MetaSwitch wins first RUS listing

MetaSwitch said today that the Rural Utilities Service has accepted its MetaSwitch VP3500 on its List of Materials, marking the first time the all-important designation has been given to a class 5 voice-over-IP switch.

The designation on the U.S. Department of Agriculture list, which allows small telcos to apply for low-cost federally funded loans to purchase equipment, follows a successful field trial with Yukon Telephone in Whittier, Alaska. That trial, which was done with Occam Networks’ Broadband Loop Carrier equipment and POTS lines via GR-303 DLCs from Advanced Fibre Communications, included an usual configuration in which Yukon connected the switch to two remote locations via satellite.

"It wasn’t part of the RUS trials themselves, but they let RUS know what was going on," said Andy Randall, general manager of North America for MetaSwitch.

Yukon conducted the seven-month trial as part of a process to replace its existing Lucent Technology 5E switch. During the trial, customers were transitioned off the circuit switch with no service disruption, Randall said.

The listing also comes at a time when the class 5 softswitch market is undergoing a significant upheaval. In the last six months, Taqua and Gluon have both been acquired, which in the short term should help MetaSwitch, Randall said. "There’s always a short-term realignment that happens, which helps you compete," he said of acquisitions. "[Competitors] start to spend a lot of energies on how they’re going to integrate the companies."