Grapevine has it that Verizon has quietly let go quite a significant number of staffs in Asia including those in the network team. There was already some changes last year that claimed its first casualty, the once mighty and much feared Ms Yali Liu. Good for her she has now found a job as VP for ChinaCache.
It is something that the industry has known for years. Pacnet has been desperately seeking buyers as the private equity wants to bail out. They didn't get the $1 billion (asking price from Bill Barney then was $2 billion) they were looking for but got only $697 million (comes with $400 million debt). Finally the private equity can get out. Telstra is now full of cash. Not only did they get $2.8 billion from the sale of CSL New World Mobility to PCCW, they also has $11 billion from selling their fixed network to the NBN co in Australia. Best part of this sale is that NBN gets a old copper and hydrid network. The joke is going around that the government had repurchased the "old, out of date copper network" that former Prime Minister John Howard sold last century. Winner is surely Telstra and the loser unfortunately are the Australians tax payers.
Now back to the Pacnet sale. How well will this acquisition go is unsure but one thing for sure is the layoff exercise that will come in the months ahead. Pacnet and Telstra has some of the most number of people working in the internationally especially in Asia. Telstra is heavily overstaffed and unfortunately for Pacnet, it has always been the victor that writes the history.
It's always a little tricky to date someone in the same industry especially when the relationship sours. Then it becomes kinda awkward. It happened again recently in telco industry which left the lady devastated and contemplating suicide. She was dumped mercilessly, rumor has it that it was done via sms. Months ago they were talking about marriage and setting down in UK. Lady is a hong kong chinese and the guy is a British caucasian. Some chinese girls has a thing for Caucasian. Well girls, just opened up your eyes as some of them are just going for a fling while promising you the world to get 'what' they want. The late paramount leader of China Deng Xiao Peng sums it up best when he says, 'regardless of white cat or black cat, a cat that catches mouse is a good cat'. So it doesn't matter whether the guy is white, yellow or black. Just have to learn to look beyond the color.
The NOC that help bring Tinet's netwk from tier 2/3 to tier 1 has been shut down. Here's some very sad comments from its ex-employees. I think they must have taken the importance of the NOC with IP skill set too lightly. Will it be a decision that will bring impact to its customers with such drastic action? Customer experience seem to be the lowest priority in GTT management's mind. It is going down the path of cogent to be market leader in price with quality a low focus. GTT seems to be trigger happy when it comes to firing people especially ex-tinet staffs.
Reliance Globalcom has being reborn as Global Cloud Xchange. It could finally be becoming a more competitive and international outfit after many years in the wilderness. What's interesting is the senior management are all ex-pacnet's guys. People like Bill Barney who rise like a phoenix to become once again the CEO of GCX, Wifred Kwan as CTO and Ivy Chan and CMO.
Here's the list of the top 10 countries that use infocomm technology to improve economic productivity and social development. Not surprisingly the Scandinavian countries are among the top again except Denmark (#13). What's surprising is that an Asian country is top 2 and that's Singapore.
Akamai has released its latest state of the internet report. Surprisingly Indonesia has the 2nd lowest speed in Asia.
What's worst is the response from the Minister of Communication and Information Tifatul Sembiring. Through his Twitter account, he responded with a question," Fellow twitters, what would you use the internet for if its speed is faster? ... :) *IWantToKnowSoMuch* ".
This must be the ultimate insult and embarrassment to many indonesians who are very tech savvy (no 4 in the world with Facebook subscribers). Talking about ignorance or competence ....
Here's the rest of the report...
