Telco Updates: Level 3 Wins DoD Contract; CenturyLink Hooks Up Jeans Maker

Telco Carriers In The News

A number of carriers made news recently, from CenturyLink's fashion foray to Level 3's deal with the Department of Defense. The unluckiest player of the last few days? Arguably Unicom, which entered the Chinese market with the iPhone on Friday the 13th -- and ran out of the popular device within hours, leaving Apple with egg, quite literally, on its face.

CenturyLink Fits Jeans Maker With Data Network

CenturyLink is providing a new high-speed data and voice network for True Religion. The premium denim jeans company's headquarters in Vernon, Calif. is now securely interconnected with its 110 retail stores and showrooms in the U.S., Canada, England, Italy and Hong Kong.

The aim is to provide True Religion customers shorter wait times at the cash register, and to improve the company's inventory systems, resulting in a better online shopping experience, according to CenturyLink. "We are putting the power of Ethernet to work so True Religion can lower its operating costs and scale seamlessly to meet new business opportunities," said Chris Ancell, president of CenturyLink's business markets group, in a statement.

iPhone Sales Start In China Through Unicom, Sort Of

The iPhone, which will run in China via the carrier China Unicom, started selling in that country on Friday, Jan. 13, but sales were so brisk that Apple had to stop sales and close stores. The sell-out prompted potential customers at the Bejing flagship store -- who'd been standing in below freezing weather waiting to enter -- to pelt the building with eggs. Quite an unlucky Friday the 13th debut.

Integra Telecom Approved Arizona School Vendor

Integra Telecom, a provider of fibre-based, business-grade networking, communications and cloud solutions, is now a partner of Arizona's Mohave Educational Services Cooperative, which comprises more than 400 school districts and government agencies. Integra Telecom is now part of Mohave's approved vendor list, giving members the ability to purchase Internet, telecommunications and voice services from Integra and to apply for Federal E-Rate Funding.

Level 3 Wins DoD Contract

Level 3 Communications is set to operate and maintain fibre optic networks for the Department of Defense. The contract could be worth up to $410.8 million to operate and maintain U.S. fibre optic cable networks for the military through 2021, assuming all the contract’s one-year options are used.

Masergy Readies EtherConnect

Masergy has chosen Telex's Atlanta Cloud Connection Center as the location for the deployment of EtherConnect. "We see Telex's EtherConnect as a way to enhance the last-mile delivery of our services, including voice, data and video," Masergy's Mark McCann, VP of Access Management, said in a statement.

EtherConnect combines features of traditional Ethernet Exchange with Telex's integrated, multi-technology InterConnection Center services in 17 C3 data centers across North America.

High-bandwidth applications can fill customer networks at a rapid rate, and EtherConnect is a cost-effective way to allow service providers, cloud and SaaS providers and large enterprises to seamlessly connect their Ethernet networks.