tw telecom Company Brief (Archived Report)










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Archived Report:
Company Brief
tw telecom

by
Brady Hicks

Docid: 00017207

Publication Date: 1608

Report Type: VENDOR

Preview

tw telecom was a managed network services provider that was acquired by Level
3 Communications in 2014. The company – which specialized in converged services,
Ethernet and data networking, Internet access, voice, VPN, VoIP, and network
security – operated both in the US and worldwide. Notable customers included
long-distance carriers, wireless communications companies, ILECs, and other
organizations in the healthcare, finance, higher education, manufacturing,
hospitality, military, and government sectors. This Company Brief provides a
snapshot of tw telecom’s operations prior to its acquisition by Level 3.

Report Contents:

Fast Facts

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Name:
Level 3 Communications / tw telecom

Headquarters

1025 Eldorado Boulevard



Broomfield, CO 80021 US



Phone:
 (720)
888-1000

Fax:


(720) 888-5085

Web: http://www.level3.com/
Type: Network Service Provider
Founded: 1985
Service Areas: Worldwide


Profile

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tw telecom was a provider of managed network services
that specialized in converged services, Ethernet and data networking, Internet
access, voice, VPN, VoIP, and network security that focuses on businesses and
organizations located either across the nation or worldwide. Its customers
included long distance carriers, wireless communications companies, ILECs, and
other enterprises found in industries spanning healthcare, finance, higher
education, manufacturing, hospitality, as well as military, state, and local
government.


Related Faulkner Reports
Level 3 Communications
Company Profile

The firm, which was headquartered in Littleton,
Colorado, was

acquired
by Level 3 Communications in October 2014. Shareholders
received $10 per share in cash in addition to 0.7 shares of Level 3 stock in
exchange for each tw telecom share. This transaction allowed Level 3 to further
its position as a top global provider for the evolving business communications
market. Together, the combined company boasted:

  • More than 200,000 route miles worldwide, including
    33,000 subsea route miles).
  • Services in more than 60 countries and six
    continents.
  • Approximately 30,000 buildings connected to its US
    network.
  • Over 50,000 customers worldwide.
  • More than 13,000 employees.

At the time of its acquisition by Level 3, tw telecom
functioned as one of the three largest Business Ethernet providers in the US,
owning, operating, and managing high-speed fiber optic networks as well as a 10Gbps
IP
backbone with last-mile connectivity directly to more
than 20,000 commercial buildings. The company’s national
fiber network spanned 34,000
fiber route miles, the majority of which "metro," and served
more than
29,700 customers (2014). tw telecom’s enterprise customers included businesses that are data intensive,
with a strong focus on verticals, specifically:

Key Executives

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tw telecom’s most-recent leadership team included:

  • Larissa L.
    Herda
    , Chairman and CEO.

  • John T.
    Blount
    , President and COO

  • Mark A.
    Peters
    , EVP and CFO

  • Tina A. Davis, SVP, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and
    CCO

  • Michael A. Rouleau, SVP, Business Development and Public Policy

  • Robert W. Gaskins, SVP, Corporate Development and Strategy

  • Jill R. Stuart, SVP, Accounting and Finance and Chief Accounting Officer

  • Steve Hardardt, SVP,
    HR and Business Administration

  • Graham Taylor, SVP,
    Marketing

  • Harold W. Teets, SVP,
    Information and Network Technologies

  • Marc Willency, SVP, Corporate Operations

Product Lines

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tw telecom delivered
intelligent solutions to solve critical communication needs in various
industries and for various types of businesses. Table 1 lists tw telecom’s
final portfolio of solutions
and services.

Table 1.
tw telecom
Solutions & Services

Product Line

Description

Business Ethernet

Simple,
scalable, cost effective managed Business Ethernet metro and
nationwide WAN services – all based on Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)
standards.

IP and Managed Services

Fully
redundant and diverse network solutions featuring IP VPN, Managed
Router, SIP Trucking, Internet Services, Co-Location, plus a variety
of converged, or integrated, services.

Security Services


Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Mitigation

– Protects against malicious flooding of useless traffic from
multiple sources, generated by malicious hackers.

Firewall protection
Assures all unwanted traffic is filtered and disregarded prior to
the Internet link being established which provides optimal bandwidth
usage. This service provides optimal bandwidth utilization and
protection from a wide range of Internet threats including DDoS
attacks.

Data encryption – Provides
cloud-based data encryption to remove “unauthorized” traffic from a
network, providing a clear-pipe and “clean from the Cloud”
performance.

Unified Threat Management
(UTM)
– Yields a comprehensive solution that acts as a primary
gateway defense for a network, to include a firewall, anti-virus
protection, anti-spam and more.

Transport and Wavelength
Services

With speeds scaling
from 1.5 Megs to 100 Gigs, Dedicated High-Capacity Transport
Services
deliver easy access and quality performance for voice,
data, storage, and video traffic—and everything in-between.

Offered
in 2.5G, 10G, and industry-leading 40G and 100G capacities, Wavelength (Lambda)
Services
delivers a direct interface to an extremely high
capacity point-to-point channel, using tw telecom’s Dense Wave
Division Multiplexing (DWDM) technology.

Voice Services

A wide range of Voice
Solutions include local voice, data and video, long distance,

IP Conferencing
, dedicated high-capacity lines, and

Managed Voice Services
.

Professional Services


A
ssessment, project management, and implementation services
for WANs/LANs, VoIP networks, and IT
environments.

Major Competitors

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Recent Activity

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Just prior to its 2014 merger with Level 3 Communications, recent tw telecom
news items have included:

  • Late 2014 Business Ethernet services expansions into Minneapolis-St.
    Paul, Minnesota and its suburbs; Mesa and Glendale, Arizona; Cleveland,
    Ohio; Hudson Valley, New York; western Connecticut; San Diego, California;
    the Boston, Massachusetts metro area; Salt Lake City, Utah; Philadelphia,
    Pennsylvania; and Richmond, Virginia.
  • A September 2014 agreement with cloud services provider Virtacore
    to offer joint cloud-based, network, and data center services featuring
    Virtacore’s third-party catalog, Equinix data center ecosystem hosting, and
    tw telecom’s eLynk and Intelligent Network services.
  • The September 2014 promotion of sales direct exec Michelle Preston as VP
    and GM for the Orange County, California market.

About the Author

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Brady Hicks is an
editor with Faulkner Information Services. He writes about computer and
networking hardware, software, communications networks and equipment, and the
Internet.

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