Metro Fiber Roundup 9/13: euNetworks, XO, US Signal

September 13th, 2010 by · 22 Comments

Catching up on a few metro and regional fiber news items:

Over in Europe, euNetworks (news) continued to add heft to its management team, bringing in James Thomas as Chief Financial Officer, effective tomorrow.  Thomas came from TalkTalk Telecom Group Plc, and from Carphone Warehouse before that.  euNetworks is in the midst of an expansion of its lit building footprint, as it moves to take advantage of its large stash of metro fiber across 13 markets in 5 countries.

XO Holdings (news, filings) followed up last week’s expansion in Southern California with a move in another big metro market.  This time it was Atlanta, where the fiber-based CLEC has increased its reach into the across the northern and southern suburbs of Atlanta including Duluth, Tucker and East Point.  They also brought the QTS facility in Suwanee and Sago Networks in Norcross on-net.  They’ve been making lots of metro fiber noise lately, I wonder when XO will tell us something about their lit building footprint beyond the ‘more than 3000 buildings’ they have been stuck at for so long.

And finally, Midwestern metro and regional fiber operator US Signal snuck one past me two weeks ago, with an intercity expansion westward through central Illinois to St. Louis.  In addition to two in St.Louis, new PoPs were added in Peoria, Springfield, Bloomington, Mattoon, Centralia, and Terre Haute.  I’m guessing they leased some dark fiber for that build, and I wonder if they will now develop metro loops in a few more of those new markets.

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22 Comments So Far


  • Anonymous says:

    XO’s lit building #’s are anemic at best. over half of their so called 3000 is Memphis City schools.

  • anon says:

    XO’s lit building #’s are anemic at best. over half of their so called 3000 is Memphis City schools.

  • saci says:

    From the memphis city schools website :
    Elementary Schools – 112
    Middle/Junior High Schools – 36
    Senior High Schools – 35
    Career & Technology Centers – 6
    Charter Schools – 9
    Alternative Programs – 8
    Special Education Centers – 3
    Total 209 schools. (slightly short of 1500….)

  • XO Employee says:

    I can personally back up saci on the correction. MCS has less than 200 locations that are on-net for XO fiber.

    It amazes me the amount of froth and venom some people can work up against my company (yes, 9 yr employee).

    We have some things we are working through, we are far from perfect, and our stock price sucks, but the extreme comments like those left above always make me giggle.

    Haters

  • anon says:

    There was no venom in my statement just the facts, you both are drinking the kool aid & very naive. I encourage you to verify the building count associated with the MCS system & you will find there approx 1800 buildings which figures into XO on net building figures. ON NET IN xo IS CALCULATED BY BUILDING COUNT NOT BY ADDRESS.

    XO emploee responder – i challenge you to get a copy of the on net building list inside XO & then tell me MCS is only 200 buildings. I bet if you get that list the actual addresses & building count of commercial properties is less than 1200 actual buildings.

    BTW I don’t hate XO I just dislike mis-perception, & the 3000 XO touts as on net is completely bogus. Ask your CEO on your next all employee call.

    • Also curious says:

      The XO plot just never stops giving. I wonder who anon is and why he is so adamant about his on-net building count (and the source of his very precise yet apparently completely misleading info).

      anon: you challenged XO Employee and he delivered. Your turn to come clean and tell us the source of your info.

  • XO Employee says:

    anon… I am intimately involved in what is there, how it was engineered, and the EXACT count of buildings. I am the rep for the current network deployed for MCS, spent over 2 years in the sales and deployment of this network and have NO IDEA where you get your non-facts.

    Not only am I not naive, I am a subject matter expert on this specific network as well as a highly knowledgable resource for our entire network. Seriously, very few people within or without XO are as intimately involved with the network deployed to MCS, so your claims are to me ridiculous.

    You are empirically wrong. No kool-aid drinking. The building count you claim MCS comprises is overstated by roughly 7 times (hence why I consider it froth and venom, and utterly pointless).

    I have access to our on-net building lists, I sell (very well) across the country and deliver my services end to end over XO fiber EVERY DAY.

    Curious….where are you getting your highly inaccurate info?

  • XO Employee says:

    I am ashamed of my industry that mudslinging, overstated, reactionary mudslinging, simpletons are so entrenched in what was once an industry of class….sad.

    Anon…some advice…..temper your comments with a more humble approach. Unless you have an empirical truth, don’t make grandiose statements where you can be so monumentally wrong. What is it that allows you to be so smug and condescending, with the most inaccurate facts?

