MetaSwitch announces VP3500 softswitch enhancement

MetaSwitch this week announced a new enhancement to its VP3500 softswitch and revealed that it has delivered its 50th switch.

Among the most significant of the enhancements is a single blade that provides all of the gateway functions that typically require 3 or 4 separate cards. The PB family of media gateway cards including Gigabit Ethernet, OC3 and DS3 interfaces together with on-board DSPs for any-to-any transcoding and echo cancellation.

The switch also represents a jump in scalability with the newest gateway cards able to handle up to 2016 concurrent calls.

"We’re very excited because this gets us into bigger customers," said Andy Randall, vice president marketing for MetaSwitch.

So far the company has been targeting smaller independent telcos. Among its customer list is Progressive Rural Telephone Co-Op, a 6000-line telco in Rentz, Ga., which installed MetaSwitch’s 50th switch last week.

MetaSwitch won the Progressive contract after a trial phase that involved six vendors. Initially, Progressive will use the VP3510 as a local tandem switch. The next phase will involve migrating subscribers to the switch as part of a phase-out of an installed base of Siemens DCO switches.

Though MetaSwitch is stepping up the size scale, it still isn’t targeting RBOCs, said John Lazar, CEO of MetaSwitch. That may come in part for the lack of a big name partner that can open doors at the largest local carriers. MetaSwith likely will work with larger vendors but only through partnership, he said.