LONDON, February 13 /PRNewswire/ --

- Spill Group Gains Scalability While Global Gamers Win Faster Speeds and Richer Content

Level 3 Communications' European Markets Group today announced that it has been selected by Spill Group, one of the world's leading generators of online gaming traffic, to provide that company's underlying network infrastructure and content delivery services in Europe and North America. These services enable Spill Group to meet the demands of the fast growing global online gaming community.

Under the terms of this new multi-year agreement, Level 3 will provide Spill Group with high-speed Internet access and colocation services to manage that company's increased gaming traffic. Additionally, Spill Group will utilize Level 3's content delivery services to provide its global audience with a rich gaming experience. Spill Group owns about 30 online game portals worldwide, and each portal is localized to serve its country's language and culture. With a portfolio of 2,000 online games available, Spill Group's portals receive an average of 60 million unique visitors per month.

"We are seeing huge growth in traffic across all our gaming sites and need to provide the most reliable transport and delivery mechanisms possible to our customers," said Peter Driessen, chief executive officer of Spill Group. "We chose Level 3 because it possesses the most scalable global IP backbone and colocation facilities available. Additionally, Level 3's robust and innovative CDN provides a high-quality gaming experience for all our users."

Level 3's scalable and dedicated content delivery network (CDN) is designed to accommodate large online audiences, offering maximum up-time. Its network improves the speed and efficiency with which large-file, high-volume content traffic is delivered. The speed, quality and reliability that are delivered with these services are key to providing the high-quality user experience demanded by online gamers today.

"The online gaming market is a large and growing consumer of bandwidth, and Level 3's global network and robust content delivery services position us well to serve this important market," said Brady Rafuse, president and chief executive officer of Level 3 European markets and president of Level 3's Content Markets Group. "We are pleased to collaborate with Spill Group to deliver the customized, high-quality services that the growing online gaming community requires. Level 3's network was designed to handle the delivery of high-demand rich media applications such as these over the Internet."

About Level 3 Communications

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT), an international communications company, operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, connecting more than 180 markets in 20 countries. The company serves a broad range of wholesale, enterprise and content customers with a comprehensive suite of services including: Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, voice and voice over IP services, content delivery and media distribution services. These services provide the building blocks to enable Level 3's customers to meet their growing demands for advanced communications solutions. The company's Web address is http://www.Level3.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

Some of the statements that we make in this press release are forward looking in nature. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs. These forward looking statements are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside our control, which could cause actual events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the statements. The most important factors that could prevent us from achieving our stated goals include, but are not limited to our ability to: successfully integrate acquisitions; increase the volume of traffic on our network; defend our intellectual property and proprietary rights; develop new products and services that meet customer demands and generate acceptable margins; successfully complete commercial testing of new technology and information systems to support new products and services; attract and retain qualified management and other personnel; and meet all of the terms and conditions of our debt obligations. Additional information concerning these and other important factors can be found within Level 3's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this press release should be evaluated in light of these important factors. Level 3 is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any such obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Web site: http://www.Level3.com

Media, Hannah Britt, +44-207-954-2128, or Jennifer Daumler, +1-720-888-3356, or investors, Valerie Finberg, +1-720-888-2508, or Mark Stoutenberg, +1-720-888-2518, all of Level 3 Communications, Inc.; or media, Mirjam Assink of Spill Group, +31-(0)35-646-6300. Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990721/LVLTLOGO, AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com