IP Telephony

Considering the array of services local municipalities already provide residents, it’s hardly surprising to learn that many are now adding communication to those services. In fact, many are realizing that deploying reliable broadband networks and associated services and applications will not only benefit residents, workforces, and visitors, but can also create new revenue streams.

 

Large enterprise networks are already considered akin to small service providers, so it’s not a stretch — in fact, it’s a logical evolution — for local municipalities to extend their services to include broadband communications. Furthermore, given the availability of carrier-class switching and service delivery platforms today, the transition to becoming a local service provider is easier than ever.

 

Among the vendors helping municipal utilities roll out next generation communications networks and services, including integrating with existing technology, is switching solutions provider MetaSwitch (News - Alert). Its Metasphere service delivery platform and flexible suite of applications enables the delivery of a wide range of hosted IP services, and its gateway products provide support for a  

 

“MetaSwitch is helping municipalities take the significant step of providing their own telecommunications services by delivering leading-edge technology complemented by comprehensive system integration support,” said Paul Drew, vice president of professional services at MetaSwitch.

 

With its legacy of providing scalable, carrier-class solutions, MetaSwitch has the expertise to help make the transition to a next generation network quick and cost effective.

 

Among the municipalities that have enlisted MetaSwitch for its transition is Bristol, Virginia, which, via Bristol Virginia Utilities (News - Alert) (BVU) launched its OptiNet network back in 2000, over which it was able to deliver voice, video, and data services to the city.

 

Then, three years ago, the decision to expand its service delivery capabilities led to the selection of MetaSwtich’s access protocol agnostic softswitch, which is also capable of delivering in a PON-based architecture.

 

In fact, with MetaSwitch’s architecture and application delivery capabilities, BVU has been able to extend its service delivery beyond Bristol County, as well as extending bundled service offers to large international businesses operating in the area. Locally, BVU Optinet provides a hosted PBX service, including unified messaging, auto attendant, conferencing, and music-on-hold.

 

For local residents, it also offers a choice of hosted next generation communications services, including TV Caller ID, either as a standalone service or as part of a larger triple play package.

 

“Initially we decided to deploy MetaSwitch based on the technology,” explained Mark Lane, BVU director of network engineering.  “We wanted to create an evolved service architecture that would deliver a superior voice product, with the quality and reliability you’d normally associate with traditional telecommunications providers.”

 

Monmouth and Independence, Oregon

In the cities of Monmouth and Independence, Oregon, non-profit public utility MINET runs a fiber network, delivering telephony, television, and Internet service for two years. For the past year, it has been delivering its triple play offerings via the MetaSwitch VP3510 softswitch over its Broadband PON (BPON)-based infrastructure with a voice-over-ATM network. Its next move will be to roll out VoIP services to its service area, which currently includes more than 3,000 residential and business customers.

 

After deploying the MetaSwitch solution, MINET general manager Phil Garrett looked back at the process, astounded at how easily it was accomplished.

 

“We were pleasantly surprised by how straightforward it was to get our customers provisioned using the switch,” he said. “MetaSwitch ensures that we consistently deliver high-quality, reliable services to our customers.”

 

Bristol Tennessee Essential Services (BTES) provides services to the city of Bristol, Tennessee — home to Bristol Motor Speedway — and its surrounding areas. In 2007, BTES was registered as an ILEC, adding telephony services to it existing array of high-speed Internet and cable TV service, creating a triple play offering it delivers over its all-fiber optic network.

 

Upon completing a comprehensive review of several equipment and software vendors, BTES also chose the MetaSwitch platform, which it says will enable it to extend its basic and advanced telephony services to all of its customers, which it hopes will drive new business to the community.

 

“BTES chose MetaSwitch because of its interoperability with our other equipment, allowing for a complete voice services delivery platform that is easy to provision and easy to use,” explained BTES CEO Dr. Mike Browder. 

 

MetaSwitch offered a compelling argument with its scalability, which, as Browder notes, allowed BTES to quickly grow its customer base, to where it can now accommodate almost any number of subscribers.

 

“It was imperative to partner with a solution provider that had been through the process before and understood what was required,” he added. “MetaSwitch helped make this transition as easy as possible.”

 

Windom Municipal Utilities (WMU), which provides electric, water, and wastewater service to the Windom, Minnesota community, rebranded itself as Windomnet in 2005, in conjunction with its launch of a citywide FTTH network. As a regional transportation hub, the ability to provide triple play services to businesses and residents provided a real business opportunity, and it now delivers those services to some 2,000 residences and 300 business customers.

 

Again, after going through a rigorous selection process, Windomnet opted for MetaSwitch as its migration partner and softswitch provider. It now uses the MetaSwitch platform to provide voice-over-fiber using traditional TDM voice-over-fiber, but plans to migrate to VoIP this year with a hosted PBX (News - Alert) offering.

 

“Choosing the right vendor partners was crucial in the process of building out and running this network,” explained Dan Olsen, director of operations at Windomnet. “It was particularly important to pick the right vendor, because voice really is the most fundamental communications service.”

 

Because the transition to IP-based services can be costly and time-consuming, it is particularly important to choose the right partner, one that is able to not only meet current service delivery needs, but with the ability to expand in terms of both services and subscribers in the future.

 

With MetaSwitch, these utility providers have not only been able to extend new services — like consolidated triple play offerings — to their local communities, but to transition to new services, like VoIP and other IP Communications applications, at their own pace.