Copper Mountain Networks' VicinityVoice 100 Local Trunk Gateway is designed to reduce the cost of transporting local phone calls between customers and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) by connecting directly to Class 5 switches.

by Wayne Kawamoto [June 7, 2001]

Copper Mountain Networks, a provider of copper-based broadband access solutions, introduced its VicinityVoice 100 Local Trunk Gateway (LTG). According to the company, its VicinityVoice 100 LTG is a new class of product that should enable providers deploying next-generation, packet-voice networks to reduce the cost of transporting local phone calls between broadband voice customers and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

Colocated in telco wiring centers, the carrier-class VicinityVoice is designed to interoperate with the CopperEdge and VantEdge platforms and next-generation packet-voice solutions to send broadband customers' local calls directly to PSTN destinations served from the same wiring centers.

By allowing broadband providers to send local PSTN-destined calls directly to their destinations through the wiring centers' Class 5 switches, the VicinityVoice 100 LTG should enable providers to avoid the trunking costs associated with sending these calls through more distant Class 4 tandem switches.

Copper Mountain says that a typical wiring-center Class 5 switch serves between 20,000 and 30,000 Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) phone lines. And between 20 and 25 percent of all voice calls are purely local, placed to recipients served from the wiring centers where the calls originate.

The VicinityVoice 100 LTG's local call-handling capability should further enhance the cost advantages of next-generation packet-voice solutions—most commonly referred to as "Softswitches"—which include feature servers, media gateways, media gateway controllers, and SS7 gateways.

Softswitch technology uses signaling protocols like the Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) to provide line-side calling features and voice-routing functions that have been traditionally supplied by more expensive, centrally located Class 5 switches.

The Copper Mountain VantEdge Broadband Services Concentrators and CopperEdge DSL Concentrators should let providers support Softswitch solutions by sending calls to the collocated VicinityVoice 100 LTG or to the wider voice transport network, as appropriate. The VicinityVoice 100 LTG converts IP voice packets to the Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) signals that are processed by Class 5 switches.

"The VicinityVoice 100 LTG is an entirely new class of product that enables broadband providers and other carriers to leverage packet-voice technology to substantially reduce the costs of providing local voice service to their customers," said Rick Gilbert, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Copper Mountain Networks.

"In the past, if a broadband voice customer placed a local call to a PSTN-connected pizza parlor around the corner, the provider would have to transport that call from a wiring center, over a leased line, to a Class 4 tandem switch many miles away and then haul it back to a Class 5 switch in the same wiring center. With the VicinityVoice 100 LTG, the provider can send the call to the pizza parlor from the VantEdge or CopperEdge Concentrator directly to the Class 5 switch and eliminate the backhaul costs. This results in significant ongoing savings, because the provider no longer needs to lease a line from the wiring center to a remote Class 4 tandem switch for purely local calls."

"Going forward, broadband providers must offer differentiated, value-added services to be successful, and voice will be an essential component of any successful provider's service portfolio," said Jeff Kuenne, director of technology planning at Birch Telecom. "Distributed packet-voice solutions will be key to cost-effective VoDSL service. Copper Mountain's new VicinityVoice 100 LTG works with its VantEdge and CopperEdge concentrators to enhance VoDSL cost-effectiveness by leveraging Softswitch technology to cut the costs of delivering local calls over DSL."

Availability and pricing
The VicinityVoice 100 LTG will be generally available in Q4 2001 at a list price of $24,995.

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