March 31, 2004 Jackson, TN -- Building on its success deploying what it claims is the nation's largest fully-funded Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) network, the Jackson Energy Authority is partnering with Aeneas Internet & Telephone, the largest ISP in western Tennessee, to offer voice services to 31,000 homes and businesses. Aeneas has selected MetaSwitch as its VoIP technology partner for the venture, based on the company's proven ability working with the JEA's chosen FTTP network vendor, Wave7 Optics. Using MetaSwitch's flagship VP3500 Next Generation Class 5 Switch, Aeneas will offer Jackson residents a range of advanced calling features, along with the ability to manage and configure those services via the Web.
"We chose MetaSwitch because the VP3500 is the only softswitch with a proven track record of over 18 months of delivering real Class 5 services over IP networks," explains Jonathon V. Harlan, CEO of Aeneas Internet & Telephone. "With the recent bankruptcies and acquisition activity among switch vendors, we were particularly impressed with MetaSwitch's long-term stability as a profitable, privately-held company with over 20 years of success."
"The value proposition of FTTP depends in large part on the ability to deliver next-generation services including Voice-over-IP," reports Danny Briere, CEO of TeleChoice, a telecom analyst firm that closely tracks the FTTP industry. "Voice over IP is emerging as the initial killer application for broadband, and Aeneas Telephone, MetaSwitch, and Wave7 are well ahead of most in the industry in deploying VoIP over Fiber to the Premises. A lot of people will be closely watching how quickly the Jackson subscribers take to the offering, because many business strategies around the country depend on success of value added services like this," he adds.
The MetaSwitch VP3500 broadband-enabled Next Generation Class 5 Switch has over 40 deployments in North America. It supports for VoIP, VoATM, and GR-303 as well as advanced Web-based subscriber services. The VP3500 has proven interoperability with a range of fiber devices as well as the flexibility for both VoIP and VoATM fiber rollouts, say company representatives. Service providers are able to simultaneously serve customers in multiple calling areas with over 100 Class 5 features and services, all supported by the switch without external application servers. The MetaSwitch VP3500 is easy to deploy and scales from 400 to over 250,000 subscribers in a single rack.