XO Communications and Akamai Announce Strategic Alliance

Contacts:
Scott Pace Media & Industry analysts XO Communications 703-547-2018 or 703-675-3682 mobile srpace@xo.com	--or--	Caryn Converse Media Relations Akamai 617-444-4661 converse@akamai.com
Lisa Miles Financial Analysts XO Communications 703-547-2440	--or--	Steven Wolfe Investor Relations Akamai 617-444-4724 swolfe@akamai.com

Akamai Selects XO as a Provider of Interconnection Bandwidth Related Services and Hosting Services; XO to Offer Akamai's Next-Generation Content Delivery Services

Reston, VA and Cambridge, MA - (May 17, 2001) - XO Communications, Inc., (Nasdaq:XOXO), one of the world's fastest growing providers of broadband communications services, and Akamai Technologies, Inc., (Nasdaq:AKAM), the leading Content Delivery Service Provider (CDSP), today announced the companies have entered into strategic agreements to enhance Web site performance for customers.

As part of the alliance, XO will provide Akamai with interconnection bandwidth related services based on SONET architecture transmitting data at speeds of OC-3 (155 Mbps) and OC-12 (622 Mbps). In addition, XO will provide co-location space in its data centers for the deployment of additional Akamai servers. XO's interconnection bandwidth related services and hosting capabilities help Akamai to expand its reach to enable users to benefit from improved performance and accelerated delivery of the Web's most popular streaming media, software applications and content served on Akamai's globally distributed network.

Under a separate agreement, XO will provide value-added Internet services for customers by offering Akamai's full suite of content delivery services, including EdgeSuiteSM, Akamai's mission-critical service that includes the dynamic assembly of complete Web pages on its distributed computing platform. By offering Akamai's services, XO customers will be able to realize the cost-saving benefits of increased scalability and consistent Web site availability via Akamai's globally distributed network.

"Our relationship with Akamai exemplifies XO's commitment to expanding our strategic relationships with leading companies and illustrates XO's momentum in moving 'up-market' as a data-centric communications company," said Nancy Gofus, XO Executive Vice President of Marketing and Customer Care. "By offering Akamai's suite of Internet content delivery services in addition to our Web hosting and data center capabilities, we are dramatically simplifying our customers' requirements for delivering high-quality Web experiences to those viewing their Web site. We're pleased to offer the benefits of Akamai's services as part of our ongoing efforts to provide the best possible performance and reliability to our customers."

XO will offer content delivery services through its 1,100+ person direct and national sales channels and will engage in a variety of co-marketing activities with Akamai. The addition of content delivery services is another step in the expansion of the high-end data products and services offered by XO. In the past six months, XO has introduced high-capacity access solutions including Gigabit Ethernet and Metro Wavelength Services and has watched its revenue per subscriber grow by more than 40 percent over the past year.

"We are pleased to be teaming with XO and believe that its extensive fiber network reach and broad customer base makes this alliance a significant one for Akamai," said Chris Turner, Akamai's Vice President of Worldwide Channel Distribution. "With the increased demand for our content delivery solutions, top service providers like XO, with its robust metrofiber network and rich data center capabilities, help us expand our offerings into new markets and increase the breadth of our network. Akamai and XO provide complementary technologies for leading businesses, and we are excited to work together to offer optimized solutions for customers."

Akamai's EdgeSuite offering is an integrated suite of services that allows Web sites to reap the performance, scalability, and reliability benefits of content delivery across an entire Web site, including static and dynamic content, embedded objects, streaming media, and HTML.

About Akamai
Akamai is the leading Content Delivery Service Provider, serving thousands of customers worldwide. Akamai has the broadest deployment of servers for content, streaming media, and applications delivery with more than 9,700 servers in 56 countries directly connected within over 650 different telecommunications networks.

About XO Communications
XO Communications is one of the world's leading providers of broadband communications services offering local and long distance voice communication services, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) access, Web hosting and e-commerce service, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), dedicated access, global transit and application infrastructure services for delivering applications over the Internet or a VPN.

XO has assembled an unrivaled set of facilities-based broadband networks and Tier One Internet peering relationships in the United States. XO currently offers facilities-based broadband communications services in 62 markets throughout the United States. The Company is also one of North America's largest holders of fixed broadband wireless spectrum, with licenses covering 95 percent of the population of the 30 largest U.S. cities and a partnership with licenses covering all of the top cities in Canada.

 

The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" (as such term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements include those describing XO's expected future operations and the potential benefits of the arrangements described in this release. Management wishes to caution the reader that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and are subject to risks and uncertainties and actual results may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors. These factors include, but are not limited to, those risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the reports filed by XO Communications with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2000. XO, the XO design logos are trademarks of XO Communications, Inc.

Akamai Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai's management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, the dependence on Akamai's Internet content delivery service, a failure of its network infrastructure, the complexity of its service and the networks on which the service is deployed, the failure to obtain access to transmission capacity and other factors that are discussed in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

XO, the XO design logo are, XOptions and XO Benchmark are trademarks of XO Communications, Inc.