XO Communications extends service footprint throughout Canada

August 20, 2013 | By Sean Buckley

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The CLEC will offer its host of data and optical services, including Dedicated Internet Access, high-speed IP transit, MPLS IP-VPN, VPLS, Ethernet, Private Line and Wavelength services, to enterprise and wholesale customers.

"There's a lot of locations in Canada where just over the border and having a service node up there and being able to extend services into Canada adds more value to our enterprise and mid-market customers in some of the opportunities we continue to see," said Don MacNeil, chief marketing officer for XO Communications, in an interview with FierceTelecom.

Although Canada is XO's latest international market foray, the company can currently provide services such as IP-VPN to 60 countries worldwide.

"This is just a step close to our border that makes sense and fits into our larger part of our story for the mid-market solution set as well," MacNeil said.

Having launched services in Toronto last October, XO is hardly a stranger to Canada.

This latest expansion will leverage redundant metro fiber rings and multiple, diverse long-haul fiber routes that span the country, terminating in the XO hub in Toronto. The company operates a diverse 550-mile Toronto metro and Canadian long-haul fiber network that connects back to the United States in various locations including New York City, Cleveland and Seattle.

"In conjunction with our original network build, we had assets in Canada and in the very early days we even had a CLEC that we owned up there which we divested but kept the fiber assets," said MacNeil.

MacNeil added that the other driver to expand XO's services across Canada was the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission's (CRTC's) move to permit foreign companies to own network assets and provide services in the country.

"With the change in ownership law, it was a great opportunity to take the dark fiber that was sitting there and light it up and was an easy turn up because we had connectivity into the 151 Front Street carrier hotel in Toronto," he said.