Current XO Communications business services customers that want to continue using its Ethernet over Copper services after Verizon (NYSE: VZ) takes over the company's assets may be able to do so -- depending on several factors. That's according to a Verizon filing with the FCC that addresses how it will deal with legacy infrastructure following the acquisition.
As part of a lengthy and oft-redacted response to a request for information (RFI) issued by the FCC, Verizon said it "intends to grandfather and continue to provide those XO services that are not migrated to an equivalent Verizon service."
The ILEC said it is currently reviewing the services that XO offers to its customers, and intends to migrate those customers to "reasonably equivalent" Verizon business services, as long as it does not violate those customers' current service agreement terms.
Regardless of that plan, however, Verizon clearly prefers that business customers using EoC services make the switch over to its fiber-based services. "… Verizon anticipates that over time it will migrate existing XO customers to functionally equivalent Verizon services, if there is a service parity between the companies' offerings and if doing so would not violate the terms of the customers' agreements," the carrier said in the Response to RFI made public on Friday.
And Verizon doesn't see why EoC customers wouldn't want to be migrated to a fiber-based network, since, it says, they have many more service options available to them over fiber. "...while the companies provide many of the same types of services, Verizon has a much more extensive and innovative family of service options that it will be able to offer XO customers."
Verizon listed several of those offerings in the filing, including voice, managed services and a number of non-categorized items such as dedicated internet service, IP application hosting, remote backup services, managed security and data center interconnection.
What those IP-based services will cost enterprises that migrate from EoC remains to be seen: Verizon said in the filing that it expects "one-time costs that are required to achieve the anticipated level of integration," as well as "certain net revenue-based dis-synergies related to the transaction" to affect the transition between 2017 and 2020.
Verizon previously refuted claims by Windstream and Transbeam that its acquisition of XO fiber assets would hinder growth in the EoC and business data services (BDS, or special access) market segments. The two CLECs provide these services within the footprints that Verizon will be taking over, and they feel that Verizon will not support their legacy services nor provide reasonably-priced alternatives for business customers. However, Verizon argued that the transaction will not affect the supply of copper loops available for EoC.
For more:
- see this FCC filing
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