Level 3 brings the global internet to CenturyLink

During the first dotcom boom, CenturyLink was a barely considered long-distance telephone company serving about 2 million customers in the deep south of America. A little more than a decade later, the company stands to be transformed through the acquisition of Level 3 — a former darling of that tech boom and now one of the largest global internet providers critical to data-intensive businesses such as Netflix and Google. CenturyLink has grown rapidly in recent years to become the third-largest fixed-line telecoms player in the US behind AT&T and Verizon, as well as a major competitor in the market selling telecoms services to companies. But the acquisition of Level 3 will give the group global significance for the first time, propelling it above Verizon in the US enterprise market and greatly expanding its internet services business as data use rapidly increases.