New Knoxville Telephone Company: A Case Study

Metaswitch's VP3500 enables New Knoxville's cable and CLEC divisions to deliver POTS service alongside ATM and IP

Like many rural telcos, Ohio-based New Knoxville Telephone Company has a solid core business, built up since the company was founded in 1905, deploying legacy POTS services in its traditional service area. Being privately held, mostly by local residents, this is a heritage that New Knoxville is careful to protect while always being on the lookout for good opportunities to invest and expand its business.

In New Knoxville's case, these opportunities included the Cable TV network run by its affiliate NKTELCO Inc., and the services provided by its out-of-region subsidiary Goldstar Communications. These high-speed data networks offered the potential to deliver packet-based voice and Internet services - but it was not immediately obvious how to capitalize on that capability.

"It was clear that we were faced with a number of different strategic initiatives - replacement of our legacy Class 5 switch, broadband rollout and Cable TV network upgrade - that needed a unifying vision," explains Preston Meyer, New Knoxville's General Manager.

"Ideally, we wanted to offer POTS and advanced broadband telephone services over all our networks from a single Class 5 switch. None of the "next generation" switches we looked at could deliver full Class 5 services over all of our telco and cable networks. That is, until we found Metaswitch."

Metaswitch's VP3500 Class 5 softswitch enables New Knoxville's cable and CLEC divisions to deliver POTS service alongside ATM voice over DSL and T1, and IP voice over its hybrid fiber coax cable network, all from a single, compact switch.

If, like New Knoxville Telephone Company, you want to get the most out of your existing network while taking a first step towards next generation technology, then contact us today to find out more. While you are visiting our website, please download our white papers.

To learn more about New Knoxville Telephone Company's NKTELCO, visit www.nktelco.net. For GoldStar Communications, visit www.gldstr.com.