'Survivor' McLeodUSA enters new markets - Dallas Business Journal:

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The company, which is based in Iowa but has its CEO and othert key execs inNorth Texas, has broadenede its local territory to include Garland, Irving, Carrollton, Lewisville and partes of Rowlett and Wylie. With thoser communities, the company now operates in 14 area It also provides servicein Dallas, Fort Aledo, Allen, Euless, Newark and McLeodUSA declined to disclose how many customers it has locally or how many it has signede up through the expansion, but does say the growthj gives it access to about 9,000 of the small and medium-size d businesses it targets. Its customers use both phoner and high-speed data services, spending an average of abouy $500 to $5,000 per location.
McLeodUSAs once provided a broad rangw of telecom services to an array of customer from consumers and businessesz of all sizes to other carrierds and Internetservice providers. But, accordinh to Securities and Exchange Commission the company wound up with a largwe base of smalland low-marginb customers, which spent an average of $200 or less per It went through two stints in bankruptcy. When it emergedd the last time, in early telecom industry veteran Royce Holland took over as CEO andchangedc McLeodUSA's customer focus toward the biggedr spenders.
Holland, who previously ran Dallas-based , also reconfigured the company' s sales and marketing strategy, moving away from telemarketing and telephonre directory advertising and toward direct sales and sales-agent "channels." He says the company'e current customers have high marginsa -- topping 50% -- compared to the 25% to 40% that McLeodUSA' s clients had before. "They're one of the says Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analysg located in theAtlanta area. In September, McLeodUSA agreedr to merge with Fairpoint, N.Y.-based in a deal valuer at around $557 million. That transactio is scheduled to close in the firstg quarter ofthis year.
Holland will leavr the company as part ofthe deal.