For the full year 2011, it expects to report revenues of $485 compared to $452 million in 2010.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to post revenues of $123.42 for the quarter and $485.45 for the full year. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude one-time items.

The company also noted that it is transitioning to a business model focused in technology dependent customers. As part of the transition, Cbeyond is refocusing its go-to-market strategy to leverage its 2010 cloud services acquisitions and better serve the growing number of technology dependent small and medium sized businesses.

Cbeyond is now realigning its distribution channels and establishing two new direct sales groups, one that is focused solely on cloud services opportunities and one that is focused on selling secure networking and cloud based services to technology dependent small businesses. At the same time, the Company is reducing its entry level sales associates and re-purposing a portion of those resources for its new focus.

The company forecasts fiscal 2012 revenues between $485 million and $490 million. Analysts currently expect revenue of $509.74 million for the fiscal 2012.

The airwaves auctions are part of a broad accord reached yesterday by House and Senate members to sustain a payroll tax cut. The sales would raise at least $15 billion for the U.S. Treasury, Representative Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican, said in an interview. Both houses of Congress approved the legislation today, sending it to President Barack Obama for his expected signature.

“By freeing up airwaves to be used to build the next generation wireless networks, this package will support massive job creation and untold technological breakthroughs,” Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican who heads the Energy and Commerce Committee, said in an e-mailed statement.

The auctions proposed by the Obama administration would sell rights to airwaves voluntarily surrendered by television stations. TV companies would keep a portion of the proceeds. Participating broadcasters could leave the business or transmit using other airwaves. Wireless companies would use the airwaves to support mobile phones, tablets and other devices.

‘Save Lives’

The package also would allocate $7 billion and airwaves for a nationwide network for emergency workers, said an e-mailed release from Senator Jay Rockefeller, the West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Commerce Committee. More spectrum for emergency workers was a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, when police and firefighters had trouble communicating by radio.

“This agreement will allow us to build a nationwide, interoperable communications network that is as reliable as the first responders that protect us,” Rockefeller said in an e- mailed statement. “It will quite literally save lives.”

Spending on the new network may benefit antenna-building companies American Tower Corp., Crown Castle International Corp. and SBA Communications Corp., Paul Gallant, a Washington-based analyst with Guggenheim Partners, said in a Feb. 15 note.

Airwaves sales may spur investment and job creation, the High Tech Spectrum Coalition, a group with members including Apple Inc., Alcatel-Lucent, Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc., said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

“Congress has made a great decision that will result in significant investment in mobility and will have a meaningful impact on the creation of jobs with private investment,” Rhod Shaw, executive director of the High Tech Spectrum Coalition, said in an e-mailed statement.

‘Artistic Freedom’

Broadcasters have said they’re concerned TV station owners may face added costs and lose audience if forced to switch airwaves. The legislative measure provides $1.75 billion to compensate for the costs of relocating.

“Tens of millions of Americans rely every day on local TV broadcasters for news, entertainment, sports and life-saving weather warnings,” Gordon Smith, president of the Washington- based National Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement.

“We look forward to working with Congress and the FCC to implement an incentive auction program that does not jeopardize that service,” said Smith, whose group’s members include CBS Corp., Comcast Corp.’s NBC, the Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and News Corp.’s Fox.

‘Public Rulemaking’

Language in the package may make it harder for the Federal Communications Commission to limit participation in the auctions by Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless company, and No. 2 AT&T, Jeffrey Silva, a Washington-based analyst for Medley Global Advisors LLC, said in an interview.

“They wouldn’t have the artistic freedom they’ve had before,” Silva said. “When this started the FCC had carte blanche.”

Under the proposal, the FCC can’t exclude wireless carriers as part of an auction proceeding, Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s senior executive vice president-external affairs, said in an e-mailed statement.

“It could only make such a decision through a separate public rulemaking,” Cicconi said. “This provides procedural safeguards, and also an opportunity for a court challenge.”

Cicconi on Jan. 13 said he was “troubled” that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wanted his agency to keep its power to set terms for the auctions.

