Competitive service providers started 2008 with a flurry of announcements, indicating a determination to push hard for market share. Among the early announcements were XO Communications' new pricing paradigm, faster Internet for small- and medium-sized businesses from MegaPath, a new wireless provider in New York City known as Business Only Broadband and a new CEO and strategy at Pac-West Telecomm.

• Meanwhile, James Crowe, CEO of Level 3 Communications, told financial analysts that his company has put its integration and service delivery problems in the past and is ready to ride its sales growth to a brighter future.

• XO's new pricing model once again is aimed at Level 3, among others, as it moves to a bandwidth pricing scheme that eliminates per-line charges. “This pricing will look a whole lot more attractive the larger a customer gets,” said Nic Jackson, director of IP and converged services product management for XO. “That philosophy will be important as we move into enterprise and compete there. We want to make sure we are competitive.”

• MegaPath is staying focused on SMBs with an ADSL2+ offering, based on Covad Communications' underlying infrastructure, that delivers speeds up to 24 Mb/s.

• Pac-West's new CEO, telecom veteran Hal Turner, is bringing the company back to its roots in the Western region, where it will reach into second- and third-tier markets with a broader product portfolio that includes collaborative tools, voice over IP, operator services, directory services and content-based services. Fresh out of bankruptcy, the company is decommissioning its East Coast network facilities.

• The East Coast, or at least New York City, is the next new market for Business Only Broadband, a broadband wireless firm that has found success in Chicago and is now branching out. Initially seen as a redundancy play by the financial services market and other high-end customers, BOB is finding growing demand for its Ethernet services, offered in the licensed 11 GHz, 18 GHz and 23 GHz bands.