Arunas Chesonis is the man of the hour. His company, 8-year-old PAETEC Communications (Booth 407), has just announced that it will acquire fellow CLEC US LEC, creating a billion-dollar “Super Tier 2” provider, rivaling XO Communications Inc. (Booth 715) and the would-be combination of Time Warner Telecom Inc.-Xspedius, another recently announced CLEC deal.

Chesonis serves as chairman of the board and CEO for PAETEC and is responsible for the vision, leadership and direction of the company, which serves more than 17,000 U.S. business customers.

He has been invited to address his peers at this week’s COMPTEL PLUS where he will talk about what he describes as the CLEC resurgence. “Anyone who has weathered the storm and is focused on end customers, especially at the enterprise level, is going to do really well the next five to 10 years,” Chesonis said, basing his comments on feedback from some 400 executives that sit on PAETEC’s customer advisory boards.

“They are telling us they are struggling to find good vendors to do business with, [given] all the changing technologies that they need help with,” he said. “They can’t hire enough people internally to support what their companies’ needs are. So, they are depending more and more on outside companies to advise them.”

With this in mind, Chesonis said his keynote address will be an “upbeat message” on how COMPTEL members can improve on their customer relationships David Letterman-style. “If you were a competitive telecom company today, what would be the top 10 things to focus on to be successful with your customers?”

So, what’s on this top 10 list? Chesonis offered a sneak peak at one item: Become a customer’s telecom expense manager. “Most companies that we do business with don’t really know how much money they are spending and if they are being appropriately invoiced,” he

said, noting that while auditing and TEM traditionally have been a focus for consultants, it “really needs to be something that every carrier does.”

Another item might be: Cooperate with other CLECs to deliver comprehensive coverage. Chesonis said CLECs are doing this more readily today than two years ago. They no longer are as concerned about enabling a competitor in their market.

While offering such advice to his peers may seem awkward on its face, Chesonis doesn’t think it is. “When you talk to your competition, what’s the biggest market share chunk we are going to have collectively — 4 or 5 percent? We are not the bad guys to one another. We are not the ones we have to worry about,” he said.

The common competitors found in the Bell-IXC combinations will continue to be a driver for consolidation among CLECs, he said, noting that in the case of PAETEC’s pairing with US LEC, it was a consideration. “US LEC came up after [PAETEC’s] recapitalization and it was a great opportunity to create a much larger company with the scale you need to compete with the bigger companies,” he explained.

Combined, the company will have annual revenue of nearly $1 billion and nearly $190 million in earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization. The company hopes to save $25 million in costs in the first year after the merger closes.

He added that it’s anybody’s guess how many competitive players will result. He left the door open on PAETEC’s future options. “We are both growing combined in that 12 to 15 percent range, so we don’t have to acquire other companies to continue to grow, but I think both companies have made acquisitions in the past and will look to be sort of opportunistic,” he said.

Show DailyDay 1

Show produced by COMPTEL

PAETEC CEO Chesonis to Opine on CLEC Resurgence Letterman-Style

Monday, Oct. 9, 2006 — Vol. 6, No. 2 Published by:

KEYNOTE ADDRESS: ARUNAS CHESONIS CHAIRMAN & CEO

PAETEC

Monday, Oct. 9

1:15 - 2 p.m. Crystal J2

Arunas Chesonis

The honeymoon period is over for the new head of the country’s competitive telecommunications industry. Earl Comstock, who was named president and CEO of COMPTEL in June 2005, wants to set a new tone for the organization during his second year as its leader.

“Rather than just playing defense and going into the next round of FCC policymaking and legislation, we need to have a firm agenda,” he said in an advance interview about his message to the COMPTEL team, which will kick off the conference today at 1:15 p.m. “What are the core elements that need to be there for competition? We need to start focusing on message rather than just responding to events driven primarily by the Bells.”

His address today will focus on moving competition and COMPTEL members forward. “We need to determine where we fit in this new world going forward,” he said.

To do that, he said, COMPTEL members need to identify core needs for competitors — regardless of their business plan — to function. From there, members more easily can find their place in the debates over net neutrality, universal service funding and intercarrier compensation.

“The main focus is really trying to rally the industry around a core set of principles that can be taken to policymakers at the FCC and Congress [that outline] the key things that need to be in place for the competitive industry to survive,” he said.

He noted that financial markets are starting to respond more favorably to competitive business models — partially as a result of consolidation and partially on their merits. “So we’re starting to do a decent job in articulat-ing to Wall Street and others that were scared off by the tech bubble why [competition] is important,” he said. “But we’re not translating that to policymakers at the federal or state level.”

He said COMPTEL members and competitors in general must do a better job of articulating the value they provide to constituents.

“While there’s consolidation, many companies are seeing growth and contin-ued success in primarily the small busi-ness market,” he said, noting market share gains against the Bells.

In addition, he said competitors are going to be important to serving the 60 percent of custom-ers not served by Bell broadband platforms such as Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s Project Lightspeed.

“It comes down to aligning ourselves more with [the fact that] we give consumers a choice," he said. “If Congress wants consumer choice and for people to have all these wonderful services over broadband, what are the key things they need to do to ensure that the benefits that come from competi-tion stay in place?”

COMPTEL CEO: Competitors Must Work on Offensive, Not Defensive, Game

OPENING REMARKS: EARL COMSTOCK PRESIDENT & CEO

COMPTEL

Monday, Oct. 9

1:15 - 2 p.m. Crystal J2

Earl Comstock

COMPTEL will hold its annual board elections dur-ing the COMPTEL PLUSFall 2006 Convention and EXPO. Companies are allowed to nominate them-selves or other COMPTEL members. They must make nominations within their membership voting catego-ries, however.

Nominations were due Sept. 8.

Elections will be held for four directors in the small member cat-egory; five directors in the medium member category; and five direc-tors in the large member category.

Elections will take place immediately after COMPTEL’s annual meeting of the membership, scheduled for Monday, Oct. 9 at 5:15 p.m. in Crystal J2 at the Orlando World Marriott.

Before that meeting takes place, members will be able to cast votes for board candidates within their membership voting category at an “early bird” voting location set up near the registration desk at the Marriott.

Each voting member company is entitled to cast one vote, as long as member dues are paid.

Tomorrow’s COMPTEL Show Daily will have complete coverage of the election results.

COMPTEL Holds Annual Board Elections

ANNUAL BOARD ELECTIONS

Monday, Oct. 9

5:15 - 5:45 p.m. Crystal J2

2 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

This fall, the organizers of the COMPTEL PLUS show want to send attendees back to school with its new COMPTEL Classroom programming — short tutorials on hot topics delivered on the exhibit floor.

Featured COMPTEL Classroom lecture topics include voice peering and IMS. Many of the COMPTEL members have expressed interest in learning more about these subjects

at a basic level — what is it, who is doing it and what are the revenue opportunities, said Jaymie Scotto, a spokeswoman for the COMPTEL PLUS programming committee.

In addition, she said, it will give attendees who have an expo-only pass a sample of the educational programming offered as part of the event’s agenda. Indeed, the two planned COMPTEL Classroom presentations are distillations of in-depth sessions.

Shrihari Pandit, president and CEO of Stealth Communications and founder of the Voice Peering Fabric, will take to the expo floor for a half-hour (9:30 - 10 a.m. today) to talk about voice peering and the VPF, a

member-based traffic exchange that carried more than 18 billion VoIP minutes in 2005. He also will kick off the Voice Peering Track (see related story on Page 10), which runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon tomorrow, with the session “Voice Peering Hardware and Software Elements.” The other two sessions in the track are “Transitioning SS7/TCAP and 411 Services to IP” and “ENUM and Least-Cost Routing.”

Michael Khalilian, co-founder, chairman and president of the IMS Forum (Booth 110) and CTO for eLEC/Vox, will spend his half-hour (11 - 11:30 a.m. today) discussing IMS, the services framework that enables service providers to tap IP to offer blending applications across wireless and wireline networks. His presentation will provide a technological overview of IMS, examine the revenue-generating possibilities and address current deployments. Khalilian also will be a featured presenter in the IMS Workshop this afternoon from 3:10 - 5 p.m. (see related story below). This workshop will examine basic principles and the promise of IMS, as well as challenges and opportunities currently facing carriers/service providers, hardware vendors and application developers.

Khalilian will be joined by Amit Patel, CTO, U.S. Major Markets, Lucent Technologies Inc. (A separate registra-tion fee of $125 is required to attend this workshop.)

COMPTEL Classroom Debuts in Expo Hall, Studies Voice Peering and IMSCOMPTEL CLASSROOM

Monday, Oct. 9

VOICE PEERING PRESENTED BY THE

VOICE PEERING FABRIC

9:30 - 10 a.m.

IMS PRESENTED BY THE IMS FORUM

11 - 11:30 a.m.Palms Ballroom

In an era of unprecedented consolidation, CLEC executives need to know how to keep their companies afloat or make them attractive to prospective buy-ers. The workshop “Financial & Strategic Actions for Success” slated for this afternoon at 3:10 p.m. will do just that — teach members how to achieve financial and strategic success in an ever-more uncer-tain telecommunications environment.

“I think some of the CLECs today have a very sustainable standalone business model,” said Valerie Ianieri, senior vice president of Buccino & Associates Inc., a firm that helps companies do restructuring and turnaround, and one of the sponsors of today’s workshop. Ianieri specializes in telecom and technology, and organized the financial work-shop in response to the growing, imminent need for CLECs to get financial insights from experts during a time of mass M&As.

CLECs, Ianieri added, must learn what to do to be full-service providers and compete against the cable companies and Tier 1 carriers. “The senior manage-ment teams of many of these CLECs are very finan-cially savvy,” she noted — they just need to know what to do with the money they get from venture capitalists and other investors, she said.

Ianieri said panel members will discuss the factors impacting CLECs’ businesses today. The main issues are the effects of consolidation, she said. If CLECs want to remain as standalone companies, they need to know how to be healthy and vibrant, she explained. If they want to sell, they must be versed on how to “pretty themselves up ... so they are an attractive pros-

pect for someone who’s looking at acquisition.”

