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Valley TeleCom Group deploys 15 softswitches from MetaSwitch with the aim of migrating its network to packet-based switching over the next year
November 8, 2005
WILLCOX, Ariz. -- Valley TeleCom Group, comprising four companies serving subscribers across southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, today announced that it is deploying 15 softswitches from MetaSwitch with the aim of migrating its entire network to packet-based switching over the next 12 months. According to independent industry experts, the multi-million dollar initiative is one of the most significant wholesale next generation Class 5 switch replacements to date of any North American incumbent operator's network.
"Although early adopters such as Sprint and Verizon have committed to widescale softswitch deployment, Valley TeleCom may be one of the only U.S. carriers to have actually replaced every single legacy switch in its networks to support both local and long-distance services," commented Teresa Mastrangelo, Principal Analyst with broadbandtrends, an independent market research and consulting firm specializing in the coverage of broadband infrastructure and services, including Class 5 switch deployments in North America. "Valley's adoption of MetaSwitch therefore represents a watershed moment in the industry's acceptance of next generation switching technology, reflecting a trend for carriers to replace their entire networks at once rather than a switch at a time."
Valley TeleCom Group operates 13 exchanges in Arizona and New Mexico through its subsidiaries, Valley Telephone Cooperative and Copper Valley Telephone. In addition, its CLEC subsidiary, Valley Connections, plans to open another two exchanges in the coming months. The company decided to migrate its network to a packet-based softswitch in order to reduce the cost of network operations, and to prepare for growth in Voice-over IP (VoIP) and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) services. The project is expected to pay for itself within 18 months through network efficiencies, revenues from new services, and the avoidance of maintenance and upgrade fees on the decommissioned legacy switches.
"We realized that, with the advent of next generation technologies, our aging - and costly - Nortel DMS-10s had only a limited useful lifespan," explained Joe Webb, Valley TeleCom Chief Operating Officer, Plant Administration. "After evaluating many companies and products in depth, our strategic planning team unanimously agreed that MetaSwitch was the only vendor that could actually support replacing our legacy switches while giving us the next-generation architecture and the enhanced services that we required for the future. This decision has been supported by our wholly positive experience during the implementation of our first five switches over the last two months."
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