Level 3 Communications
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Level(3) Communications, Inc. | |
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| Type of Company | Public (NASDAQ: LVLT) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1985 |
| Headquarters | Broomfield, Colorado |
| Key people | James Q. Crowe CEO |
| Industry | Communications Backbone |
| Revenue |  $3.613 billionUSD (2005) |
| Operating income |  $212.00 million USD (2005) |
| Net income | $638.00 million USD (2005) |
| Employees | 4,800 (2005) |
| Website | www.level3.com |
- Not to be confused with L-3 Communications, a communications system company that makes X-Ray machines commonly used at airports
Level 3 Communications NASDAQ: LVLT is a communications and information services company and is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, USA. The company operates one of the largest communications and Internet backbones in the world, making it a Tier 1 network. Level 3 is the current owner of AS1.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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 telecoms 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, and voice services.
Level 3 owns a large amount of dark fiber. It occasionally leases this fiber out to other providers 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 all continue to 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 services over its approximately 23,000 mile 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 services
- DSL Aggregation
- Colocation
- Metropolitan and intercity dark fiber
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 is better than a one-in-three chance that their call is being completed within a Level 3 data center.
[edit] 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 has not been enforcing the requirement.
[edit] Significant acquisitions
Level 3 has a tradition of making acquisitions, having acquired 18 companies or business units between 1998 and the Present. In 2003, Level 3 acquired substantially all the assets of Genuity (a spin-off of BBN) from bankruptcy. Since the end of 2005, Level 3 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 August 2, 2006) and most recently have entered a definitive agreement to acquire Broadwing Communications during the first quarter of 2007.