James Smith, a lawyer for Davis Wright Tremaine, another of the workshop’s sponsors, will moderate the session. Smith has worked in telecom through deregulation and implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. “I think he [will] add a lot of

panache to the panel,” said Ianieri. The session itself will be broken down into four parts: bringing in a strategic adviser such as Buccino & Associates, understanding capital markets, identifying M&A strategies, and review-ing a case study. The case study will profile COMPTEL member Broadwing Communications LLC, which suc-cessfully used an adviser, investment banker and M&A team to transform its business. The scheduled presenters are Gillis Cashman, vice president of MC Venture Partners; Vik Grover, managing director of investment banking for Merriman, Curhan Ford & Co., which is co-sponsoring the panel with Buccino & Associates; Randy Lay, senior vice president of Buccino & Associates; and Scott Widham, president of corporate development for Broadwing Communications.

Grover will talk about the characteristics invest-ment bankers look for in companies. Meanwhile, Lay will speak to the pressures within the telecom industry that would “encourage a firm to get outside advisory work done,” said Ianieri, and Widham will tie all the information together by discussing what Broadwing did to adapt to market changes.

Afterward, Buccino & Associates and Merriman Curhan Ford & Co. will host a reception so COMPTEL members can ask panelists questions and mingle with colleagues contemplating new financial strategies.

Workshop Helps CLECs Survive in Era of Consolidation

FINANCIAL & STRATEGIC ACTIONS FOR SUCCESS

Monday, Oct. 9

3:10 - 5 p.m. Crystal G1

Perhaps no topic has been hotter this year than IMS, a net-work architecture and services framework that enables service providers to offer consumers new blended applications and services across any wireline or wireless network, to any device. Learn how to cut through the spin and the jargon during the IMS Forum’s conference program on Monday, designed to introduce and explain IMS and its benefits in a clear-cut way.

Today’s COMPTEL Classroom presentation will provide a technologi-cal overview of the architecture, while explaining how revenue-generating possi-bilities address current deployments. “The telecom services and CLEC business is changing as we know it,” said presenter Michael Khalilian, chairman and president at the IMS Forum. “The incorporation of bundled services, traditional services, IP and broadband, all combined with mobility and the regulatory changes are heavily influencing the service provider landscape, and we are trying to educate them on what is coming, from a technological standpoint.”

The IMS Workshop will examine the basic prin-ciples and promise of IMS, as well as the challenges for everyone in the network ecosystem — carriers/service providers, hardware vendors and application develop-ers. Amit Patel, chief technology officer of U.S. major markets at Lucent Technologies Inc., will present ses-sion one, “Why IMS: An Analysis of the Principals and Promise.” Khalilian will present the second session, “IMS Challenges and Revenue Opportunities.”

An update on IMS deployments will offer a real-world look at how IMS is rolling out. The presenters

will give a rundown of who’s who in IMS and what makes a good candidate for transition, and present case studies from the business, product and techni-cal mindsets. “We are starting to get information on challenges and recommendations in imple-menting IMS,” said Khalilian. “The issues last year were around gateways, softswitches and VoIP, and now those are part of the bigger architecture known as IMS. That’s a big reason why all

aspects of telecom services are going through conversions and changes, from OSS, marketing, product development and the architecture of service sets. Meanwhile, this has to all be transparent to consumers.”

CLECs and competitors should get involved right away, he said, so they have a better chance in the transition to grab market share. “It’s the beginning now,”

said Khalilian. “We have to be creative, as an industry, to account for short- and long-term demand and appetite for new services.”

Concurrent with the show, the IMS Forum announced new architecture documents and a paper to provide a snapshot and summary of what’s going on with IMS. It also said a plugfest for the interopera-tion of applications and services over IMS is slated for January 2007.

“Our objective is to fill in that gap between service providers and vendors, to get IMS out faster and get those new services to consumers more quickly,” said Khalilian. “So we’re here to introduce the applications and educate attendees about deploying IMS and what the convergence issues are.”

IMS Forum on a Mission to EducateCOMPTEL CLASSROOM

Monday, Oct. 9

IMS

11 - 11:30 a.m. Palms Ballroom

IMS WORKSHOP

3:10 - 5 p.m.Crystal K/L

Pac-West Offers Updates on Nationwide Expansion, VeriSign Bundling Partnership

Pac-West Telecom Inc. (Booth 808) is using the COMPTEL show this week to provide a progress report on its national expansion and its alliance with VeriSign.

The 25-year-old company traditionally has focused on offering service in California, but last year it announced a plan to provide VoIP and Internet access services across the entire continental United States, with a goal to cover 55 to 60 percent of the U.S. population, in about 400 rate centers, by the third quarter of this year, explained Reid Cox, corpo-rate development vice president. As of late August, Pac-West was 56 percent to that goal, but most of the work needed to be done upfront due to licensing requirements, etc., he added.

In announcing the planned expansion last year, the company said it was intended to provide a nation-wide, single-source solution targeted at VoIP provid-ers, wireless broadband providers, ISPs, carriers and others to provide IP-based services. Pac-West’s service offering will include the services and net-work supplier diversity required by ISPs to provide dialup Internet access, as well as a comprehensive

suite of services enabling VoIP providers to offer carrier-class voice services. These services include local telephone numbers; connectivity to the PSTN; as well as access to industry telephone databases to provide services such as E911, 411 and local number portability.

Many of those services tie into the relation-ship Pac-West has with VeriSign. That deal was announced in January, but the joint offerings — for which Pac-West will bundle VeriSign’s signaling and database services with its network — won’t be generally available until the fourth quarter of this year. VeriSign will supply Pac-West with back-office and database services including Calling Party Name (CNAM), LNP, SS7 and provision-ing services. Pac-West will contribute voice and data network services such as trunking, switching and IP transport. The result will be a VoIP service bureau that features LNP, E911, directory listings, customer ordering and service interfaces with near-real-time notifications combined with IP and PSTN bearer and signaling networks for near-real-time service activation.

Vertek Rolls Out On-Demand Engineering Services

Vertek Corp. (Booth 320), a provider of consulting and business process outsourcing for the telecom-munications industry, today announced the release of its On-Demand Engineering Services. On-Demand Engineering Services include fully managed order-ing; engineering and provisioning services such as outsourced order management, validation of contracted services and pricing; order processing for new service installation, modification or disconnect; recommenda-tions for process improvements; customer relationship management; and presales support services.

Telstra Inc. is the first commercial customer to sign up for the services. Telstra is the U.S. subsidiary of the Australia-based Tier 1 global carrier, Telstra Corp. Ltd.

“Vertek’s On-Demand Engineering services have been a strong complement to our internal systems, enabling us to cut down on periodic idle capacity from peaks and troughs in normal order flows, to increase the overall volume and speed in which we process orders and to reduce our backlogs,” said Jorge Reis, vice president of operations at Telstra. “Vertek’s extensive experience in the telecommunications industry, hav-ing worked with most of our business partners at one

time or another, has really helped us provide a rapid time-to-market for new product launches and network migration projects. We expect to see a significant cost savings from this in only a few months.”

Vertek’s On-Demand Engineering Services allow service providers to use internal resources and person-nel, or outsource entirely. In either case, Vertek lets its customers pay as they grow. Providers can use Vertek’s order management system or work with their in-house systems, or a combination of both.

“Whether you are a CLEC reselling services from multiple partners, or a carrier engaging with a new content provider partner for DSL or IPTV services, chances are that you are experiencing revenue leak-age due to inaccurate order processing and suffering from internal provisioning costs that are too high,” said Mauricio Rosales, senior director of engineer-ing at Vertek. “Service providers often find that their provisioning systems are getting bogged down in the complexities of new IP-based services and that they are spending too much time managing back-office systems and not enough time selling services and building cus-tomer relationships.”

Michael Khalilian

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4 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

While on the one hand there seems to be an amazing amount of innovation (IPTV, VoIP, content delivery) on top of carrier networks, on the other hand, competitive carriers face continued uncer-tainty about their futures.

It seems almost paradoxical. The last time there was this much going on (we called it the Internet Boom), there were opportunities aplenty. So what’s different now? I have thought about it and it boils down to control of the network. Control of the network means control of the customer.

Here’s what I mean: Competitors have been stripped of their ability to use UNE-P. They didn’t have control of the network and they lost control of the customer. Yes, they still lease services from the Bells and serve customers, but not on guaranteed sustainable terms.

Many of the nonfacilities-based providers decided to move to a facilities model with VoIP, but still they are at the mercy of the access providers to bridge the gap between their softswitch and the customer premise.

And, even the CLECs that have their own switches use special access lines to reach their custom-ers. Again, they are at the mercy of their suppliers. While they are still being supplied, their rates could be raised. With the megamergers, there is less competitive pressure to keep special access prices at viable levels. In general, insiders concede, the larger carriers are less interested in low-margin wholesale business when they can push higher-margin innovative services over their capacity-constrained networks.

This is all review for most of you, so what’s my point? The competitive providers are vulnerable where they do not own the lastmile or do not have an alternative supplier to the Bells. Competitors need to figure out a last-mile alternative. I am hearing more and more talk about wireless mesh networks — with point-to-point backhaul connections to the provider’s PoP — as potential competition to mobile wireless networks. While such a configuration can bypass the LEC, what’s scary is there are fewer competitive inter-metro network providers to connect to now that the old AT&T and MCI have been subsumed. What if Level 3 is bought by a Bell company? (It could happen.) What about Broadwing or Global Crossing? The list is getting smaller and smaller.

It’s ironic — or maybe it’s not — that I am advocating an intermodal strategy. Isn’t that what the FCC has been pushing? Well, it seems the commission set things up in such a way that the only path to invulnerability in this environment rests on the few competitors that can muster up a truly competitive network — fixed or wireless — with access to the building or home.

Khali HendersonGroup Editor

What Choice Do We Have?

