BROOMFIELD, Colorado, April 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Enhanced Services Expand High-Speed Bandwidth Options in North America
and Europe

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) today announced new optical
wavelength service capabilities. The enhancements are a direct response to
growing customer demand for flexible, cost-effective, high-bandwidth optical
networks for both enterprise and wholesale applications.

The new offerings provide network protection, additional bandwidth
options and performance guarantees that enable customers to keep pace with
rising end-user demand and bandwidth-hungry applications in a cost-effective
manner. The portfolio expansion includes metro and intercity services and
will be offered on Level 3's network across both North America and Europe.

"When Level 3 can offer customers shorter fiber routes via its
comprehensive network footprint, that translates into less delay and 
increased application performance," said Brian Washburn, research director 
for Current Analysis. "For some organizations, low end-to-end latency is 
key."

The new service offerings include:

    - Protected Wavelengths: Level 3 now provides automatic
      protection-switching to a dedicated diversely routed wavelength in the 
      event of a network failure. The protection switch, fully automated and 
      managed by Level 3, happens at switching speeds approaching SONET 
      restoration times. The single interface to the customer requires no 
      additional capital cost for customer optical ports, and the diverse 
      restoration path is fixed and fully known to the customer. These 
      features allow customers to achieve fast restoration with predictable 
      performance in their network without adding significant cost and 
      routing complexity.
    - Gigabit Ethernet Increments: Level 3 now provides unprotected
      wavelength services in one Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. This lower-speed
      wavelength alternative allows customers to use more affordable, smaller
      increments of Ethernet bandwidth to build network connectivity in metro 
      and intercity networks where a full 2.5 Gigabit per second (Gbps) or 10 
      Gbps link is not warranted.
    - 40 Gigabit Waves: Level 3 also offers expanded service capability at
      the higher end of the bandwidth spectrum with 40 Gbps waves. The service
      allows customers needing very high bandwidth between two locations to
      establish that connectivity with a single link instead of purchasing and
      managing multiple 10 Gbps links and the additional supporting optical 
      ports.
    - Maximum Latency Guarantees: Level 3 now offers maximum latency
      guarantees on wavelength services for those customers that have very 
      tight tolerances on delay-sensitive applications. The guarantee is 
      provided before the customer commits to an order so that the risk of 
      turning up a circuit only to find that the latency is too high is 
      minimized. Level 3 also maintains the latency guarantee throughout the 
      term of the circuit.



"With capital budgets dwindling in the face of increasing economic
pressure, companies are looking for more efficient ways to keep pace with
rising service demands being placed on their networks," said Sureel Choksi,
chief marketing officer for Level 3. "These new wavelength service offerings
provide granularity, reliability and scalability, enabling Level 3 customers
more flexibility to manage their increasingly complex and growing network
bandwidth demands."

These latest wavelength service enhancements address a variety of
networking needs from high-performance data center connectivity and computing
distribution to high-bandwidth carrier Internet protocol backbone
construction. Level 3 is committed to provide innovative optical networking
solutions using the latest technologies to support its customers.

About Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) is a leading international
provider of fiber-based communications services. Enterprise, content,
wholesale and government customers rely on Level 3 to deliver services with
an industry-leading combination of scalability and value over an end-to-end
fiber network. Level 3 offers a portfolio of metro and long-haul services,
including transport, data, Internet, content delivery and voice. For more
information, visit www.Level3.com.

Level 3 Communications, Level 3, the red 3D brackets and the Level 3
Communications logo are registered service marks of Level 3 Communications,
LLC and/or its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries. Level
3 services are provided by wholly owned subsidiaries of Level 3
Communications, Inc. Any other service, product or company names recited
herein are trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statement

Some of the statements made in this press release are forward looking in
nature. These statements are based on management's current expectations or
beliefs. These forward looking statements are not a guarantee of performance
and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which
are outside Level 3's control, which could cause actual events to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. The most
important factors that could prevent Level 3 from achieving its stated goals
include, but are not limited to, the current uncertainty in the global
financial markets and the global economy; disruptions in the financial
markets that could affect Level 3's ability to obtain additional financing;
as well as the company's ability to: successfully integrate acquisitions;
increase the volume of traffic on the network; defend intellectual property
and proprietary rights; develop effective business support systems; manage
system and network failures or disruptions; develop new services that meet
customer demands and generate acceptable margins; attract and retain
qualified management and other personnel; and meet all of the terms and
conditions of debt obligations. Additional information concerning these and
other important factors can be found within Level 3's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release should
be evaluated in light of these important factors. Level 3 is under no
obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or
alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,
future events, or otherwise.