Biggest Winners

Genachowski said yesterday the agency has sought to develop “fair, effective mechanisms for providing all carriers an opportunity to obtain spectrum.”

“Congress has recognized the vital importance of freeing up more spectrum for mobile broadband, both licensed and unlicensed, although the legislation could limit the FCC’s ability to maximize the amount and benefits of recovered spectrum,” Genachowski said in an e-mailed statement.

AT&T and Verizon were the biggest winners in the FCC’s 2008 auction of airwaves suitable for smartphone use, spending a combined $16 billion. In 2010, the companies objected after the agency restricted their ability to lease airwaves from a company that is now Philip Falcone’s proposed LightSquared Inc. wireless service.

AT&T in December abandoned a $39 billion merger with T- Mobile USA Inc. after resistance from the FCC and Justice Department, which said the combination would lessen competition. In January AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson in an earnings call said availability of spectrum is the “No. 1 issue for us.”

‘Job Creation’

AT&T and Verizon combined had 60.3 percent of wireless subscribers in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Verizon Wireless is owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Newbury, England-based Vodafone Group Plc.

Sprint Nextel Corp., the third-largest U.S. mobile carrier, said in an e-mailed statement that the legislative proposal “preserves the FCC’s ability to promote competition as it conducts future wireless spectrum auctions.”

“Sprint agrees with the Federal Communications Commission that all wireless carriers — small, regional and large –should have a meaningful chance to participate in wireless spectrum auctions,” Vonya McCann, Sprint’s senior vice president for government affairs, said in the statement.

The auctions will help “meet Americans’ voracious appetite for mobile Internet,” Steve Largent, president of CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

“Mobile data usage is expected to grow by a factor of 16 over the next five years,” Largent said. “The spectrum made available by this legislation is key to meeting that demand.”

Separately, rivals are also asking questions about a Verizon deal with Cox Communications to purchase some of its spectrum for $315 million. In November 2011, Cox announced it was discontinuing its wireless service, citing its inability to compete in the marketplace, and in December it announced that it was selling its 20HMz licenses, covering 28 million people, to Verizon, and that each would become “agents” to sell the others products and services.

“As a result of the incomplete submissions by the applicants, neither the Commission nor interested parties have an adequate basis upon which to assess the public interest implications of the proposed transactions,” according to a Feb. 8 letter to the FCC signed by Sprint and the other above-mentioned parties. Wireless Week first reported the letter and the publication received an advanced copy of the document from the public interest group Public Knowledge.

The letter continued, “The Commission should suspend both the pleading cycle in this proceeding and the informal 180-day ‘transaction clock,’ and reset them to zero once the applicants have provided full disclosure of their arrangements.”

Public Knowledge, along with three companies, asked the FCC on Feb. 7 to stop its review until more marketing-related information is released, said the report.

Facing criticism, Verizon and Cox very quickly submitted marketing details to the FCC, though as sealed files under a protective order.

On Feb. 3, Sprint signed a second letter, essentially saying they’re glad Verizon filed something, but they can’t respond to something that’s not public, so more information is still needed.

On Dec. 2, Verizon announced a deal with SpectrumCo, the joint ventures between Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House Networks, in which Verizon would pay SpectrumCo $3.6 billion for 122 new spectrum licenses for its Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in exchange for allowing the cable companies to resell its products and services.

“These joint-marketing agreements will turn these rival companies into partners, rather than competitors,” wrote a concerned Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) in a Jan. 31 letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Franken called on the FCC to hold a hearing to “further analyze the competitive impacts of these deals,” and according to The New York Times’ Bits blog, Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) agreed that he would.

Gangbuster sales of smartphones and tablets and the rising use of mobile video and other data-crunching applications have created an industry anxious for more spectrum to support users’ habits. In March 2011, AT&T announced its intention to purchase T-Mobile. The smaller carrier’s spectrum would be a great asset in AT&T’s planned LTE rollouts.

