San Jose, California - (The Hosting News) - December 7, 2007 - Colocation, VoIP, and Internet backbone company, Level 3 Communications, has expanded its global content delivery portfolio to include streaming services. Formerly in beta, Level 3's streaming service is being launched today on one of the world's largest and most connected IP networks.
According to the company, third party research firms rank Level 3's network number one in terms of connectivity, based on the Level 3 network having the fewest average hops or connections to any given IP address in the world. When combined with Level 3's direct Internet connectivity to the largest broadband providers in North America, Level 3 facilitates the shortest route to 75 percent of ''eyeballs'' in the United States.
H.S. Kim, Chief Executive Officer and President of World Cyber Games noted, ''Content delivery services are the most critical infrastructure of World Cyber Games' (WCG's) global on-line practice, and we are very pleased to procure these important services from Level 3. Using Level 3's streaming service, in October we organized and streamed our grand final event and other national operations from Seattle, Wash., to 74 countries and made the grand final available to our 1.5 million global WCG tournament participants.''
From a standing start in May of 2007, Level 3 has already deployed 700 Gbps of CDN capacity. Capacity is expected to exceed one terabit per second by the end of the first quarter of 2008, less than one year after launching CDN services. Industry-leading connectivity and significant deployed capacity provide streaming customers with a robust streaming solution that efficiently delivers content worldwide in multiple formats with varied streaming rates. Level 3 plans to complete the full integration of the video management platform it acquired as part of its acquisition of Servecast in the first quarter of 2008.
Level 3's streaming services enables content providers to distribute rich media content from a global network of streaming servers. The deployment of these streaming servers enables content providers to reach millions of users worldwide with Level 3's portfolio of services. Level 3 helps its streaming customers to provide end users with a dependable and refined video experience.
Brady Rafuse, President of Level 3's Content Markets Group noted, ''Content owners such as sports broadcasters, movie studios, television networks and others are delivering more of their digital assets via the Internet, dependable streaming services are of paramount importance. Level 3 is a major player in this space, our network and content delivery services uniquely position us to meet the challenge of delivering massive amounts of rich media content over the Internet.''
Level 3 plans to support all of the leading streaming media formats for live and on-demand viewing including Microsoft Windows MediaTM, video for Adobe FlashTM Player, Real Player TM, QuickTime TM, and the Move TM Media Player.
John Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of Move Networks added, ''We are thrilled to be working with an industry leader like Level 3 to deliver Move Media Services. Move Media Services build audiences and bind consumers to broadcasters and advertisers like never before. We were attracted to the Level 3 streaming platform because of its cost advantages and ability to continually scale to meet the growing demands that increased adoption of HD streaming places on networks.''
Additionally, as a member of the Microsoft Silverlight TM Partner Initiative, Level 3 is supporting Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the web.
Sean Alexander, Director of Silverlight Media at Microsoft Corp. added, ''Our relationship with Level 3 enables Silverlight users to develop engaging video applications with the confidence that Level 3 will deliver their content over a high-performance, scalable and dependable platform.''
Since announcing the availability of caching and downloading services in May of this year, Level 3 has been focused on building a new, high-capacity platform that supports competitive features and enhanced performance. The company has been working closely with customers that serve large volumes of digital content online to develop solutions and pricing structures that meet their needs.
Consistent with its previously determined pricing strategy for its caching and downloading services, Level 3 has aligned its prices for streaming services with its prices for high-speed Internet access. The unit price of High-speed Internet access, Caching and Downloading, and Streaming Delivery are the same. There will be additional charges for certain player formats due to their licensing arrangements, except for Windows Media Format, which has no additional charges. Furthermore, there will be no premium charges for bursts or large file sizes for any of the streaming formats - an industry first.
Level 3's comprehensive content delivery portfolio provides a full suite of services to its customers. From the acquisition of HD programming and live events on the Vyvx Broadcast Services platform to the streaming of that content in HD to display screens around the world, Level 3 can provide solutions for virtually every element in the HD supply chain. From camera to display, Level 3 enables its customers to distribute and monetize their digital assets. Major television networks, top advertising agencies, 8 of the top 10 most visited Web sites, top movie studios, and many of the biggest social networking sites all trust Level 3 with their business.
Level 3 Communications, Inc., an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world. Through its customers, Level 3 is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers. The company provides a comprehensive suite of services over its broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice services and voice over IP services. The services are designed to provide building blocks that enable Level 3's customers to meet growing demands for advanced communications solutions.The principal components offered by Level 3's (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service include network trunking, local telephone numbers, local number portability, the safety of E-911, operator assistance, caller ID, directory listings, and directory assistance. The service is designed to allow Level 3 customers to retain the flexibility to manage and control end-user features without the difficulties of implementing complex interconnection arrangements.
For more information about Level 3, please visit: www.level3.com.
