Excel Communications was founded in 1988 by Dallas entrepreneur Kenny Troutt as a long distance reseller in the US telecom sector at the birth of telecom deregulation. It began selling franchises using a multi-level marketing (MLM) business model, eventually selling over 200,000 of these franchises, or an average of 1 franchise for each 20 customers. In seven years, it became the fourth-largest long distance carrier in America and the youngest billion-dollar-annual company in history (8 years as compared to the second fastest growing, Microsoft, which took 15 years).

On May 10, 1996, Excel became the youngest company ever to join the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), trading under the symbol (ECI). The ceremonial honor of ringing the opening bell was afforded to Kenny Troutt as the company he founded began its first day of public trading, with an offering of 11.5 million shares of common stock. In June 1997, Excel acquired Telco Communications Group, one of the nation's 10 largest long-distance phone companies with its own nationwide fiber-optic network. Before the purchase, Excel had to resell long distance service through other companies networks, such as Frontier Communications. In November 1998, Excel merged with Teleglobe. Kenny Troutt retired as CEO on September 20, 1999 and was replaced by Christina Gold.