Nextlink ditches its name, pitches bundled services
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MCLEAN, VA. - Nextlink Communications wants you to forget its name but remember its low-ball pricing and bundled services.
Now called XO Communications, the service provider last week announced 11 bundles aimed at small to midsize businesses, which XO defines as 10 to 100 employees.
Each of the Xoptions Flat Rate Service Packages contain the same four elements - local voice, long-distance voice, dedicated Internet access and Web hosting. They differ, however, based on the number of minutes required and the type of connection - DSL or dedicated line.
The company is also offering a 90-day satisfaction guarantee. If a customer is not fully satisfied with his XO service, the company will switch that user back to his previous provider free. But XO seems confident.
"It's a service-level guarantee that customers will never need," claims Nancy Gofus, executive vice president of marketing and customer care at XO.
While the packages are the same from market to market, prices will differ based on location. For example, a customer in Chicago who buys 10,000 local calling minutes, 4,000 domestic long-distance minutes, a 384K bit/sec DSL connection and Web-hosting services will pay $533 per month. A customer in Boston will pay $518 per month for the same service. XO says its prices are 22% to 39% less expensive than incumbent local exchange carriers in Chicago and Boston, respectively.
One analyst agrees that these types of bundled services can be less expensive. Customers who today buy local, long-distance, Internet access and Web hosting separately can save money through bundling, says Jamie Mendelson, an analyst at the Washington, D.C., consulting firm The Strategis Group. Bundles are also easier to buy and understand, Mendelson says.
The service provider also plans to roll out a set of Ethernet Services that will let customers set up a LAN across a metropolitan area. XO will support 10M bit/sec, 100M bit/sec and 1G bit/sec LAN speeds when it launches its Ethernet Services in November.
This service is more geared toward midsize to large business users who have higher bandwidth requirements, Gofus says. Yahoo is XO's first Ethernet Services customer and is currently using the service in the Bay area. XO did not say which of its 51 markets will offer Ethernet Services beyond the Bay area nor would it disclose pricing.
XO also did not comment on which equipment vendor products it will use to support the new service.
XO: www.xo.com
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