Zhone Technologies, Inc., the first company dedicated to building total-delivery solutions for voice, data and content services worldwide, and MetaSwitch, a leading provider of next generation switching solutions announced today that Newroads Telecom has selected and deployed Zhone's Multi-Access Line Concentrator and MetaSwitch's Class 5 Softswitch technology for its new service deployments.

Newroads has installed the MetaSwitch VP3510 at its own Fort Smith, Arkansas data center and is collocating Zhone's MALC with 48 port ADSL2+ line cards and 32 port T1/ATM line cards as its broadband service platform over copper access lines from SBC Central Offices throughout its serving area.

MetaSwitch's easy-to-deploy VP3510 Integrated Softswitch is a complete solution for Class 4/5 switching over TDM and packet-based networks. Within one carrier-class chassis, the VP3510 incorporates call agent, feature server, media gateway and signaling gateway functionality for a true "softswitch" solution without the hassle of deploying, integrating and managing multiple boxes from different vendors.

Zhone's MALC, ADSL2+ line cards and the T1/ATM line cards were selected because they provide the greatest flexibility and density of any platform on the market. With support for up to 960 ADSL2+ ports in a 7U chassis, Zhone's MALC offers the most cost effective and highest density concentration of any broadband platform on the market. With options for integrated POTS ports and splitters, MALC simplifies carrier's network integration efforts while delivering downstream data rate services up to 24 Mbps and upstream data rates ranging up to 3 Mbps.

"Our customers are demanding services that, until recently, were only available in larger metropolitan areas," said Bill Stuckey, President of Newroads. "America's smaller communities are now also enjoying the newest technologies being delivered by competitive carriers like Newroads. It benefits our local communities to have advanced telecommunications services available, and subscribers need and demand a choice."

In addition to support for both high-bandwidth copper and fiber access lines, MALC also supports integrated transport using Gigabit Ethernet and Resilient Packet Ring (RPR) technology. RPR provides many of the characteristics found in conventional SONET networks including QOS, sub-50 ms protection switching and simplified provisioning. However, unlike SONET, RPR allows carriers to efficiently handle both TDM and packet traffic, including multicast and broadcast video traffic, all over cost-effective Gigabit Ethernet.

As a result of interoperability effort, Zhone's MALC and MetaSwitch's VP3510 uniquely facilitate the migration to packet networks by allowing carriers to deploy today using TDM circuit technology and migrate to entirely IP packet access and transport as their needs and networks dictate and without incremental hardware.