Level 3 Parent Llc's Business Segments

We are an international facilities-based provider of a broad range of integrated communications services. A facilities-based provider is a provider that owns or leases a substantial portion of the plant, property and equipment necessary to provide its services. We have created our international communications network by constructing our own assets and through a combination of purchasing other companies and purchasing or leasing facilities from others. We designed our network to provide communications services that employ and take advantage of rapidly improving underlying optical, Internet Protocol, computing and storage technologies.

Our company was incorporated as Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc. in Delaware in 1941 to continue a construction business founded in Omaha, Nebraska in 1884. In subsequent years, we invested a portion of the cash flow generated by our construction activities in a variety of other businesses, including, among other things, the communications business. In 1998, our historical construction business was split off from the remainder of our operations. In conjunction with the split-off, we changed our name to “Level 3 Communications, Inc.,” and the entity that was split-off and held the prior construction business was named “Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc.”

Level 3’s vision is to be the trusted connection to the networked world. We seek to achieve this vision by focusing on:
maximizing the value of our network for our customers by expanding the breadth and depth of our local to global network, and connecting our customers to their digital ecosystem of data and applications;

delivering an exceptional and consistent customer experience by innovating to improve the efficiency and scalability of our operating platform; and

generating profitable growth by expanding our enterprise customer base and layering value-added services onto existing network and operational capabilities.

We strive to create a culture and business environment that makes it easy for customers to do business with us, and providing high-performing, reliable and secure services on our local-to-global network with superior price value. We focus on operational excellence to streamline our systems and business processes to deliver a superior customer experience, and to reduce overhead costs and transactional costs for ourselves and for our customers.
We believe that we can be successful by making our customers the focal point of all we do. Our value proposition is structured to be fully aligned with helping our customers meet their growth, efficiency and security business challenges both today and in the future and across the globe wherever our services are available.
We believe that advances in optical and Internet Protocol, or IP, technologies have facilitated, and will continue to facilitate, decreases in unit costs for communications service providers that are able to most effectively take advantage of these technology advances. We believe that, over time, rapidly improving technologies and high demand elasticity will continue to drive this market dynamic.

Enterprises are increasingly moving their content and applications to third party providers of on-demand server and storage resources to reduce the costs and complexity of their information technology, or IT, operations. Since these server and storage resources can be offsite in any location and are often virtualized (as opposed to residing on dedicated hardware in a known location) they are referred to as “Cloud Services.” We believe that this migration of enterprise data and applications to the Cloud will drive increased demand for our high-performing, reliable and secure network services.

Today’s market drivers can be broken into three categories as they pertain to our core business strategy:

Growth. We expect digital data creation and the associated demand for bandwidth to keep growing, as business relationships and supply chains become increasingly digital, and end users increasingly expect to be able to access their data and applications anytime and anywhere. Cloud application adoption continues to grow for all businesses, especially our enterprise customers. Mobility and Internet connected device proliferation continue to increase the rate at which content - especially video - is consumed, which in turn results in increased demand for higher bandwidth to enable that delivery and consumption. A rapidly increasing numbers of smart homes, cars, and everyday objects are getting connected to the network (the “Internet of Things”), further increasing demand for scalable and secure bandwidth. Globalization trends continue as customers look for growth from emerging markets, particularly with respect to enterprise customers. Additional opportunities for growth are present as a result of changing regulatory requirements in industries such as healthcare, consumer privacy, and financial services.

Efficiency. As traffic volumes grow, our customers are not only under pressure to keep up with this growth but also to do so more efficiently. Accordingly, our product and technology teams take advantage of the scale and capabilities of our network and continuously innovate to deliver cost-effective services that meet customer needs.

Security. Cyber threats continue to escalate, which affects both us and our customers. As more enterprise customer data and applications move to the Cloud, and as more and more consumer devices and personal information become reachable through the Internet, maintaining a secure network and collection of systems and processes is more important than ever.

Technology innovation in Internet Protocol and optical networking technologies has resulted in improvement in the functionality of applications supported by these technologies. We believe that this rapid innovation will continue well into the future across a number of different aspects of the communications marketplace.

