Carrier Channel: News Briefs

Posted: 8/2003

News Briefs

* Level 3 Communications Inc.
has signed an agreement with Cox Communications to provide 2.5gbps
wavelengths that stretch from Rhode Island to California on a route that also
connects to Level 3 facilities in Omaha and Las Vegas. The (3)Link Global
Wavelength services also connect San Diego to Phoenix and Dallas to New Orleans.

* CenturyTel Inc. has
purchased the operating assets of Digital Teleport Inc., a fiber optic
transport business based in St. Louis in a $38 million deal. CenturyTel will
operate the business under the name LightCore, a CenturyTel company.

* A federal bankruptcy court
approved Focal Communications Corp.’s plan of reorganization in June. The
company filed for bankruptcy court protection in December, listing $561 million
in total liabilities and stockholder equity at the end of the third quarter
2002. The reorganization plan, which Focal filed in March, would abolish about
$375 million in debt, leaving Focal with telecommunications assets in 23 markets
stretching from Boston to Seattle.

* Global Internetworking Inc.,
a facilities-neutral wholesale carrier, has launched CircuitExpeditor, a no-cost
service for carriers guaranteeing provisioning of off-net requirements faster
than another provider, or customers can waive their global service order with no
termination liability. The company has access to more than 1,300
facilities-based telecom carriers and 500,000 PoPs and lit buildings.

* New Global Telecom launches
VoIP Direct, which facilitates TDM carriers’ ability to interconnect with VoIP
carriers. It includes TDM switch ports, NGT-provided IP Gateway, colocation with
power for VoIP platform, Internet connectivity, SS7 link, 24×7 NOC services and
Onsite experienced technicians.

* ITXC Corp. and Rostelecom,
Russia’s largest and incumbent national long-distance telecommunications
operator, agree to bilateral exchange of international voice traffic to and from
Russia over ITXC’s global VoIP network ITXC.net.

In addition, ITXC and Indian
operator Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) have doubled their network
capacity to accommodate the increasing volume of traffic that has been building
over the past six months over ITXC.net. ITXC’s interconnect with VSNL uses the
Cisco Voice Infrastructure and Applications (VIA) solution.

* VoipXchange.net signed an
agreement to provide a total of six million minutes per month to Astel
Telecom International, a national long-distance operator in Greece. Astel
joins more than 1,600 ITSPs and carriers worldwide who have formed partnership
with VoipXchange.net.

* T-Systems’ wholesale
carrier division, International Carrier Sales and Solutions (ICSS) Spain,
has signed an agreement with Ya.Com, the Spanish Internet service provider, to
supply IP transit through T-Systems’ Telekom Global Net, with its two PoPs in
Barcelona and Madrid. The STM-1 (155 Mbps) connection dedicated to IP transit
will aid Ya.Com to reduce its costs while at the same time offering its clients
global reach.