MetaSwitch Moves to Compete in the Cable Voice Arena

MetaSwitch is moving into the cable VoIP arena with a new strategy it calls COMPETE!.

While the company, which traditionally has focused on the telco market, has won business with a handful of cableco customers in the past few years, MetaSwitch’s new COMPETE! initiative aims to support CableLabs’ PacketCable 2.0 standard, making it a much more viable option for cable companies looking for voice solutions.

“We had some cable customers,” said Andy Randall, MetaSwitch’s vice president of marketing. “NKTELCO was the first service provider to deploy a single switch for cable VoIP and for traditional telco customers. But, to be honest, in the early days of cable VoIP, we didn’t implement all of the CableLabs standards.”

COMPETE! is not an entirely new product or product line, but rather an enhancement to MetaSwitch’s existing softswitch product line, said Randall. The enhancements are support for dynamic QoS over the last mile and plans to support PacketCable 2.0 when it becomes available, he said. The COMPETE! effort also encompasses partnerships MetaSwitch has forged with various cable vendors, including Nuera (now owned by AudioCodes) and Cisco Systems Inc. (which has CMTS, Linksys Wi-Fi and Scientific-Atlanta set-top box gear).

Several factors contributed to MetaSwitch’s decision to tackle the cableco opportunity at this time, according to Randall. That includes the fact that cablecos now are trying to address the requirements of enterprise customers with things like hosted PBX and T1-based services; that telcos now are moving forward with IPTV, which is challenging cablecos to move in new directions; and that the pending PacketCable 2.0 standard focuses on IMS. MetaSwitch – and most of the rest of the communications industry – has embraced IMS. “Solutions that had gained traction in early cable voice rollouts may be at disadvantage now, with the move to PacketCable 2.0,” said Randall.

More than 10 cable operators, including Clear Creek Telephone & TeleVision, Cunningham Telephone and Cable, Penasco Valley Telecommunications and Vidia Communications, have adopted the COMPETE!-enhanced MetaSwitch softswitch. Penasco Valley Telecommunications is moving all of its lines from its current PacketCable VoIP solution to a MetaSwitch COMPETE! solution to roll out services to residential, business and larger enterprise customers in its New Mexico service region. “We needed a dense, scalable platform with the support necessary to serve both residential and business customers, and take us forward on a future-proof architecture based on IMS,” said Mark Reams, chief business officer for Penasco Valley Telecommunications. “We have been positively surprised by how quickly and easily we were able to install the MetaSwitch and migrate our existing customers.” Randall declined to provide the name of the vendor MetaSwitch is replacing for the Penasco Valley deployment.

But Randall said MetaSwitch’s entry into the world of cableco voice puts it in competition with large vendors including Nortel and Siemens as well as smaller and mid-sized suppliers like Cedar Point Communications and GENBAND, whose acquisition of Syndeo was a player in the cableco space.

Randall said the MetaSwitch solution will stand out in the cable market because of its ability to scale up or down affordably – and to retain its robust features and applications no matter what size the deployment. He added the support and professional services MetaSwitch offers also add value to its COMPETE! offer. “Even for cablecos that have deployed [voice services before], we can help them scale up to IMS,” he said.

MetaSwitch www.metaswitch.com

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