Carriers

Platinum Equity has completed the acquisition of Covad Communications Group on april 15th. The total value of the transaction is approximately $470 million. The acquisition was a public-to-private transaction in which an affiliate of Platinum Equity acquired all outstanding shares of Covad stock for $1.02 per share in cash. The company previously traded on the American Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol DVW.

“Covad has been an innovator since the day it became the first enterprise to commercially deploy DSL in the United States,” said Johnny O. Lopez, partner for Platinum Equity. “We have high expectations for the company’s continued growth and market leadership.”

The companies announced the planned acquisition in October 2007 and have spent the last several months obtaining the required regulatory and stockholder approvals. Covad owns and operates the largest national broadband network and is the only national facilities-based provider of data, voice, and wireless telecommunications solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Covad is also a key supplier of high-bandwidth access for telecommunications services providers like EarthLink, AT&T, and Verizon Business. Covad services are currently available in 44 states and 235 major markets and can be purchased by more than 57 million homes and businesses.

Time Warner Telecom Inc. will be changing their name to TW Telecom on July 1st. The name have been operating under (Time Warner Telecom) is licenced from Time Warner Inc. but the agreement expires June 30th. However this is a good oppertunity to build a new brand.

 “The time is right to focus our brand around the tw telecom name and a vision, a set of values and a brand promise that we have built over the past decade,” said Larissa Herda, Time Warner Telecom’s Chairman, President, and CEO. “Our new brand name is a key milestone in the evolution of our company, as we become the true choice for business communications services - anywhere. tw telecom acknowledges our heritage and reinforces our commitment to delivering the finest customer experience in the industry, just as we always have.

“As tw telecom, we will stay close to our roots and continue our determination to care for our customers. This company-wide mantra has always been driven by an unfailing commitment and dedication to helping customers succeed. “We have built a company that is unmatched in delivering a powerful combination of nation-wide network assets, innovative solutions, success-based growth strategies, strong financials and a focus on the customer. We leverage these strengths to benefit each one of our customers and to grow long-term shareholder value.

“tw telecom is familiar; it is stable; it is consistent; it is clear, concise and focused – it is who we are,” Herda said. tw telecom has more commercial buildings directly connected to a fiber infrastructure than any other U.S. competitive telecom services provider.

“This gives us the ability to quickly and seamlessly deliver Ethernet and other next generation services to businesses that require more efficient network connectivity,” Herda said. “This strategy has translated into double-digit growth rates for us over the
past several years.”

Time Warner Telecom reported 2007 revenue of $1.084 billion and modified EBITDA of $339 million. The company employs 2,859, as of Dec. 31, 2007. Time Warner Telecom, delivers high-speed, high-capacity communications services at up to 10 Gbps to businesses, organizations, government entities, and carriers over its own national fiber infrastructure and IP backbone. Time Warner Telecom
operates in 75 U.S. metropolitan areas.

Time Warner Telecom has been operating under a name licensing agreement with Time Warner Inc. that will expire June 30, 2008.

About Time Warner Telecom
Time Warner Telecom Inc., headquartered in Littleton, Colo., provides managed network services, specializing in Ethernet and transport data networking, Internet access, local and long distance voice, VoIP and security, to enterprise organizations and communications services companies throughout the U.S. As a leading provider of integrated and converged network solutions, Time Warner Telecom delivers customers overall
economic value, quality, service, and improved business productivity. Please visit www.twtelecom.com for more information.

 XO Communications is once again defining its leadership in IP services with new enhancements to its business services portfolio and the unveiling of a new, groundbreaking pricing concept that simplifies how businesses can buy and scale IP services to support their communications needs.Under its new XO IPfolio, XO Communications is making several significant enhancements to IP services offerings, including the launch of XO IP Flex, the nationwide availability of XO SIP, and the introduction of the industry’s first bandwidth-based pricing offering for converged IP services. The new XO IPfolio gives businesses and enterprises a broad range of IP convergence and networking service options, including XO IP Flex, XO SIP, XO One iPBX, XO MPLS IP-VPN, and XO IP Flex with VPN. In addition, the XO IPfolio introduces a unique and simplified pricing concept for businesses to better manage the consolidation of their voice and data networks over a single IP infrastructure.

“XO led the industry with innovative voice and data convergence solutions when it offered the first flat-rate, integrated communications bundle on a single bill in 2000,” said Tom Cady, president of XO Business Services. “With IPfolio, we continue that leadership by providing businesses with a comprehensive suite of advanced IP and networking services and solutions with a new pricing paradigm based on IP bandwidth, not lines. Bandwidth-based pricing is about more than cost, it’s about creating a model that makes business sense in an IP world.”

XO Changes the Pricing Paradigm for Converged IP Services

XO Communications is the first major nationwide service provider to offer an innovative pricing concept for converged IP services that eliminates pricing based on the number of voice lines. Unlike other approaches to IP pricing that still are based on traditional TDM services pricing models, XO’s bandwidth-based pricing acknowledges that voice is simply another application on the IP port and offers rates based on the size of the port, not on the number of voice lines. Customers simply select an IP port speed from 1.5 to 45 Mbps, a calling plan and any additional features. Because voice is just another application on the IP port, customers pay nothing for incremental lines or voice channels provisioned within the port speed they have with their service. This innovative and unique bandwidth-based pricing is now being offered with XO IP Flex, XO IP Flex with VPN and XO SIP.

