Telco Systems Gets Nod from USDA's Rural Utilities Service for Fiber-To-The-Home Solutions
FOXBORO, MA--March 15, 2007- Telco Systems announced today that its EdgeGate CPE 232 and 482 IP media gateways, which provide broadband Internet access, Internet phone service (VoIP), IPTV access and video-on-demand to the consumer's home over fiber, were accepted for use in Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) projects funded by the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) following review by the RUS Technical Committee for telecommunications products.
With the RUS technical review and official acceptance, Telco Systems' entire EdgeGate product family can be used by rural communities that are deploying community broadband networks utilizing RUS loans and grants. Telco Systems' EdgeGate 282 was approved by RUS back in 2004. The EdgeGate family of IP media gateways enables service providers to offer FTTH or FTTB (Fiber-To-The-Business) for converged VoIP Internet voice service, video, data and broadband Internet access over a single fiber pair to the end user at their home or office.
Telco Systems' EdgeGate CPE is currently being used in the nation's largest active Ethernet-based FTTH deployment in the Grant County public utility district in Washington state. EdgeGate is also deployed in FTTH networks serving in multiple greenfield deployments as well as utilities and municipalities.
The EdgeGate CPE gateways provide the optical-to-electrical conversion that makes FTTH possible and enables end-users to connect standard phones, faxes, PCs, video monitors and televisions to an optical fiber IP Ethernet network. The device is an Ethernet-based switch with up to 4 analog voice lines and up to 8 high-speed Ethernet ports for video, data and broadband Internet access. It supports VoIP signaling protocols including SIP and MGCP, and IGMP snooping for video transmission. An optical uplink supports either a fast or Gigabit Ethernet transceiver over traditional fiber pair or a single fiber, which cuts service delivery costs in half.
The device can be deployed indoors (in a residence, business or Multi Dwelling Unit) or outdoors as an environmentally controlled and secure cabinet that is equipped to support battery backup and provide lifeline telephony.
The EdgeGate CPE IP gateway is part of Telco Systems' FTTH and FTTB end-to-end solution, which includes the company's family of carrier-class IP aggregation and core routing switching platforms. The Telco System FTTH/FTTB end-to-end solution enables a service provider to connect end-users over fiber from their home or office throughout a community, metro area, campus environment, MDU or multi-tenant unit to an IP backbone.
USDA Rural Development Telecommunications program offers many programs for financing rural America's telecommunications infrastructure. USDA Rural Development's mission is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life in rural communities. As a venture capital entity, Rural Development has invested over $76 billion since the beginning of the Bush Administration to provide equity and technical assistance to finance and foster growth in homeownership, business development, and critical community and technology infrastructure.
The grants are for rural, economically-challenged communities to provide broadband transmission services to rural schools, libraries, education centers, health care providers, law enforcement agencies, public safety organizations as well as residents and businesses.
Further information on rural programs is available at a local USDA Rural Development office or by visiting USDA's web site at www.rurdev.usda.gov.
About Telco Systems
Based in Foxboro, Massachusetts, Telco Systems is a leading provider of carrier-class transport and access solutions for IP and TDM networks for carrier, service provider and enterprise markets. Its suite of products includes solutions for Metro Ethernet Access Rings, residential and enterprise VoIP, FTTx, SONET, WiFi and T1 backhaul.
Founded in 1972, Telco Systems' focus is to maximize the power of their customers' networks by integrating transport, access and packet technologies onto industry-leading platforms that meet today and tomorrow's network demands.
Telco Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of BATM Advanced Communications (London stock exchange ticker symbol: BVC). For more information, please visit Telco Systems' web site at www.telco.com.
CONTACTS:
Raylene Kadrmas, Telco Systems
781-255-5314, rkadrmas@telco.com