AgendaMonday, Oct. 9

7:30 - 8:30 a.m.COMPTEL Marketing Council Breakfast MeetingCrystal G1(Open to CMC Members Only)

7:30 - 9:30 a.m.COMPTEL CEO Council Breakfast MeetingCrystal J1(Open to CEO Council Members Only)

8 a.m. - 5 p.m.Registration

9 a.m. - 1 p.m.COMPTEL PLUS Trade Expo(COMPTEL Classroom in Exhibit Hall)

9 a.m. - 6 p.m.Deal Center Open

9:30 - 10 a.m.Voice Peering Presented by the VPF (COMPTEL Classroom in the Palms Ballroom)The Voice Peering Fabric (VPF) functions as a meet-point for service providers and enterprises to exchange voice and telephony related services. Visit the COMPTEL Classroom to learn about Voice Peering and the VPF.Presenter:Shrihari Pandit, President and CEO, Stealth Communications

11 - 11:30 a.m.IMSPresented by the IMS Forum(COMPTEL Classroom in the Palms Ballroom)IMS is a services framework that enables service providers to utilize the power of IP by offering consumers new blended applications and services across networks. This presentation will provide a technological overview of IMS, examine revenue-generating possibilities and address current deployments.Presenter:Michael Khalilian, Chairman and President, IMS Forum

1 - 1:15 p.m.Best in Class Awards Metro Service PartnersMetro Products & Global Wholesale

1:15 - 2 p.m.Grand Opening RemarksCrystal J2Earl Comstock, President and CEO, COMPTEL

1:15 - 2 p.m.Keynote AddressCrystal J2 Arunas Chesonis, Chairman and CEO, PAETEC Communications

2:10 - 3 p.m.Legislative Update: View From Capitol HillIt has been a busy year with the House and Senate taking up legislation to rewrite the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Our panel will recap this year’s debate, the effect on your current operations and the long-range impact to the business plans and strategies of competitive network, application and content providers. Session Leader:Earl Comstock, President and CEO, COMPTEL

2:10 - 3 p.m.Broadband Wireless Has Arrived — So What Does That Mean for Competitive Carriers?Presented by CMP Media Crystal G2 The viability and performance of broadband wireless technology no longer is suspect The technology’s maturity, coupled with consumer demand for high-bandwidth, on-demand delivery of converged services, has given rise to a robust marketplace of broadband wireless solutions providers. Nextlink will discuss the maturing of the broadband wireless industry, the services solutions providers are offering, and how competitive carriers can leverage the technology to their advantage.Presenter:John Grady, Director, Nextlink

3:10 - 4 p.m.Integrating Wireline and Wireless Broadband NetworksPresented by CMP Media Crystal G2This session will present recent examples showcasing the business opportunities for competitive wireline and wireless service providers to partner in providing broadband services to enterprise customers. Presenter:Mark Casey, President, CFN Services

3:10 - 5 p.m.Financial & Strategic Actions for SuccessPresented by Buccino & Associates; Merriman, Curhan Ford & Co.; and Davis Wright TremaineCrystal G1This executive forum will focus on strategies and solutions for improving your company’s business outlook and valuation in the face of competitive consolidation, regulatory upheaval, new technology advancements and financial market volatility. A networking reception hosted by Buccino & Associates; Merriman, Curhan Ford & Co.; and Davis Wright Tremaine will follow the program.Session Leader:James Smith, Counsel, Davis Wright Tremaine

Presenters:Gillis Cashman, Vice President, MC Venture PartnersVik Grover, Managing Director of Investment Banking, Merriman,

Curhan Ford & Co.Randy Lay, Senior Vice President, Buccino & AssociatesScott Widham, President, Corporate Development, Broadwing

Communications

3:10 - 5 p.m.IMS WorkshopPresented by IMS Forum Crystal K/L (Separate registration fee of $125)This workshop will examine the basic principles and promise of IMS, as well as the challenges and opportunities currently facing carriers/service providers, hardware vendors and application developers. In addition to hearing insight from the IMS Forum executive team, attendees will be able to interact directly with top industry pioneers in regard to their organizations’ current IMS deployments/case studies and correlating results.

SESSION IWhy IMS: An Analysis of the Principals and PromisePresenter:Amit Patel, Chief Technology Officer, U.S., Major Markets, Lucent

Technologies Inc.

SESSION IIIMS Challenges and Revenue OpportunitiesPresenter:Michael Khalilian, Chairman and President, IMS Forum

4:10 - 5 p.m.The Sweetspot for Unlicensed Broadband Wireless Services: Serving SMBs Presented by CMP Media Crystal G2 This presentation describes the business model for service providers to use unlicensed broadband wireless to serve the SMB market. You will learn how to solve the service provider dilemma of eroding profits, by providing throughputs up to 30mbps well within the first mile and up to five miles. With such throughput, service providers can bundle services at fixed rate tariffs for voice, data and video needs. Presenters:Nitish Amin, Vice President, Marketing, smartBridges Pte. Ltd.Farooq Raza, Sales Director, North America,

smartBridges Pte. Ltd.

5:15 - 5:45 p.m.Membership Meeting & Board ElectionsCrystal J2 (Open to COMPTEL Members Only)

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KHALI HENDERSON Group Editor

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COMPTEL Show DailyProduced by PHONE+, xchange

and New Telephony

6 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

Magellan Hill Taps Profitec Billing ServicesMagellan Hill Technologies, PAETEC Communications’

founder Brad Bono’s new enterprise, has selected Profitec Billing Services (Booth 906) as its billing services and hosted applications provider.

Bono, who also co-founded Vista Communications, brings together a variety of services under Magellan Hill Technologies with a single unified marketing strategy to a unified customer con-stituency. Those services include local and long-distance, wireless and data, IP-based services and energy resale.

“My first foray into telecommunications was in the early ’90s when we started Vista along with my dad and a couple of close partners,” said Bono, Magellan Hill founder and CEO. “By concentrating on business-to-business sales administered by an expertly trained, professional sales force, we were able to grow the business to significant size, and we ran it very successfully for several years before we sold the company to AT&T. Profitec was our biller way back then, and I got to know the ownership and management staff. Later on, after I was working at AT&T, I

was pleased to see that they had landed some significant business there as well.

Even though I had known Profitec for a very long time and have total faith and confidence in their abilities, I carefully studied the vendor market place to evaluate all companies’ capabilities,” Bono continued. “I was both surprised and pleased when careful research found no other provider who could actually converge such a wide range of invoice information inclusive of wireless and wireline, IP-based products and energy resale offerings. I was very impressed with their continued development. Most importantly, the Profitec systems provide a unified customer service interface for all of the billable products supported. All of my experience has taught me that the success of a company comes from the quality of the sale that you make and remains because of the quality of service you provide, both tangible and intangible. I have always demanded a high level of performance from my vendors, my staff and my systems. In return, I have received a high level of loyalty and results from my sales associates.”

Citynet Expands Footprint in Pennsylvania, Ohio

Citynet Wholesale (Booth 821), a facilities-based broadband service provider for Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, announced it will continue its network expansion, adding 11 new markets by year’s end. Several new markets are nearing completion in Ohio, including Delaware, Marion, Mansfield and Wooster. In Pennsylvania, Citynet has sites under construction in Connellsville, Franklin, Meadville, Sheffield, Timblin, Warren and Zelienople.

Citynet COO Mike Friloux said the network buildout is an effort to fill a void in the secondary markets. “It is exciting to see the positive response from our customers and the momentum Citynet has developed in its Tier 2 and Tier 3 market strategy,” he said. “Interestingly, Citynet has quietly developed one of the most advanced and scalable regional networks in North America. This positions the company well to meet the needs of its secondary markets while also opening new regional Tier 1 market opportunities, especially in the area of advanced service offerings.”

Citynet is not necessarily first to build in its market, but, said Tom Payne, director of sales and marketing, it is the first to offer diverse, carrier-grade service. “Citynet is

spreading the boundaries of carrier-grade service avail-ability, which has been traditionally regulated to Tier 1 markets,” he said. “We’re making it just as cost effective to locate a business in Meadville, as it would be to locate one in a major market like Pittsburg.”

Citynet Wholesale offers private lines (DS3 to OCN), optical waves (2.5gbps and 10gbps), Ethernet, coloca-tion and local access to secondary markets across the Midwestern and mid-Atlantic states, including Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

Vanco Launches NetDirect

Virtual network operator Vanco (Booth 601) at the COMPTEL PLUS Convention and EXPO launched Vanco NetDirect, designed to give customers greater DSL access to Direct Internet Access, as well as MPLS coverage.

Customers select and provision the services through a Web portal. Once signed in to the system, users can enter each site location and circuit requirement — circuit type, bandwidth and class of service — to display prices for locations globally, and to place orders for those cir-cuits. Ongoing network assurance is highly automated and accessed through a Web portal as well.

Vanco NetDirect is ideal for carriers, systems integra-tors and outsourcers looking to extend their reach, according to Vanco.

“There are only a very few carriers that have global reach, but almost everyone has multinational customers,” said Allen Timpany, CEO of Vanco. “With Vanco NetDirect, telecom providers can now offer their customers additional network capability on a global scale at a competitive price. This is about helping our customers win more business and at better margins.”

“To be able to offer such comprehensive and com-petitive solutions globally, you have to be independent and deliver connectivity via the local or regional providers of DIA and MPLS,” added Wayne Churchill, CEO of Vanco NetDirect. “The cost of networks is decreased and service quality is improved by using high-quality local infrastruc-ture with greater density than is provided today by the handful of international carriers.”

The small and medium business world is no different. Our foundation is superior VoIP technology integrating total program support with low cost-of-entry. Build your business on flexible, customized solutions for your end-users. Technology is one thing; technology applied is quite another.

Today’s market demands highly - customizable solutions.

Visit COMPTEL PLUS Booth 620 to explore what’s next in VoIP. www.Intelliverse.com/comptel Ray Potts, VP Sales 770.663.5053

USCarrier Adds Local Offices to Network

USCarrier Telecom LLC (Booth 709), a wholesale pro-vider of high-speed long-haul transport, has added three new local offices to its existing long-haul network. The locations include PoPs and interconnect facilities at the RBOC main local central offices.

The RBOC colos are the main PoPs in Augusta, Savannah and Macon, Ga. These new locations will supply increased connectivity requested by USCarrier Telecom customers, in addition to the existing locations in these cities, according to the company.

“The new points of presence facilitate the handoff of customer traffic between USCarrier Telecom’s long-haul and the RBOC’s local networks, making the company more com-petitive in those markets,” said Jack Roberts, vice president of sales for USCarrier.