We believe that decreases in communications services costs and prices enable the development of new bandwidth intensive applications, which, over time, result in even more significant increases in bandwidth demand. In addition, we believe that communications services are direct substitutes for other existing modes of information distribution from sources such as traditional broadcast entertainment as well as distribution of software, audio and video content using physical media delivered through physical transportation systems. An example of this dynamic is the use of the Internet for the distribution of video. We believe that as communications services improve more rapidly than traditional content distribution systems, demand for Internet delivered video will continue to grow rapidly. We also believe that high elasticity of demand for both new applications and the substitution for existing distribution systems will continue for the foreseeable future.

We offer a broad range of communications services. All of our services can be purchased by any of our customers, but some services may not be available in all locations or jurisdictions. The following is an overview description of some of the services that we offer.
Core Network Services. The following are the communications services that are included in our financial reporting of Core Network Services revenue.
IP and Data Services. Data services include Internet Services, virtual private network (“VPN”), content delivery network (“CDN”), media delivery, Vyvx broadcast service and Managed Services.

Internet Services. We offer wholesale and content provider customers with high speed access to the Internet over one of the largest international Internet backbones. Using largely our own intercity and metropolitan networks in North America, Europe and Latin America, we provide customers with high performance, reliability and scalability. Access to the Internet is enabled through interconnection among our customers across our network as well as interconnections with other Internet service provider “peers.”

The service is available stand-alone or in conjunction with managed services offerings, such as Managed Router where we deploy and manage a router that is on the customer premise or our network-based Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS, Mitigation, which protects our business customers from Internet based DDoS attacks.

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VPN Service. Built on our optical transport network, we offer customers the ability to create private point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, and full-mesh networks based on IP VPN, Virtual Private LAN service, or VPLS, Ethernet Virtual Private Line, or EVPL, or MPLS VPN technologies. These services allow service providers, enterprises and government entities to replace multiple networks with a single, cost-effective solution that simplifies the transmission of voice, video, and data over a single or converged network, while delivering high quality of service and security. These services are used for service provider and corporate data and voice networks, data center networking, disaster recovery and out-of-region or redundant customer connectivity for other service providers. VPN services are sold stand-alone or in conjunction with our managed services offerings.

Level 3 Ethernet Services or E-Services. Provide customers with geographically diverse, data intensive networks; scale, flexibility and reliability in order to meet existing and future networking demands. Level 3 E-Services encompasses E-Line and E-Access.

Level 3 E-Line service is a Layer 2 point-to-point and point-to-multipoint data service for enterprise network connectivity (Ports 100Mb-10Gb, EVC 2Mb to 6Gb).

Level 3 E-Access service is a Layer 2 Carrier Grade Ethernet network-to-network interface (NNI) to enable Service Providers like carriers, data centers and cloud providers to resell Level 3 Ethernet services to their enterprise customers.

Level 3SM E-Line Service with Adaptive Network Control offers secure, high availability and scalable network connections with dynamic bandwidth making it ideal for providing high-speed connections among corporate headquarters, data centers and other business locations around the world to migrate legacy networks and equipment to Ethernet, expand existing WANs and get new applications online faster.

Adaptive Network Control provides added capabilities that are layered on to network services to provide greater visibility, flexibility and control of applications traffic traversing your Metro or Wide Area Network:

Enhanced Management is real time visibility of end-to-end network performance metrics to assist planning, trouble shooting and fine tuning your network for optimal performance. Available for all managed locations and backed by comprehensive service level agreements.

Dynamic Bandwidth Capacity, which is the ability to make real-time bandwidth adjustments via the Company’s MyPortal customer portal to address fluctuating traffic demands.

CDN Services. Our content delivery network services combine our IP network, Gateway facilities and patented technology that directs a requestor or end user to the best location or server cluster in our network to retrieve the requested content based on location and network conditions. Our CDN service provides customers with improved performance, economics, scalability, reliability and reach for their web applications. Our caching and download services provide efficient http delivery of large files such as video, software, security patches, audio and graphics to mass audiences. Our streaming service can be used to deliver high performance streams, either live or on-demand, to end users using leading proprietary protocols. Each service set provides flexible features to enable customers to control their content delivery to ensure quality end-user experience, security, freshness and targeting. We also offer storage solutions enabling customers to upload and store content to our network as part of an optimized delivery platform. In addition to our delivery services, our patented Intelligent Traffic Management service enables customers to set rules to dynamically route traffic to meet failover or dual vendor objectives.

