Level 3 Announces New Wavelength Service Offerings

Broomfield, Colorado (ots/PRNewswire) -

- Enhanced Services Expand High-Speed Bandwidth Options in North
America and Europe

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) today announced new
optical wavelength service capabilities. The enhancements are a
direct response to growing customer demand for flexible,
cost-effective, high-bandwidth optical networks for both enterprise
and wholesale applications.

The new offerings provide network protection, additional
bandwidth options and performance guarantees that enable customers to
keep pace with rising end-user demand and bandwidth-hungry
applications in a cost-effective manner. The portfolio expansion
includes metro and intercity services and will be offered on Level
3's network across both North America and Europe.

"When Level 3 can offer customers shorter fiber routes via its
comprehensive network footprint, that translates into less delay and
increased application performance," said Brian Washburn, research
director for Current Analysis. "For some organizations, low
end-to-end latency is key."

The new service offerings include:
- Protected Wavelengths: Level 3 now provides automatic
protection-switching to a dedicated diversely routed wavelength in the
event of a network failure. The protection switch, fully automated and
managed by Level 3, happens at switching speeds approaching SONET
restoration times. The single interface to the customer requires no
additional capital cost for customer optical ports, and the diverse
restoration path is fixed and fully known to the customer. These
features allow customers to achieve fast restoration with predictable
performance in their network without adding significant cost and
routing complexity.
- Gigabit Ethernet Increments: Level 3 now provides unprotected
wavelength services in one Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. This lower-speed
wavelength alternative allows customers to use more affordable, smaller
increments of Ethernet bandwidth to build network connectivity in metro
and intercity networks where a full 2.5 Gigabit per second (Gbps) or 10
Gbps link is not warranted.
- 40 Gigabit Waves: Level 3 also offers expanded service capability at
the higher end of the bandwidth spectrum with 40 Gbps waves. The service
allows customers needing very high bandwidth between two locations to
establish that connectivity with a single link instead of purchasing and
managing multiple 10 Gbps links and the additional supporting optical
ports.
- Maximum Latency Guarantees: Level 3 now offers maximum latency
guarantees on wavelength services for those customers that have very
tight tolerances on delay-sensitive applications. The guarantee is
provided before the customer commits to an order so that the risk of
turning up a circuit only to find that the latency is too high is
minimized. Level 3 also maintains the latency guarantee throughout the
term of the circuit.

"With capital budgets dwindling in the face of increasing
economic pressure, companies are looking for more efficient ways to
keep pace with rising service demands being placed on their
networks," said Sureel Choksi, chief marketing officer for Level 3.
"These new wavelength service offerings provide granularity,
reliability and scalability, enabling Level 3 customers more
flexibility to manage their increasingly complex and growing network
bandwidth demands."

These latest wavelength service enhancements address a variety of
networking needs from high-performance data center connectivity and
computing distribution to high-bandwidth carrier Internet protocol
backbone construction. Level 3 is committed to provide innovative
optical networking solutions using the latest technologies to support
its customers.

About Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) is a leading
international provider of fiber-based communications services.
Enterprise, content, wholesale and government customers rely on Level
3 to deliver services with an industry-leading combination of
scalability and value over an end-to-end fiber network. Level 3
offers a portfolio of metro and long-haul services, including
transport, data, Internet, content delivery and voice. For more
information, visit www.Level3.com.

Level 3 Communications, Level 3, the red 3D brackets and the
Level 3 Communications logo are registered service marks of Level 3
Communications, LLC and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or
other countries. Level 3 services are provided by wholly owned
subsidiaries of Level 3 Communications, Inc. Any other service,
product or company names recited herein are trademarks or service
marks of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statement

Some of the statements made in this press release are forward
looking in nature. These statements are based on management's current
expectations or beliefs. These forward looking statements are not a
guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties
and other factors, many of which are outside Level 3's control, which
could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed
or implied by the statements. The most important factors that could
prevent Level 3 from achieving its stated goals include, but are not
limited to, the current uncertainty in the global financial markets
and the global economy; disruptions in the financial markets that
could affect Level 3's ability to obtain additional financing; as
well as the company's ability to: successfully integrate
acquisitions; increase the volume of traffic on the network; defend
intellectual property and proprietary rights; develop effective
business support systems; manage system and network failures or
disruptions; develop new services that meet customer demands and
generate acceptable margins; attract and retain qualified management
and other personnel; and meet all of the terms and conditions of debt
obligations. Additional information concerning these and other
important factors can be found within Level 3's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release
should be evaluated in light of these important factors. Level 3 is
under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation
to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

ots Originaltext: Level 3 Communications, Inc.
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
media, Vince Hancock, +1-720-888-2146, or investors, Mark
Stoutenberg, +1-720-888-1662, both of Level 3 Communications, Inc.