BOCA RATON, Fla. -- CopperCom, a leader in next-generation softswitches, announced today that six independent operating companies (IOCs) in rural Iowa have replaced their Mitel switches with the CopperCom Converged Switching eXchange (CSX) softswitch platform. Titonka Telephone Company, Fenton Cooperative Telephone Company, Brooklyn Mutual Telephone Company, Minerva Valley Telephone Company, Ellsworth Cooperative Telephone Association and Farmers Cooperative Telephone have selected to deploy the CopperCom CSX as a replacement for their Mitel GX5000 switches.

All five IOCs were seeking an alternative vendor to Mitel, which will be ceasing support for the GX5000 switch as of January 2008. These rural carriers chose CopperCom because of its ability to enable them to provide a smooth transition to next-generation, IP-based services over time while continuing to provide traditional phone services today. The CopperCom softswitch also allows the carriers to comply with local number portability (LNP) requirements.

"We had been considering an upgrade to a next-generation softswitch to provide local number portability and expand into new services, and the Mitel news accelerated our decision-making process," said Jim Mayland, manager, Titonka Telephone Company. "The team at CopperCom made it easy for me to make the transition from my old Mitel switch to a next-gen platform. We're looking forward to rolling out some new services to our customers."

"CopperCom has replaced many end-of-life Mitel switches, and was pleased to help Titonka, Fenton, Brooklyn Mutual, Minerva Valley, Ellsworth Cooperative and Farmers Cooperative upgrade to a next-gen softswitch," said Mel Ethem, vice president of sales, CopperCom. "We look forward to helping them roll out new revenue-generating services to their customers."

CopperCom