Media Delivery Service. We offer media delivery service to customers seeking to manage, protect and monetize content delivered over the Internet. Our media delivery service extends support for online distribution models and operation by providing customers with means to ingest and digitize live video content and to manage the organization and presentation of both live and on demand video to end users via a content management system. Additionally, support for content monetization via paid and advertising supported models is provided. Our media delivery services leverage our content delivery network for the delivery of managed content to end users.

Vyvx Broadcast Service. We offer various services to provide audio and video feeds over fiber or satellite for broadcast and production customers. These services vary in capacity provided, frequency of use (that is, may be provided on an occasional or dedicated basis) and price.

Managed Services. This category includes our complete portfolio of advanced performance and managed services, including professional services. Our teams of professionals work with customers to design and customize solutions that match their strategy and can help customers increase network efficiency, reduce overall operational costs, supplement skill sets, or provide specialist knowledge. Services included Managed Router, Application Performance Management, Managed WAN Optimization, Managed Ethernet Services and a variety of other professional services to meet customer needs. Managed Services are purchased in conjunction with our other network services.

Cloud and IT Services. Our multi-disciplinary cloud services draw on many products across our products that are described above. Our Cloud and IT-based services include Level 3 Cloud Connect Solutions, Communications as a Service and Data Center Services. These solutions are focused on the transport and delivery of enterprise data and applications.

Level 3 Cloud Connect Solutions. Level 3 Cloud Connect Solutions create a secure, reliable path for customers to realize the efficiency, scalability and flexibility of the cloud, providing a private network that connects enterprises with leading cloud and data center providers around the world, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute.

Communications as a Service (CaaS). Our Communications as a Service (CaaS) product offering delivers a Session Initiated Protocol, or SIP, based audio collaboration and on-net web conferencing over a virtual private network using a hosted model.

Transport and Fiber Services. Transport services include wavelengths, private lines, transoceanic services, and dark fiber, as well as related professional services. These services are available across our metropolitan and intercity fiber network. Wavelength services provide unprotected point-to-point connections of a fixed amount of bandwidth with Ethernet or SONET interfaces. Wavelength services are available at a range of speeds from 1 Gbps to more than 100 Gbps. This service offering targets customers that require significant amounts of bandwidth, desire more direct control and provide their own network management. Private line services are also point-to-point connections of dedicated bandwidth but include SONET or Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) protection to provide resiliency to fiber or equipment outages. Private line services are available in a wide range of speeds with electrical, optical and Ethernet interfaces. We also provide transport services within our transatlantic cable system connecting North America, Europe and Latin America as well as via leased bulk capacity on other transoceanic systems. International backhaul transport services, interconnecting cable landing stations and our terrestrial North American, European and Latin American networks, are also available.

Our dark fiber service provides carriers, service providers, government entities and enterprises a fiber solution when unique applications, control or scale requirements make this service desirable. This includes fiber, colocation space in our Gateways and in our network facilities, power and physical operations and maintenance of the fiber and associated infrastructure. Professional services related to our transport and fiber services include network architectural design, engineering, installation and turn-up, ongoing network monitoring and management services, and field technical services.
Voice Services. We offer a broad range of local and enterprise voice services including VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services and traditional circuit-switch based services. Our local and enterprise voice services include VoIP enhanced local service, SIP Trunking, local inbound service, Primary Rate Interface (“PRI”) service, long distance service, toll free service and a comprehensive suite of audio, web and video collaboration services. The following is a general description of our voice services. Some of the following services are also offered to our wholesale voice customers. For financial reporting purposes, voice services also include our collaboration services that are described below.

VoIP Enhanced Local. Our VoIP enhanced local service is a VoIP service that enables broadband cable operators, IXCs, voice over IP providers, and other companies operating their own switching infrastructure to launch IP-based local and long-distance voice services via any broadband connection.

