CHELMSFORD, Mass. -- Astral Point Communications, Inc. announced today the ON 7000 Integrated Optical Transport Node that directly addresses the most urgent needs of Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) to improve their current revenue structure while evolving towards the delivery of next generation, high-speed data services.

The ON 7000 incorporates best-in-class capabilities of a SONET/SDH add-drop multiplexer (ADM), digital cross-connect (DCS) and dense wave division multiplexer (DWDM) into a single platform that is one-sixth the size of the elements it replaces. The ON 7000 aggregates up to 576 DS3, 864 OC3/STM1 and up to 36 OC192/STM64 interfaces per rack, which represents three times more DS3, three times more OC3, and six times more OC192's than its nearest competitors. In addition, the ON 7000 is the only product available that can groom to STS1 and VT1.5 granularity at this scale. Direct support for DWDM optics on its high-speed ring interfaces ensures a very efficient and economical hand-off to inter-office or regional DWDM networks.

"With some 80% of revenues tied to the delivery of voice services, ILECs are searching for ways to maintain that revenue stream as they build out their networks for the delivery of high-speed data services. The ON 7000 is an evolutionary platform for carriers wanting to leverage their existing SONET networks," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder at Infonetics Research. "Often when vendors consolidate multiple network elements into a single platform they become jack-of-all-trades and masters of none. That is not the case with the ON 7000. The density, capacity, and scalability of the ON 7000 provide carriers with compelling cost and performance metrics."

Astral Point Communications Inc.