Cox has long leased various services from Level 3 Communications (NYSE:LVLT, news, filings) to power its national network, and today they expanded that strategic relationship further. This new agreement spans multiple areas:
- multi-year agreements for high speed IP and transport services
- additional capabilities that Cox will resell as a wholesale partner
- additional dark fiber purchases
- an updated peering agreement
That’s a rather comprehensive list, but it is that last item interests me most. If you’ll recall, Level 3 and Comcast got into a bit of a tussle last winter over peering and interconnection regarding all that new Netflix traffic. At the time, I wondered just where the other cable MSOs were on the subject, since the phenomenon was hardly specific to Comcast. Apparently Level 3 and Cox figured out what to do about it, and updated their interconnection agreements to match. We never really heard back what happened with Comcast, so perhaps they also worked it out in the end.
Level 3 is looking forward to a second half of organic growth, or at least the market certainly thinks so given the rise in the company’s stock price. Cox has for many years been one of the most active of cable MSOs in addressing the enterprise space, with a substantial HCF footprint.
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Categories: Cable · Internet Backbones · Internet Traffic
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Maybe this is part of Level 3’s strategy to reduce objections to the FCC/DoJ from MSOs to the Global Crossing merger.