CLECs Turn to MetaSwitch Following FCC Ruling

Alameda, CA: December 21, 2004. Does a ruling last week by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sound the death-knoll for competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) across the country? While some claim that the commission’s decision means an end to competition, a number of forward-thinking CLECs have already put contingency plans in place - using equipment from VoIP Softswitch vendor MetaSwitch. Today, MetaSwitch announced as customers two national service providers, Utility Telephone and PCS1, who are both taking this route.

The FCC decision, announced last Wednesday, changed the rules under which CLECs order and pay for services leased from incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). One of the most hotly debated changes was to unbundled network elements (UNEs): while in most cases CLECs retain the ability to use the ILEC’s "last mile" local loops, they will no longer have the right to also lease "Class 5" switching facilities. As a result, over the next 12 months CLECs will have to deploy their own equipment, with the MetaSwitch Class 5 Softswitch being the preferred option for many seeking to offer equivalent service to their existing customers while introducing enhanced services to attract new customers and generate additional revenue.

PCS1, one of the fastest-growing CLECs in the country, specializes in providing local and long distance service to small businesses. CEO Devin Semler recognized that while UNE-P was a great way to build up its customer base - the company now serves over 75,000 lines - they had to pursue a facilities-based strategy in parallel.

"The FCC’s decision did not come as a surprise," said Semler. "We have been preparing for this day for more than 6 months. Our downtown Los Angeles switching center, with MetaSwitch at the core of our operations, is now fully commissioned with both VoIP and TDM services hooked up to the PSTN. Our plan from here is to transition our existing customer base during the first half of 2005, and then to progressively expand our distributed softswitch network with additional MetaSwitch media gateways."

PCS1’s Vice President of Network Operations, Josh Ploude, added: "Setting up our own collocated facilities was a major investment for us, and we had just one chance to get it right. Fortunately, the most complex piece of new equipment, the MetaSwitch, worked as promised out of the box, and came with the support of a superb dedicated engineer who guided us through every step of the turn-up process."

In contrast, Utility Telephone benefited from an existing data network and ILEC collocation facilities, so the move to Class 5 switching was straightforward. The company currently has a MetaSwitch call agent and media/signaling gateway deployed in Stockton, California, with plans to install an additional three MetaSwitch media gateways for further geographic coverage.

"Seeing that the days of UNE-P were numbered, we identified three key requirements for a Class 5 softswitch," said Jason Mills, President of Utility Telephone. "First, it had to offer the reliability and features our customers expected, including support for Centrex and PBX lines. Second, it had to support packet voice interfaces to integrate seamlessly with our data network. Third, it had to be priced right so that the business case for migration added up. MetaSwitch stood out as the only vendor that could meet all these requirements."

MetaSwitch’s Class 5 Softswitch solution is ideally suited to CLECs like PCS1 and Utility Telephone. "CLECs who have been deploying UNE-P typically have a geographically dispersed customer base, and have built their reputation on offering services just like the ILECs," explained Danny Briere, CEO of TeleChoice, a telecom analyst firm that tracks the CLEC industry. "MetaSwitch is therefore taking the right approach by offering a combination of legacy equivalence and a distributed softswitch architecture with low-cost media gateways. In addition, CLECs need to introduce advanced services such as IP Centrex and Web Self-Care, which are supported natively by the MetaSwitch platform, to drive up their average revenue per user (ARPU)."

The MetaSwitch product line includes carrier-class softswitching solutions for both incumbent and competitive carriers. Options range from a compact single-chassis softswitch to an open standards-based distributed architecture with centralized call agent servers controlling multiple media and signaling gateways. In all configurations, which scale from a few hundred subscribers to over 500,000, MetaSwitch delivers a full set of traditional Class 4/5 features and next generation enhanced IP services on a collocatable, fault-tolerant hardware platform. Just as importantly for carriers deploying their own switch for the first time, MetaSwitch’s team of system engineers ensures professional network design, installation, configuration, turn-up and post-deployment support and management.

“We are excited to be working with PCS1 and Utility Telephone on these deployments, which are central to their strategy to continue competing, and thriving, under the new regulatory regime,” said Andy Randall, Vice President of Marketing at MetaSwitch. “The key message for other CLECs in their position is that it is not too late. We have both the technology and experience to help them through the transition.”

For CLECs interested in finding out more, Andy Randall will be discussing UNE-P migration strategies and case studies in the panel session “Migration: It’s not for the birds” at the CompTel/ASCENT Spring 2005 Convention in New Orleans on February 16.

About MetaSwitch

MetaSwitch is the industry’s leading independent broadband Class 5 softswitch vendor. Its widely deployed Class 5 Softswitch supports over 100 Class 5 features including CLASS services, IP Centrex, E911, LNP, 1-800 and CALEA, and scales from a few hundred to half a million subscribers. Customers include incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers, as well as operators of broadband wireless, cable and fiber networks.

MetaSwitch is a division of established telecom technology provider Data Connection (DCL). The company is consistently profitable and privately held, with US locations in California, Virginia, Texas and Florida, and European headquarters in London, UK.

For more information, see www.metaswitch.com.

Data Connection and MetaSwitch are trademarks of Data Connection Limited and Data Connection Corporation. Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.