XO Communications today announced three new services in its portfolio, including session initiation protocol trunking, a new managed IP PBX service and an integration of its XO Options Flex with its MPLS virtual private network offering.

Behind all of that alphabet soup is a set of services designed specifically in response to customer needs, said Nicola Jackson, director of product management for XO, and Eric Hyman, director of managed services for the company.

The SIP trunking service is being offered in recognition of the fact that IP PBXs have overtaken the PBX market and more customers simply want a SIP trunk into their new IP PBX, Jackson said. Where XO hopes to differentiate its service is in its pricing.

“With SIP trunking, we are entering a new pricing paradigm,” she said. “We are looking at the bandwidth we provide the customer in its entirety. It doesn’t matter to us how a customer uses it — for voice or data or a combination — we will offer it at a single price.”

That means customers no longer pay for additional Voice Grade Equivalent services or other add-ons, Jackson said, and can focus on buying the right amount of bandwidth for their services.

The managed PBX bundle is being launched with Avaya and Nortel Networks, Hyman said, although Avaya is the primary vendor XO will be using for IP PBXs. XO will buy, install and operate the IP PBXs for their customers, allowing them to conserve capital and have a single service provider take responsibility for the quality of the service, he said.

“IP PBXs have a robust feature set that the hosted service environment doesn’t provide yet,” Hyman said. “Specifically with Avaya, the solution is more hybrid. You can put analog sets, digital sets of IP sets at the customer premises.”

That enables customers to grow into an IP solution or go all-IP from day one, depending on their risk threshold and their interest in buying new phones, he said. In addition, customers who are leery of putting their voice-over-IP traffic over their existing LAN can separate the two, he added.

The integration of XO Options Flex and the MPLS VPN provides customers with a single connection to their premises to handle voice, Internet access and secure data connections, Jackson said.

“This way, they don’t need a separate connection, which is more efficient and less costly,” she said. “We ensure that voice will always take priority.”

The product targets multilocation customers such as branch offices of large enterprises or geographically distributed smaller customers.

The data speeds for SIP trunking and the integrated service start at 1.5 Mb/s. For SIP trunking, the data speed range goes all the way to 45 Mb/s, while the range for the integrated service is up to 3 Mb/s. The managed PBX service starts as low as 15 seats.