In December, however, the FCC released a report finding that the deal—which would have made AT&T the largest network by far—would be damaging to smaller players’ ability to effectively compete and so ultimately hurt Americans, who would face fewer options and higher prices. Following the report, AT&T said it would stop its pursuit for the time being.

In January, during an earnings call, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson described an FCC that’s “intent on picking winners and losers” and acting as a logjam to progress.

“In the absence of auctions, our company and others in the industry have taken the logical step of entering into smaller transactions to acquire the spectrum we need to meet this demand,” Stephens said during the Jan. 26 call. “But even here, we need the FCC’s action and leadership, and unfortunately, even the smallest and most routine spectrum deals are receiving intense scrutiny from this FCC, oftentimes taking up to a year and sometimes longer before these are approved.”

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, during that carrier’s Feb. 8 earnings announcement saw the competitive landscape differently, remarking that “the decision of AT&T to abandon its acquisition of T-Mobile clearly provides many more opportunities for us and for companies outside the top two to become much stronger competitors over time.”

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AT&T went down fighting. It warned that consumers will be worse off because of the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice’s successful moves to block the deal.

AT&T claimed that the deal was necessary because of a nationwide wireless spectrum crunch. As smartphones and tablet sales have soared, consumers’ demand for data — and the spectrum that carries it — has grown exponentially.

“The AT&T and T-Mobile USA combination would have offered an interim solution to this spectrum shortage,” Randall Stephenson, AT&T’s CEO, said in a prepared statement. “In the absence of such steps, customers will be harmed and needed investment will be stifled.”

Because spectrum is a scarce asset, the wireless industry is scrambling to consolidate, with larger companies buying up smaller companies with big spectrum allotments. Verizon earlier this month bid $3.6 billion for spectrum held by a consortium of cable companies, and Sprint agreed to throw its partner Clearwire a $1.6 billion lifeline.

AT&T’s solution was much grander in scale. The nation’s second-largest wireless provider would have purchased the fourth-largest, creating a megacompany with well over 120 million subscribers.

The FCC and DOJ both sought to block the deal, citing the likelihood of higher prices, worse service, less consumer choice and massive job cuts.

Realizing it would not gain the approvals it needed to buy T-Mobile, AT&T ended its bid — but hinted that it will be forced to buy something else soon.

“Adding capacity to meet these needs will require policymakers to do two things,” Stephenson said. “First, in the near term, they should allow the free markets to work so that additional spectrum is available to meet the immediate needs of the U.S. wireless industry. Second, policymakers should enact legislation to meet our nation’s longer-term spectrum needs.”

AT&T is currently vying for regulatory approval of its $1.9 billion spectrum purchase from Qualcomm, but industry analysts say that still won’t be enough to satisfy customers’ long-term demands.

Meanwhile, AT&T will pay T-Mobile’s parent company Deutsche Telekom a $3 billion breakup fee over the scrapped deal. It will also allocate $1 billion worth of spectrum to the company before the year’s end. AT&T also plans to enter into a roaming agreement T-Mobile, which will allow customers of both networks to make use of the other’s network.

That will keep T-Mobile afloat for the near term. But without enough spectrum to deploy a competitive 4G network, and with its parent company determined to sell, the carrier will almost certainly have to merge with someone else.

“For T-Mobile, it’s tough sledding,” said Josh King, general counsel at Avvo.com and former senior corporate development executive at AT&T Wireless. “A Sprint tie-up is definitely possible, as is a sale to [Latin American providers] Telefonica or TELMEX.”

Though a Sprint purchase of T-Mobile would mean the third-largest wireless company would buy the fourth largest, analysts believe that it could get approval thanks to Sprint’s puny size compared with market leaders Verizon and AT&T.

“If they merge with Sprint Nextel, that would build three big competitors,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst. “Merging with AT&T would have turned the marketplace into a two-company race.”

Shares of AT&T barely budged in after-hours trading, but Sprint’s stock soared 5%.

