Cedar Point and MetroCast Cablevision announced the selection of Cedar Point as the exclusive switching vendor for the delivery of voice-over-IP cable telephony services throughout the MetroCast service footprint.

MetroCast, which earlier this fall began providing cable television in southeastern Connecticut, will deploy Cedar Point's integrated, packet-based SAFARI C(Cubed) Multimedia Switching System for residential and commercial telephony rollouts to approximately 145,000 total subscribers in systems in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In addition, MetroCast and Cedar Point are continuing a five-year history of collaboration through the creation of a field environment for the testing, trial and technology validation of advanced voice and multimedia capabilities.

"From our long association with Cedar Point and their proven success in field deployments, it has been clear to us that SAFARI C(Cubed) is the best platform for rollouts of carrier-class voice and advanced IP-based applications," said Steve Murdough, senior vice president and general manager of MetroCast Cablevision. "By creating situations that replicate and anticipate actual field conditions, we expect to be able to work with Cedar Point to find new ways to leverage the simplicity, cost-effectiveness and scalability of SAFARI C(Cubed)."

"One of the takeaways from our relationship with Cedar Point has been a shared insistence on the delivery of high-quality, highly-reliable services," said Josh Barstow, vice president, advanced services for MetroCast. "As we roll out telephony, particularly in our newest serving areas, that commitment will be critical to attracting and retaining voice subscribers."

"As a company, we owe significant portions of our success to our relationship with MetroCast," said George Kassas, founder and executive vice president, business development of Cedar Point Communications. "Their willingness to be available as a knowledge base and their insights into the cable industry throughout our development process have contributed to the ability of SAFARI C(Cubed) to meet the needs of large and small cable system operators alike."

The only totally integrated carrier class VoIP switch that incorporates all of the components that make up the voice switching infrastructure, SAFARI C(Cubed) provides SIP-based features and seamless evolution to an IP Multimedia Subsystem architecture. SAFARI C(Cubed) provides superior performance and reliability, significantly reducing capital expenditures, system integration and operations costs for network operators offering telephony services while increasing network integrity, security and privacy.

SAFARI C(Cubed) is PacketCable-qualified and future-architected to fit within an IMS core network infrastructure, allowing network operators to leverage their initial equipment investment in voice as they introduce such services as video telephony and fixed-mobile applications. New applications can be integrated into SAFARI C(Cubed), or can be accessed via third-party application servers.