SENTITO TO LAUNCH RUS TRIAL

Vendor sentitO this week will announce that it has been approved to start a field trial with Woolstock Mutual Telephone, making it the latest entry into the crowded pack of softswitch vendors trying to get on the Rural Utilities System list of approved equipment.

Woolstock, a 900-line independent in north central Iowa, already has installed sentitO's switch opposite its existing Mitel circuit switch as part of a 60-day trial, after which it will begin its six-month RUS trial period.

“Right now, we have local loops out to board members and employees [off the sentitO switch],” said Jeff Rhode, general manager of Woolstock Mutual. During the RUS portion of the trial, the company will begin adding paying customers. “We're just going to cut the switch over, roll over all of our customers and cut out the Mitel switch,” Rhode said.

For sentitO, the trial will be its first with a local telco customer in the U.S. Previously, the company had announced one CLEC and two European carriers as customers.

“The RUS trial is a surprise because we're still a young company,” said William Flanagan, vice president of product management and marketing for the nearly three-year-old vendor.

Regardless of age, the Rockville, Md.-based company is joining a long list of softswitch start-ups targeting the independent market this year (see figure). Previously, all but the very smallest vendors and a handful of the major players like Nortel and Lucent have ignored the RUS list, which designates equipment rural telcos can purchase with low-cost loans. However, with the dearth of viable near-term large telco customers, the list is becoming an important right of passage, particularly for start-ups that need to prove their worth in a real-world environment.

“One of the things [RUS] looks at it is whether you actually have customers on the switch,” said Carol Heller, director of marketing for CopperCom.

In Woolstock, the sentitO switch will be used for primary-line voice service with the same basic features as its existing switch. However, Rhode said he's interested in some of the future capabilities including possibly providing wholesale VoIP service to neighboring independents.

“It really is a true IP softswitch, so it will allow us to develop new products as we go forward,” he said.