Taqua Wins Canadian ISP

RICHARDSON, Texas -- Expanding upon the strong market traction and leadership position it has achieved among the Rural Local Exchange Carrier market in the United States, Taqua, Inc., a leading provider of next-generation Class 5 switching platforms for voice and data convergence, today announced its third customer in the Canadian telecommunications service provider market. RipNET, an Ontario-based Internet Service Provider (ISP) has selected Taqua's OCX Class 5 "switch on a card" as the enabling technology for its entry into the Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) market and expansion of its facilities to offer high-speed broadband and local telecommunications services to its subscriber base. RipNET is the latest addition to Taqua's growing roster of 30 customers throughout North America. To accelerate its efforts to penetrate the lucrative Canadian service provider market, Taqua has partnered with Eastern Independent Telecommunications (EIT), a venerable full-service supplier of telecommunications network equipment that has been providing solutions to Canadian carriers for nearly three decades. During the past year, EIT has been instrumental in ensuring that the OCX interoperates with the Canadian public network standards and requirements including, but not limited to, E911, CALEA, CLASS, Global Title Translation (GTT) and SS7. "Expanding into the Canadian market is a natural progression for Taqua. We are experiencing a great deal of interest in our next-generation voice solutions in the United States specifically with the Rural Local Exchange Carriers, Internet Service Providers and Competitive Local Exchange Carriers as the OCX enables them to cap, replace and/or expand into new markets more affordably than legacy or other next-generation platforms. The OCX is ideally suited to meet the requirements and application needs of Canadian service providers," said Charles Vogt, President and Chief Executive Officer, Taqua, Inc. "Working closely with EIT, we are confident that Taqua will quickly gain a formidable share of the Canadian next-generation switching market." Taqua Systems Inc.