Carrier Channel: News Briefs January 2003

Posted: 1/2003

News Briefs

* The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of New York confirmed XO Communications Inc.‘s
standalone plan of reorganization on Nov. 15, 2002, setting the stage for XO to
implement that plan and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings upon
receipt of necessary state and federal regulatory approvals. The court also
approved the settlement between XO, Telefonos de Mexico S.A. de C.V. (TELMEX)
and certain investment partnerships affiliated with Forstmann Little & Co.
to mutually terminate the previously announced Forstmann Little/TELMEX
investment agreement.

* Wholesaler 360networks Corp.
will acquire Canadian carrier GT Group Telecom. Terms of the cash
acquisition were not disclosed, but will be included in Group Telecom’s plan of
reorganization. 360networks recently finished lighting its intercity fiber
networks in North America, connecting 48 cities in the United States and Canada.
Group Telecom offers voice and data services across 17 metro fiber networks in
nine Canadian provinces.

* Wholesale network services
provider Alliance Group Services Inc. has acquired a portion of the Equalnet
Communications Corp. retail base from CCC GlobalCom Corp.

* Universal Access Global
Holdings Inc. founder Patrick Shutt has resigned as chairman, president and
CEO, but will remain on the board. The company has named Lance Boxer as interim
CEO and also appointed him to the board as a Class I director. Boxer was CEO of
Sphera Optical Networks Inc. Universal terminated an agreement to acquire
certain Sphera assets and extend post-bankruptcy financing to Sphera, and has
entered into a settlement agreement related to this. The Universal Access board
has commenced a search for a new CEO, and Roland Van der Meer, a Universal
Access director since 1999, has been named chairman.

* LightWave Communications Inc.
has signed a definitive agreement to sell the assets and customer contracts of
its wholesale carrier business to Looking Glass Networks Inc. The sale will
enable LightWave to focus on the launch of its new community-based telephone
service which will provide local, long distance, toll and advanced calling
features in conveniently packaged, value-driven bundles.

* Texas-based Grande Networks
has launched its Managed Jurisdictional and OCN Routing (MAJOR) service for
managing and routing carrier traffic and helping its customers optimize network
costs. Instead of routing traffic based on blended costs, MAJOR identifies
jurisdiction (inter- or intrastate) and OCN (Bell or non-Bell) for each call. If
Grande is not the least-cost route for a given LATA (based on jurisdiction
and/or OCN), Grande will deliver the call back to the customer for completion
through other vendors. To take advantage of this service, Grande’s customers
must deliver the calls to Grande via SS7 interconnection facilities that
incorporate "look-ahead" routing or route advance, says the company.

* Level 3 Communications Inc.
has reached a definitive agreement to buy the primary assets of Genuity Inc.
for $242 million. The agreement is subject to bankruptcy court and regulatory
approvals, and the price is subject to adjustments. Genuity filed a Chapter 11
petition Nov. 27 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New
York. Level 3, which is headquartered in Colorado, will operate Genuity as a
separate business unit out of Woburn, Mass.