To further target digital business growth in Europe, CenturyLink, Inc. has built new metro networks in Madrid, Spain and Marseille, France. The company is also connecting an additional 90 datacentres to its network in a number of core markets. These strategic expansions, in key hubs of business and commerce in Europe, are designed to deliver high-speed connectivity and advanced technology solutions through CenturyLink’s global network.
In the Spanish capital CenturyLink has built a metro network footprint of 40 route miles, creating a ring that spans major business districts, including the city centre, financial areas, and Madrid’s Silicon Alley. The infrastructure will connect key enterprise buildings and an initial five core datacentres to CenturyLink.
CenturyLink’s expansion in Marseille, one of Europe’s largest digital gateways, is aimed at enhancing its ability to deliver both local and international connectivity services. The company built out a dense metro fibre footprint, creating a ring that spans major business districts, including multiple enterprise buildings and, initially, three core datacentres. The infrastructure will connect key landing stations in Marseille, which will provide access to strategic subsea cables connecting to the Middle East, Far East and East Africa. This network foundation will provide enterprise and wholesale customers with direct access to localised transport and IP services in Marseille and route diversity options that maximise network availability and minimise latency.
The additional datacentres being connected to the CenturyLink network are located in the market areas of UK and Ireland, Benelux, DACH, Nordics, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. The datacentres will be equipped to offer a mix of virtual network services and applications, as well as deliver high-performance connections to leading private and public cloud service providers, including AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The network connection of the first 50 datacentres is expected to be completed by the end of 2019. The additional 40 datacentres are expected to be network connected by mid-2020.
“Our new fibre expansions in Europe take CenturyLink’s network and technology services deeper and closer to our customers,” said Richard Warley, regional president, EMEA, CenturyLink (pictured). “This puts us where we need to be to meet their growing and evolving digital business needs, as well as enhance their customer experience with new technology solutions. This regional investment reflects CenturyLink’s global focus to continue enhancing our significant fibre network for fuelling innovation.”
The latest developments build on CenturyLink’s announcement earlier this year that it is creating an extensive 4.7-million fibre mile intercity fibre network across the USA and parts of Europe.