USCarrier also has network upgrades planned for com-pletion in 2006. In Georgia, those include Albany, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta and Macon; in Florida, Jacksonville and Tallahassee; and Mobile in Alabama. USCarrier Telecom’s long-term goal is to enable next-generation networks through-out its metro and regional networks in the Southeast.

COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006 7

Trendium Launches Service Assurance Upgrade

Trendium Inc. (located in the IMS Forum Booth 110), a provider of service assurance and performance manage-ment software, launched version 3.0 of its ServicePATH policy-based service intelligence software system.

“The continued consumer market penetration of VoIP and other IP communications applications has created a strong demand for service assurance, performance and quality; the release of ServicePATH 3.0 is significant as it represents our rapid response to this demand as well as the evolution of our award-winning service assurance and intelligence software,” said Hanafy Meleis, president and CEO at Trendium. “ServicePATH 3.0 will benefit current and potential customers in several ways; the enhanced layer architecture ensures that services objectives inherent in all applications operating on backbone fiber and IP broadband networks, such as IPTV and VoIP, are met. In addition, Trendium’s Impact Analysis technology, an integral asset of version 3.0, empowers network engineers to deliver maximum service assurance for all of the aforementioned applications.”

ServicePATH 3.0 new features and functionality include:Multi-OS Support: In addition to supporting the Sun Solaris Unix operating system, ServicePath 3.0 now

also supports Linux Red Hat (Linux’s cost effectiveness, adaptability and the innovation driven by its open-source community has made it an increasingly popular alternative to proprietary Unix and Microsoft operating systems).

Enhanced Layered Architecture: New layered architecture facilitates advanced modeling, by incorpo-rating proprietary Impact Analysis technology into the software architecture.

Enhanced Reporting Portal Framework: This framework enables managed services’ customers to access customized reports and data analysis, in addition to seam-lessly integrating with other business-critical applications.

Enhanced Usability: An easy-to-construct, ad-hoc reporting feature that delivers simplified installation, additional security, and flexibility in assigning role-based functionality.

Info Directions Honors Retiree, Telecom Veteran Gary Lawrence

Info Directions Inc. (Booth 217), a provider of net-centric billing, rating, order management, workflow and selling solutions for communica-tions service providers, is honoring the recently retired Gary Lawrence, an industry veteran and Info Directions’ sales director, at a special celebration held at COMPTEL PLUS.

Lawrence has been involved in the telecom industry for more than 30 years, spending the last seven years at Info Directions as director of sales for the Central Region. He started his career at Indiana Bell Telephone Co., and held numerous sales and marketing positions at AT&T, Sprint and LCI International. In 1992, he became a national account manager at Centillion Data System, a

telecommunications billing company, and later, in 1996, he joined VLM Consulting Inc.

“Gary Lawrence is the genuine article -- some-one who leads by example and earns the respect of his clients, co-workers and even his fellow com-petitors,” said Derrick Van Grol, vice president of marketing and sales at Info Directions. “We are cer-tainly going to miss him and the many contributions he made to Info Directions and to the industry.”

Info Directions encourages everyone to stop by the Info Directions booth this week to wish Lawrence the best as he takes on the challenges of retirement — “much more golf, time with his fam-ily and completing some projects around the house for Jane, his wife of 41 years.”

WE’RE DRIVEN BY SOLUTIONS THAT CONNECT ANYTHING TO EVERYTHING.Introducing ConnectStream Virtual LAN Service (VLS) from Windstream. VLS interconnects your company’s multiple LAN locations using fi ber backbone and transport facilities. It is a highly reliable, fl exible bandwidth solution that supports any network layer protocol between business locations. A simple fi ber- or copper-based Ethernet user connection makes it easy to use and removes the need for costly staff to manage networking equipment and wide area connectivity. Call or log on to fi nd out more about our comprehensive business solutions.

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Vero Rolls Out Call Management Point

OSS provider Vero Systems Inc. (Booth 806) has rolled out Call Management Point (CMP), the company’s platform for moving voice routing beyond the switch and into the intelligent layer of the network. The company says this allows for more complex, real-time voice-routing techniques.

“The technology employed in CMP provides the high-est level of routing sophistication available today using the Acuité Tool Suite as its source of data,” said Brian Cafferty Sr., Vero’s CEO. “This approach creates additional cost savings for our Acuité clients through the use of advanced routing tables and capabilities available only in an Intelligent Layer framework.”

Vero said CMP has been implemented at a major Tier 1 RBOC service provider and other CMP deployments are in the works.

CMP supports jurisdictional routing, margin-based rout-ing, quality-based routing and fault-recovery routing.

ECI Hits the ROADMECI Telecom (Booth 1308) announced the XDM

ROADM platform for dynamic optical networking.The XDM is for building agile, scalable and future-

proof networks based on ECI’s 10-degree wavelength selectable switch (WSS) ROADM and lambda manage-ment suite. Multidegree networking enables on-the-fly topology changes and subtended WDM rings from a single node, the company said.

The WSS connects any one or group of wavelengths to any of its colorless ports. Coupled with widely tun-able lasers for both 2.5GB and 10GB wavelengths, carriers can provision and reconfigure WDM channels without a site visit. Enhanced, fully automatic power balancing and a new online network connectivity tool minimize labor-intensive efforts required to set up, expand and reconfigure the network, thereby reducing opex and ensuring high reliability.

XDM also supports a low-cost pluggable ROADM that is economically comparable to fixed filter OADMs. The pluggable ROADM allows all sites to be installed as potential ROADM nodes capable of dropping traffic in the future. In line with its “Build-As-You-Grow” strategy, ECI promotes a hybrid ROADM deployment to lower day-one infrastructure costs.

Along with its new wavelength switching, ECI offers a ROADM-optimized amplifier that provides more power and more redundancy. The total ROADM solution enables service providers to deploy new revenue-generating services quicker, easier and without re-engineering the network, ECI said.

XDM integrates other key next-generation functions including course and dense WDM inter-working, Ethernet switching and SONET/SDH circuit grooming.

3PV - Third Party Verification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .206

Accedian Networks Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .409

Acme Packet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .818

Actelis Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1015

Adaption Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .608

Advanced Software Concepts (ASC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .321

Advantage Telcom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1100

AITech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .921

Alliance Group Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .419

AT&T Wholesale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .809

BellSouth Interconnection Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .609

BeQuick Software Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .306

BillSoft Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .720

Blackfoot - TeleSphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1021

BlueTie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .308

BridgeWave Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1110

Bright House Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103

Broadview Networks Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .518

Broadwing Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .901

BSG Clearing Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .805

C-CAMS Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1004

Capacity Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .219

Carmel Solutions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1011

Cavalier Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .304

Champion Optical Networking Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411

Cisco Systems Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1001

Citynet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .821

ClearMesh Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1108

Compliance Solutions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111

Concretio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .216

Conference Group, The . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .919

Consolidated Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .621

CopperCom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .209

CustomCall Data Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406

Dagda Mor Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1009

DCA Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .401

DCI Voice Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .414

DSET Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .719

ECI Telecom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1308

Edison Carrier Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .814

Embarq Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203

Emdeon Business Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .208

Equinox Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .718

Everyone.net . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .507

Excell Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201

FibroLAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .618

FPL FiberNet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .220

GENBAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .918

GigaBeam Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1101

Global Crossing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .907

GlobalTouch Telecom Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .704

Grande Communications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .700

ILD Telecommunications Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .520

IMS Forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110

INDATELgroup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .920

Info Directions Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217

Intelliverse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .620

Interlink Global Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .917

InterMetro Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .408

Interstate FiberNet/ITC^DeltaCom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .909

Iowa Network Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211

ITS Communications Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1019

Level 3 Communications Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .514

LightCore, a CenturyTel Co.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1310

LightRiver Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .415

LightSpeed Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .405

Lightyear Network Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .318

Martin Group. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .614

MetaSwitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1000

Metro One Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1018

Mid Atlantic Broadband Cooperative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .205

MultiPoint International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .420

NCIC Operator Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .714

New Paradigm Resources Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .214

Nextlink . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1102

NexTone Communications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .908

Norlight Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .801

NTS Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .914

OSG Billing Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .215

Pac-West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .808

PacketFront Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1020

PAETEC Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .407

Performance Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1016

Phihong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1106

PHONE+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

Power & Telephone Supply Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105

PPL Telcom LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .820

Profitec Billing Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .906

Pulse Voice Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .218

Qwest Communications International Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .701

RCN Business Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .315

RiverRock Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .102

Sandy Beaches Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .721

sentitO Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309

Sirius Telecom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221

SkyPilot Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1111

smartBridges Pte. Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1104

Sonus Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108

Sprint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .615

SRP Telecom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .515

Stealth Communications Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Switch and Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .301

Syniverse Technologies Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .210

Technologies Management Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307

Tekelec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .501

TelePacific Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .815

TeliaSonera International Carrier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100

Telispire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .519

telX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .207

Thermo Credit LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1006

Thomson Tax and Accounting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .300

Transaction Network Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .509

TransNexus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .819

UDP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .619

USCarrier Telecom LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .709

Vanco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .601

Veraz Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .418

VeriSign Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .417

Vero Systems Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .806

Vertek Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .320

Virtual Back Office Software Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .421

VOEX Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107

VoiceLog LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1007

Wayport Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .521

Windstream. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .314

xchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104

XO Communications Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .715

YFonGlobal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .319

Zhone Technologies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1008

Bold = Broadband Wireless Pavilion Exhibitors

COMPTEL wishes to thank the following sponsors for their support of the Fall 2006 Convention & EXPO:

Cisco SystemsQwestVANCO

Edison Carrier SolutionsInterMetro Communications

SprintVerizon

EmbarqGeoResults

Additional Sponsors:AT&T Wholesale

Atlantic ACMCoStreet Communications

DCIDickstein Shapiro

Looking Glass NetworksUSCarrier

XO Communications

Premier Media Sponsors:PHONE+xchange

Additional Media Sponsors:America’s NetworkBroadband Wireless

Business News AmericasCapacity

FatPipePipeline

Telecommunications Magazine TelecomWebTelephony

The Prepaid PressVoIP Business News

Other Partners:IMS Forum

ISPCONStealth

VPF

Company Booth Company Booth Company Booth Company Booth

Platinum Sponsors: Gold Sponsors: Silver Sponsors:

8 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

10 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

The Voice Peering Fabric (VPF) this week at COMPTEL PLUS is spon-soring a track of sessions exploring various aspects of voice peering.

