Level 3 extends MEF 2.0 Carrier Ethernet service into 27 European markets

Level 3 is expanding its metro Ethernet service into 27 new European markets, reflecting a desire to grow its EMEA business service penetration.

This latest move is part of a broader expansion effort Level 3 has slated for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions this year. The service provider said that it plans to expand Ethernet into an additional 15 EMEA locations later this year, but did not provide a specific timeline.

From a broader company perspective, Level 3's EMEA Ethernet expansion marks another step of the service provider's plan to deliver what it calls a single, ubiquitous Ethernet platform across its global network while enhancing its global SDN deployment.

New and existing EMEA business customers can get access to a host of Ethernet services, including E-Line, E-Access and Cloud Service Provider connectivity, all of which are backed by high levels for latency and on-net availability of up to 99.999 percent, Level 3 said.

Leveraging its growing SDN network infrastructure, Level 3's Adaptive Network Control Solutions with Dynamic Capacity allows enterprises to scale their bandwidth up or down based on usage triggers, by scheduling or on an ad hoc basis to satisfy a specific network event like overnight backup.

EMEA has become a key growth focus for Level 3 as it looks to turn the revenue tide in the region. In the fourth quarter of 2015, Level 3 reported that EMEA CNS revenue rose 0.7 percent on a constant currency basis, but declined 4.1 percent on an as reported basis.

"After several years of declining revenue in EMEA, revenue was essentially flat last year," said Jeff Storey, CEO of Level 3 during the fourth quarter earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. "For 2016, excluding UK government, we expect EMEA CNS revenue to grow on a constant currency basis. We do believe we can benefit from additional scale in the region and are actively investing to expand our growth opportunities."

The service provider has concentrated its growth in this region in four markets: the UK, Germany, France and the Benelux countries. Each of these countries include a disciplined sales and investment process that Storey says will "enable enable profitable growth in that region."

"We are focused on expanding in four key markets," Storey said. "That means growing richer and deeper in fiber in the UK but also richer and deeper in fiber in Germany, France and Benelux. And so, we'll continue to look at those both organically and inorganically of how do we put our cash to work to drive the growth for Level 3."

For more:
- see the release
- see this Seeking Alpha transcript

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