Lucent Technologies and Dynavar Corporation, an accredited Lucent Sales Business Partner, announced a contract with Westelcom, a competitive services provider to small-and medium customers in upstate New York, to deploy Lucent's highly reliable integrated switching platform to migrate its network from a traditional Class 4 and Class 5 switch-based infrastructure to an IMS-ready softswitch-based IP network for advanced services.

The Lucent Compact Switch is a carrier-class solution with fault-tolerant hardware and software that delivers exceptional uptime for all voice and data services and with redundancy that extends to every part of the system including inputs and outputs, switching fabric, and system processing. The switch can support from as few as 1,000 subscribers to more than 100,000 subscribers.

The Lucent Compact Switch will enable Westelcom to deliver tandem switching and advanced next-generation Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services customers in upstate New York. Lucent's VoIP solution will enable Westelcom to migrate toward a facilities-based platform, reducing operating costs and creating additional revenue opportunities.

Dynavar will provide the network engineering, integration and deployment services for the installation. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide maintenance.

"To satisfy customer demand and maintain our competitive edge, we needed a solution that would allow us to offer our customers advanced new services in a timely manner, with no risk of sacrificing quality," said Jim Forcier, president of Westelcom. "Lucent's solution, with support from Dynavar, offered the most feature-rich and reliable next-generation compact solution available on the market."

"Westelcom's deployment of the Lucent-Dynavar solution will allow them to deliver a more cost-effective and better managed service to their customers," said Sean MacNeill, president and chief operating officer of Dynavar Corporation. "With the Lucent Compact Switch, Westelcom has a smooth migration path to a facilities-based platform."

"By partnering with Dynavar, we were able to offer companies such as Westelcom a compelling end-to-end solution that resolved their needs in a cost-effective manner, as well as met the needs of their customers," said Gerry Cafaro, vice president of sales for Lucent Technologies. "The Lucent Compact Switch offers Westelcom the flexibility they need to succeed in today's competitive market, and also allows for the addition of new advanced services as they become available in the future."

The Lucent switch also can serve as a building block for carriers that choose to migrate to an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network to offer blended lifestyle services.

Service providers can deploy the Lucent Compact Switch for end-office (Class 5) and tandem (Class 4) applications to replace an existing switch or as an addition to the network. In addition to providing VoIP, Internet off-load and gateway mobile switching center features, the compact switch also offers CALEA and E911 capabilities.