9/28/00
XO Names Mike Read President XO Europe
XO Communications (formerly Nextlink/Concentric) Names Global Telecommunications Industry Veteran Mike Read President and Managing Director of XO Europe
McLEAN, VA and LONDON, ENGLAND - XO Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:XOXO), one of the world’s fastest growing providers of broadband communications services, announced the appointment of 30-year global telecommunications veteran Mike Read as President of the company’s European division.
Read will be responsible for all of XO’s European businesses, including all functions that sell and provide XO’s voice, data and enhanced services in Europe. Currently XO has more than 500 employees in Europe providing commercial Internet Access, hosting and security solutions and operating broadband networks and three European data centers in the United Kingdom, Paris and Amsterdam.
“We are pleased to have attracted yet another business leader who has experience at the highest executive leadership level of major telecommunications and data services businesses to the XO management team,” said XO President and Chief Operating Officer Nate Davis. “In addition to being a very strong business leader, Mike has extensive global telecommunications experience, with a majority of that time spent focusing on Europe and building global networks and businesses.”
Read spent more than 30 years at British Telecom, finishing his career as BT’s Chief of Global Engineering where he was responsible for the company’s network and system strategy throughout its worldwide alliances. Most recently, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of OneMain.com, one of the largest independent (prior to its acquisition by EarthLink) Internet Service, business-to-business and portal providers. Prior to ONEMAIN.com, he was CEO of Pacer International, a global network, system and facility design and build company.
“Europe is obviously an important piece of XO’s ambitious strategy to become a global provider of integrated broadband communications services and Mike is the right guy to ensure the company capitalizes on this opportunity,” continued Davis.
In May 2000, XO announced plans to buy a number of fiber optic networks throughout Europe. When complete, the XO European network will include metropolitan fiber networks in London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and Frankfurt; a Pan-European inter-city network and transatlantic capacity that will reach 10 Gbps in the next two years. The local networks are expected to consist of more than 80,000 metro fiber miles and empty conduits and the inter-city network is planned to connect 21 major European cities with more than 88,000 fiber miles. These broadband networks are expected to provide European business customers with higher quality web, data and voice services at very competitive costs.
Earlier this week, XO announced a revolutionary flat rate service combinations in the United States for small and medium-sized business locations with 10-100 employees that include local, long distance, Internet Access and Web hosting services. The Company also announced that the XO Communications name would replace the NEXTLINK and Concentric brands in the marketplace and would be supported in the U.S. by an extensive fall advertising campaign. Additionally, XO said it would begin offering Gigabit Ethernet services throughout the United States by mid-next year, and announced that Internet giant Yahoo! would be XO’s flagship Ethernet customer.
About XO Communications
XO Communications is one of the world’s leading providers of broadband communications services offering local and long distance voice communication services, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access, Web hosting and e-commerce service, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), dedicated access, global transit and application infrastructure services for delivering applications over the Internet or a VPN.
XO has assembled an unrivaled set of facilities-based broadband networks and Tier One Internet peering relationships that, when complete, will serve much of the United States, Canada and Europe. In the United States, XO has more than 430,000 metro fiber miles in operation and a 384,000 fiber-mile inter-city network under construction. The Company is also North America’s largest holder of fixed broadband wireless spectrum, with licenses covering 95 percent of the population of the 30 largest U.S. cities and a partnership with licenses covering all of the top cities in Canada.
For more information contact:
Todd Wolfenbarger / XO™ Communications
Media and Industry Analysts
703-547-2011 or 703-675-3496
Lisa Miles / XO™ Communications
Financial Analysts
703-547-2440
