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Nextlink Communications Inc.'s recent change to XO Communications Inc. is intended to mean more to the small and midsized businesses it serves than a simple identity shift.
The transformation comes as a result of Nextlink's merger this year with San Jose, Calif.-based Concentric Network Corp., a data and Internet services provider. Prior to the $2.9 billion merger, McLean, Va.-based Nextlink was an archetypal local exchange carrier, selling local and long-distance voice services to businesses.
The blending of voice and data now allows the company to sell integrated services, or "bundles," to businesses. That means business customers can tap XO as a single source for local and long-distance telephone service, Internet access and Web hosting instead of going to different providers for each.
The facilities-based company, which has 135 area employees, has called Columbus its Ohio headquarters since it rolled out service here in mid-1997.
"The merger with Concentric was absolutely the genius stroke ... to put us into high gear in moving much more aggressively into the data realm," said John Smith, XO's general manager in Columbus....