TDS made an acquisition. "TDS Broadband Service LLC, a subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc., and operated by TDS Telecom (TDS), announces the signed purchase agreement for InterLinx Communications LLC and its subsidiary Tonaquint Networks LLC in Southern Utah. The agreement includes over 170 miles of fiber optic transport." [PR] InterLinx sells wholesale fiber; Tonaquint Networks is an ISP providing broadband via fiber and fixed wireless.

CS&L, the telecom real estate investment trust (REIT) spun out of Windstream last year, owns the copper and fiber assets that Windstream exclusively leases for its network. CS&L bought Tower Cloud and PEG Bandwidth to add to its fiber portfolio.

Everyone says that mobile will win. A former executive at Synnervse believes that 5G will trump fiber. When your career is wireless, you think 5G is going to be awesome. When your career has been wireline, you don't think anything is better than fiber.

On my other blog, I linked to two WSJ graphics that show all of the consolidation in telecom. There is also a link to the fact that 6 companies own 90% of the media in the US. Consolidation under Obama has been unfettered.

In 2000, AOL bought Time Warner for $164 Billion, an outrageous amount of money fueled by the dot com bubble. It was the worst merger in history. AOL was spun off in 2009 and was acquired by Verizon in 2015 for $4.4 Billion. Now, AT&T is looking to buy Time Warner for $85 Billion ($109B with debt included).

Velis4 has been acquired by a company called Globalgig. Ernest Cunningham will be the CEO of the combined company, while Anthony Jett, Velis4's current CEO, becomes the COO. Globalgig brings a global vision to Velis4, who will be expanding into Europe and Australia soon.