Bresnan Picks MetaSwitch VOIP

Bresnan Communications has chosen MetaSwitch's softswitch, media gateway, and application server products

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

November 1, 2006

1 Min Read
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Bresnan Communications has chosen Metaswitch Networks 's softswitch, media gateway, and application server products to aid in the MSO's rollout of business telephony services.

The two companies said that Bresnan, a mid-sized cable operator, is already deploying MetaSwitch's equipment in preparation for the rollout. The MSO, which serves roughly 300,000 cable subscribers in Utah, Montana, Wyoming, and Coloado, plans to launch commercial phone service widely throughout its four-state area sometime early next year.

MetaSwitch and Bresnan also said the vendor's technology will enable the cable operator to deliver a wide range of services to small-and-mid-sized firms, including Centrex, digital PBX trunks, and traditional phone services. That represents a shift for MetaSwitch, which had been focusing on residential phone applications in competition with such larger players as Nortel Networks Ltd. and Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE).

"The reason we're focusing now on business services is because that's where the next business opportunity is for a lot of MSOs," says Andy Randall, VP of marketing for MetaSwitch, which is teaming up with Cisco to sell its products. "That's where we can differentiate."

MetaSwitch isn't alone, though. Other VOIP gear suppliers are also expanding their focus to the commercial market as such large MSOs as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, and Charter Communications are either introducing or gearing up to launch business-class voice services.

At the recent Business Services Symposium in Chicago sponsored by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers, for instance, a dozen equipment suppliers filled the small exhibit hall with products. In their displays, many of the vendors focused on commercial phone services.

"There's really an untapped need out there," Randall says. "There is a gap in the market."

— Alan Breznick, Site Editor, Cable Digital News

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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