Am I the only person who was unaware that Verizon bought out XO Communications
I interviewed for a position at XO shortly after being laid off from Level(3).

It's hard to keep up any more. Windstream and Earthlink merged a few months ago, and I missed it.

XO was still around?

No more

I am surprised that they remained on their own as long as they did, with Windstream gobbling up nearly every other CLEC. The whole purpose of the divestiture of the Bell System was supposed to open up competition so that customers would have more choices and prices would go down due to competition. Once again, half of the remaining RBOCs are owned by Verizon and the other half by at&t. CenturyLink's wild card acquisition of QWest threw in a bit of a twist. Now, the CLECs are becoming the same. We'll be back to 1983 before you know it.

Anybody want to put any money on which one becomes the new Ma Bell? Will it be Verizon or at&t, or will it be that new kid, CenturyLink?

Verizon and at&t keep shedding territory to ILECs. If what I read not too long ago is correct, Century Link will be renamed Level (3) after the completion of their merger.

Frontier and FairPoint are the companies gobbling up areas no longer desired by Ma Bell's children.

True, Paul, but I still see Frontier and Fairpoint being acquired within a few years by one of the big three. It doesn't have to make business sense. It's all just a race to the top.

Fairpoint is in the process of being acquired by Consolidated. Verizon dumped northern New England to FP, not sure why they'd want it back. (Good riddance to Verizon IMHO.) There seems no end to Verizon's greed, however, and I am inclined to agree with Ed. We'll be back to only one giant left. Can't be Ma-Bell again.... Ma-Verizon?

Nope. It was news to me too.

I worked at XO for 12 years!!! left with a cab ride home...thanks a-holes! glad their compition bought em' out. Ichahn was gearing up for that sell for years! good riddence...

If you worked for XO out of their Cambridge MA OPS site near MIT around 2012/2013, I worked out of the Level(3) office on Bent Street after Level(3) bought out the company I worked for (Global Crossing).

Yes Sir, we've probably met. I was over at Level 3s POP site many times

ALSO, keep in mind folks...when you get that high, politics becomes more n more important!

Why did Ichan let go of XO? Look where he is now, strategic advisor to Trump.

Wow. That’s news to me too. Had to Google to get all the information on this. Did you know Verizon acquired XO Communications for $1.8 billion?