Level 3 Activates New Pacific Subsea Fiber Optic Cable Route Landing Into Buenaventura, Colombia

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) has announced the activation of a new subsea cable landing station giving Colombia a Pacific Ocean route to connect to its international network. The new landing station enhances Colombia’s options for redundancy and removes sole reliance on traditional connectivity via the Caribbean Coast. The fiber optic undersea cable runs 300 kilometers from the Pacific ocean into the coastal city of Buenaventura on Colombia’s Pacific coast, then 154 kilometers over land to the city of Cali, where it connects with Level 3’s national fiber optic system that provides access to the main Colombian markets.

Demand for connectivity and network services in Colombia and Latin America is rising. Frost & Sullivan estimates the Latin American fixed broadband services market will grow at a rate of 12.4% to reach 90.8 million connections in 2018. At launch, Level 3´s undersea system has a total installed capacity of eight terabits of which 400-gigabits are already available, according to the carrier.

Hector Alonso, regional president of Latin America for Level 3

“This expanded undersea cable system connection represents Level 3’s commitment to meeting the increasing demand for network services in Latin America,” said Hector Alonso, regional president of Latin America for Level 3. “As part of Level 3’s South American Crossing (SAC) system, the cable connects the six major economies in Latin America providing customers a secure, reliable and redundant way to access our global footprint.”

With the additional connectivity, Colombia should be able to transmit data and mobile communications more quickly to key cities throughout the Americas, such as Los Angeles, Miami and New York, U.S.; Mexico City, Mexico; Santiago, Chile; Buenos Aires, Argentina and São Paulo, Brazil. In turn, these cities will have greater connectivity to seven of the main cities in Colombia: Bogotá, Medellin, Cali, Ibague, Manizales, Pereira, Armenia and Popayan. The new route also provides enhanced connectivity and route diversity to cities in Asia and Europe.

Level 3 builds, operates and maintains a global communications network with extensive fiber miles in 60 countries across 3 continents. The company owns more than 180,000 kilometers (110,000 miles) of intercity routes, 103,000 km (64,000 miles) of metro routes and 53,000 km (33,000 miles) of undersea routes.