Level 3 signs transport deal with PanAmSat

Level 3 Communications will provide the terrestrial link for satellite video carrier PanAmSat’s hybrid terrestrial-satellite network, Level 3 officials said today.

PanAmSat will use Level 3’s ATM multiprotocol label switching backbone to link up its six U.S. uplink stations, allowing its cable and other video customers to access PanAmSat’s video signal over a terrestrial network instead of via satellite. As part of the agreement, Level 3 and PanAmSat have also agreed to collaborate on future development of PanAmSat’s hybrid network efforts.

“This deal is part of a larger strategy targeting the broadband entertainment space,” said Christian Wolfe, director of commercial development for Level 3. “We see a very healthy market for the transport of video signals over terrestrial networks.”

Level 3 already provides a lot of bandwidth for MSOs, but it plans to target other types of entertainment media. Last month it announced a deal with Sony Entertainment Online to provide transport for its enormously popular Everquest online gaming portal. More deals in entertainment media are in the works, and Level 3 is actively optimizing its network and (3)Packet data transport service for the particular demands of video and real-time gaming traffic, Christian said.

“We’ve done a lot of testing on our network for these applications,” Christian said. “We’ve worked hard to understand exactly how video works on our network.”