Level 3 launches Ethernet, wavelength services

Level 3 Communications is offering metro Ethernet and wavelength services to compliment its metro portfolio of (3)Link private line and dark fiber services.

Level 3 will offer the new services in 36 U.S. and European metropolitan area markets where it already offers private line and dark fiber services and extends its suite of intercity transport services to the metro markets. Level 3 has been serving many of its customers with intercity wavelength and Ethernet services for years and these new point-to-point MAN services will seamlessly operate with its transport offering, said Liza Adams, Level 3 director of product marketing.

"There isn’t a service provider with this kind of comprehensiveness in the U.S. or international markets," Adams said. "May of our competitors have one or two or maybe three of these metro services, but no one has all four."

Adams said the new wavelength services, sold in 2.5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s flavors, will be attractive to application and Internet providers looking for a very high-speed intracity connection between server farms or data centers or for carriers establishing peering points between networks. The Ethernet services will focus on the enterprise market, linking local area networks across cities.

"These services give a lot of flexibility to our customers," Adams said. "Our customers can really differentiate themselves and they can bring a lot of the services they have in the long-haul network into the metro."