CenturyLink, Inc. today announced the availability, as of August 18, of symmetrical fiber-based Internet and data connection speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) for a significant percentage of Metro Phoenix businesses as part of a fiber network infrastructure expansion announced today in 16 cities.
“CenturyLink continues to make significant upgrades in Metro Phoenix to support our network with the rollout of PrismTV service just over a year ago. Today we announce that CenturyLink’s network in Metro Phoenix is capable of delivering 1 gigabit speed fiber service to select businesses,” said Ken McMahon, CenturyLink’s vice president and general manager for the Phoenix market. “Businesses have trusted CenturyLink for years, and now they can trust us with their most advanced IT needs as new technologies evolve and cloud computing takes root. CenturyLink makes it easy for businesses to navigate a complex and rapidly changing technology landscape. This is a great win for Metro Phoenix.”
By extending fiber-to-the-premise connections deeper into Metro Phoenix’s multi-tenant office buildings and surrounding business locations, the company has scaled its fiber network to offer competitive pricing on IP-based fiber bundles that converge data, Internet and voice service. Services in these bundles (www.centurylink.com/phoenix) leverage CenturyLink’s fast, symmetrical and affordable fiber connectivity while meeting the needs of businesses that desire business-caliber service level agreements, cloud-based applications and customer care ranging from supported to fully managed.
Fiber infrastructure has proven to be beneficial to economic vitality in many municipalities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics forecast in 2009 that jobs depending on broadband and information communication technologies will grow by 25 percent from 2008-2018, two and a half times faster than the average across all occupations and industries.
CenturyLink’s fiber-based business solutions are flexible and agile to support a business’s productivity as it grows by enabling employees to work in the cloud, share multimedia files, stream video content and back-up data in real time. CenturyLink’s symmetrical upload and download fiber speeds of up to 1 Gbps outperform the slower upload speeds available through basic business broadband providers, including many cable companies.
“Businesses of all sizes rely on high speed networked and cloud-based applications to run their operations, serve customers, sell products, and interact with suppliers. Fiber-based services optimally deliver the capacity, scalability and performance that these business-critical applications require; however fiber is not yet directly accessible to many business locations throughout the U.S. CenturyLink’s expanded gigabit fiber network brings new ultra-high speed, competitively priced service choices to these underserved businesses,” said Rosemary Cochran, principal analyst at Vertical Systems Group.
CenturyLink is delivering some of the fastest Internet speeds in the United States. Today’s launch in Phoenix coincides with the company’s business and consumer gigabit service launch in 12 other cities and extends the service already available in certain parts of Omaha, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.
