Fred Fromm, Gluon Networks

After more than 20 years with Siemens in various executive positions, including president of its U.S. carrier unit, Fred Fromm is getting his second taste of start-up life with next-gen switch vendor Gluon Networks (he was CEO of Oplink until June). The Petaluma, Calif.-based company, which has raised just north of $60 million in venture funding and put its CO switch out to general availability in June, has been praised for its innovative switch by techies but has been knocked around for its perceived instability. Fromm recently spoke with Telephony's Vince Vittore about taking the reigns of a company in Gluon's position and the switching marketing in general.

Why did you take this job?

The investment base [which includes U.S. Venture Partners, J.P Morgan Partners and New Enterprise Associates] was excited about a bit of a bright spot in telecom. They wanted to show confidence and they were very strongly encouraging me to take the job. Another reason was the platform. The platform is one we can build on and expand into many applications.

How do you address the issue of instability?

I don't believe it's an issue with the financial backing. The technology is there. We just have to be able to show them we can execute. The instability comes from the fact that this company has had three CEOs in four years.

How do you differentiate in what is already a crowded switching market?

Three or four years ago, everyone had a softswitch and an evolution concept. What Gluon created was a collapsed central office with an ATM fabric that can emulate ATM. It's a Class 5 replacement that can integrate ATM. We're also not marketing it as a cap-and-grow approach. Cap and grow is a cost and management nightmare. I have yet to find any telco guy who views cap and grow as anything other than an interim solution. The trial we're about to go into is a [Rural Utilities Service] trial. RUS is clearly a key benchmark in this market.