Telco Systems acquires IP DSLAM vendor

Telco Systems has acquired IP DSLAM maker Critical Telecom, the company announced today.

The companies won’t disclose details of the asset purchase, nor will privately held Critical divulge its revenue or total funding. The company announced a $12.7-million funding round in October 2003 led by VenGrowth Capital Partners and supported by Telus Ventures, Business Development Bank of Canada and Crown Ventures Fund.

Critical’s main product line is its Gemini remote DSLAM, a line-powered, 24-port box designed to support ADSL2+ and gigabit Ethernet uplinks for IPTV. It also includes what the company calls a “virtualization layer” that maps features onto the physical layer.

The news comes two months after Telco Systems acquired another access equipment vendor, Metrobility Optical Systems, which specialized in Ethernet demarcation devices that mark the line between customer and carrier control in Ethernet networks.

Gemini will complement Telco Systems’ existing portfolio by adding support for fiber-to-the-curb and fiber-to-the-node networks to the company’s existing fiber-to-the-premises gear, said Nancy Macartney, Critical’s former president and CEO, who will join Telco Systems “in a business development role.”

Canadian-based Critical made its U.S. debut in 2003 with a passive, ADSL extender nicknamed “Fred” (full-rate extended DSL). That product was developed for Telus, Canada’s second-largest telecom carrier, and designed to be deployed with crossconnects as an alternative to remote DSLAMs. Fred is dead, however; Critical discontinued it about a year ago.

Critical introduced the Gemini in the fall of 2004 and in early 2005 announced that Ericsson had added the product to its access portfolio, where it remains today. More than 10 customers have purchased the Gemini, Macartney said, most of them independent U.S. telcos.

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