Everything about Level 3 Communications totally explained
» Not to be confused with L-3 Communications, a communications system company.
Level 3 Communications is a communications and information services company headquartered in
Broomfield, Colorado,
USA. It has operating locations throughout the US and Europe. The company operates one of the largest communications and
Internet backbones in the world. Level 3 is a
Tier 1 network and the current owner of
AS1, but it operationally uses AS3356, which as of 2007 consistently has one of the highest ranked connectivity
degrees on the Internet.
History
Level 3 was founded in
1985 as
Kiewit Diversified Group, a subsidiary of
Peter Kiewit Sons' Incorporated; the company was created to handle the Kiewit assets not related to construction and coal mining. On
January 19,
1998, the company changed its name to Level 3 Communications. Two months later, on April 1, 1998, Level 3 became an independent company and began trading on
NASDAQ.
Network
Level 3 operates one of the largest backbone networks of any
Internet service provider. Interconnections between major cities are done via one or more
OC-192 or
10 Gb/s Ethernet links. Its network covers the continental US, and most of
Western Europe. Level 3 maintains over 100 Gbit/s of trans-Atlantic bandwidth via OC-192 and 10GigE circuits, linking the two halves of its network.
Level 3's primary focus is selling service to organizations with large bandwidth requirements, such as telecom carriers, cable TV operators, universities,
web hosting companies, and to other, smaller ISPs, often known as
Tier 2 carriers. As of Q1 2006 the Level 3 IP backbone was carrying over 5.1
petabytes of traffic per day. Level 3 also provides specialized services for businesses, such as
VPN, metro ethernet, voice services, and Video Transport services. Level 3 provides the backhaul video services from stadiums and arenas throughout the US to network head-end service points for NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL events.
Level 3 owns a large amount of
dark fiber. It occasionally leases this fiber out to other providers, companies, or organizations who wish to operate their own
backbones between cities.
Level 3 is one of the largest providers of wholesale dial-up service to ISPs in North America and is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers through its cable and DSL partners.
The world’s largest telecom carriers use Level 3 services, as do the 10 largest U.S. Internet Service Providers, and the 10 largest European telecom carriers.
The company offers a wide range of communications and content delivery services over its approximately 46,000 mile intercity broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport, colocation services, and patented Softswitch-based managed modem and voice services. Services offered under the “Level 3 Communications” brand include:
- Internet access services
- Managed modem dial-up services
- Broadband transport
- IP-centric voice services
- Private packet-switched and circuit-switched (Private Line) services
- Content Delivery Network services
- Colocation
- Metropolitan and intercity dark fiber
- Vyvx Fiber Video Transport
Based on the amount of Internet traffic on Level 3’s IP backbone, Level 3 is among the largest Internet carriers in the world. Through Level 3’s dial-up ISP customers, the company’s dial-up infrastructure is accessible to approximately 90% of the U.S. population. When a typical Internet user at home dials the Internet using a modem in the U.S., there's better than a one-in-three chance that their call is being completed within a Level 3 data center.
VoIP services
Level 3 is a Network Services Provider for several
Voice over IP (VoIP) companies, providing among other services a
Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number. Level 3 offers customers local DIDs that cover over 93% of the U.S. population, making Level 3 the largest
CLEC in the U.S. This coverage was built to serve the Managed Modem data dial-up business in the late 1990s and has since been leveraged to provide local voice services as modem traffic has matured and declined.
Level 3 provides
E911 services to VoIP providers to ensure that every
911 call goes to the correct 911 center with the correct information to quickly aid in dispatching emergency services. Level 3 covers 91% of all U.S. households with 911 coverage. Level 3 also offers one of the industry's first I2, NENA-compliant nomadic 911 services. The
FCC has mandated that all VoIP providers offer a nomadic 911 service, although as of July 2006 hasn't been enforcing the requirement.
Significant acquisitions
Level 3 has a tradition of making acquisitions, having acquired more than 20 companies or business units between 1998 and the present. In 2003, Level 3 acquired substantially all the assets of
Genuity (a spin-off of
GTE that included the former
BBN) from bankruptcy. Since the end of 2005, Level 3 has made a number of significant acquisitions including
Wiltel Communications (completed
23 December 2005), Progress Telecom (completed
20 March 2006), ICG Communications (completed
31 May 2006),
Telcove (formerly Adelphia Business Solutions, completed
24 July 2006),
Looking Glass Networks (completed
2 August 2006),
Broadwing Corporation (completed
3 January 2007), the
content delivery network of
SAVVIS (completed
22 January 2007) and, most recently, Servecast Limited (announced
11 July 2007). However, Level 3 has experienced significant integration issues recently, causing significant delays in provisioning services to customers.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Level 3 Communications'.
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