MetaSwitch Solutions Arm Cable Operators in the Battle for Business Voice Services

Washington, D.C., the Cable Show, April 1, 2009. MetaSwitch, the leader in reliable, high-quality IP communications platforms and services, today announced that Wave Broadband and Astound Broadband are leveraging MetaSwitch's award-winning technology to deliver advanced telephony services to small and medium businesses. In addition, MetaSwitch customer Bresnan Communications has achieved key milestones with the introduction of more sophisticated commercial services, which has led to winning larger business customers.

Wave Broadband and Astound Broadband, owned by WaveDivision Holdings, LLC, serve more than 140,000 basic video subscribers. The companies offer cable, internet and phone services, and have purchased and deployed MetaSwitch media gateways and feature server products to serve commercial subscribers in Western Washington State, Oregon and Northern California.

Astound Broadband replaced its legacy Alcatel-Lucent switch with MetaSwitch and successfully migrated over 17,000 San Francisco Bay Area subscribers to MetaSwitch. Next, the company is deploying the MetaSphere application suite, including unified messaging and auto attendant using a combination of HFC, fiber and copper for the last mile. "MetaSwitch's robust, flexible solution allows us to support our existing customers while also delivering an ever expanding suite of differentiating new services," explained Steve Friedman, chief operating officer, WaveDivision Holdings, LLC. "This flexibility was a deciding factor in our decision."

Bresnan Communications, with over 300,000 basic video subscribers, has worked extensively with MetaSwitch to build a flexible, scalable next-generation switching and applications platform. Using a phased approach to product introduction, Bresnan has been able to successfully transition from offering basic telephony services to delivering advanced services like Hosted PBX to business customers.

Bresnan's Business Services Division recently inked a deal with the Montana-based Billings Public Schools Trustee, which serves 15,500 students, to provide an IP Hosted phone service to all Billings public schools. Since the entire system is hosted, Billings School District has eliminated the need to invest in, own and maintain costly premises-based equipment, helping to reduce capital expenditures, a major benefit in today's economic climate.

"Bresnan Communications has used the Metaswitch platform to expand and enhance services to businesses across our footprint. We use their technology to offer lucrative services like Hosted PBX to our portfolio of large enterprise customers including hospitals and public school systems," said Don Helms, vice president at Bresnan Communications. "MetaSwitch supports our deployment of these expanded services not only with its platform and feature set, but their customer support and training has been everything we had expected as we continue to become the provider of choice for business across the Rockies."

"MetaSwitch continues to help power mid-tier MSOs with their entry into the business services market," stated Mike Ward, senior vice president at MetaSwitch. "With MetaSwitch in place, these dynamic operators will be able to continue to offer compelling, revenue-generating services to business customers of all sizes, helping fuel expansion in the commercial segment. MetaSwitch services are a great fit for cable operators who are also the perfect target for broadband stimulus funding."

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 switching 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.