At Spring 2006 VON, XO Communications announced an expansion of its wholesale voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solutions, introducing a new IP voice origination service that offers service providers a scalable and cost-effective means for originating voice calls nationwide.

The new service, XO VoIP Origination, provides broadband telephony providers, cable companies and other service providers with interconnection, transport and origination of local calls nationwide through a single IP connection on the XO IP network. With the ability to assign local telephone numbers from any XO market nationwide and accept local calls through a single IP connection point, service providers can eliminate the need to purchase and maintain expensive voice gateways in markets where they offer service, enter new markets more quickly and more efficiently manage voice traffic on a nationwide basis.

"XO now offers service providers end-to-end solutions for originating, terminating and transporting IP-based voice calls nationwide," said Ernie Ortega, president of carrier sales at XO Communications. "Through our extensive softswitch platform and national IP network, customers can leverage the power, scope and economics of IP to cost-effectively develop and deliver services to their end-user customers."

Broadband telephony providers, carriers and other service providers can leverage XO's full suite of wholesale VoIP services -- XO IP VoIP Origination and XO VoIP Termination -- to deliver IP-based voice services to consumer and business customers nationwide. With XO VoIP Origination, incoming calls can originate in either IP or TDM format and are routed across the XO OC-192 class-of-service enabled network at the highest level of priority. The calls are then routed directly to the service provider's network through an IP or TDM connection. With this flexible network architecture, the XO VoIP platform meets the needs of customers with legacy networks or new entrants that have more advanced network architectures.

XO VoIP Origination offers service providers the following features:

• In-bound/local origination service nationwide
• Reliable intercity transport
• SIP or TDM interconnection to XO IP network
• Local Number Portability
• Directory Listing
• Caller ID with name
• 24x7 network management and proactive network monitoring
• Interconnection and usage reporting
• An easy-to-use web portal for service changes and orders

XO has one of the industry's largest IP-based switching platforms, supporting both traditional circuit-switched voice traffic and packet-based VoIP traffic. XO has deployed softswitch technology from Sonus Networks, the leading provider of VoIP infrastructure solutions, across its national IP network in more than 60 metropolitan markets. Today, XO carries more than 2.2 billion minutes of VoIP traffic each quarter across its national IP network.

For more information about XO VoIP Origination and XO's full suite of wholesale voice services, goto http://www.xo.com/products/carrier or contact an XO sales representative by calling (866) 963-9696.