Level 3 Signs on YouTube, Covad as Customers

Level 3 Communications Inc. today at VON unleashed a flurry of news. The company revealed it is now the backbone provider for popular video Internet site YouTube and that Covad is the latest to join its Master Reseller Program. Level 3 also revealed key results of some VoIP end-user surveys it recently conducted.

Under the terms of the YouTube agreement, Level 3 will provide Level 3 High Speed Internet Access via multiple 10GigE ports. Level 3 also will provide 10GigE LAN PHY wavelength service across a nationwide footprint connecting YouTube’s data centers.

“YouTube has tremendous need for bandwidth,” said Cynthia Carpenter, vice president of marketing for wholesale services at Qwest. “We are definitely interested in partnering with more social networks,” she added, mentioning MySpace as another example of a social networking site.

10GigE LAN PHY, a dedicated Ethernet point-to-point service, now is available as a standard enhancement to the Level 3 intercity wavelength service. The service is available across the majority of Level 3's fiber-based networks in the United States and in Europe, including extensions to key metropolitan PoPs.

The new Covad deal, meanwhile, represents another pillar for Level 3, said Carpenter, which is growth in the VoIP space. Through that deal, Level 3 will be a key provider of underlying VoIP services to enable Covad’s nationwide hosted VoIP service. In addition, Level 3 will provide go-to-market support and customer leads with Covad. “We’re extending marketing support to Covad as part of the deal,” said Carpenter. “We’re giving Covad insight into our consumer research, which has similar aspects to SMB [trends].” Level 3 also is sharing its research that was specifically targeted at SMBs. “So we’re sharing that and helping Covad build marketing campaigns based on that information,” she said, adding that Level 3 does that kind of thing as a standard feature of its Master Reseller Program.

Carpenter said Level 3’s latest research indicates that VoIP customers are very satisfied with their service, and that feeling is driven by service quality, not just pricing.

Level 3 Communications Inc. www.level3.com

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