Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ:LVLT) is evolving from a long-haul and metro network provider to a backhaul access provider, announcing today it is taking commercial a trial it conducted with Open Range Communications for rural fiber access. It will not only begin offering access to its IP backbone to hundreds of small and rural communities in the U.S., but it will provide them as direct mobile backhaul links to wireless providers and in some cases it will build the radio towers, too.

Level 3’s long-haul network passes through thousands of small towns and cities as it wends its way between the major metro markets of the country, but those fiber pipes were merely passing through, offering no points of presence for those communities to access that capacity. But starting today, it will tap into that network at its in-line amplification sites, areas where it has leased acres of land to install its optical regeneration nodes. From there, Level 3 will allow local exchange carriers to access its backbone to extend high-capacity lines to mobile backhaul sites or in some cases install a tower directly on the site, allowing it to become the direct backhaul provider to the wireless operator.

“We’re opening up on-ramps to one of the largest global Internet backbones to markets that have traditionally not had that kind of open access,” said Kevin Dundon, senior vice president for Level 3. “We’ll be partnering with tower companies in some cases, but our goal is to be a full-solution provider to the operators.”
Level 3 has more than 500 in-line nodes around the country, spaced every 50 miles or so along its rights of way in between major markets. Dundon said Level 3 has managed to qualify about 300 of them for the program. The remainder are either in such remote locations or present some geographical or local zoning problem it wasn’t feasible to include them.

Level 3 and Open Range announced their trial in April, giving Open Range access to the backbone in 500 of its rural communities in the U.S. In some cases, Level 3 has a put a tower directly on top of its fiber node, while in other cases the wireless operator or a local access provide is extending fiber or IP radio links from the node to other sites. Dundon said the network nodes will most likely be used by wireless operators as both cell sites and aggregation hubs. He cited Bloomington, Ind., as an example: 90% of the city’s population lies within 20 miles of its fiber repeater, allowing an operator to use it as a central cell site and aggregation point for other outlying sites.