COMPTEL: XO launches national bandwidth services

LAS VEGAS--XO Communications is capitalizing on its recently completed national fiber optic backbone to offer high-capacity services to enterprises and other carriers with built-in guarantees on price and installation, along with a 90-day risk-free trial offer.

“The network we have built out with Infinera over the past year gives us major advantages over carriers using legacy gear,” said Ernie Ortega, president of XO Carrier Services. “Our cost structure gives us an advantage. The equipment would give us a great advantage with regard to provisioning and servicing customers. We can create end-to-end bandwidth services in the long-haul and the metro networks.”

XO is promising to beat any price along its major network routes for 2.5 Gb/s and 10 Gb/s services, and promising a one-month service credit if it fails to meet the agreed-upon delivery date. In addition, customers can trial XO’s services at no risk.

XO announced completion of its 18,000 route-mile fiber network last fall at Comptel. The company had deployed Infinera gear on it's fiber network.

XO has predeployed capacity in major carrier hotel sites in anticipation of bandwidth demand, Ortega said. That capacity is in more than twenty of the largest carrier hotels in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Palo Alto, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.

“We decided to pre-deploy Infinera DTNs also in some cities where we don’t do business today,” Ortega said. “We can come back and populate those with access modules and those cities become open for business.”

XO will be able to do point-and-click provisioning on its new network and is confident of its ability to turn up customers more quickly and efficiently than its competition, Ortega said. The company has linked its national fiber backbone to its 9100 route-miles of metro fiber networks, and expects to be able to do end-to-end services for many customers.