Today, Shrihari Pandit, president and CEO of Stealth Communications, creator of the VPF, will educate COMPTEL attendees on what the VPF is and how it works.

The VPF, which this year is expected to process more than 100 billion minutes of VoIP traffic, is a service of Stealth. This distributed, Layer 2 Ethernet fabric was designed as an exchange for service providers and enterprise customers to exchange VoIP traffic in a secure, quality-of-service environment. It allows its members to buy and sell incoming DID and outbound termination services on a wholesale basis. VPF also allows members to buy and sell access to SS7 and TCAP (transaction capabilities application part, a protocol for SS7 networks) services from companies such as INFONXX, SNET DG (now part of AT&T), TNS and

VeriSign. Finally, VPF offers an ENUM registry and SRV (service record) registry.

On Tuesday, VPF sessions include a panel on Voice Peering Hardware & Software Elements to help the audience understand how session con-trollers and media gateways are used to peer voice traffic. Pandit will lead

this panel, which includes Dan Dearing, vice president of marketing at NexTone Communications; William Kwan, director of strategic plan-ning at Lucent Technologies Inc.; Chris Lengyel, market development manager at Cantata Technology Inc.; and Jim Majeski, director of systems engineering at Sansay Inc.

“Peering exchanges use different architectures to offer their inter-connect services,” said Dearing of session border controller provider NexTone. “The VPF is an example of a provider that focuses on the switching fabric offering ENUM as an additional service. In this environment, the session control intelligence resides in member border elements that connect to the VPF.

A second VPF track panel tomorrow, “Transitioning SS7/TCAP and 411 Services to IP,” talks about how to control operating costs and sim-plify networks by eliminating the complexly and costliness of SS7/TDM connections and streamlining access to critical database and gateway services over IP. Presenters on that panel include Doug Hilmes, director of business development at Syniverse Technologies Inc.; Nitin Krishna, director of product development and management at INFONXX Inc.; and Dan Lyman, vice president of sales at Transaction Network Services Inc.

ENUM and least-cost routing is the theme of the third VPF session, which includes Mark Fedor, CTO of SunRocket; John Fitzpatrick, senior vice president of software solutions for Vero Systems Inc.; and Tom Kershaw, vice president of next-generation services at VeriSign.

VPF Track Offers an Education on Voice Peering VOICE PEERING TRACK

VOICE PEERING

Monday, Oct. 9

9:30 - 10 a.m.Palms Ballroom

VOICE PEERING HARDWARE &

SOFTWARE ELEMENTS

Tuesday, Oct. 10

8:30 - 9:30 a.m.Crystal G1

Grande Hires New Senior Vice President

Grande Communications (Booth 700) has appointed Jeff Brennan as the new senior vice president of business services. He will lead the wholesale and enterprise departments at Grande.

Brennan was the former vice president of Sprint-Nextel Corp.’s public sector for the western region.

“I was always impressed by Jeff’s work at Sprint,” said Grande CEO Roy Chestnutt. “He not only had great ideas but he also successfully developed and implemented them. I’m impressed by his energy, creativity, strategic thinking and leadership skills he will provide in our service depart-ment at Grande.”

Brennan also has worked for Primeco, US West and Verizon Communications Inc./GTE. He began his career at Verizon/GTE as a telephone traffic engineer and then held positions in network planning, sales operations, product management and national account sales. He was responsible for the marketing and planning for sales of private line and switched services for a national fiber-optic and satellite net-work serving the North American and Caribbean markets.

“I’m excited by the opportunities at Grande and our wholesale markets, as well as the people I work with on a daily basis,” said Brennan. “I also look forward to working with a management team that is extremely motivated and exceptionally talented to continue Grande’s success.”

Headquartered in San Marcos, Texas, Grande Communications is building a deep-fiber broadband net-work to deliver high-speed Internet, local and long-distance telephone, digital cable and wireless home security services to communities in Texas. Grande’s bundled service area includes portions of Austin, Corpus Christi, suburban north-west Dallas, Midland, Odessa, San Antonio, San Marcos and Waco. Grande also serves enterprises and communications carriers nationwide with broadband transport services and network services.

Grande's Jeff Brennan

sentitO Networks, Stealth Communications Expand Partnership

sentitO Networks (Booth 309) and Stealth Communications Inc. (Booth 101) have announced the successful interoperability of sentito’s Open Network Exchange (ONX) IVG1200 Intelligent Voice and Proxy7 Signaling Gateways with Stealth’s Voice Peering Fabric (VPF) ENUM Registry. The combination of ENUM support with sentitO’s media and signaling gateways enables VoIP providers to complete voice calls on an all-IP infrastructure.

The VPF ENUM Registry has more than 18 million phone numbers enlisted by major carriers and enterprises worldwide to map telephone numbers to SIP or H.323 addresses. It was launched in 2004 and now completes more than 700,000 phone calls daily with an annual run rate surpassing 200 million calls.

sentitO’s ONX architecture and suite provide media and signaling conversion between the PSTN and IP networks, while facilitating new service delivery in a multivendor environment.

TRANSITIONINGSS7/TCAP & 411 SERVICES TO IP

Tuesday, Oct. 10

9:45 - 10:45 a.m.Crystal G1

ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION ON ENUM & LEAST-COST ROUTING

Tuesday, Oct. 10

11 a.m. - NoonCrystal G1

The spinoff of Alltel’s wireline division, and the product of a merger with VALOR Telecom of Irving, Texas, is making its debut to the competitive carrier market at this fall’s COMPTEL PLUSConvention and EXPO.

Windstream Communications (Booth 314), based in Little Rock, Ark., is a new name but its roots run deep as a key provider of voice, broadband and digital TV services for rural America. Some of the company’s divisions have served their communities for 120 years.

“We are investing for the future with our network infrastruc-ture,” said Don Wilborne, vice president of business sales. “We are focused on keeping pace with technology and our line-up includes Ethernet transport, MPLS and VPN services to meet the ever-changing communication needs of our customers.”

With 8,000 employees, Windstream serves 3.4 million residen-tial and business customer lines in 16 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma,

Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas. The company also is working with developers to bring fiber optics into new homes in several states this year.

Annual revenue totals approximately $3.4 billion. Windstream is listed on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ‘WIN.’

“We believe our customers are better served by a company completely focused on providing advanced local communications and entertainment products and services,” said Jeff Gardner, presi-dent and CEO. “We are an exciting company with extraordinarily talented people with the potential to change an industry.”

Windstream’s James Taylor, sales manager for wholesale busi-ness sales, and Sandra Sawyer of product and campaign manage-ment, will be on hand at COMPTEL to talk with attendees.

“Whether it’s customer premises equipment, or voice and IP/data services, our focus is on making mid-size, small and semi-rural communities competitive and successful in today’s expanding global economy,” said Taylor.

Windstream Blows Into COMPTEL

GlobalTouch Unveils SIPTalk Euro

GlobalTouch Telecom Inc. (Booth 704) has announced the SIPTalk Euro residential VoIP service.

SIPTalk Euro provides subscribers with unlimited any-time minutes to the United States, Canada and fourteen Western European countries, as well as unlimited inbound and in-network minutes, for just $24.95 per month. The service also includes features like inbound/outbound fax, softphone and video phone.

The European countries covered are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

“We are excited to be able to offer our subscribers this exceptional offering,” said Gregory Welch, CEO of GlobalTouch. “It clearly supports our commitment to pro-vide our customers with unsurpassed value and quality of service.”

Leveraging its proprietary, vertically integrated VoIP platform, GlobalTouch offers a range of plans for the United States and Canada: SIPTalk 200 with 200 anytime minutes of calling for $9.95 per month; SIPTalk 500, 500 anytime minutes of calling for $14.95; SIPTalk Infinity, unlimited anytime minutes; SIPTalk Office, 2,000 anytime minutes of calling; and Office Plus, unlimited anytime minutes.

ATLANTIC-ACM to Deliver Metro Carrier Excellence Awards at COMPTEL PLUS

Research firm ATLANTIC-ACM will deliver its 2006 U.S. Metro Carrier Excellence Awards today at the COMPTEL PLUS Convention and EXPO.

The awards are based on the results of ATLANTIC-ACM’s 2006 Metro Carrier Report Card, which evaluates the performance of metro carriers by their wholesale and business customers and is based on more than 5,000 individual carrier evaluations.

Customers rated carriers according to seven service characteristics, including brand (repu-tation), sales representatives (knowledge, credibility, integrity, responsiveness, consultative ability and responsiveness), provisioning (installation and timeliness), network (reliability and SLAs), customer service (responsiveness, expertise, problem resolution, efficiency), bill-

ing (accuracy, dispute resolution, flexibility and timeliness) and overall.

They also rated the quality and price/value of nine products, including PRI, local access, local voice, VoIP, transport services, SONET rings, direct Internet access, Ethernet and dark fiber.

METRO CARRIER EXCELLENCE AWARDS

Monday, Oct. 9

1 - 1:15 p.m. TBD

TelePacific Enters Wholesale Marketplace

TelePacific Communications’ (Booth 815) recent acquisition of Mpower Communications has created the fastest-growing CLEC in the western United States and one of the largest competitive telecommunications ser-vice providers in the country, according to the company. Combined, these companies now serve more than 75,000 customers and 800,000 access lines, and the merger enables TelePacific to enter the wholesale marketplace.

With the acquisition of Mpower’s SONET-based metro and intercity fiber networks and colocations, the new TelePacific’s state-of-the-art Cisco-powered MPLS IP network with QoS consists of a facilities-based Tier 1 infrastructure, 13 switches, 331 colocations and 514 wire centers.

“We are bringing together two successful companies to share best practices and create a stronger, more effi-cient business,” said Dick Jalkut, CEO of TelePacific Communications.

The combined company has a larger set of trans-port requirements, which also will benefit customers, explained Russ Shipley, senior vice president of whole-sale and network services for TelePacific. “The broader network and customer base makes it even more cost effective for us to continue our smart build network expansion strategy,” stated Shipley. “Not only are we leveraging this within our existing network assets, but we are actively investing in LSOs and expanding our fiber network reach.”

COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006 11

12 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

Vonage Network Inc., a subsidiary of Vonage Holdings Corp. and a leading provider of broadband telephone services with more than 2 million subscriber lines, has extended its contract with 3PV — Third Party Verification Inc. (Booth 206) as its exclusive provider of third-party verification services through 2009.

3PV provides speech-enabled, live-agent and online TPV and call-recording services for the cable and telephony industries, including both circuit switch and VoIP customers.

3PV’s patent-pending eLOA process enhances Vonage’s local number portability process, enabling Vonage customers to expedite

paperwork required to port their numbers from their existing carri-ers. Using eLOA, Vonage customers can complete a binding letter of agency online, during the order process or via e-mail from a customer care agent. eLOA allows for shorter provisioning time and less expen-sive transaction costs due to the elimination of document handling fees, the companies said in a press statement.

“Vonage initially selected 3PV as we recognized its track record and reputation as technology innovators and regulatory experts. In our 18 months working with them, they’ve lived up to that reputation,” said Michael Tribolet, president of Vonage America Inc. “By leverag-

ing proprietary technology, 3PV has improved our customer experi-ence and increased our completion rates for verifications. Expanding our relationship is a win-win for Vonage.”

“We are delighted that we’ll be Vonage’s verification partner for another three years,” said 3PV’s CEO David Brinkman. “We enjoy working with a company that is as innovative as Vonage. They chal-lenge us to push the envelope and to use our insight, imagination and innovation to solve complex business challenges. That’s always been a hallmark of our company and a core part of what we do. Having a business partner who draws on that strength is very rewarding.”

Vonage Extends TPV Contract With 3PV Through 2009

BillSoft Inc. (Booth 720) announced that its EZGeo and EZGeo Online tax jurisdiction assignment products have received CST Database Certification by the State of Florida Department of Revenue for address to juris-diction assignment.

The Florida Department of Revenue requires an overall accuracy rate of 95 percent for certification. EZGeo and EZGeo Online surpassed this rating with 99 percent accuracy, the company said in a press statement.

With this certification, communications and cable providers using EZGeo or EZGeo Online in Florida are eligible to receive a higher tax collection allowance (.75 percent versus .25 percent) and be granted the hold harmless provision of the Communication Services Tax (CST).

EZGeo and EZGeo Online identify tax jurisdictions for communications services across the United States.

The products also provide address scrubbing to postal standards and determine whether an address is in a special tax district or unincorporated area. EZGeo and EZGeo Online use street network data from NavTeq and TeleAtlas to locate addresses and determine their lati-tude and longitude — a process called geocoding. Once the address is geocoded, the tax jurisdiction is identified. This gives EZGeo and EZGeo Online customers a sig-nificantly higher degree of accuracy in identifying local taxing jurisdictions.

In addition, EZGeo and EZGeo Online have been integrated with CASS certified software, which allows customers to receive substantial postage discounts for their bulk mailings. CASS certification allows compa-nies to obtain discounted postal rates for bulk mailings with a higher degree of accuracy for carrier routes, 5-digit ZIP codes, ZIP+4 codes and delivery point addresses nationwide.

BillSoft Gains Certification From Florida Department of Revenue

Las Vegas CLEC Nevada Telephone is using Tekelec’s (Booth 501) entire switching portfolio to offer new, high-demand VoIP services and add thou-sands of subscribers to its customer base.

“Tekelec’s next-generation switching solutions have enabled us to launch and expand our portfolio of VoIP services to support our growing subscriber base, generate significant revenues, and realize a significant return on investment,” said Bob Jankovics, CEO of Nevada Telephone.

Nevada Telephone originally operated as a UNE-P carrier and was paying an ILEC a high rate for minutes of use as well as additional fees. With the help of Tekelec’s switching solutions, the operator has transformed itself into a facilities-based carrier, eliminating UNE-P fees and launching VoIP-based services in new markets.

Most recently, Nevada Telephone replaced its

existing switch with the Tekelec 9000 to support the rapid growth of its subscriber base from 115 custom-ers to more than 24,000.

The carrier also has deployed the Tekelec 6000 to introduce new features for enhanced VoIP services, such as unified messaging, softphone, user-scheduled and on-demand conferencing, find-me and Web portal capabilities that support visual voice mail, click-to-dial, and integration of directories and calendars with telephony features.

These solutions enhance the operator’s exist-ing Tekelec 7000 Class 5 Packet Switches, which were deployed beginning in 2004 to enable Nevada Telephone’s initial launch of VoIP services. The Tekelec 7000 integrates with either IP or TDM interfaces, enabling a smooth network migration to VoIP and reduced operational costs for operators of all types.

Tekelec Gear Powers Nevada Telephone’s Enhanced VoIP Services

Nashville-based Equinox Information Systems (Booth 718) has announced that Onvoy, an independent LEC based in Minneapolis, has licensed and installed the TeleLink mediation software system.

TeleLink integrates with Lucent Technologies Inc.’s Plexus 9000 multiservice access switch and Nortel Networks DMS 100/200 switch, which are the two primary switch types deployed in the Onvoy network. Onvoy offers network services, voice, video conferencing, data and Internet solutions to wholesale and retail market segments serving more than 350 com-munities in Minnesota and beyond.

“Equinox is a trusted partner for software devel-opment in the communications industry,” said Mike Yoder, system development and support manager for Onvoy. “The early results from installing TeleLink are outstanding: simplified billing processes and

improved overall efficiency. We look forward to col-laborating with Equinox on future software develop-ment projects.”

TeleLink facilitates the delivery of usage records by filtering and converting data to the appropriate formats for OSS, such as billing, fraud detection and network traffic analysis. For many communication providers, TeleLink replaces previously time-consuming manual processes with an automated process that is not only much faster, but also better ensures the integrity of usage data as it travels from switching platforms to billing and other downstream OSS processes.

“We are pleased that Onvoy has chosen to install TeleLink to process its usage records and call detail records, and we look forward to a long customer relationship,” said David West, Equinox executive vice president.

Onvoy Selects Equinox's TeleLink Mediation Software

PAETEC Communications Inc. (Booth 407), which has invested $10 million in VoIP technology, has initiated a national launch of its iPATH VoIP Transit Services Suite.

“PAETEC’s wholesale portfolio continues to evolve to meet the needs of service providers,” said Patrick Tata, vice president of PAETEC Wholesale Markets. “Our iPATH VoIP transit suite of services reinforces PAETEC’s commitment to enabling our clients to grow their business in a cost-effective manner while maintaining the service quality for which PAETEC is renowned.”

The suite, designed for VoIP-based service provid-ers, initially includes SIP-based DID aggregation ser-vice and 1+ VoIP domestic termination. Both products provide a cost-effective alternative to the IXC for the transport of IP traffic and, in the specific case of the

aggregated product, offer wholesale service providers a means to obtain rapid market expansion by delivering multimarket DID traffic to a single centralized loca-tion. With the ability to offer both G.711 and G.729 compression standards, and with delivery available over several mediums, further economies also can be realized through the product’s deployment.

The Wholesale iPATH services complement PAETEC’s retail product suite, comprised of Dynamic Bandwidth T1 (converged voice and data services with dynamic bandwidth allocation) and Hosted IP Telephony (includes Hosted IP Centrex and Hosted IP PBXs). Leveraging its Private-IP MPLS network with QoS on a nationwide basis, Hosted IP Telephony cus-tomers also have access to collaboration services, such as voice messaging, automatic call distribution, hosted voice VPN and auto attendant.

PAETEC Communications Blazes iPATH Transit Service Suite

COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006 13

The new Cardinal Stadium debuted in August to a sold-out crowd, many of whom made calls on their cell phones to friends and family at some point during the game. Thanks to SRP Telecom (Booth 515), the vast majority of those calls went through successfully.

Wireless phone coverage in Westgate and the area surrounding the Cardinal Stadium and Glendale Arena in Arizona was generally spotty up until only a few weeks ago. Dead spots and weak signals predomi-nated, and a major sporting event would have overwhelmed capacity. SRP Telecom helped NewPath Networks increase wireless coverage in and around the stadium, which was done using an innovative antenna technology — the first of its kind in the state.

NewPath deployed a Distributed Antenna System (DAS), which uses small cellular antennas that have a more precision-guided signal than a traditional cell tower. The array of small antennas delivers a more consis-tent and concentrated signal that avoids obstructions more effectively.

Eight antenna nodes were installed in the Westgate area on power poles and street lights that are connected to SRP fiber-optic cable routed

from a nearby SRP electrical substation. A secondary DAS also was built within the stadium.

“Each wireless carrier using the system might have had to build as many as three full cell sites to provide the same coverage quality,” said Allen Garrison, SRP Telecom wireless manager.

DAS also helps to reduce the need to put up large cell sites, a practice that often is frowned upon by city officials and the public. The smaller antennas are basically unnoticeable, can be sited on already existing infrastructure, and do not require bulky coaxial cable to trans-mit signals.

“DAS promotes wireless service with minimal visual impact,” said Michael Sherman, SRP Telecom manager. “The antennas blend in and are not readily noticeable unless you’re looking for them. This technol-ogy supports the City of Glendale’s objectives for siting wireless facili-ties and is sensitive to citizens of the area.”

Carriers already signed on to lease capacity from the DAS include Cingular and T-Mobile. NewPath expects others to sign on shortly.

“This was our most complex project so far,” said NewPath President Mike Kavanaugh. “I’m certain that we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off, at least at this scope, without the unique single source that SRP Telecom offers.”

SRP Telecom is assisting NewPath to assess other locations around the Valley, particularly in high wireless service demand areas like downtown Tempe, downtown Scottsdale and at Williams Gateway Airport.

SRP Telecom was created in 1996 when company officials decided to allow third parties to utilize its excess fiber-optic capacity, which is used primarily for providing high-speed communications for its electric and water operations, as well as enable wireless facilities. The proceeds from this business flow back to SRP offsetting operating costs, which helps keep SRP’s electric and water rates low.

NewPath Networks is a wireless infrastructure company that designs, develops and operates fiber-fed wireless carrier networks to improve signal strength and network capacity.