SIP Trunking. SIP Trunking is a VoIP-based local phone service offered to medium and large enterprises as a replacement for traditional fully featured enterprise TDM voice services. SIP Trunking allows customers with an IP PBX to manage calls to and from the PSTN without having to purchase traditional access lines dedicated to voice.

Local Inbound. Our local inbound service terminates traditional telephone network originated calls to Internet Protocol termination points. This one-way service is sold primarily to customers, such as call centers, conferencing providers, voice over IP service providers and enterprises to only receive calls at their locations. The customers can obtain telephone numbers from us or port-in local telephone numbers that the customer already controls. These local calls are then converted to IP and transported over our backbone to a customer’s IP voice application at a customer-selected IP voice end point.

Enterprise Long Distance. Our long distance service portfolio consists of local and long distance transport and termination services. Medium and large enterprises purchase our long distance services for their corporate calling or outbound contact center needs. All Level 3 long distance services are offered at the customer’s option over circuit switch or softswitch technologies.

Enterprise Toll Free. Our toll free service terminates toll free calls that are originated on the traditional telephone network. These toll free calls are carried over either a circuit switch or softswitch network and delivered to customers in Internet Protocol or traditional TDM format.

Collaboration Services. We offer a comprehensive suite of audio, web and video collaboration services, which include the following services:

Audio Conferencing. Ready-Access®, our on-demand/reservation less audio conferencing service, provides toll free access in key business markets worldwide. We also provide operator-assisted, full-service conference calls where participants can access our service by dialing in on either a toll or a toll-free number, or by being dialed out to by an operator.

Web Conferencing. Our Ready-Access Web Meeting is fully integrated with Ready-Access audio conferencing for on-demand collaboration, allowing customers to manage their calls on-line, change account options, share presentations with participants and record entire meetings, including visuals. eMeeting is a full-featured Web conferencing application that allows customers to collaborate and share documents, presentations, applications, data and feedback with polling and instant messaging features. Live Meeting service uses technology licensed from Microsoft® to allow multiple attendees to participate in meetings using only their computer, a phone, and an Internet connection. We have integrated Ready-Access as an audio conferencing component into Live Meeting.

Videoconferencing Service. Our videoconferencing service provides video over IP and ISDN platforms, using multi-point bridging to connect multiple sites. Enhanced options available with our videoconferencing services include scheduling, recording and hybrid meetings that combine our audio and video services.

Colocation and Data Center Services. Colocation and Data Center services include data center facilities and services including cloud, hosting, and application management solutions. Our data center facilities offer high quality, data center space where customers can locate servers, content storage devices and communications network equipment in a safe and secure technical operating environment. In addition, we offer high-speed, reliable connectivity to our network and to other networks, including metro and intercity networks, the traditional public switched telephone network and the Internet. Our data center services range from dedicated hosting and cloud services to more complex managed solutions, including disaster recovery, business continuity, applications management support, and security services to manage mission critical applications.

Security Services. Also reported in this category, Level 3 Security Solutions can be used to enable customers to address the growing threat of cyber-attack and allow customers to create a secure network, safeguard brand value, enable business continuity, and avoid complexity and cost. Our Security Services include: Secure Access which provides secure and encrypted connectivity for mobile users or remote offices; Cloud and Premises based Managed Firewall and Unified Threat Management Services including Intrusion Prevention and Detection service and Web Content filtering; network-based Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Mitigation, which protects against Internet based DDoS attacks; and Security Consulting services for Governance, Risk Management and Compliance. Security Services are sold stand-alone or in conjunction with Data Services.

Wholesale Voice Services. Our Wholesale Voice Services include voice termination and toll free service. These services share many of the same features as the local and enterprise voice services described above.

Voice Termination. Our wholesale long distance offer include domestic and international voice termination services targeted to IXCs, wireless providers, local phone companies, cable companies, resellers and voice over IP providers.

Toll Free. As with Enterprise Toll Free, Level 3’s wholesale Toll Free service terminates toll free calls that are originated on the traditional telephone network. Customers for these services include call centers, conferencing providers, and voice over IP providers.

