MFS founder plots
big IP net
By Tim Greene
Network World, 1/26/98
Omaha, Neb. - Level 3
Communications, Inc. is betting
billions that when it comes to
delivering data, voice, and video IP is
it.
While the industry at large is still
trying to figure out what it will mean
long-term, the group of veterans at
this start-up says there is just one
network for the future - the Internet.
Level 3 promises to offer IP data
services in six cities this year,
expanding to 60 cities by 2001. Voice
and video services, as well as
quality-of-service (QOS)
guarantees will come in about two
years, according to the company's
CEO, James Crowe.
Level 3 boasts plans for a
20,000-mile fiber-optic network in
the U.S., transoceanic cables and
foreign networks, and is blessed with very deep pockets. So the
company will be a force to be reckoned with whether its vision is
right or wrong.
There is another reason to listen to Level 3, Crowe and Kiewit
Diversified Group, with roots in mining and construction,have
done it before. They combined to build MFS Communications,
Inc. from the ground up as the first major competitive local
carrier. Started with $500 million in Kiewitt funding, MFS sold
for $14 billion in 1996.
Part of the Level 3 promise: network infrastructure costs so low
that it can ignite a price war with the established phone
companies, analysts said. |