SRP Telecom Assists in Providing Cell Service to West Valley Arizona

XO Communications Inc. (Booth 715) announced today it has completed its new next-generation, nationwide, intercity fiber-optic network and now carries customer traffic across all segments.

The network allows XO to more than double network capac-ity and offer more higher-speed data transport services to content providers, enterprises and service providers.

“Our new next-generation network represents a major com-petitive advantage for XO in providing nationwide and metro network services to carriers, cable companies, large enterprises and service providers,” said Ernie Ortega, president of carrier services at XO Communications. “Demand for high-bandwidth services is increasing as organizations converge all forms of com-merce, communications and content over IP-based networks to serve ever-increasing customer needs. Our new network not only meets the capacity needs of these organizations but also offers the

nationwide reach and local presence for the door-to-door delivery of data traffic.”

The new long-haul network initially delivers 100gbps of capac-ity and sets the stage for a tenfold capacity increase up to 400gbps between any two cities on the XO intercity network, according to the company. The increased capacity will enable XO to deliver 10gbps high-speed transport services, including Ethernet, private line and wavelength services. In addition, with the deployment of digital optical technology, XO will be able to provision or upgrade customer circuits in hours, rather than days.

The XO nationwide intercity network spans 18,000 route miles and more than 324,000 fiber miles, and connects to more than 1 million fiber miles in 37 metropolitan markets. The XO network connects 75 major metropolitan markets across the United States, including Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Las Vegas, New Orleans, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

XO Communications Completes Nationwide Intercity Fiber-Optic Network Embarq Corp. (Booth 203), formerly the local telecommunications division

of Sprint Corp., is showcasing its status as its own company at the COMPTEL PLUS Fall Convention and EXPO, with solutions for consumers and busi-nesses.

“We are a brand-new, 107-year-old company,” said Dan Hesse, Embarq chairman and CEO. “Our goal is to offer communications services that make sense for the way people live and do business in our local markets.”

For consumers, Embarq offers a portfolio of services that includes local and long-distance home phone service, high-speed Internet, wireless and Dish Network satellite TV, on one monthly bill.

For businesses, Embarq has a range of integrated services designed to help businesses of all sizes be more productive and communicate with their custom-ers. The service portfolio includes integrated local voice and data services, long-distance, business-class DSL, wireless, enhanced data network services, voice and data communication equipment and managed network services.

For wholesale customers, Embarq offers a variety of network-based products and database services to local, long-distance and wireless carriers.

The company, based in Overland Park, Kan., has approximately 20,000 employees and operates in 18 states, and is included in the S&P 500.

Embarq Showcases Portfolio

14 COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006

Veteran billing and back-office solutions provider DCA Services Inc. (Booth 401) has positioned itself as an enabler for service providers that continue to search for new opportunities to add billable products and services, acquire customers, improve opera-tional efficiencies, remain competitive and grow with the changing market.

“More and more, service providers are dealing with disparate billing systems, from landline and mobile telephony, to broadband and TV,” said DCA Services President and CEO Joe Webb. “Systems convergence becomes paramount to providing flex-ibility in supporting service bundles and unique rate plans, bringing new services to market quickly, and enhancing operational efficiency.”

DCA Services offers convergent billing and business support systems to long-distance resellers, facilities-based carriers, CLECs, ILECs, wireless carriers, MVNOs, ISPs and VoIP providers.

“To stay competitive, a service provider’s systems must be able to quickly respond to new marketing strategies as they add new services to their triple- and quadruple-play bundles,” Webb said.

DCA’s billing technology includes a fast processing engine and a checks-and-balances system that ensures speed and accuracy in high volumes. The system is capable of performing real-time online rating and billing of all transactions, and seamlessly interfaces with the external carrier networks supporting SS7 and VoIP protocols.

For wireline carriers, DCA Services also offers intelligent routing and call validation. The intelligent routing application consists of call processing functionalities that allow a service provider to increase call completion rates and automatically select the optimal route for each call. Using this system, carriers can create services considering cost, margin, quality of service, call duration and contractual intercarrier agreement variables to ensure that the most effective route always is selected.

DCA Services’ turnkey solution also includes subscriber acquisition, provisioning, customer care, financial management, and print and mail.

DCA Positions for Service Innovation

BeQuick Software Inc. (Booth 306) announced it has been awarded a patent for an innovative provision-ing component of BeQuick Software’s marquis hosted OSS product called QuickTel. The patent, filed in 2003 by the inventors and company co-owners, Steve McIntosh and Sean Biganski, describes unique online ordering and provisioning tools for users and agents of CLECs. The international patent is pending.

BeQuick’s QuickTel system offers the ability for third-party agents to submit their own orders, without any assistance from the CLEC. The system eliminates the guesswork regarding which ILEC and/or plans are available and makes a determination of these based on the customer’s physical location. Once the agent has selected a plan, the population of ILEC USOCs and

other provisioning codes required for the order hap-pens behind the scenes and is transparent to the user.

Of special interest to prepaid CLECs, the pat-ented process also provides the ability to automate all record keeping of money owed, collections and commissions earned by agents. The system performs automatic invoicing of agents based on payments made by customer to agents, as well as automatic commissioning of agents based on payments posted by agent on behalf of customer.

BeQuick Software provides its services under an ASP model to Tier 3 CLECs. BeQuick owns and manages all the necessary infrastructure required to deliver real-time order entry, provisioning, billing and care operations systems.

BeQuick Software Awarded OSS Patent

Joe Webb

Automated voice solutions provider Pulse Voice Inc. (Booth 218) has been placed on PROFIT mag-azine’s annual ranking of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies.

Ranking Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies by five-year revenue growth, the PROFIT 100 profiles the country’s most successful growth companies.

“We are honored to be included among such a suc-cessful group of companies,” said Mohan Markandaier, Pulse’s CEO and co-founder. “Pulse continues to expe-rience growth year after year as a result of our com-mitment to delivering solutions with customer needs in mind and our continuous focus on R&D to integrate newer technologies for the telecom market.”

In the past 10 years, Pulse has expanded to more than 40 countries worldwide with an increased cus-tomer base which includes a broad cross-section of businesses ranging from small to medium enterprises to Fortune 500 customers.

“The PROFIT 100 are role models for anyone who wants to seize today’s best business opportunities,” said Ian Portsmouth, editor of PROFIT. “By differenti-ating their products and applying creative management thinking, Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies are outpacing the competition at home and abroad.”

In other recent news from Pulse, the company now supports the Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) for vendor independent integration to Text-to-Speech and Speech Recognition products. With the MRCP standard, the applications developed for speech are portable as the underlying interface takes care of conforming to the standards. With the adoption of MRCP by a growing number of speech vendors, developers will have more choice and flexibility.

As defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force, the MRCP specification defines commands between clients and servers for distributed speech processing.

Pulse Recognized as One of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies

Concretio (Booth 216), a OSS vendor, and Smart Telecom Concepts, a provider of cost-management solutions, announced a partnership to offer CLECs a turnkey solution for least-cost provisioning.

The solution starts with an analysis of a carrier’s customer base to determine the lowest cost wholesale ILEC and alternative carrier platforms. Customers are transitioned to the lowest-cost networks via automated batch orders. After the base is converted, ongoing analysis and provisioning tools ensure future orders are placed in accordance with established least-cost provisioning standards.

“More than ever, carriers are challenged to find ways to reduce their costs, and our partnership with Concretio through least-cost provisioning provides quick and easy savings to address that need,” said Thad Pellino, principal with Smart Telecom Concepts, which provides ILEC invoice audits, dispute management, revenue assurance and wholesale cost analysis to CLECs across the country.

Pellino said the initial savings can be thousands of dollars per month and continue over time.“Once the analysis is complete, our customers are recognizing the savings within a week due to the orders

being provisioned electronically via automated batches in Concretio’s TRS system,” said Concretio Vice President John McManus.

TRS is an OSS solution that allows CLECs, ICPs, resellers and ISPs to electronically bond to ILEC OSS systems and perform all the pre-order and ordering functions. TRS processes resale, local wholesale and UNE-L services for POTS, Centrex, DS1, ADTS, BRI, and PRI, along with many other services.

Concretio, Smart Telecom Concepts Team for Least-Cost Provisioning

Martin Group (Booth 614) has introduced eCRM, a new module of its customer care and billing software solution, OMNIA. eCRM is a Web-based customer relationship management product that extends customer service representative (CSR) capabilities directly to the end user.

OMNIA eCRM allows end users to add services and features and modify account information. With OMNIA eCRM, service providers can differentiate delivery of services as well as improve customer loyalty and retention rates by allowing customers to make their own decisions without having to call a CSR, said the company.

“The addition of eCRM into our OMNIA software solution will give our clients the ability to intelligently market, upsell and track demographics based on existing services,” said Jim Odom, Martin Group’s CEO. “The implication of online self-care is end-user dependence and loyalty.”

Martin Group Adds Web-Based CRM Module to OMNIA

The Conference Group (Booth 919) has expanded its global conferencing capabilities to include inter-national toll-free access from more than 40 different countries.

“We have seen a significant increase in our interna-tional traffic over the last 12 months,” said Greg Plum, The Conference Group’s alternate channel manager. “As a result, we have negotiated aggressive interna-tional rates, which we pass along to our partners.”

Provisioning for international customers is identical to the process for domestic customers, the company said.

Earlier this year, The Conference Group received the 2006 Telecom Association’s Member’s Choice Award for conferencing companies.

“We were thrilled with this unexpected honor,” said Plum. “It affirms that we are doing the right thing for our partners and their customers day in and day out.”

The Conference Group Expands Global Reach

Interstate Fibernet/ITC^DeltaCom Inc. (Booth 909), a provider of integrated communications ser-vices to customers in the Southeast, has launched Deltacom Professional Services.

Deltacom Professional Services helps customers control costs and allows companies to remain focused on their core business. Deltacom assists its customers with network requirements such as net-work facilities deployment and installation, project management, design, engineering, network upgrades, network migration or the convergence of technologies.

ITC^DeltaCom Launches Deltacom Professional Services

COMPTEL • MONDAY, OCT. 9, 2006 15

The latest version of Sandy Beaches Software’s (Booth 721) customer care and billing software, InTELEbill, includes a real-time retail-type payment module.

