High-Capacity, High-Speed Connection Between Asia and U.S.

XO Communications (XOHO) and Pacific Crossing, a trans-Pacific, privately owned carrier-class service provider, have announced a transaction resulting in a rapidly activated connection between XO's nationwide network and Pacific Crossing's privately owned sub-sea fiber ring. Through the agreement with Pacific Crossing, XO is able to offer customers the lowest latency, most direct option for voice and data transmission between the United States and Asia.

Specifically, XO has linked to Pacific Crossing's PC-1 network at the company's Grover Beach, Calif., landing station. The station carries data to and from Pacific Crossing landing stations in Shima and Ajigaura Japan, where customers may access major Asian networks and carriers. Landing station facilities have easy access to multiple backhaul providers and are in close proximity to Tokyo and Nagoya, linking the system to major metropolitan areas in Japan, as well as other sub-sea networks serving Asia.

Customers in Asia can be directed to cities across the United States via XO's more than one-million mile stretch of network fiber, eliminating costly toll charges and, thus, providing customers with a cost-efficient option for trans-Pacific communications. Furthermore, a recent doubling in the capacity of the PC-1 network, along with other upgrades, ensures that the XO-Pacific Crossing relationship has room to grow.

"When searching for a trans-Pacific partner, we looked for companies that could offer the needed capacity, as well as reliability, resiliency and redundancy," said Don MacNeil, vice president of XO Carrier Services Operations. "Pacific Crossing not only met our technical criteria but has an experienced leadership team committed to quality service, making it a natural choice for XO."

The PC-1 network's unique four fiber-pair ring architecture allows traffic to be rerouted quickly and automatically, ensuring continuous service for carriers looking to connect to Japan, China and beyond. With 41 percent of global telecommunications revenue expected to come from Asia by 2013 (source: Insight Research, 2008), providing reliable trans-Pacific routes will be essential to remaining competitive in the carrier marketplace.

"XO's strength and credibility combined with Pacific Crossing's asset and strong service reliability record position us to provide an unparalleled offering for carrier and large enterprise customers in both Asia and the U.S," said John Garrett, global head of sales for Pacific Crossing. "It's clear that trans-Pacific telecom connections remain in high demand, supported by our record sales in 2008 of more than 300Gb of capacity."

XO Communications, www.xo.com
Pacific Crossing, www.pc1.com