Minnesota's Mabel Telephone chooses TelStrat for triple play

April 25, 2006 Plano, TX -- Mabel Telephone Cooperative of Mabel, Minnesota is upgrading its access network with TelStrat's Inteleflex Broadband Loop Carrier platform. The platform will allow the carrier to offer high-speed data services via copper and FTTH to its 1,800 subscribers.

"Our goal is to begin offering more broadband-intensive applications to our subscribers, but our existing system couldn't offer the DSL, IP video, and improved voice services that we wanted," explains Loren Tingesdal, plant manager of Mabel Telephone. "The Inteleflex platform allows us to offer triple-play services out of a single remote cabinet, and because we can utilize both copper and fiber, it gives us a very cost-effective way to migrate to offering FTTH-based services."

TelStrat, a provider of broadband access network platforms for independent operating companies, supplied Mabel Telephone with environmentally hardened cabinets while also retrofitting a number of existing sites. Where existing outdoor cabinets were left in place, TelStrat says it provided "a turnkey retrofit package;" legacy equipment was removed from another vendor's cabinet and replaced with the TelStrat Inteleflex systems.

"We're pleased to be part of Mabel Telephone's efforts to better serve their subscribers by delivering increased bandwidth and enhanced services," comments Bob Carroll, TelStrat's founder and CEO. "Inteleflex provided Mabel Telephone with a cost-effective means to move from traditional circuit switched services to emerging packet-based services. Our goal is to provide our customers with the ability to capture new revenue streams. In this case, our retrofit program also allowed them to reduce their capital expenditures."