XO charts VoIP progress

XO Communications this week said its VoIP traffic grew 80% over the past year, exceeding 15 billion minutes in 2006.

Voice traffic carried across the competitive local exchange carrier’s nationwide IP network grew from 822 million minutes in January 2006 to 1.5 billion minutes in December 2006, XO says. The carrier also says its XOptions Flex business VoIP service has 7,500 business customers nationwide, supporting 100,000 employees.

XOptions Flex was launched less than two years ago for small and midsize businesses. Later this year, the carrier will roll out new VoIP and private IP networking services for larger businesses, such as Managed IP PBX, integration of XOptions Flex with an MPLS IP VPN service, and increased bandwidth options and personal mobility features such as find me/follow me.

XO is also evaluating a fixed mobile convergence service for this year that would offer businesses one device that would act as an office phone at work and as a mobile communicator out of the office.

XOptions Flex combines local and long-distance calling, 3Mbps Dedicated Internet Access and Web hosting services for a flat monthly price and provides dynamic bandwidth allocation, voice VPN, and an online tool for making real-time changes to services. For businesses with existing key or PBX systems, XOptions Flex is designed to support businesses with as many as 160 employees at each location.

XOptions Flex provides access to E911 emergency services, the carrier says.

XO also offers a suite of VoIP and wholesale network infrastructure services for other service providers, including VoIP origination, VoIP termination, IP transit and network transport. XO began deployment of softswitches across its nationwide private IP network in 2000.