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The request, if approved by the judge, would delay a trial slated for February and drag out the legal battle over the $39 billion deal. AT&T and T-Mobile have said quick resolution of the court case is essential or the proposed merger will fall apart.

Justice Department lawyer Joseph Wayland said expedited court proceedings in its antitrust lawsuit against the proposed merger were no longer necessary because the companies have pulled their application for merger approval at the Federal Communications Commission, which also must sign off on the deal.

Mr. Wayland said the Justice Department would ask to stay the court proceedings, or in the alternative withdraw its case, until the companies again seek approval with the FCC.

The comments came during a court hearing in which U.S. District Court Judge Ellen S. Huvelle considered whether to stick to her plans for a speedy February trial.

Judge Huvelle voiced repeated frustration on Friday that the companies’ pulled their FCC application last month. The companies said they did so in order to focus first on the Justice Department case. Judge Huvelle said the posture of the case has now changed and suggested she may not be willing to move with as much urgency.

The judge also raised concerns that the companies could alter their deal if and when they reapply with the FCC. “You could change the deal in a month and everybody’s time will be wasted,” Judge Huvelle said.

An AT&T lawyer urged the judge to maintain the current trial schedule. “We’re not playing some strategic game,” AT&T lawyer Mark Hansen told the judge.

Mr. Hansen said the companies remained committed to the deal. He said the Justice Department shouldn’t be permitted to use a “pocket veto” to kill the merger by dragging out the court proceedings.

AT&T General Counsel Wayne Watts said in a statement that the company was eager to present its case in court.

AT&T and T-Mobile pulled their FCC application after the agency said it wanted to call a trial-like hearing to review the deal. The agency subsequently released an internal staff report that was highly critical of the merger, saying it would limit competition in virtually every U.S. city and lead to higher prices for customers.

Judge Huvelle asked the Justice Department to file its motion by Tuesday and set another court hearing for next Thursday afternoon.

Jeffrey Jacobovitz, an antitrust lawyer at McCarthy, Sweeney & Harkaway in Washington, said the Justice Department “is trying to force AT&T to essentially fish or cut bait: Either you’re going forward with this merger or you’re not.” The agency, he said, isn’t going to want to spend significant resources on the case if AT&T is going to abandon its plans.

Any delay in the antitrust proceedings could put more pressure on T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.XE, DTEGY) as the uncertainty drags on. The deadline for closing the merger can be extended to as late as September. But in the meantime, T-Mobile is in limbo, complicating relationships with customers and business partners.

Putting off the antitrust trial could lead Deutsche Telekom “to reconsider its options and possibly seek to call off the merger,” Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King wrote in a note Friday morning. But that would mean renegotiating a $4 billion breakup fee that AT&T has agreed to pay Deutsche Telekom if the deal falls through, Mr. King said.

Deutsche Telekom had no immediate comment.

Robin Bienenstock, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said Verizon Wireless’s $3.6 billion deal to buy spectrum from several cable companies has left all the parties involved in an awkward position, because that was the only spectrum DT could have purchased and immediately added to T-Mobile USA’s existing spectrum without complicated adjustments. In effect, she added the DOJ suit has harmed the business it was trying to preserve in the market.

“I think a lot more pressure got put on both DT and the Department of Justice by Verizon buying up spectrum,” she said. “If you put a business in limbo for a long time, it dies. If you put it in limbo and allow its competitors to pick off its potential strategic partners, it’s worse,” she added.

Still she said DT is likely to stick with the deal, because even with AT&T’s spectrum from the break-up fee, the company has only enough spectrum to last until 2015 at the latest.

“Leveraging our new Vantage Data Centers campus location, Telx is well positioned to meet the demands of Silicon Valley organizations by offering a rich portfolio of colocation and interconnection services — at the lowest energy pricing — that surpass area competitors,” said Chris Downie, President and CFO of Telx. “Now, California-based companies have the option to instantly take advantage of cloud-based services while leveraging unprecedented connectivity to the rest of the world.”

