Enlarge / CenturyLink servers. (credit: CenturyLink)

CenturyLink today announced a deal to purchase Level 3 Communications in a merger that would give CenturyLink another 200,000 miles of fiber and make it a bigger player in the business network market. CenturyLink will reportedly pay $25 billion, and the deal is valued at $34 billion when accounting for the Level 3 debt that will be assumed by CenturyLink.

CenturyLink has nearly 6 million residential Internet customers in the US but makes about 60 percent of its revenue selling network services to businesses. Level 3 sells only to businesses, and 76 percent of the combined company’s revenue will come from business customers.

The companies hope to complete the merger by the third quarter of 2017. If approved by the Federal Communications Commission and other regulators, the deal will greatly expand CenturyLink’s fiber footprint in the US and overseas.