[1st-mile-nm] CenturyLink Gigabit Services

[Richard Lowenberg]

CenturyLink Aims Gigabit at Businesses

Jason Meyers, Senior Editor, Gigabit Cities/IoT       12/3/2014
http://www.lightreading.com/gigabit/gigabit-cities/centurylink-aims-gigabit-at-businesses/d/d-id/712376 

When it comes to gigabit broadband, CenturyLink means business -- and that's setting it apart from many others.

Despite the fact that one of the central claims about gigabit-scale networks in cities is that they will attract businesses and drive economic development, many of the early gigabit broadband deployments are focused primarily on residential consumers. CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL), however, is signaling that its gigabit efforts will have a business spin.

"We see a tremendous range of services we can offer over the cloud, and bundling cloud services with our gigabit capabilities is a very compelling offer for SMBs and smaller sites of larger businesses," says Shirish Lal, chief marketing officer at CenturyLink.

The carrier announced in August that it would begin delivering gigabit services over its network in parts of 16 cities. In 10 of them -- Columbia, Mo.; Denver; Jefferson City, Mo.; Las Vegas; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Omaha; Orlando; Portland; Salt Lake City; and Seattle -- the carrier is serving both residents and businesses.

In six other markets -- Albuquerque, N.M.; Colorado Springs; Phoenix; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Spokane, Wash.; and Tuscon, Ariz. -- the operator will aim its 1Gbit/s services solely at businesses.

CenturyLink is in the early stages of deployment in all of those markets and has yet to fully define its marketing strategy, but the focus on business usage likely will differentiate its efforts from competitors -- including the disruptive Google Fiber Inc. -- that are mostly positioning ultra-high-speed connectivity as a residential benefit. Lal points to virtualized network functions as one example of how a gigabit connection might benefit business customers and CenturyLink.

"We're moving toward delivering network functions on a virtualized basis rather than traditional network appliances," he says. "The gigabit connection creates a very different scenario in terms of the capabilities you can deliver."


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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute          www.1st-mile.org  
P. O.  Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM    87504
505-603-5200                 rl at 1st-mile.org
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