Update: With a million metro fiber miles, Level 3 metro make over is way underway. I totally flubbed this one, and would like to apologize. PT will add 5% to this total. (network map is here!) What percentage is LVLT owned and how much is through IRU is still unclear. Please, if you have any information, do drop me a note or post a comment.
Level 3 Communications, for almost all its business life has been a long haul bandwidth provider, a business that has been ravaged by over capacity and precipitous price declines. Having barely survived the telecom bust, Colorado-based company is now trying rapidly diversifying to diversify into the metro network business. The big metro makeover is starting gathering momentum with Progress Telecom, a joint venture of Odyssey Telecom and the telecom division of Florida-based power utility, Progress Enery. Level 3 today announced that it was buying PT for roughly $137 million, half of it in cash, and half of it in stock. This will add to its million mile metro network, which is operational in some of the major markets.
Progress Telecom’s network spans 9,000 miles, includes 29 metro networks and connects to international cable landings in South Florida and 31 mobile switching centers in the southeast. Progress Telecom serves approximately 200 customers with a significant concentration of international and wireless carrier customers. The demand for bandwidth is growing rapidly in metro circles chiefly because of 3G rollouts by wireless carriers. In addition, the increased number of mobile subscribers is helping stabilize the prices for bandwidth in the metro markets. Before Progress, Level 3 had limited metro presence in cities like San Francisco and Chicago. One point to note: the deal doesn’t include the Progress Telecom’s tower business, though Level 3 will continue to provide connectivity to these towers.
“Progress Telecom currently generates annualized revenue of approximately $70 million and approximately $7 million of annualized positive free cash flow,” said Sunit S. Patel, chief financial officer Level 3 Communications. “We expect to begin to realize most of the cost synergy benefits during 2007 and as a result, we expect annualized cash flow to improve to approximately $30 to $35 million once we have completed the integration,” added Patel. “We expect a cash-on-cash breakeven for this transaction of approximately three years, excluding potential revenue synergies.”
It is now positioned with metro circles in fast growth South-East US markets like Florida, Georgia and Virginia. The new fiber aside, Level 3 will be able to add approximately $70 million in revenues and approximately $7 million of annualized positive free cash flow from the PT business. If this deal is going to help Level 3, it is also good news for Sean Doherty, a former @Home executive who was part of my story, The Pragmatics: telecom’s survivors, in the old Red Herring. Sean had started Odyssey back during the telecom bust, at a time when most people were hitting the exits. He had basically decided that because everyone was dumping, and prices were falling, it was time to pick up bargains. He did, and in December 2002 bought his first fiber company, EPIK Communications. Days before that company was going to be auctioned off. In December 2003, he merged EPIK with Progress Telecom. Funnily enough, Sean had once told me that he actually got paid to take EPIK off the investors hand. Well, three years and patience has turned that into a whole lotta dollars.
Hmm. Seems to me Level 3 has had a very healthy metro business for some time. Perhaps not all on “owned” infrastructure, but certainly via IRU, and had many buildings on net in numerous cities. When I was with MFN they were one of our biggest competitors (as well as a customer).
I do remember them being one of the major fiber installers in Boston in the telecom equivalent of the “big dig”.
You obviously have not done your homework on Level 3 and their Metro network. The Progress deal will just expannd it by 5%.
http://www.level3.com/3385.html
okay that is my bad, and i apologies for that. i should have been explicit in saying that this is going to be Level 3 owned fiber in the metro space. scott and annonymous – please accept my apologies.
You’ve revised your blog post, but it’s still wrong. Level 3 hasn’t been rapidly diversifying into the metro business…it has been expanding its reach by buying customers and metro networks in second tier cities. Level 3 has consistently said from day 1 that their ownership of multiconduit in metro networks is often overlooked, hugely significant and makes them one of the largest local telecom companies in the USA and Europe. They wouldn’t have had to raise all the debt they did if they were only building an intercity network; they’ve always been a metro network bet. The WilTel acquisition expanded their customer base significantly, provided a decent chunk of cash flow, and extended their reach into a number of second tier metros while providing some redundancy to their intracity network links. Progress adds a bit of cash flow, expands their reach into the metro of second tier cities in the southeast. You could say Level 3 is expanding their reach to more cities, improving their gross margins, and improving their cash flow… but diversifying into metro? Nah.
they have metro fiber but no money to put equipment at either end of it — even for large customers. primarily, they look interested in removing excess, compettitive capacity from the market. see, e.g., wiltel deal.