CenturyLink’s gigabit fiber expansion in 17 states targets SMBs

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CenturyLink will tap dark fiber in 17 states to expand gigabit broadband, benefiting approximately 500,000 small and midsize businesses (SMBs). The fiber-to-the-premises expansion will enable CenturyLink to broaden service options for SMBs and will involve the introduction of cloud-based business services from Microsoft such as Office 365.

CenturyLink’s symmetrical gigabit fiber service will now reach nearly 490,000 small to medium-size business (SMB) locations in 17 states with the availability of IT solutions including IP networking, voice over IP (VoIP) and cloud capabilities.  The 3rd largest U.S. telco is launching service to SMB customers in parts of Iowa, Idaho, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin and expanding its availability in nine of the 12 states where CenturyLink initially deployed gigabit fiber for business customers in 16 cities, which it announced in August of last year.

The nine states include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington, and the company also provides 1G-bps speeds in parts of Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota.

In addition to its 1G-bps business service, CenturyLink offers 1G-bps speeds to residential customers in 11 cities.

“Our consultative sales team invests in understanding a customer’s business priorities in order to tailor IT recommendations that will address the customer’s needs while alleviating technology pain points,” Shirish Lal, CenturyLink’s chief marketing officer, told eWEEK. “Our local service and support is also welcomed by SMB customers who don’t always have the option of working with technology providers that have feet on the ground in their communities.”  Lal noted CenturyLink is not making pricing details available due to the vast range of options and features available within the bundled solutions the company designed for SMB customers using gigabit fiber.

“Pricing is convenient and predictable as a low monthly price per employee user, which for CenturyLink’s managed solutions includes providing, managing and maintaining all equipment, hardware and software,” Lal said.

“We’re really trying to gain market share and we’re trying to build bandwidth capabilities,” said Valerie Dodd, vice president and general manager of Century Link in New Mexico. “There is fiber here. There already is fiber.”

Ahmen! Hello Google Fiber and AT&T GigaFiber- you’ve got competition now!

CenturyLink President and CEO Glen Post is pleased with the progress the telecom has made in the past year but believes more needs to be done to keep up with changes in technology. “We have to do more transformation,” Post said in a speech to shareholders. “Technology is changing so rapidly. Customers’ expectations are changing. They want anytime, anywhere information. They want it now and they want it simple and easy. And they’re looking for value.”

“We have to do more transformation,” he said. “Technology is changing so rapidly. Customers expectations are changing. They want anytime, anywhere information. They want it now and they want it simple and easy. And they’re looking for value.”

Post said he feels confident in the progress the company made over the past year.

“We made a lot of progress this last year,” he told The News-Star. “We’ve made some key acquisitions for our company. We advanced and expanded our sales force. We rolled out a number of new products that are really driving a lot of interest from our … customers.

“We expanded our high-speed Internet abilities significantly this year. We expanded our video abilities and our cloud and hosting business. We are excited for our future. We believe we have a lot of potential to drive value for our customers in months and years ahead.”

Separately, CenturyLink recently opened a Technology Center of Excellence in Monroe, Louisiana

 

          

CenturyLink officially opens Technology Center of Excellence | CenturyLink

 

References:

http://www.eweek.com/small-business/centurylink-expands-gigabit-fiber-services-for-small-businesses.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/blog/bizventures/2015/05/centurylink-rolls-out-new-high-speed-fiber-service.html

http://www.lightreading.com/gigabit/fttx/centurylink-goes-beyond-gig-for-smbs/d/d-id/715777

http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/2015/05/20/post-talks-transformation-centurylink-shareholders/27654579/

CenturyLink’s 1 Gbps service is now available to more than 3,400 business locations in Ohio

CenturyLink’s 1 Gbps service is now available to an additional 8,200 business locations in Minnesota

May 18, 2015 – Company expands gigabit broadband service for business customers in Rochester, Twin Cities and surrounding areas

CenturyLink’s 1 Gbps fiber service now reaches more than 49,000 Southern Nevada business locations

May 18, 2015 – Company’s gigabit broadband service launches to 4,000 additional business locations

CenturyLink’s 1 Gbps service is now available to more than 19,700 business locations in Utah

May 18, 2015 – Company expands gigabit broadband service for an additional 5,500 business locations in Ogden, Orem and nearby communities

http://linked338in.weebly.com/

Read my coverage of the May 15th TiECon 2015 Grand Keynote with 2 representatives of CenturyLink:

->Gary Gauba and Aamir Hussein (EVP &CTO)
View on viodi.com/category/weissberger
 

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