Europe Gets Level 3’s Carrier Ethernet

Level 3 unveiled some new capabilities this morning over in Europe. The global network operator has expanded its Carrier Ethernet 2.0 footprint onto its pan-European network.

The expansion brings Level 3’s CE2.0 reach into 27 locations across western Europe, adding to the nearly 250 locations across the USA. Over the last year and a half, Level 3’s overall US Ethernet footprint was reconstituted during the integration of tw telecom’s portfolio into its own, as they hopefully took the best of both worlds and applied the latest from the rapidly developing world of SDN.  That they are now extending their dynamic CE2.0 capabilities into Europe is a good sign for the product of all that integration, and should help them in their quest to grow enterprise revenues on the continent.

Along with these 27 sites, Level 3 has plans to expand into another 15 later in the ear. The current expansion is focused on the British Isles, Germany, France, and the Benelux nations. The next 15 will no doubt stretch up into Scandinavia, down into Spain, Switzerland, and Italy, and into central and eastern Europe as well.

It also suggests that Level 3 is perhaps ready for its next acquisition. Since XO is now off the table, the likelihood that the next target will be overseas has gone up further. With Colt now fully in Fidelity’s hands, speculation will surely return to a potential merger with Level 3. There are of course other possibilities, but Colt is the one that really hits all the buttons: enterprise scale, continental metro depth, and yes, another well-developed dynamic Ethernet network. $5 deposit casino

Update: Level 3 has a new map showing the further expansion markets across Europe they’ll be taking the new Ethernet platform to:

 

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Categories: Ethernet · Fiber Networks