Redcom Laboratories, which sells digital and IP-enabled telecommunications systems, has announced that Alaska Power & Telephone Company has installed a Redcom SLICE 2100 softswitch, serving IP subscribers at Edna Bay, Alaska.
The SLICE 2100 softswitch replaces existing switching systems that have been in place for more than 17 years, according to Redcom officials.
“Powered by Redcom SLICE 2100 softswitch, we are now able to serve IP and analog subscribers” said Tom Ervin, V.P. Senior GM Telecom Operations and Engineering, AP&T.
AP&T currently provides service to communities located in the interior of Alaska, deep in the Wrangell Mountains and throughout the islands of Southeast Alaska, operating in some of the “wettest, driest, windiest, coldest and most remote regions on earth,” company officials say.
The Alaska telecom company sees Redcom’s SLICE 2100 next-generation softswitch as a way to migrate to IP, “introducing new services to its customers with less hardware build-out, lowering operational costs.”
The SLICE 2100 has extensive SIP capabilities, allowing AP&T to add other devices including wireless local loop systems. Migrating to IP is easy with the SLICE 2100, which works converting existing customers to IP customers.
Proving that they can operate in different extreme situations, earlier this month TMC’s (News - Alert) Paula Bernier reportedthatTelecom Cook Islands’ switched over from a Redcom Medium Density Exchange softswitch to a new High Density Exchange solution from the same supplier has begun.
The new switch was installed in Aitutaki, which as Bernier said “is one of the Cook Islands, and has a population of around 2,000. The Cook Islands are a collection of 15 small islands in the South Pacific,” close to New Zealand.
“Random dial tests to numbers have been made, and tested okay,” TCI Manager of Exchanges Carl Framhein was quoted as saying in one report, Bernier wrote. “Test calls were also made to all hotels or businesses that were open on Sunday. We will continue to keep testing. The next major milestone starts tomorrow, when we begin to disconnect the old exchange physically from the racks.”
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.Edited by Stefanie Mosca