exchange, and number of suppliers can improve economy of scale, underlying transport cost, and competition, respectively. In established global hubs, prices continue to fall at a significant pace, largely a result of escalating volume and declining unit cost.
Hypothetical scenario: You've thoroughly audited your wide area network and it's a well-oiled machine.
You understand how your current configuration matches against your budget. You've developed new performance goals. You have a few expansion plans in mind for the future, but for now, you're happy with how things are running. The systems you have in place meet your company's needs.
What's next?
Will COVID-19 leave a lasting mark on the global internet?
Based on discussions and surveys with dozens of network operators around the globe, we believe that COVID-related expansion in internet traffic and bandwidth is largely a one-off phenomenon. It seems likely that the trends we've observed in recent years will largely continue.
The global outbreak of COVID-19 and its associated economic and social impact has laid bare the crucial, irreplaceable role that the internet plays in our daily lives.
Starting in March 2020, internet traffic patterns shifted and volumes surged as students around the world learned from home, adults worked from home, and everybody did at least something from home.
To its enormous credit, the internet bent but—for the most part—did not break as network operators scrambled to deal with the swell in traffic.
Our cable map team has made plenty of additions in the last few months. We're finally getting around to sharing some related stories from around the web.
For starters, you can read up on an upcoming 13,000-kilometer link between Chile and Australia—and related politics in the Pacific. We also have stories about Facebook's grand internet ambitions and Google's Grace Hopper.
All this and more is below. >>
On April 1, T-Mobile US and Sprint Corporation completed their long-awaited merger.
It was the beginning of the end for the familiar Sprint brand.
