Arvig Communication Systems: A Case Study

The Metaswitch deployment enables ACS to provide superior wholesale services to other competitive local exchange carriers

Established in 1950, Arvig Communication Systems (ACS), is a family-owned business with its corporate headquarters in Perham, MN. ACS offers local telephone, long distance, digital cable television, high-speed internet and more to residents and businesses in Central Minnesota. ACS prides itself on delivering cutting-edge technology to the rural communities it services.

ACS selected the Metaswitch VP3510 Class 4/5 softswitch and UC9000 unified communications system to address a broad range of applications including legacy switch replacement, capacity offload for ACS's rapidly growing customer base, and competitive voice services for the company's Cable TV subscribers.

The deployment is the first step in the company's strategy to migrate to an all-packet network, with the goal of delivering all services including voice, data and video (broadcast and on demand), over Internet Protocol (IP). It also enables ACS to provide superior wholesale services to other competitive local exchange carriers, further fuelling growth. In total, ACS's goal is to grow the system to 30,000 subscribers within 5 years.

According to ACS's director of network operations, Andy Klinnert, Metaswitch was a natural choice based on Metaswitch's three years of experience deploying voice over IP (VoIP) in a hybrid packet/TDM environment.

"Metaswitch uniquely offered the scalability and proven VoIP capabilities, including IP Centrex with integrated Unified Messaging, that we were seeking for our new switch," said Klinnert. "Metaswitch's support staff has been extremely responsive and helpful during our switch conversion process."

If, like Arvig Communication Systems, you want to move to a next generation network - safely - then contact us today to find out more. To learn more about Arvig Communication Systems, visit www.arvig.com.