DakotaPro.biz Selects MetaSwitch for Major Step Into Voice Services

Southern Arizona's largest independently-owned ISP adds voice services to current offerings

 

San Jose, CA, ISPCON FALL 2008: November 13, 2008. DakotaPro.biz today announced it has been working with MetaSwitch, the leader in reliable, high-quality voice communications platforms and services, to offer voice services to business customers in Tucson and surrounding areas. DakotaPro.biz purchased the MetaSwitch softswitch platform to roll out a converged access bundle that will include the new voice offerings, as well as the company's current business-class Internet solutions.

Traditionally an Internet Services Provider (ISP) of focused data solutions, DakotaPro.biz made the decision to pursue voice services after seeing the demand for converged offerings continue to grow in their service area. "Our customers are looking for the option of bundled services - including internet, phone, long distance - from their service providers," said Bill Bosmeny, president and chief executive officer. "In order to stay competitive in this area, and to continue to provide the high-quality service our customers have come to expect, DakotaPro.biz chose to invest in a carrier-class solution to enable and ensure the smooth transition from a data-only to a full-service business communications provider. While other local providers have deployed low-cost solutions using open-source software, we knew that businesses demand the robustness and reliability of this solution."

The new offering focuses mainly on small-to-medium businesses throughout Southern Arizona, as well as the Phoenix metro market, all served by a MetaSwitch softswitch in DakotaPro.biz's Tucson data center. The services provide business line replacement as well as traditional telephony services and features. DakotaPro.biz has experienced high demand for this product - they already have hundreds of voice lines deployed and a steady growth of new voice lines each month. Bosmeny adds, "In this economy, businesses are looking to save money while increasing productivity. This product does both."

Additionally, MetaSwitch enables the delivery of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking services, and advanced hosted PBX services which more network operators and enterprises are increasingly turning to as ways to lower expenses for IP networks. According to Bosmeny, the decision to work with MetaSwitch came after lengthy discussions with a variety of other vendors. "Since this was a brand-new offering for DakotaPro.biz, we really did our due diligence in choosing the right vendor to partner with," he explained. "We wanted a single vendor to support this application and MetaSwitch was the only company that could bring this to the table. We look at MetaSwitch as a trusted partner in this endeavor, with the breadth of offerings to help deliver best-of-breed digital voice services."

"DakotaPro.biz is leading the curve as Internet Service Providers continue to see the benefits of providing both data and voice services," said Jeff Lattomus, area vice president at MetaSwitch. "In addition to providing high-quality communications solutions to its customers and meeting demands for improved services, DakotaPro.biz is also providing opportunities, like SIP trunking and other services, for those business customers to save money and increase the quality of their IP networks."

About DakotaPro.biz

DakotaPro.biz, along with its sister division DakotaCom.Net, has been a leader in Southern Arizona in providing IP services since 1995. It operates one of the most advanced networks and server collocation facilities in Southern Arizona while providing award-winning support. The company provides a wide range of broadband connectivity, managed security, premium email, and voice services. For more information, please visit www.DakotaPro.biz.

About MetaSwitch

MetaSwitch is an industry-leading vendor of switching and applications solutions for both packet and circuit-switched networks. Its MetaSphere applications suite enables a broad set of hosted IP communications services, while its core session control and media/signaling gateway products support a full range of Class 4/5 softswitch capabilities. Customers include many of the world's leading operators of wireline, wireless and cable networks, with deployments that scale to millions of subscribers. For more information, please visit www.metaswitch.com.