Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:LVLT) has opened service on a new low-latency fiber-optic route between London and Frankfurt. The new service is targeted at banks, hedge funds, brokers, and other financial services institutions who wish to execute trades with lower latency between exchanges in those cities as well as others connected to the Level 3 network, including those in Zurich, Milan, New York, and Chicago.
The new London-to-Frankfurt route is offered with what Level 3 describes as “a stringent latency service level agreement” and end-to-end management. Several connectivity options are available.
"Frankfurt-London is one of the top 10 highest-bandwidth routes for international Internet traffic," says TeleGeography Senior Analyst Erik Kreifeldt. "Ultra-low latency affords a distinct differentiation on one of the most critical routes for global bandwidth, particularly for the financial services industry."
Level 3 asserts it currently supports 9 of the top 10 investment banks in North America, as well as 9 of the top 10 banks and 4 out of the 5 top financial exchanges in the world.
"Having access to fast network speeds can be a significant competitive advantage for the financial services industry, but it's an even bigger advantage to have access to a fast network that keeps getting faster," said James Heard, president of European markets at Level 3. "We consistently upgrade our routes to better serve our global customer base. This latest route upgrade further underlines our commitment to anticipating our financial services customers' evolving needs, especially for rapid transactions, and demonstrates our network's unrivalled scale and continuously increasing quality of service."