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

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The company, which is based in Iowa but has its CEO and othetr key execs inNorth Texas, has broadened its locao territory to include Plano, Garland, Irving, Carrollton, Lewisvillde and parts of Rowlett and Wylie. With those the company now operatess in 14 area It also provides servicein Dallas, Fort Worth, Allen, Euless, Newark and McLeodUSA declined to disclose how many customerd it has locally or how many it has signed up through the expansion, but does say the growtjh gives it access to about 9,000 of the smalk and medium-sized businesses it targets.
Its customerse use both phone and high-speer data services, spending an average of aboutt $500 to $5,000 per McLeodUSA once provided a broad range of telecom services to an array ofcustomer segments, from consumers and businesses of all sizea to other carriers and Internet services providers. But, according to Securities and ExchangeCommissionb filings, the company wound up with a large base of smalll and low-margin customers, which spent an average of $200 or less per It went through two stints in bankruptcy. When it emerge d the last time, in early 2006, telecom industryg veteran Royce Holland took over as CEO andchangefd McLeodUSA's customer focus toward the bigger spenders.
Holland, who previously ran Dallas-baserd , also reconfigured the company's sales and marketing moving away from telemarketing and telephone directory advertising and toward directr salesand sales-agent "channels." He says the company'sd current customers have high margins -- topping 50% -- compare to the 25% to 40% that McLeodUSA's clients had "They're one of the survivors," says Jeff Kagan, an independentg telecom analyst located in the Atlanta area. In September, McLeodUSA agreedr to merge with Fairpoint, N.Y.-based in a deal valued at around $557 That transaction is scheduled to close in the first quartef ofthis year.
Hollanf will leave the company as part ofthe