XO Communications announced its first significant market deployments of fixed broadband wireless technology that will broaden its ability to deliver business-class broadband solutions directly to businesses and help the company reduce local network costs.

XO has deployed fixed broadband wireless in nine metropolitan markets — Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, Tampa and Washington, D.C. — representing the first in a series of markets nationwide in which XO plans to utilize fixed broadband wireless technology through a partnership with its sister company, Nextlink, a provider of broadband wireless services and the nation’s largest holder of Local Multipoint Distribution System (LMDS) spectrum with licenses in 75 metropolitan markets.

XO will utilize LMDS fixed broadband wireless as a last-mile access method to deliver dedicated Internet access and metropolitan and inter-city Ethernet solutions directly to businesses at speeds of 10mbps and 100mbps.

From Nextlink wireless hubs deployed in each market, XO can deliver services to any qualified line-of-site location within an average of five miles to support a wide range of networking services including Internet access, VoIP and private business local area networks at native LAN speeds. XO also is reducing local network costs by replacing leased circuits that connect local switch locations to the XO network with more cost-effective and scalable fixed wireless links, the company said.

By utilizing fixed broadband wireless services, XO will be able to provide higher-speed broadband access to businesses normally constrained by the bandwidth limitations of copper or lack direct access to fiber.

“With fixed broadband wireless technology, we are significantly expanding the reach of our network to serve even more businesses, specifically those businesses that do not have direct fiber connections to support their growing bandwidth needs,” said Carl Grivner, CEO of XO Communications. “In addition to expanding our network, fixed wireless also gives us a more cost-effective and scalable replacement to leased network elements that connect local switches to our own fiber network.”

Nextlink www.nextlink.com
XO Communications www.xo.com