Nextlink expands footprint, reach for XO

Nextlink Wireless, the fixed broadband wireless arm of XO Holdings, today announced three new markets for its service, as well as a plan for XO Communications to use Nextlink’s wireless service in all nine of its markets.

The three new markets – Atlanta, Chicago and Houston – are added to the six markets in which it was already operating, which are Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. Nextlink is on track to add there more markets this year, in cities where it owns wireless spectrum in the 28 GigaHertz-31 GHz band, also known as local multipoint distribution system or LMDS.

XO will use Nextlink as alternative last-mile access in those nine markets, in part as a means to avoid dependence on the local exchange carriers.

“What’s going to happen initially is that companies will use this for some form of diversity and redundancy,“ said Craig Collins, vice president of sales for Nextlink. “The big goal is to get around the LEC. There will be some testing of the services so that people get comfortable.“

Collins believes service providers and enterprise customers are aware that the current generation of broadband wireless is more cost effective and reliable than previous generations.

"It’s been some time, people have tested it,“ he said. "It’s been out there for a while. But there is the time that it takes to swap out the services. We haven’t done it full scale yet. This is extremely cost-competitive, if you are dealing with a lot of bandwidth.”

Nextlink services include broadband wireless access at speeds ranging from T-1 up to OC-12 and is specifically well-suited to support metro Ethernet services, Collins said.

The company is turning up new markets based on customer demand, he added, preferring a success-based buildout.

For XO, the fixed wireless last-mile access will enable the company to offer its Dedicated Internet Access and Metro and Inter-City Ethernet services directly to customers at speeds of 10 Megabits per second and 100 Mb/s, the company said. The service will be available to qualified line-of-site locations within five miles of a Nextlink wireless hub. This solution will enable XO to reach more customers with higher speed services, even if they don’t have access to fiber, while also reducing its local network costs, XO officials said.

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