There h
as been some great industry coverage in the news lately – and it has not gone unnoticed. Allied Fiber CEO Hunter Newby sat down with JSA this week after reading the recent Wall Street Journal article entitled “Tech Firms Push to Control Web’s Pipes” to give us his take on the coverage. His full Q and A was published as an Industry Viewpoint in Telecom Ramblings.
Take a look below to get a preview of his insights, then give the full interview a read in Telecom Ramblings as well!
JSC: This new article illustrates how Internet giants like Google and Facebook are becoming their own global carriers, taking over their own Internet pipes, to reduce costs, improve performance and guarantee enough capacity to support their growing traffic for online video, photos, games, and services. So how did writers Drew Fitzgerald and Spencer E. Ante do with their coverage?
HN: I applaud the accuracy of their coverage, particularly highlighting the reality of the need for and justification of new dark fiber builds for a variety of network operators that all seek control.
JSC: With Allied Fiber’s unique business model, you are both colocation providers as well as dark fiber provider. From this unique perspective, do you agree with the article’s position that the telecom industry is “grappling with the concern that it will be reduced to ‘dumb pipes’—simple conduits for valuable traffic” as these Internet giants turn into their own network operators?
HN: Allied Fiber is in the network real estate business. You can consider our colocation services as allowing us to be a neutral landlord to these network operators, whether they are traditional telecom service providers, or content companies like those mentioned in the article. Additionally, our clients lease or buy our dark fiber that literally connects and enables the security and communications of communities. We are not a ‘construction company’; instead we are enablers of communities, of growing economies, of information and we generate monthly recurring revenue from leasing real estate. We are not concerned about being reduced to a “dumb pipe” landlord. We actually look forward to it. The neutral colocation business has been very good to me and my partners and investors in the past and we are seeing those patterns repeating.
