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XO Communications has branched out its Ethernet-over-copper offerings, enlisting a growing number of resellers in recent months including Speakeasy, a unit of Best Buy that also regularly competes with XO in some markets.

This month Speakeasy announced it was reselling XO’s copper-based Ethernet service -- based on bonded DSL technology from Hatteras Networks -- to offer 10 Mb/s symmetrical data services to small businesses in 30 markets. Prices range from $1695 for a one-year contract to $1295 for three years.

“We fill the gap between bonded T-1s and DS-3s,” said Bruce Chatterly, Speakeasy’s chief executive officer.

Speakeasy focuses its offering down-market from XO, on businesses with less than 100 employees. XO, meanwhile, said in May that it sees few requests for speeds below 10 Mb/s.

As Speakeasy and XO roll out the service, they are sharing information about where demand exists and where the technology -- which Speakeasy says has a range of about 10,000 feet -- won’t reach.

“In a market as large and diverse as Los Angeles, a very large number [of interested customers] won’t qualify [to receive the service],” Chatterly said. “We’re finding the pockets of organic demand, and that aligns with the central office…That’s important because this gear can be moved around.”

XO said more than a half million business locations are within reach of the service today.

Speakeasy is probably the most recognized name among the more than 20 small resellers XO has signed up for the service in the past six months, an XO spokesman said, adding that the carrier has seen interest among large, non-Bell carriers in reselling the service as well.

“There are some large carriers that don’t have the same metro footprint we do that could benefit,” XO said.

For Speakeasy, Ethernet-over-copper is a higher-speed complement to the T-1s that, along with hosted PBX and VoIP and managed colocation, make up a large part of its business.

XO began testing Ethernet-over-copper gear in 2004 and announced a broad deployment in early 2006, with a service rollout a year later.

Whatever distinctions there are between XO’s and Speakeasy’s target markets, the two are known to compete directly for commercial data services. Among the customer testimonials on Speakeasy’s Web site is one that reads, “I just cancelled my contract with XO because of their lack of service, professionalism, and timeliness…Thanks Speakeasy for showing the world how business should be conducted."

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