MetaSwitch Takes the Lead in Enabling CLECs to Migrate to Facilities-Based Networks Following FCC Ruling; Since UNE-P Rules Change, MetaSwitch Has Powered the Migration of 42 CLECs with 3.7 Million Lines

Business Wire, March 13, 2006

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Steep rate hikes will be a reality for many American businesses and consumers following a controversial Federal Communications Commission ruling that took effect on March 11. The FCC decision, first announced in 2004, alters the rules under which competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) order and pay for services leased from incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs). Now, competitive carriers who had been reselling ILEC services at advantageous rates must either pay much higher rates to ILECs, or migrate customers to their own facilities-based networks. MetaSwitch, a leading vendor of next generation carrier switching and applications solutions, revealed today that it has enabled more than 40 CLECs, currently serving in excess of 3.7 million subscriber lines, to migrate off the ILEC's switching platform.

The FCC ruling, which ended the former UNE-P (unbundled network element - platform) tariffs, is an intensely debated one. In most cases CLECs can continue to use the ILEC's "last mile" local loops, but they will no longer have the right to lease ILECs' Class 5 switching facilities. This has prompted CLECs to deploy their own equipment during the past year - and that's where MetaSwitch comes in. To date, 42 CLECs have put contingency plans in place prior to the March 11 deadline, leveraging technology and expertise from MetaSwitch. These companies include Valtech of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Planet Access of Lathrup Village, Michigan, and American Broadband and Telecommunications of Sylvania, Ohio.

"The MetaSwitch team worked with our company to develop an affordable and effective means to transfer our existing customers off the ILEC platform and onto our MetaSwitch," said Jeffrey Ansted, president of American Broadband and Telecommunications, a local provider of unlimited telephone service and Internet access for homes and small businesses in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. "This will not only position us to meet all of the FCC time-tables, it will also drive higher margins throughout our installed base of 'on-net' customers. Our MetaSwitch will allow us to offer next generation IP and switched-based vertical services, not currently available in our markets, to further differentiate us from our competition."

CLECs have turned to MetaSwitch, calling the company's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) switching and applications solutions "key" to the cost-effective migration from UNE-P. MetaSwitch's Class 5 softswitches are particularly suited for CLECs, with support for legacy and packet-based interfaces, feature equivalence with ILEC Class 5 switches, and approval to collocate in ILEC central offices. MetaSwitch softswitching solutions also scale from a few hundred to millions of subscribers in both integrated and distributed configurations.

"In today's regulatory environment, it's mandatory for leading providers of carrier-class telephony equipment, such as MetaSwitch, to help customers anticipate and prepare for ongoing rules changes," said Andy Randall, MetaSwitch Vice President of Marketing. "Over the past three years we have enhanced our product in several ways specifically to enable UNE-P migration, in line with our tradition of anticipating change and offering customers viable, cost-effective technology solutions. This is just one of the many reasons that communications leaders - from traditional carriers to pure-play VoIP providers - are realizing the value that MetaSwitch delivers."

Historically, MetaSwitch CLEC customers have been deploying many new applications - IP Centrex, VoIP, wireless (WIMAX) and more nationwide - in businesses and homes, from small communities in the Midwest to large metropolitan areas. Planet Access, for instance, has a relationship with US Signal, a provider with 6,000 miles of transport across 15 metropolitan areas in the Midwest. US Signal is providing backbone transport across its fully redundant, SONET protected, fiber optic network, as well as OnNet access to over 60 Points of Presence in five states. In addition, Planet Access is benefiting from MetaSwitch's alliances with Cisco and Occam; together with its partners, MetaSwitch is working to build an entire end-to-end IP network for Planet Access.

Valtech is migrating from UNE-P to WIMAX using Alvarion gear to bypass the local RBOC entirely. MetaSwitch has helped such CLECs bypass RBOCs, taking them "out of the loop" and giving CLECs access to local lines controlled by RBOC monopolies. Basically, MetaSwitch facilitates the transition to IP/packet-based switching and reduces network operating costs, removing dependence on RBOCs. Also, MetaSwitch, with a flexible IMS-ready architecture for migration to next generation networks, enables voice services over WIMAX, a wireless broadband access technology that avoids local loop charges imposed by the incumbent exchange carriers. Rather than relying on copper wire, a company can access voice and data services via a WIMAX connection to a data center that has a fiber optic connection to the Internet or IP backbone. The result: wireless access, saved time and money.