We believe that it is important to streamline and simplify our processes and systems. To pursue our business strategies, we have developed and are continuing to develop and implement a set of integrated software applications designed to automate our operational processes. These development activities also relate to the integration of the systems that were used by the companies that we have acquired. Through the development of our business support systems, we believe that we have the opportunity to obtain a competitive advantage relative to traditional telecommunications companies. In addition, we recognize that for the success of certain of our services that some of our business support systems will need to be easily accessible and usable directly by our customers.

We are currently developing and deploying a unified set of simplified processes and systems that have been designed to streamline and synchronize our service, sales and operational functions. These processes and systems have been designed to provide improved capability in service catalog management, sales opportunity management, customer management, quoting, order entry, order workflow, physical and logical network inventory management, service management, and financial management.

Level 3 Parent LLC, a prominent entity in the telecommunications and technology sector, offers an extensive array of segments, products, and services tailored to meet diverse customer needs. The company is primarily recognized for its global network services but has expanded its portfolio significantly.

Segments

Level 3 operates in several key segments that cater to a wide variety of businesses, from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to large corporations and government entities. These segments include:

1. Network Services: This is the core segment of Level 3s offerings, providing high-speed internet access, private line services, and network management solutions.

2. Data Center and Cloud Services: Offering data storage, colocation, and cloud computing solutions that ensure businesses can scale their operations while maintaining data integrity and security.

3. Voice Services: This segment encompasses traditional telephony, VoIP services, and other communication solutions that facilitate both local and international calling.

4. Content Delivery Network (CDN): Level 3 provides robust CDN solutions designed to optimize the delivery of web content, video streaming, and applications to enhance user experiences.

5. Security Services: This growing segment includes various cybersecurity offerings, such as DDoS protection, web application firewalls, and comprehensive managed security services to safeguard client networks against breaches and attacks.

Products

Level 3s wide range of products is designed to address the specific needs of different market segments, with an emphasis on scalability, reliability, and performance. Key products include:

1. Internet Connectivity:
- High-Speed Internet Services: Leveraging an extensive global fiber network to provide reliable internet access.
- Ethernet Services: Offering scalable bandwidth solutions for businesses that require higher data transfer rates.

2. Dedicated and Managed Network Services:
- Private Line Services: Point-to-point connectivity with guaranteed performance.
- MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching): Enabling businesses to manage data traffic efficiently across their networks.

3. Cloud Solutions:
- Cloud Storage: Flexible, scalable storage options accessible from anywhere.
- Cloud-based Backup and Disaster Recovery: Ensuring business continuity through robust backup solutions.

4. Voice and Unified Communication:
- SIP Trunking: Enabling businesses to reduce costs and enhance voice communication capabilities.
- Hosted Voice Solutions: Delivering complete telephony services without the need for on-premises equipment.

5. Content Delivery Services:
- Media Delivery: Solutions for video streaming, file downloads, and website acceleration.
- Edge Services: Deploying content closer to end-users for improved loading times and performance.

6. Security Solutions:
- Advanced DDoS Mitigation: Protecting businesses from distributed denial-of-service attacks.
- Managed Security Services: Comprehensive solutions that include monitoring, threat detection, and incident response.

Services

In addition to its diverse product range, Level 3 also provides a suite of services that enhance the usability and effectiveness of its offerings. These services include:

1. Consulting and Professional Services: Helping businesses design and implement their IT and communication strategies effectively.

2. Customer Support and Managed Services: Offering 24/7 support and proactive network management to ensure optimal performance.

3. Custom Solutions: Tailored services and products that align with specific business needs, allowing maximum flexibility and efficiency.

4. Training and Education: Providing customers with resources and training to help them get the most out of Level 3’s products and services.

5. Global Reach with Local Support: Leveraging its worldwide footprint while ensuring that local market needs are effectively met.

Overall, Level 3 Parent LLC presents a comprehensive ecosystem of telecommunications and IT solutions, combining innovation with reliability to support businesses in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. The company continues to adapt its offerings to meet emerging trends and customer expectations, positioning itself as a leader in the industry.