“XO Communications’ bandwidth-based pricing for converged IP services is a truly unique concept in the industry,” said William Stofega, research manager with IDC. “By removing the complexity of buying IP services with simplified pricing and offering a broad portfolio of services, XO is helping businesses make the transition to a converged IP environment much easier.”

XOptions Flex Upgrades to XO IP Flex

XO Communications today announced the launch of XO IP Flex, a new converged IP services bundle that upgrades and replaces XOptions Flex, XO’s industry-leading VoIP services bundle. XO IP Flex extends XO’s VoIP services to larger business customers by offering new higher-speed bandwidth options including 4.5 Mbps and 10 Mbps, leveraging XO’s robust Ethernet capabilities. XO IP Flex works with existing phone systems and offers a number of standard features, including:

• More than twenty standard voice features including voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call forward, three-way calling, and one toll free number;
• Dedicated Internet Access with Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation
• Unlimited local calling
• Unlimited site-to-site calling for multi-location customers with IP Flex, IP Flex with VPN and XO SIP locations
• Long distance calling with choice of calling plans
• Online Feature Management through the XO Business Center
• Optional features, including Auto Attendant, Call Center, Account Codes and Voice Virtual Private Network.

XO SIP Nationwide Launch

Now available nationwide, XO SIP delivers converged voice and data services to businesses with IP-PBX systems over a single, high-speed IP connection. XO SIP is a fully integrated solution designed to support the needs of businesses with the most demanding voice and data applications at single locations or multiple locations nationwide. Session Initiation Protocol uses a native IP-based facility to manage all traffic between a customer’s IP-PBX system, the XO IP network, and the Public Switched Telephone Network. The service provides greater efficiencies by eliminating the need for businesses to maintain multiple access facilities for voice and data services and eliminates the need for bandwidth-consuming protocol conversions, thereby, simplifying the overall deployment and management of customers’ enterprise IP telephony services.

XO SIP includes a broad range of bandwidth options to maintain optimal network performance. XO SIP features include:

• More than twenty standard voice features including voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call forward, three-way calling, and one toll free number;
• Dedicated Internet Access with Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation
• Unlimited local calling
• Unlimited site-to-site calling for multi-location customers with IP
• Flex, IP Flex with VPN and XO SIP locations
• Long distance calling with choice of calling plans
• Online Feature Management through the XO Business Center
• Optional features, including Auto Attendant, Call Center, Account Codes and Voice Virtual Private Network.

XO SIP is currently interoperable with Avaya IP Office, Cisco Call Manager, Cisco Call Manager Express and Digium Asterisk Appliance. XO SIP also utilizes the BroadSoft BroadWorks VoIP platform to provide customers additional advanced IP-PBX features, including auto attendant, call center and voice VPN.

XO Communications plans additional new services and enhancements to the XO IPfolio throughout 2008.

Contact us for more information or a quote

UCN announced the appointment of Rudy Vidal to the role of Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer. Vidal, 46, joins UCN following a 25-year career at Panasonic of America, a major consumer electronics company based in Secaucus, N.J. In his new role, Vidal will be responsible for strategy, product, marketing and service for UCN’s inContact® product suite.

“I am extremely excited to have Rudy join our executive leadership team,” said Paul Jarman, CEO of UCN. “We will benefit immensely from his vast experience and proven record of customer service advocacy at Panasonic, and this new organizational role will help us maintain our leadership position and to aggressively pursue new growth opportunities.”
Vidal most recently served as director of extreme customer service (XCS) at Panasonic, where he developed a corporate-wide initiative to address the challenge of differentiation in a commoditized market. Vidal’s solution sets provide a systematic approach to developing brand differentiation and loyalty, quantifying the relationship between customer satisfaction and incremental revenue, and creating clear competitive advantage through the creation of a self-sustainable customer centric corporate culture.

Development of and success in his XCS division was prompted by Vidal’s comprehensive understanding of business as a result of daily environment in the C-level suite as Director of Strategic Corporate Planning for seven years. Previously, Vidal cultivated well-rounded business acumen with circuits as head of sales, marketing, service planning, and most recently, head of enterprise sales for Panasonic North America.Vidal has lectured on the value and methodologies of customer centricity in business school environments including Wharton School of Management at University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Kean University. Additionally, Vidal developed and oversaw initiatives regarding managing paradigm shifts in the public educational system for the Urban Superintendent Organization of America.

About UCN, Inc.
UCN (NASDAQ: UCNN) is the leading provider of all-in-one, off-premises contact handling services that improve the customer contact experience and the productivity of those handling the contacts. InContact® includes an integrated suite of core contact handling applications, including contact routing, interactive menus, database integration, automated surveys and scoring analysis, reporting, monitoring, recording, administration and workforce scheduling and forecasting applications. InControl™ is a unique, rapid application development tool that enables inContact customers to develop highly flexible, customized business contact handling processes in record time. To learn more about UCN, visit www.ucn.net.