Level3 has announced its VoIP Technology Alliance Program. For Level3 this is nothing new. For years they have had programs which vendors who have products or services that want the benefit of knowing they can work with Level3’s network and infrastructure its a benefit.
For Level3 they get advanced look at whats under the hood before anyone else, and in some cases just add the technology into the network transparently.
Companies have in the past literally placed hardware and people on site in Broomfield, CO to make sure Level3 gets the best of everything. This approach makes Level3 lots of fans in the tech side of the companies, but drives the business side crazy. Why? The cost of catering to a customer that never buys. In the words of one former leading analyst now with a leading integrator, “working with Level3 can be a major time suck.” That’s before everything else that follows.