Tuesday, January 28, 2014

AT&T blames U-verse Internet outage on 'web hosting service issue'

FierceCable
January 27, 2014 | By Steve Donohue

AT&T (NYSE: T) was hit with a major outage impacting its U-verse service, sources reported Monday.

The service provider said that while U-verse broadband Internet customers in several states lost service, its U-verse TV and voice products were not impacted. 

"A limited number of AT&T customers across multiple states may have experienced a disruption with U-verse high speed Internet service due to a third-party web hosting service issue," an AT&T spokesperson said in a statement sent to FierceCable. "Technicians worked to quickly resolve the issue, and service is currently running normally." 

In January 2013, AT&T blamed "an issue with a server that supports U-verse" for causing a major outage of its broadband service.


Thursday, January 23, 2014

CenturyLink extends cloud services to SMB customers

FierceTelecom

January 22, 2014 | By Sean Buckley


CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is bringing its cloud services down to small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) with the debut of its Managed Office service bundle. The offering is intended to provide a higher level of customer service to SMBs, like what is available to larger enterprise customers.

Using a mix of network, hosted VoIP and cloud capabilities, customers that sign up for the Managed Office suite will be able to get a host of IP services and custom support.

In addition to Managed network and Hosted VoIP, CenturyLink will offer Managed CPE, Hosted apps and cloud storage, and security software. These services will be complemented by Managed install and training, one-stop customer support and scalable, per-seat pricing.

Creating a suite of cloud services that are specifically packaged for the needs of the SMB makes sense. This segment typically lacks the capital to support a large IT staff that can implement complex communications solutions.

The new SMB service package comes at a time when CenturyLink is positioning itself as a full service IT and managed services provider for any size business customer. Earlier this week, the telco rebranded its Savvis data hosting subsidiary as CenturyLink Technology Solutions as a way to better align the business unit and parent company.

CenturyLink can also apply the Managed Office bundle to both its existing SMB customer base and previous customers that may have churned to another operator.


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Google buys Nest Labs for $3.2B to get foothold in Internet of Things

FierceWireless
January 14, 2014 | By Phil Goldstein

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) paid $3.2 billion to acquire Nest Labs, a maker of smart thermostats, smoke alarms and other home gadgets, grabbing a foothold in the smart home and Internet of Things markets. The size of the acquisition, while not on the same scale as Google's $12.4 billion deal for Motorola Mobility, indicates Google's desire to establish itself in a market that may be one of the next frontiers of computing and Internet access.
Net was launched in 2011 by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod creator Tony Fadell. According to Re/code, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Google was the only serious bidder for Nest and Apple was not in the mix.
"Nest's founders, Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, have built a tremendous team that we are excited to welcome into the Google family," Google CEO Larry page said in a statement. "They're already delivering amazing products you can buy right now--thermostats that save energy and smoke/CO alarms that can help keep your family safe. We are excited to bring great experiences to more homes in more countries and fulfill their dreams!"

The Nest Learning Thermostat is perhaps the company's best-known product, and has been featured in smart home demos by Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) and other carriers. In a company blog post, Fadell noted that Nest has partnerships with some of the largest energy companies in the country, has a team of 25,000 certified professionals who help install Nest in the U.S. and Canada, and the company has more than 300 employees spread across three countries.

"So if things are going so well, why did we decide to partner with Google?" he wrote. "Google will help us fully realize our vision of the conscious home and allow us to change the world faster than we ever could if we continued to go it alone. We've had great momentum, but this is a rocket ship."

Google Ventures has been one of Nest's backers, and Fadell related how at the 2011 TED Conference, Nest showed Google co-founder Sergey Brin a video and an early model of the Nest Learning Thermostat. "He instantly got what we were doing and so did the rest of the Google team when we showed them," Fadell recounted.

Analysts said the deal pointed to how important the Industrial Internet--one aspect of the Internet of Things based around home appliances and other goods--will be in the years ahead. "The Industrial Internet may not be as sexy as the latest smart watch, but there's huge amount of money to make from devices, applications, connectivity and services," MachNation analyst Steve Hilton said. "These solutions can bring the communications to billions of electromechanical devices in our world."

