MetaSphere

MetaSwitch reports hot FY08 results

Doug Mohney — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:18:03 -0400

Data Connection Ltd (DCL) reported record revenues of $118 million for its fiscal year ending August 31, 2008, but the real story was that the MetaSwitch division brought in more than three-fourths of the haul.

"We're very, very pleased with the results over the past year," said MetaSwitch President John Lazar. "We try very hard to be very clear about what we're trying to achieve in terms of plan."

The MetaSwitch division of DCL brought in 78 percent of total revenue for a total of $92 million. Growth was up 22 percent over the same period last year and was attributed to both later Tier 1 carrier deployments and continued expansion of the customer base. MetaSwitch now counts over 400 service providers on its books, and the year's final quarter was the company's strongest ever.

Lazar noted that the headline numbers are strong and more importantly, the company is "very profitable." He said the company feels it has a big opportunity in today's economic climate and is in a good position relative to its competition. MetaSwitch is still on track for growth in the forthcoming fiscal year and anticipates continuing to hire "across the board" in sales, engineering, and marketing as revenues increase.

Other highlights from the FY08 report include taking a "significant" venture capital investment in January 2008, a deal with Embarq to provide MetaSwitch's softswitch, media gateway and MetaSphere applications suite to provide the core of its new Embarq Smart IP Enterprise solution. MetaSwitch now serves more than 125 CLECs with its technology.

Moving forward, next generation wireless opportunities look good. "The iPhone has changed the rules," said Lazar. "The Google phone looks very interesting." New enterprise applications taking advantage of SIP phones with XML capabilities are also something that could appear in the future, particularly in the higher education space.

For more:
- MetaSwitch announces FY08 numbers. Release

A visit with MetaSwitch

Doug Mohney — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:34:52 -0400

During a recent trip to the West Coast that included visits to Streaming Media West and AstriCon, FierceVoIP Editor Doug Mohney stopped by MetaSwitch's offices in Alameda, Calif., for a chat.

"MetaSwitch is not a niche product company," said Andy Randall, vice president of marketing. "We have a broad set of solutions now. In a survey of our customers, they see us as central to where their business is going. They rely on us, trust us, these are relationships that go beyond buying a piece of equipment. We have a broad solution emphasis across a range of different products."

"The other key thing I'd like to emphasize is quality and reliability. We want our customers to say ‘I can sleep at night. MetaSwitch just works.'"

As of March 2008, MetaSwitch had 240 publicly listed carrier customers, with the total number of customers approaching 400. The company has its products installed at carriers in all 50 states, plus all U.S. territories.

Infonetics puts MetaSwitch at number two in market share in North America, between Nortel (1) and Siemens (3). But it's a market that has plenty of growth left, Randall said, as carriers move to replace their legacy hardware - such as Ericsson and Siemens - with softswitches.

With economic conditions tightening up, the era of just shipping equipment, "is gone," said Randall. Customers must see an immediate impact of purchases upon their businesses, so they are buying to see a tangible reduction in operational expenses (OPEX) and/or to get value-added services through new applications.

MetaSwitch is investing its energies in new applications around the MetaSphere applications suite. "The key benefit of MetaSphere is it can deliver features to legacy systems," Randall stated. "It's important to talk to Tier 1s. Even if they are starting to do switch migration, most subscribers will be on legacy switches for a long time... the market is still thinking about VoIP or IMS or session control, but a lot of [new applications] can take place on top of legacy switches."

In 2009, MetaSphere applications will likely appear on more devices, including TVs and mobile phones; a fixed-mobile convergence solution may also debut.

MetaSwitch lands EMBARQ

Doug Mohney — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:09:06 -0400

MetaSwitch has announced that its softswitch and MetaSphere application suite forms the core of EMBARQ's Smart IP Enterprise solution. The integrated solution is hosted in the core of EMBARQ's network.

"This is another data point, abetted with a nice name, of what we've been doing for some time and continue to do," said MetaSwitch CEO Graeme MacArthur. "We're becoming more and more of a trusted vendor in the industry and that, in a nut shell, is what it is all about."

In addition to EMBARQ, MetaSwitch counts AT&T, BT, Qwest and Sprint among its Tier 1 customers.

EMBARQ's Smart IP Enterprise service will provide business customers with a bundled package of dedicated internet access, local and long distance voice services and IP-enabled call features. MetaSphere enables click-to-dial with Microsoft Outlook integration and advanced voicemail features. MetaSwitch is also providing IP-enabled features, including rules-based call forwarding, auto attendant, music on hold, sequential ring and remote click-to-dial.

While vendors may be scaling back their purchases due to slowing economic conditions, MacArthur doesn't seem to be fazed by the current business climate. "We're comfortable with our growth and sales situation," he said. "The industry in general is more cautious in how they spend their money. It can actually be a good thing, they look for value, quality, longevity... there's more scrutiny, they'll spend with who they trust."

For more:
- MetaSwitch EMBARQ announcement

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