Music Discovery Service Looks to Level 3 for High Speed Network Services to Accommodate Rapid Growth
BROOMFIELD, Colo., November 1, 2006 - Level 3 Communications’ Content Markets Group today announced that it has been selected by Pandora to support the company’s rapidly growing Internet streaming radio service. Under the terms of the agreement, Level 3 will provide Pandora, a music discovery service, with network solutions including high speed Internet access via 10 gigabits per second (10GigE) ports that will enable Pandora’s continued strong growth.
"We have been experiencing a significant increase in the amount of new listeners to our service – as well as an increase in overall listening hours," said Tom Conrad, chief technology officer for Pandora. "Using Level 3 to scale our network, we are confident that any future growth can be accommodated. Level 3 will help us to ensure that our listeners will enjoy fast, uninterrupted service."
Pandora is an online radio service designed to help users discover and listen to music that is tailored to their tastes. Created by the Music Genome Project, an ongoing effort to analyze hundreds of thousands of songs across a series of distinct musical attributes, Pandora asks the listener to enter the names of favorite songs or artists into Pandora. The service then quickly scans the comprehensive collection and launches a personalized streaming station for the user, containing songs with interesting musical similarities. Listeners further hone their stations by offering feedback on the selections.
"Pandora is one of the most exciting new applications on the Internet today, and we are excited to be a part of their growth trajectory," said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3 Content Markets. "The Level 3 network was built for this type of bandwidth-intensive application and is ideally suited to scale rapidly to meet Pandora's ever increasing bandwidth requirements."
Eight of the top-10 Internet destinations trust Level 3 to deliver network solutions. With one of the world’s largest IP backbones, Level 3 provides reliable high capacity solutions to meet the rapidly growing demand for rich media content online. With Internet connectivity in 82 key markets, and a comprehensive suite of network services that serve as customizable building blocks, Level 3 has the scalability, performance, and service portfolio to help its customers meet their customers’ demands.
About Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT), an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, connecting 180 markets in 18 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite of services including: Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice and voice over IP services, content delivery and media distribution services. These services provide the building blocks to enable Level 3’s customers to meet their growing demands for advanced communications solutions. The company’s Web address is www.Level3.com.
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Forward-Looking Statement
Some of the statements that we make 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 our control, which could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. The most important factors that could prevent us from achieving our stated goals include, but are not limited to our ability to: successfully integrate acquisitions; increase the volume of traffic on our network; defend our intellectual property and proprietary rights; develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services; attract and retain qualified management and other personnel; and meet all of the terms and conditions of our 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.