"The Nest acquisition by Google is yet another validation point that the Internet of Things (IOT) sector has graduated far beyond its startup phase," Gilad Meiri, IoT industry expert and CEO of Neura, said in a statement. "Google has made an art out of deeply understanding how people interact with their virtual world, the Web, and in so doing has been able to monetize that understanding in wildly successful ways. This acquisition is the first of what we see as potentially many next steps by Google and others to further understand the vast amounts of data representing how people interact with their physical world."

Monday, January 6, 2014

AT&T's special access proposal faces fire from CompSouth


FierceTelecom

January 6, 2014 | By Sean Buckley

AT&T's (NYSE: T) desire to eliminate pricing discounts on special access contracts that are longer than three years now faces its latest challenge from CompSouth, an association of CLECs serving business customers in the Southeast.

The telco's main argument is related to its goal of switching all of its current wholesale TDM-based special access customers to IP-based services such as Ethernet by 2020.
In its filing with the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (TRA), CompSouth said AT&T has not provided any facts about how it would no longer be able to provide DS1 and DS3 services after it transitions to all-IP. Incumbent telcos use circuit emulation technology that allows TDM-based services to be transported over an IP network.  
"CompSouth submits that there is no factual basis for AT&T's claim that the company will be unable to continue offering DS1 and DS3 services following its alleged transition to an 'all IP' network," the organization wrote in its complaint.

If AT&T eventually gets its way, a wholesale customer's monthly charges could increase by as much as 20 to 30 percent for some services.

CompSouth said that AT&T's proposed "elimination of long-term discounts for DS1 and DS3 services is not necessitated by the transition to IP but by AT&T's desire to increase revenue from the sale of DS1 and DS3 services."

Critics say AT&T's proposal has two implications for businesses that are served by competitive providers. Besides raising service prices, the other reality of AT&T's proposal is that much of the TDM equipment used today won't be replaced for a number of years. And while Ethernet and IP have advantages in terms of speed and flexibility, they are not universally available, nor are the higher speeds appropriate for every business.

Currently, AT&T and fellow RBOC Verizon (NYSE: VZ) own about 80 percent of the special access market.

Competitive providers that purchase wholesale special access services from AT&T and other incumbent telcos got a reprieve in December when the FCC said that it was suspending the telco's plan for five months.


Thursday, January 2, 2014

AT&T sets TDM-to-IP transition trials to focus on challenges, service impact

FierceTelecom
January 2, 2014 | By Sean Buckley

AT&T (NYSE: T) brought proposals to the FCC to begin testing its TDM-to-IP transition and to set a timeline to make these changes throughout its 4,700 wire centers.

During a recent meeting with the FCC's Technology Transition Task Force, the telco said that it would focus on conducting service-based experiments in wiring centers that "represent the challenges it will face with the transition and conduct an extensive review of the services to be impacted as part of this experiment."
The telco added that the tests will represent a mix of both consumer and business services geographies. It will also incorporate reporting capabilities "as a means for keeping the FCC informed about any experiments in progress."  
Out of the three largest telcos, AT&T has been the most vocal proponent of the TDM-to-IP transition, which it plans to complete by 2020.

AT&T previously expressed frustration over a lack of action from the regulator on the transition. New FCC chairman Tom Wheeler proposed that the regulator issue an order on the matter at its upcoming meeting this month.

In tandem with its TDM-to-IP transition, the telco also discussed with the FCC its proposal to eliminate discounts on long-term contracts for TDM-based special access circuits. This proposal has drawn fire from a number of competitive providers, including Sprint (NYSE: S), tw telecom (Nasdaq: TWTC) and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), which argue AT&T is abusing its dominant position in the wholesale special access market.

While AT&T maintains that its tariff proposals are "lawful," they are looking at ways to create a "viable path to the TDM-to-IP transition." It proposed a number of modifications that it said would enable wholesale customers to still purchase and maintain DSn (digital signal) services and related pricing closer to the 2020 IP transition deadline.