Across The Telecom Spectrum: 6 Moves That Made Waves In The Channel In October

Busy Season

The flurry of huge telecom deals – such as the proposed AT&T-Time Warner and the CenturyLink-Level 3 acquisitions – are dominating the news in October. At the same time, service providers stayed busy by unveiled new products, services and appointments to help aggressively grow their businesses and network footprints.

Here are six newsworthy items that happened in the telecom industry last month that solution providers should know.

Level 3 Names New CIO, CTO

Telecom provider Level 3 Communications announced two promotions in October.

Andrew Dugan, a longtime Level 3 executive, was named CTO. Before his new appointment, Dugan served as interim lead for Level 3's Global Technology and IT organization. Atilla Tinic, Level 3's new CIO, joined Level 3 in 2014 as senior vice president of IT following the carrier's TW Telecom acquisition.

On October 31, Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink announced plans to acquire TW Telecom, Broomfield, Colo., for $34 billion in a transaction that is expected to close in 2017.

CenturyLink Rolls Out Gigabit Internet Speeds To More Businesses

Telecom giant CenturyLink expanded its fiber footprint in October, making its gigabit internet service available to 14,000 multi-tenant units in more than 600 cities.

Businesses can take advantage of high-capacity fiber-enabled broadband connections to boost business application performance, as well as cloud-based functions, such as backup and hosted voice, CenturyLink said. CenturyLink business fiber service bundles include cloud-based business applications, including Microsoft 365, website management and hosting and data backup at no additional charge.

The carrier is currently offering its fiber-based broadband services in many West Coast-based cities, including Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, and Salt Lake City.

Sprint Introduces VeloCloud-Powered SD-WAN Solution

Wireless provider Sprint is the latest carrier to unveil an SD-WAN offering in partnership with SD-WAN vendor, VeloCloud.

Sprint SD-WAN will give customers better application performance and network automation over a cloud-based architecture, managed by Sprint. The offering can work with Sprint MPLS or broadband internet connectivity from other providers, and includes security protection against malware, viruses and cyber threats for all sites and endpoints, according to the Overland Park, Kansas-based provider.

Telepacific Communications Brings SD-WAN To Market

Not to be outdone by Sprint, managed service provider TelePacific Communications announced its own SD-WAN offering, also powered by VeloCloud, that can help ensure network and application performance.

Telepacific SD-WAN lets business use available bandwidth resources it may have at each of its locations. Businesses can turn up new locations and monitor network performance through a single cloud-based integrated software system. The offering can work with TelePacific's MPLS network, or any existing broadband service, Los Angeles-based TelePacific said.

Oracle Now A Part of Verizon's Secure Cloud Interconnect Services

Oracle is now a part of Verizon's Secure Cloud Interconnect services, the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based carrier's private network connectivity offering that can connect businesses directly to public cloud providers.

Now included within Verizon's ecosystem of public cloud providers, companies can move workloads in and out of the Oracle Cloud using a private, high-speed MPLS connection. Verizon's Secure Cloud Interconnect for Oracle FastConnect gives business better control over their cloud environments, with features such as consumption-based bandwidth, pre-provisioned on-demand resources and controlled application performance that can be provisioned using Verizon's Dynamic Network Manager, according to the two companies.

ScanSource Pumps Funding Into Intelisys Programs Aimed At Helping Partners

Following its merger with Intelisys in August, ScanSource, the Greenville, S.C.-based IT distributor, has made a $300 million commitment to the master agent's Partner Investment and Advanced Commissions Programs.

The two programs, which have been dubbed "the Bank of Intelisys," has been helping agent partners build their businesses or make the transition to the monthly recurring revenue model. ScanSource's strong balance sheet will help Intelisys reach more partners, according to Petaluma, Calif.-based Intelisys.

Intelisys has provided qualified VAR, MSP, and agent partners with more than $5 million in business loans since launching both the Partner Investment and Advanced Commissions Programs.