Telx is making premier data center space available immediately at the Vantage Data Centers campus location, supporting power densities up to 400 Watts per square foot or 16KW per cabinet in a 2N redundant infrastructure design. The newly commissioned facility is the latest addition to one of the most green data center compounds in the country, featuring an innovative design that guarantees a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) rating below 1.3 to maximize energy efficiency.

“Vantage Data Centers is an industry leader in the development of large campus environments, giving our customers a strategic advantage with their long-term data center growth plans. As the anchor tenant in our Santa Clara data center, Telx now has ample room to expand and provide distinctive, high-performance data center services,” said Greg Ness, VP Marketing, Vantage Data Centers. “As our campus InterConnection Center operator, Telx will bring its considerable expertise and experience in connecting the world’s most in-demand networks, helping our other tenants at this location add value to their collocated infrastructure by building communities of interest.”

As the retail InterConnection Center operator, Telx can offer customers at the Vantage campus direct connections to hundreds of the world’s leading carriers, ISPs, cloud service and content providers. Enterprise colocation customers in Telx’s Santa Clara C³ data center can also connect with its 200 Paul facility in San Francisco — one of the most carrier-dense InterConnection Centers in the nation.

About Telx C³ Cloud Connection Centers
Deployed in nine top U.S. markets, Telx’ s C³ Cloud Connection Centers™ are strategically placed colocation facilities offering advanced data center services including premium power, space, redundancy and Telx’s award-winning InterConnection portfolio of connectivity choices. C³ Cloud Connection Centers are a culmination of Telx’s 10+ years of expertise in bringing together the world’s most important networks in a secure, highly flexible cloud of interconnectivity. When businesses choose to colocate in a Telx C³ data center, they are not just relocating their infrastructure to a leading, top-tier managed data center and interconnection facility; they are also joining a powerful network. Through numerous exchanges, carrier networks, Enterprise backbones and interconnection options, Telx customers have everything they need to create a unique, high-value community in any of Telx’s 17 Cloud Connection Centers.

About Telx
Telx is a leading provider of interconnection and data center services in strategic, high demand North American markets. With 17 premier facilities, Telx increases speed to market and reduces connectivity costs by providing direct connections to a community of the industry’s highest performance networks and access to 950+ customers, including leading telecommunications carriers, ISPs, cloud providers, content providers and enterprises. Telx is a privately held company headquartered in New York City with five facilities in the New York Metro area, two facilities in Chicago, two facilities in Dallas, four facilities in California, (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and two in Santa Clara) and facilities in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C.

Integral Choice represents TelX as a part of our overall solution set for our current and prospective customers. By partnering with TelX, we make sure that we find you the best solution for all of your business telecom service needs. Contact us today to see how partnering with Integral Choice can be the best decision you ever made for your business!

The Perfect Complement
PAETEC strengthens Windstream in three important ways. First, PAETEC brings tremendous enterprise-level expertise and product offerings to enhance Windstream’s already robust business division. Second, PAETEC’s culture of first-rate customer care aligns nicely with our own commitment to exceptional service. And third, PAETEC’s service area perfectly complements our own, allowing us to instantly transform into a multi-billion dollar nationwide communications and technology company with:

• A nationwide fiber network of more than 100,000 miles
• Data centers, cloud computing and managed services offered nationwide
• Customized data, voice and network solutions

Benefitting Your Business
As part of a national communications and technology organization, our dedicated employees will be able to offer you customized solutions that are as advanced as they are affordable. You’ll be able to reach our support staff 24/7 and continue to receive unparalleled personal service.

As always, we thank you for your business. We look forward to bringing you the best products and services that allow your business to continue to be successful, now and in the years to come.

Sincerely,

Jeff Gardner
President and Chief Executive Officer
Windstream Communications

Thirteen years later, PAETEC’s days as an independent company are numbered. By Dec. 1, Windstream Corp. in Little Rock, Ark., expects to close on its $2.3 billion takeover of the Perinton-based telecommunications company.

