Level 3 Parent Llc's

The communications industry has been and remains highly competitive. In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, significant new capacity was deployed by both existing and new entrants. This oversupply led to a period of financial restructuring and industry consolidation. Given the significant economies of scale inherent in the communications industry, we believe further consolidation may occur such as Verizon’s recently announced acquisition of XO.

Our primary competitors are long distance carriers, ILECs, CLECs, Post Telephone and Telegraphs, or PTTs, companies that operate Content Delivery Networks, or CDNs, and other companies such as cable companies, that provide communications services. The following information identifies some key competitors for each of our service offerings.

Our key competitors for our IP and data services include Verizon, AT&T, XO, NTT, Tata and Cogent in North America, and BT, Orange, TeliaSonera and Tata in Europe. In Latin America, our main competitors are Telefonica, Telmex and national incumbent telecommunications carriers.

For transport and fiber services, our key competitors in North America are other facilities based communications companies including AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, Zayo, and XO. In Europe, our key competitors are other carriers such as PTT companies, BT, Orange, Vodafone, TeliaSonera, Colt, Interoute, KPN and Belgacom. In Latin America, our main competitors are Telefonica, Telmex and national incumbent telecommunications carriers.

For voice services our key competitors are other providers of communications services including AT&T, Verizon, CenturyLink, CLECs and national incumbent telecommunications carriers.

For our colocation and datacenter services, our key competitors are other facilities based communications companies, and other colocation providers such as web hosting companies and third-party colocation companies. In North America, these companies include Equinix, Terremark (Verizon), and CoreSite. In Europe, competitors include Equinix, Global Switch, InterXion, Telecity and Telehouse Europe. In Latin America, our largest competitors include Telefonica, Telmex, and IBM.

For CDN services, our key competitors include Akamai Technologies, Limelight Networks, Amazon, Edgecast Networks (Verizon), Fastly and CDNetworks.
For security services, our key competitors include Akamai, Verizon, CenturyLink, AT&T and Cloudflare.

In the enterprise and government markets, our key competitors in North America include ILECs (such as AT&T, Verizon and CenturyLink) and CLECs (such as XO). In Europe, they include BT, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Orange. In Latin America, competitors include Telefonica and Telmex.

The communications industry is subject to rapid and significant changes in technology. For instance, periodic technological advances permit substantial increases in transmission capacity of both new and existing fiber, and the introduction of new products or emergence of new technologies may reduce the cost or increase the supply of certain services similar to those which we plan on providing. Accordingly, in the future our most significant competitors may be new entrants to the communications industry, such as content companies that have existing significant customer bases and substantial cash resources that are greater than ours, and, unlike the traditional incumbent carriers we also compete with, would not be burdened by an installed base of outmoded or legacy equipment.