Competitive Carriers Turn to Cisco and MetaSwitch for Network Migration.

More Than 20 Service Providers Deploy SIMPLE Solution

ORLANDO, Fla. -- As the competitive telecom world gets together this week at the COMPTEL PLUS Fall Convention and Expo, MetaSwitch announced that more than 20 competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) have adopted the company's Secure IP Migration Platform for the Local Exchange (SIMPLE) solution, which integrates IP Next-Generation Networking (IP NGN) technologies from Cisco Systems([R]). Recent customer wins include BroadStar Communications and Norlight Telecommunications.

BroadStar, a leading provider of telephone, cable television and broadband Internet services in the Southeastern United States, worked closely with MetaSwitch and Cisco to architect a scalable triple-play solution for luxury residential properties, including condominiums. The design features Cisco integrated access devices (IADs) and Cisco 7600 Series Routers with a flexible softswitch application server platform from MetaSwitch to deliver multiple lines of high-quality voice and unified communications services to a single building over an all-IP access network.

"Our customers expect the latest capabilities with rock-solid reliability," said Christian Alvarez, president and general partner of BroadStar. "MetaSwitch and Cisco are critical to our ability to engineer the best-in-class, highly scalable network that can deliver these services. We continue to look forward to making MetaSwitch and Cisco an integral part of our strategic growth plans."

In contrast to BroadStar's focus on residential customers, Norlight has achieved success through serving wholesale and business customers for 34 years. Michael Ulicki, the CTO at Norlight, knew that to attract new customers and compete with emerging alternative providers he had to introduce bundled IP-based voice and data services. He turned to MetaSwitch and Cisco for their industry-leading expertise in IP networking and carrier-grade telephony services. The sales and engineering teams helped Norlight re-engineer its network and launch a suite of new IP voice services (including its newest integrated communications offering, IPLive[R]) in less than four months.

"MetaSwitch is widely recognized as a technology leader, which was important to Norlight as we looked to the future," said Ulicki. "More importantly, several months into service deployment, we can attest to the fact that the company really stepped up to the plate to ensure a successful implementation."

The SIMPLE (Secure IP Migration Platform for the Local Exchange) solution combines equipment from Cisco and MetaSwitch for Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure and multimedia-enhanced telephony services. Designed for competitive carriers and independent operators seeking to generate new revenues while driving network efficiencies, it is proven both in the field and through comprehensive bilateral interoperability testing. Building on this initiative, the recently-announced COMPETE (Cable Operator Multiservice Platform for Enhanced Telephony Evolution) initiative brings similar benefits to cable operators.

"MetaSwitch has proven to be a valuable partner in our efforts to grow the IP communications market," said Vic Northrup, vice president of U.S. service provider sales for Cisco. "Their experience in softswitch technology, combined with our own, greatly benefits our joint customers."

"CLECs are focused on generating new revenues, maximizing operational efficiency and providing quality services for their customers," said Becky Watson, program manager for Stratecast's CSNA program, a division of Frost & Sullivan. "MetaSwitch has taken a significant portion of the competitive carrier market with IP solutions that meet the needs of this market, including cost, operational requirements and quality"

"We are excited to be working with Cisco, with all the knowledge they bring to the table of how to build secure, scalable, carrier-class networks," said Mike Ward, MetaSwitch senior vice president of sales. "Our approach of pre-integrating best-of-breed technology enables leading carriers such as Norlight and BroadStar to get to market more quickly, maximizing return on investment."

MetaSwitch will be exhibiting and demonstrating services based on SIMPLE at COMPTEL PLUS Fall 2006 Expo in Orlando, Florida, October 8-11, in booth 1000.

About MetaSwitch MetaSwitch is an industry-leading vendor of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) switching and applications solutions for both packet and circuit-switched networks. Its widely deployed call agent, media/signaling gateway and application server platform supports a full range of legacy Class 4/5 capabilities and hosted unified communications services, and scales from a few hundred to millions of subscribers in both integrated and distributed configurations. MetaSwitch customers include incumbent and competitive local exchange carriers, as well as operators of broadband wireless, cable and fiber networks. MetaSwitch is a division of established telecom technology provider Data Connection. The company is consistently profitable and privately held, with main US offices in California and Virginia, and European headquarters in London, UK. For more information: www.metaswitch.com

Data Connection and MetaSwitch are trademarks of Data Connection Limited and Data Connection Corporation. Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Copyright [c] 2006 Data Connection Limited and Cisco Systems, Inc.