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday signed off on the acquisition, ruling that it “poses no significant competitive harms and should provide benefits to residential and business customers resulting from Windstream offering a broader range of competitive services in the markets served by the combined company.”

According to Windstream, that was the last regulatory hurdle needed before it could close on PAETEC. The New York state Public Service Commission approved the purchase last week.

Windstream spokesman David Avery said the deal had received a variety of states’ regulatory approvals.

PAETEC and Windstream announced the deal on Aug. 1, instantly raising concerns about how it would affect downtown Rochester, where PAETEC had planned to build a new headquarters and fill it with about 800 workers now in the suburbs.

The project was to be an anchor of downtown redevelopment efforts.

City Hall and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., raised objections to the takeover before the FCC and state PSC, but withdrew them last week after Windstream announced that it would take a 15-year lease on space at the Midtown site and move 335 workers downtown.

After Tuesday’s FCC approval, Schumer said: “All the pieces are now in place for Windstream to become a major part of downtown Rochester.”

Both chief executives — Arunas Chesonis of PAETEC and Jeff Gardner of Windstream — have said there will be some PAETEC job losses as a result of the takeover.

“We are working through the process of determining appropriate staffing levels and expect to announce details soon after the deal closes,” Avery said Tuesday.

Windstream has said it will keep PAETEC’s Willowbrook Office Park location in Perinton. But PAETEC locations in Victor and East Rochester are question marks.

By contacting Integral Choice today, we can help solve all of your business mobile service issues. We can also get your business set up with phone, internet, and other telecom solutions for the best price available! Contact us today and we can show you just how, by joining the Integral Choice team, your business can reach its full potential!

This announcement came only two days after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recommended that AT&T’s pending $39 billion takeover over T-Mobile go to an administrative hearing, and this is an unusual step for the FCC to make. This move by the FCC shows AT&T that they now have two main regulators that oppose the pending mergers.

In August, The Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the proposed merger that would cause AT&T to become the largest wireless carrier in the United States. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom AG, the parent company over T-Mobile, are prepared to go to trial to argue for their case in February.

AT&T also said Thursday that it is temporarily withdrawing its pending applications before the FCC. AT&T and Deutsche Telekom said they plan to focus first on overcoming the DOJ’s objections, and will refile their FCC applications if they obtain antitrust clearance for their deal.

That deal, which would wipe out the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the United States and make AT&T the market’s dominant player by far, now faces some daunting obstacles.

The FCC last called for a merger hearing in 2002, when it hit the brakes on DirectTV’s proposed merger with EchoStar — then the parent company of the Dish Network. That proposal later fell apart in the face of strong regulatory opposition.

Recognizing that its deal is in jeopardy, AT&T said it will set aside $4 billion toward the whopping break-up fee it agreed to pay Deutsche Telekom if the deal couldn’t be completed. AT&T had agreed to fork over a $3 billion termination fee, and to forfeit several billion dollars more in wireless spectrum allotments.

AT&T snuck its bad news out on Thanksgiving, a day when U.S. markets are closed and few Americans are paying attention to business news. One lobbying group that opposes the deal, the Media Access Project, blasted the timing of the announcement.

“This turkey is too big to be hidden by releasing it on Thanksgiving,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, policy director of the Washington-based advocacy group. “Withdrawal of the FCC applications should be seen for what it is: a concession that the deal would create a duopoly in the national wireless market, that will result in higher prices and reduced choice in handsets.”

AT&T says it will continue pushing for the deal and working through regulators’ objections. Earlier this week, AT&T’s senior vice president of corporate communications, Larry Solomon, called the FCC’s decision to hold a hearing “disappointing” and questioned the agency’s rationales.

“It is yet another example of a government agency acting to prevent billions in new investments, and the creation of many thousands of new jobs at a time when the U.S. economy desperately needs both,” Solomon said in a written statement. “At this time, we are reviewing all options.”

By contacting Integral Choice today, we can help solve all of your business wireless service issues. Contact us today and we can show you just how, by joining the Integral Choice team, your business can reach its full potential!