Level 3 Statement on Comcast/Level 3 Interconnection Dispute

Level 3 Communications, Inc. LVLT today issued the following statement. Level 3 and Comcast have been in a disagreement over Comcast's NASDAQ: CMCSA) announced intention to demand an ongoing payment from Level 3 and others for delivering content to Comcast, such as movies, that Comcast's subscribers have requested. Comcast has said repeatedly that “this is just a good old fashioned peering dispute” and that Level 3 is just trying to gain "an unfair advantage over its competitors by gaining enormous capacity at no cost to itself.” Comcast's characterization could not be more misleading. What is truly at stake is whether consumers should have unfettered access to all the content on the Internet without regard to whether that content happens to be owned or packaged by Comcast.