XO serves up new bandwidth-on-demand capability

XO Communications is giving its customers a new bandwidth-on-demand capability for its suite of WAN-based services that will give them automatic, burstable bandwidth to satisfy short- and long-term needs.

The new capability will allow XO network connections to expand to satisfy extra traffic in the event of unforeseen increases while maintaining pre-selected Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics.

Unlike alternative services that are either pre-scheduled through a portal or burst at only a "best effort" service level, XO said its on-demand capability provides "always-on" network capacity.

Don MacNeil, chief operating officer at XO Communications, said that a business customer could purchase a low average usage rate but have the capability to increase bandwidth as needed "without having to predict and pre-schedule for anticipated periods of peak usage."

This new capability is well timed with its ongoing cloud service initiatives, including its recent announcement that it became a Direct Connect Partner of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

XO's bandwidth-on-demand capability is certainly compelling, but it is hardly alone in providing such a feature. Fellow competitive provider tw telecom already offers customers a one-to-many national Ethernet interconnection solution and Dynamic Capacity services that allow customers to dial up bandwidth as needed.

For more:
- see the release

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