Nationwide Rollout of 20 Mbps In-Building BPL Voice, Video and Data Services Blazes Trail for Industry !!!

November 28, 2006 11:00 AM Eastern Time
First Communications Partners with MetaSwitch to Deploy Enhanced Broadband Services over Power Line
Nationwide Rollout of In-Building BPL Voice, Video and Data Services Blazes Trail for Industry

AKRON, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Communications, one of the largest Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLECs) in the Midwest, has recently deployed advanced voice and data services delivered over existing power lines in multi-dwelling/multi-tenant (MDU/MTU) buildings to residential and business customers throughout the United States. These services--including broadband Internet, advanced telephony, video on-demand, smart home and an array of security monitoring offerings--leverage next-generation switching and application solutions provided by MetaSwitch.

The new services, known as FirstSpeed BPL, are provided through medium-voltage electricity circuits with a sophisticated technology known as Broadband over Power Lines (BPL). In-building BPL utilizes the existing electrical infrastructure of a building to disperse high-speed connectivity throughout a building. This state-of-art delivery solution does not require expensive re-wiring of the network, and delivers blazing throughput of up to 20 Mbps, which easily outperforms DSL or cable systems.

The new advanced services are directly related to First Communications decision to move its key switching infrastructure from several large-scale Nortel DMS500 switches to new CA9000 softswitch and MG3510 media gateways from MetaSwitch, said Charles Leedy, Ph.D., Vice President of Network Operations at First Communications.

“The biggest benefit of a BPL network is that we don’t have to go though a traditional regional Bell company to provide our customers access to these exciting new services,” said Leedy. “MetaSwitch provided us with innovative technology that opened up powerful alternative access, without additional construction, wiring, regulatory or safety issues. For our business customers, this means they can simply and quickly network the enterprise through their building’s electrical grid.”

“First Communications has demonstrated exceptional vision and industry leadership in combining BPL technology with a flexible softswitch-based services platform,” said Andrew Randall, Vice President of Marketing at MetaSwitch. “The benefits of their new infrastructure are three-fold: they have exponentially grown their market reach; they have added a host of revenue-enhancing services; and they are providing customers with considerable additional value. It is enormously satisfying to see MetaSwitch solutions driving the adoption of new technologies and enabling the competitive telecommunications sector to thrive through innovation.”

Source: Business Wire 2006