Level 3 Communications Inc. announced Friday the completion of the 1,900-mile Ring 1 of its planned 4,750-mile European fiber-optic network.
The European network will carry data, video and voice traffic for ISPs (Internet service providers) and ASPs (application service providers), as well as other Internet and communications companies, the Broomfield, Colorado-based network infrastructure services provider said in a statement.
Connecting its data centers in Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London and Paris, the Ring 1 network is connected to Level 3's metropolitan networks in each of the cities.
Including Ring 1 of the European network, Level 3 has now completed 90 percent of its planned inter-city conduit installations in North America and Europe, the company said.
Before the end of the year, Level 3 said it expects to have completed its second European network, which will connect Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich. The two European networks will then be connected to the company's 16,000-mile long network in the U.S. via a 1.28T-bit transatlantic cable, Level 3 added.
The European networks, which feature multiple conduits, were designed to allow easy upgrades of the network, with new optic technologies deployable through one of the empty conduits, rather than requiring the whole network to be rebuilt from the ground up, the company said.
Alcatel SA built the French and German portions of Level 3's network and was also involved in the construction of the submarine cable linking Brussels and London, the French equipment vendor said in a separate statement.
Level 3 Communications, in Broomfield, Colorado, can be reached at +1-720-888-1000 or via the Web at http://www.level3.com/. Alcatel, in Paris, is at +33-11-4076-1010 or at http://www.alcatel.com/.