Jim Wagner

Cable & Wireless announced Monday its $340 million buyout of Web hosting company Digital Island. When the deal is completed in June, Digital Island will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the U.K.-based telecommunications giant. The board of directors at both companies already agreed to the transaction, and assuming Digital Island’s $49 million debt. With roughly […]

The corporate shell game played by incumbent local exchange carriers may be coming to an end in the coming weeks. The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control issued a draft decision this week that forces Southern New England Telecommunications Corp to resell its advanced services at a 24.5 percent discount. According to Audrey Honig, SNET […]

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted in favor of the Tauzin-Dingell Broadband Bill, 33-24, in a late-night session Wednesday. Although statistically a win for Billy Tauzin (R-LA), committee chairman and John Dingell (D-MI), the two sponsors of the bill, a key amendment struck down in a tie vote at the session showed that […]

The broadband wars are heating up again as Internet providers choose sides between two bills making their way through the House of Representatives. On one side, you have the incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs), or telephone companies. They are arrayed behind their generals, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of the committee on energy and commerce, […]

America Online Inc., the largest Internet service provider in the world, is continuing its philanthropy interests with this week’s announcement to provide free Internet content to Pennsylvania public schools. AOL@School gives potentially 6,000 Pennsylvania schools access to resources like dictionaries and encyclopedia’s, and a portal catering to the subjects schoolchildren learn every day, ranging from […]

Bluelight.com, the online arm of retail giant KMart Corp., gave Level 3 Communications the green light for more service Monday. The contract agreement signals an increased confidence by KMart executives that it’s online model does work and they are willing to put more money into a venture that’s bringing in customers. As part of Monday’s […]

With $1.3 billion in net losses for the first quarter, JDS Uniphase Corp. Tuesday was forced to realign its operations and lay off 5,000 employees. The company, an international manufacturer of fiber optics equipment, was unable to escape the fate that befell others in its space, including Cisco Systems Inc., and Lucent Technologies Inc. The […]

At its first quarter 2001 conference call, EarthLink Inc., officials predicted little gain in residential dial-up Internet access for 2001 at a time when they’ve almost perfected the process. Instead, the Internet service provider is launching an aggressive campaign to capture 500,000 broadband customers by the end of the year, fueled mainly by gains in […]

At a time when digital subscriber line companies have trouble giving their business away, New Edge Networks raised nearly $80 million in private equity and debt financing, it was announced Monday. Officials expect to use the money, $40 million in private equity and $37.5 million in loans, to fund its nationwide marketing and sales campaigns […]

Covad Communications Group officials aren’t concerned with the delisting warning sent by NASDAQ Monday morning. The troubled digital subscriber line provider continues trading on NASDAQ, with a revised trading ticker symbol. The notice by NASDAQ warns that failure to respond to the notice will result in a halt in trading on the index. Covad officials […]

Level 3 Communications officials were quick to assure vendors, customers and shareholders alike who may be still jittery following this week’s highly publicized calamities with other backbone and broadband companies. After inquiries from analysts, Level 3 Chief Executive James Crowe issued a statement saying they hadn’t violated the terms of a $1.775 billion senior secured […]

Commissioners of the Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously Thursday to “fix” reciprocal compensation rules dating back to the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996 but the agency’s actions open the door to potentially higher monthly fees for Internet users. Telephone companies for years have been seeking to strike down the requirements that make them pay competitive […]