  • anon says:

    My facts are correct & your personalization & emotional reaction is clouding your ability to intellectually discuss the facts that XO has & is still severely over inflating the on-net building count. Your emotional reaction & name calling is not productive however we can agree to disagree & I encourage you to really analyze the on-net concept & building count within XO. I will say though that your reaction shows that you do care about the company & it reputation, that’s a good thing. And if you really care you would research my comments & realize XO has only around 1500-1600 on-net buildings at best aside from MCS.

    I am thrilled you are having success selling on-net & wish all other sales rep followed suit because it drives a much higher margin for the company & should increase speed to market (but it doesn’t in XO’s case) A concept not very well accepted in the sales ranks. TWTC understands & gets on-net & XO could learn from them however the capital to bring additional buildings on-net is not in the future of XO. Afraid they have missed that train & CI wouldn’t approve the capital budget to expand those numbers.

    • Also curious says:

      Agree no need for name calling. I think a very valid question remains unanswered: what is your source of information? are you an employee? a former employee?

    • Anonymous says:

      Anon – I second that motion. What type of company do you work for (you don’t have to name it)? It would make your case as little more convincing.

  • XO Employee says:

    Anon…agreed…I have let my feathers get ruffled. It is indeed because I care about my company (and being called naive does not set well).

    I will research much further and provide an answer, within allowable corporate policy. I’m in Nashville, and we have roughly 210 on-net locations here. These are all single or multi-tenant buildings (I know, I’ve prospected most of them). We have roughly 80+ markets across the country. I cannot see how your math could possibly work out even (1500 in Memphis/210 in Nashville…that would make the average market having only 16ish on-net buildings…not mathematically possible with the inclusion of markets like NY/LA/Boston/PA all fiber rich areas for XO)

    In the meantime, it would be nice to hear some form of backup as to where your comments meet fact.

  • Homer says:

    XO Employee… there is just way too much confusion about XO… EBITDA margins just make no sense given the assets and scale of the company… the theories abound: Icahn is fiddling with the accounting, the assets are not what they appear (i.e. maybe the metro assets are in fact a small fraction of what they have told the outside world), XO is giving the stuff away, or just plain widespread incompetence within the company… and, of course, the obvious question: what did the company achieve with the 500+ million of capex spent over the last few years???… in any case thanks for helping to illuminate the situation… outside XO no one really knows what is going on in there

  • anon says:

    Homer – you are very correct; CI certainly plays the edges & it absolutely makes no sense. Those are the unfortunate facts about XO – an extremely underutilized asset in the wrong hands with a misaligned purpose – NOL’s vs customer/shareholder/employee value. Which is a travesty for the employees – it is their career & lively hood.

    XO Employee – you are in XO’s best market, always has been since the beginning from Hillenmeyer to Law & always will be. 30%+ market-share in a NFL city is unprecedented across the country in any/all CLEC’s. Once your research is complete you probably should keep it confidential to stay out of trouble – you sound like a good employee, & let anon’s like me blog about the mis information.

  • XO Employee says:

    Anon…Nashville is awesome…but my name should have been listted after Lovejoy, and Law…. 🙂

  • XO Employee says:

    I wanted to make 100% sure about my statements. I have found the exact breakdown, by state, on the number of buildings XO has on net.

    3182 across the country.

    The state of TN has 836 on net buildings, with roughly 300 in Nashville and the remainder (around 500ish) in Memphis.

    So…anon….you were empirically incorrect. No debate. Flat out numerically/factually incorrect.

    I will leave you to your stipulations and guesses about our long term future, EBITDA ratios, etc…..but wanted to make sure the facts were represented.

    • Rob Powell says:

      XO Employee, thank you for checking and bringing back some hard numbers! While the initial ‘half’ being Memphis schools isn’t correct, I do find it interesting how concentrated XO’s on-net footprint is in the state of Tennessee – fully 1/4 of the total! Any idea why there was such a focus on this particular state and not so much on XO’s other major markets?

      • Anonymous says:

        Their acquisition of Alligence

        • Rob Powell says:

          I didn’t think Allegiance had major metro assets in Tennessee, or anywhere else for that matter – they leased most everything didn’t they?

          • XO Employee says:

            Rob…you are correct. There were no Allegiance assets in TN at all. Zero.

            The TN footprint could be attributed to several things (IMO)…early markets, aggressive local leadership, aggressive local sales team, and ease of build in the state. MCS helped a large amount in the growth of the Memphis network (growth begets growth). Also, in my tenure as a rep in Nashville, we have lit many buildings and expanded the network with great wins (we did have a large head start with Nashville footprint…again, growth begets growth).

            And thanks for the forum!!!!

  • Where is anon?? says:

    Nothing like calling XO employee to the carpet only to find out that it was anon who was the goof.

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