Nortel may be known for supplying products and services to some of today’s industry heavyweights but this Canadian company also has its eye on the small to medium-sized VoIP space. It’s for this reason that Nortel (News - Alert) has announced the Nortel Communication Server 1500 (CS 1500), a second-generation VoIP softswitch that provides a platform for IP communication services. The CS 1500 will allow small and medium-sized wireline service providers to meet growing subscriber demand for both local and long-distance voice and next generation services.

 

Nortel has also introduced new Global Services to help small and medium- sized service providers deploy new IP-based services more quickly and optimize network efficiency and security.

 

"We are frequently looking for technology that allows us to leverage our existing investments and infrastructure to deliver a highly-reliable telephone service to our customers and also seamlessly introduce new IP-based services as they become available," said Jake Casey, executive vice president of Citizens Communications, a full-service communications provider offering telephone, television and Internet products and services in rural areas and small and medium-sized towns and cities around the United States. "Nortel's CS 1500 will help us satisfy our customers' communications needs today and expand our network to support more advanced services in the future."

 

The CS 1500 is scheduled for field trials starting fourth quarter 2006 and general availability in selected global markets during the first quarter of 2007. Nortel will showcase the CS 1500 at GLOBALCOMM 2006 June 5-7 in Chicago.

 

"VoIP is an expected and virtually required progression of all communication networks, and the focus is on not only how to make it fit within an evolving network and service environment, but also how to make it profitable," said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, research director, Gartner. "To this end, service providers are turning to softswitch architecture to migrate their networks to IP and deliver scalable, multimedia services to end users that generate new revenues from day one."

 

Building on Nortel's strengths in SIP and VoIP, CS 1500 provides a platform for advanced SIP based services and a cost-effective evolution path for DMS-10 and DMS-100 customers.

 

The CS 1500 core control, gateways and operations, administration and maintenance interfaces are all housed in a single chassis solution. Service providers can deploy the switch for end-office and Access Tandem applications to replace an existing switch or as an addition to the network. It offers the full range of legacy network interfaces and regulatory requirements, including E-911 and CALEA.

 

The product is complemented by a suite of Nortel Global Services for CS 1500 to support the entire network lifecycle, including engineering and installation, security assessment, integration and acceptance, assisted on- site or remote network operations, and on-going maintenance.

 

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