A bit more insight into the Level 3/London Stock Exchange news today. After previously relying on others – competitors – to provide last mile connectivity to the LSE’s co-location centre, the connectivity provider now owns that segment. While that means slightly lower latency, the main benefit is related to control and management, so Level 3 can now offer a service level agreement with greater confidence, and faster network set up.
For its part, the LSE likes the increased connectivity into its co-lo, so it can offer greater choice to its customers. Level 3 is a “welcome addition,” says Nigel Harold, head of business development for the exchange’s Technology division, and joins AboveNet, BT, Colt, euNetworks, Geo Networks and Verizon on its network providers list.
Says Level 3’s director of regional business development, Ashley Atkins, its ownership of networks in Europe and North America, and a transatlantic route, provides benefits to customers, since it can better manage a global network and provide a more robust SLA.
The LSE’s co-lo centre, located in the city, is host to the LSE’s main market and its Turquoise pan-European trading facility (running on its new MillenniumIT platform) as well as matching systems for Borsa Italiana and Oslo Børs (running on the older TradElect technology).  Its co-lo community comprises sell-side member firms, non-member HFT operations, prime brokers, and data/solution providers, says Harold.
