Level 3 targets Mexico business and wholesale service opportunities

Level 3 Communications (NYSE: LVLT) wants to take advantage of potential opportunities to serve the growing presence of service providers and enterprises in Mexico.

Offered through its local licensed Mexico affiliate, Level 3 now offers a number of its flagship services: EtherSphere Wide Area Network (WAN) transport services, Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN), Wavelength Services, Private Line, Dedicated Internet Access and High Speed IP service, and Ethernet local access service.

In Mexico, the service provider has built a 3,484 km fiber ring that links the cities of Guadalajara, Monterrey, Mexico City and Mazatlan.

Buoyed by its recent acquisition of Global Crossing, one which gave it increased network capabilities in the Latin American region overall, the timing for this new initiative couldn't be any better. A recent Gartner report forecast that the Mexican market for Ethernet and IP VPN will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 15.8 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Elia San Miguel, principal research analyst for Latin America at Gartner, said that Level 3 will be able to become an alternative provider to the country's incumbent Telmex as enterprises make a move to migrate away from traditional TDM-based services to IP/MPLS services.

"Business Internet access revenue is growing quickly and will set the stage for more sophisticated communications-enabled business processes, including Ethernet, Gigabit Internet and WAN connectivity services that can allow easier and better connectivity with branch offices and telecommuters," she said. "Interest remains high for managed services, and the shift to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is starting to get into enterprise plans."

For more:
- see the release

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