“The new feature is well-suited for the prepaid dial-tone provider [with] multiple agents and therefore several payment locations,” explained SBS software developer Choo Khor. “Our prepaid clients want to save time by hav-ing agents process payments directly into the system. They also want to limit the amount of access agents have to the software to avoid data entry mistakes.”

The Web-based interface allows the payment centers to view basic customer information and post accounting transactions directly into InTELEbill. Commissions also can be paid based on the point-of-sale location. Reports are generated to verify the accounting transactions and to help spot-check for errors.

“This module is a precursor to the new agent portal we are rolling out at the end of the year,” said Sandy Beaches President Jeff Lytle. “Some of our customers had an immediate need for this Web-based product, and we completed it for them, rather than forcing them to wait until the new Web portal product is ready. Our programming staff strives to be flexible enough in its development to be able to meet customer needs quickly. If it is important to them, it is important to us.”

InTELEbill’s Online Payment Module Simplifies Prepaid Model

TeliaSonera International Carrier (Booth 100) has launched a new service called VoIP Connect designed to help service providers deliver VoIP services with minimal effort and investment.

“We are bringing a competitive advantage to our customers, because VoIP Connect makes it very easy for them to offer high-quality international voice services to the end users. The service is an integrated part of our traditional voice backbone and extensive IP platform. That is what makes it unique,” said Rene Timmermans, head of product and business management at TeliaSonera International Carrier.

Through the new service, customers of TeliaSonera International Carrier gain access to the TeliaSonera network via a gateway, without the need to invest in telephony servers. However, to guarantee high voice quality, TeliaSonera International Carrier requires a dedicated IP connection to be used between customer and carrier. As part of the package, TeliaSonera monitors the VoIP services around the clock.

The company estimates that approximately 30 to 40 new customers will be using this service in the Nordic countries, Europe and the United States before the end of this year. TeliaSonera International Carrier estimates that VoIP will grow by 10 percent each quarter in Western Europe and that 30 percent of all broadband users will use IP telephony by the end of 2007.

TeliaSonera International Carrier Launches VoIP Connect

Carmel Solutions Inc. (CSI, Booth 1011) announced it has renewed its contract with Flint Telecom Ltd., a VoIP service provider with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and distributors and end users across the United States and the U.K.

CSI provides Flint Telecom with first- and second-level customer care, order processing, provisioning and billing services.

“We are very pleased and excited to be continuing our relationship with Flint Telecom,” said CSI President James Hansen. “We believe that our many years of expertise and experience in all areas of the telecom marketplace have been and will continue to be of great benefit to their organization. Our dedication to back-office excellence combined with their commitment to product quality and market growth has made a truly superior partnership.”

Flint, which began marketing its VoIP service through a worldwide network of distributors in 2005, is expect-ing rapid growth in active subscribers through the end of the year and throughout 2007. The service in the United States includes unlimited local and long-distance calling at one monthly price with special package deals to specific international countries.

In addition to its outsourced services, CSI also markets its TELEPRO line of turnkey systems and software that allow carriers and resellers to run the back office with their own labor force.

Flint Telecom Renews Contract With Carmel Solutions

Thermo Credit LLC (Booth 1006), which provides loans, lines of credit, and capital investment programs to telecom companies, has provided Progressive Concepts Inc. (PCI) with up to $10 million in receivables financing. This marks the first time Thermo Credit has funded a company in the cellular MVNO and reseller arena.

“We are very excited about our partnership with PCI,” said Seth Block, executive vice president of external operations for Thermo Credit. “We feel their strong management and 20-plus-years longevity in the cellular industry make them an ideal company to work with in this evolving aspect of our business.”

PCI also goes by the name Hawk Electronics. The company resells wireless voice, data and entertainment services and devices to consumers and businesses. PCI earlier this year went through financial restructuring before it was bought by its new parent company, Teletouch Communications Inc.

“Thermo Credit originally approached us about financing our paging business, which was recently sold,” explained Teletouch CEO T. A. “Kip” Hyde, Jr. “However, we were very pleased that [Thermo Credit] could become the financial partner for our newly acquired, wholly owned subsidiary, PCI. Given their significant experience and expertise in the telecommunications industry, we look forward to a long-term financial rela-tionship with this team.”

Thermo Credit Provides $10 Million in Funding to Wireless Reseller

ILD Telecommunications Inc. (Booth 520), which delivers payment processing, business process outsourcing and conferencing solutions, has completed the acquisi-tion of Join The Call LLC, a switchless provider of multimedia conferencing ser-vices and support. Join The Call’s customer base will become part of the ROLLCALL Conferencing division of ILD.

“We are pleased to welcome Join The Call clients to ILD,” said Fred Lloyd, senior vice president of strategic planning for ILD and head of the ROLLCALL Conferencing division. “The acquisition of Join The Call made sense for us given how well ROLLCALL and Join The Call fit together across customer segments, platforms and technology. The acquisition is an important addition to our ROLLCALL division, immediately strengthening the size of our conferencing division and further bolstering the capabilities which we can offer Join The Call clients,” added Lloyd.

The combination of Join The Call’s customer base with ROLLCALL’s facilities-based conferencing operations has established ROLLCALL as one of the industry’s fastest-growing conferencing providers, capable of producing superior value for its wholesale and enterprise partners, according to ILD. The ROLLCALL Conferencing division currently manages approximately 2,500 corporate accounts and has demon-strated approximately 17 percent growth in revenue in the last year.

ILD Adds Join The Call to ROLLCALL Division

Internet telephony service provider SunRocket is among the latest to join Stealth Communications Inc.’s (Booth 101) Voice Peering Fabric. The VPF allows SunRocket and others to exchange voice traffic directly with fellow VoIP providers instead of accruing costly per-minute charges associated with routing customer calls through the PSTN. VPF also offers an ENUM registry to determine which calls can route directly to other VPF members.

“We are ecstatic to have one of the nation’s fastest-growing residential Internet phone service providers on board to provide valuable muscle and momentum to the Voice Peering Fabric,” said Shrihari Pandit, president and CEO of Stealth Communications. “As SunRocket scales its subscriber base, peering VoIP traffic with other providers without routing through the traditional phone networks will deliver significant benefits to the company by reducing time-to-revenue and enhancing QoS for their customers.”

“Increased participation in VoIP peering by Internet phone service providers will facilitate tremendous efficiency gains and enhance quality of service for customers communicating via Internet telephony,” said Mark Fedor, SunRocket’s CTO. “As a VPF participant, we look forward to spearheading efforts to develop an open, innova-tive peering model that offers a viable alternative to the closed, outdated legacy PSTN cost-per-minute peering approach.”

SunRocket Joins Voice Peering Fabric

Advanced Software Concepts Inc. (ASC, Booth 321) announced that its ASC Carrier Management Solution has been deployed successfully by a major North American telecom service provider. The carrier’s identity was not disclosed, but ASC and the ILEC are arranging one-on-one meetings at the COMPTEL PLUS event to discuss the deployment with carriers. Interested parties should inquire at the ASC booth.

The ASC Carrier Management Solution tightly couples carrier agreement management with the automation of the carrier RFQ process and order tracking while providing a tool to facilitate off-net circuit auditing and validation.

ASC’s Carrier Management offering is a Web-based solution that is tailored to each carrier’s environment and processes. With the ASC Contracts engine at its core, the ASC Carrier Management Solution automates the buying, selling, pricing, quoting, ordering and auditing activities between carriers.

“ASC understands that the single biggest purchases and sales made by telecommunications organizations are with other carriers. It is critical to their overall financial success that they effectively manage these carrier relationships,” said Shawn L. King, president and CEO of ASC.

ASC Carrier Management Solution manages the sell-ing and buying of network services while facilitating the billing- and invoice-validation processes also known as revenue-assurance and cost-management functions. It offers a centralized repository for carrier buy, sell and reciprocal agreements along with all subsequent carrier quote requests and responses. Agreement creation and storage occurs through a single process.

Armed with a complete picture of its suppliers, carriers can better negotiate terms and conditions, isolate unneeded facilities, and identify supplier invoice problems with the end result being improved control over off-net carrier costs, according to ASC.

ASC Announces Customer Deployment of Carrier Management Solution

telx (Booth 207) recently concluded the acquisition of 13,000 square feet of additional space at 60 Hudson St. The area is immedi-ately adjacent to its core interconnection facility on the ninth floor.

The company, which has the most densely populated physical net-work interconnection point in New York, dedicated a large portion of this expansion for enterprise network operators to establish a physical presence. That allows carriers and enterprises to interconnect within hours instead of weeks, improve service quality and drive down costs.

Establishing a presence at telx empowers enterprises to design and manage their own networks and eliminate the unnecessary steps and costs associated with legacy processes. By entering such a mar-ketplace, the enterprise networking community gains access to a wide range of options to directly connect to other diverse network providers, or even other enterprises for sharing VoIP, e-mail, video over IP and other data traffic.

“We have witnessed and participated first-hand in the staggering growth of the carrier interconnection business within the facility and we are now seeing the entrance of the enterprise networks to this world,” stated Jason Cohen, vice president and general manager of

KeySpan Communications, which has been one of the telx communi-ty’s active carrier members for several years.

D.F. King is a prime example of how this arrangement is benefi-cial for everyone involved. D.F. King is a leading full-service proxy solicitation and corporate/financial communications firm located in New York. KeySpan provides data transport services to D.F. King to connect its call center and headquarters as well as providing it with access to the telx facility. D.F. King has established its own physical presence at telx for the purpose of managing its own direct connections to other networks. This gives the company more control and choice of providers for Internet transit, VoIP and other data services.

“After much discussion among our technical staff we decided to partner with telx,” stated Michael Manspeizer, director of telecom for D.F. King. “As a result, our installation intervals have gone from weeks to hours and our access costs have dropped 80 percent. Best of all, by having a physical presence at telx we can take advantage of new technologies and processes as they come to market, such as peering. This would have been impossible utilizing traditional telco access methods.”

telx Launches Enterprise Peering Facility in New York at 60 Hudson

AT&T offers a full spectrum of wholesale

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extends your reach around the block

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