DIRECTV selected Level 3 Communications to provide a nationwide fiber backbone supporting its expansion into HDTV. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Under the agreement, Level 3 will upgrade and augment the DIRECTV backbone to support and aggregate HDTV signals from local markets for rebroadcast to DIRECTV customers. Level 3 has worked with DIRECTV since 1999 and currently provides a substantial portion of DIRECTV’s existing private line backbone that supports its standard definition television (SDTV) services.
DIRECTV has initially acquired Level 3 services to support HDTV in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. DIRECTV’s market expansion plans include acquiring Level 3 network and colocation services in 15 additional cities.
http://www.level3.com
- In February 2005, DIRECTV awarded a new three-year networking contract valued at more than $69 million to AT&T. The deal will provide DIRECTV with the ability to roll out new IP-based technologies, like VoIP, in its call center support networks and enterprise networks. DIRECTV provides digital multichannel television service to more than 13.9 million customers nationwide.