Tekelec Gear Helps Grande Expand Services

Grande Communications (Booth 500) is purchasing a softswitch and support application from Tekelec (Booth 317) to expand services to its retail, enterprise and wholesale customers.

Grande has selected Tekelec 9000 distributed switching solutions and says it expects three solutions to be operating in the second quarter of 2005.

Texas-based Grande says it soon will add combined voice and Internet service over any T1 circuit within its service area to support its enterprise customers. The Tekelec platform also will grant Grande additional port capacity for IP interconnection with its wholesale carrier customers.

“The entire industry is rapidly moving toward IP as the dominant platform, and, as enterprise customers increase their demand for advanced IP services, CLECs and other communication providers need to remain competitive by working with regional carriers like Grande,” says Stephen Wagner, executive vice president of Grande’s network services.

Says Tricia Hosek, president and general manager of Tekelec’s Next-Generation Switching Group: “We are pleased to provide the foundation for Grande to expand its networks and deploy new services.”