XO Communications Celebrates 10 Years of Innovation and Leadership

XO Communications today marked its 10th anniversary of providing communications services to businesses as a leading alternative to the regional Bell telephone companies.

A pioneer in the competitive telecommunications market, XO Communications became one of the first competitive local exchange carriers in the United States to provide facilities-based communications services under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In July 1996 XO helped initiate local competition in the nation’s telecommunications market, launching local service in seven metropolitan markets. Since then XO has expanded to provide services in 75 metropolitan markets and become the nation’s largest competitive communications services provider for businesses with 165,000 customers and annual revenues in excess of $1.4 billion.

“Ten years ago XO brought competition to the telecommunications market, helping to deliver more choices, innovation and better services for the millions of businesses across the country,” said Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications. “Our focus on innovative services and customer service has earned us the reputation for being more nimble and more focused on providing what customers actually want. Today, as the regional Bell companies seek to consolidate more of the market in their control, XO continues to stand as the leading alternative provider of communications services for business customers.”

Over the past ten years, XO’s focus on innovative services and investment in building an advanced, nationwide IP network has enabled it to deliver a wide range of communications solutions that help businesses of all sizes to operate better and more cost-effectively. This focus has enabled XO to foster customer loyalty. “Dependability, that is what keeps us coming back to XO Communications after ten years of working together,” said Chris Johnson, manager, IT Group at Fresenius Medical Care. “The service and network are excellent, and the XO people really understand the needs of our business.”

XO’s ten-year record of leadership and innovation includes:
• Pioneering Bundled Services: In 2000, XO pioneered the market with the launch of XOptions, the industry’s first services bundle to combine voice, data and web hosting services for a flat-monthly price. Today, more than 36,000 businesses have benefited from the capabilities, features and simplicity of XOptions and other traditional bundled services from XO.
• Delivering Advanced VoIP Solutions: In 2005, XO launched XOptions Flex (www.xo.com/flex), the industry’s first bundled voice over IP (VoIP) solution to combine virtually unlimited local and long distance calling, Dedicated Internet Access and web hosting for a flat-monthly price. Today, nearly 5,000 businesses have deployed XOptions Flex to take advantage of the cost-savings and flexibility of VoIP. XO also plays a key role in enabling emerging and leading VoIP service providers by providing wholesale VoIP services that allow these providers to cost-effectively offer services nationwide to their customers.
• Significant Investments in Facilities-Based Networks: Today, XO leverages more than $8 billion in facilities-based networks (www.xo.com/about/network) it has deployed nationwide and in the local markets it serves. XO operates an 18,000 route mile nationwide network that connects 75 metropolitan markets and operates 9,100 route miles of local fiber in 37 metropolitan markets. Within this nationwide network footprint, XO can reach more than four million businesses.
• Early Adopter of IP Network Technology: Since its inception, XO has designed and built its networks with the latest and most advanced IP-based routing and switching technology, enabling it to operate its network more efficiently than providers with large legacy networks. XO was one of the first major national communications providers to deploy advanced softswitch technology across its privately-owned IP network and began carrying voice traffic over its own IP in 2001. Today, XO carries more than 1 billion minutes of VoIP traffic each month over its private nationwide IP network and softswitch platform.