30 July 2003 Petaluma, CA Lightwave -- Turin Networks Inc., developer and supplier of multiservice transport platforms for telecommunications carriers, announced today that Grand River Mutual Telephone, the largest telephone co-operative in Missouri, will deploy Turin Networks' flagship Traverse Platform in a new RUS-financed OC-192 SONET network spanning its exchanges in northern Missouri and southern Iowa.
In addition to SONET transport, Grand River is using the Turin equipment to aggregate traffic from Ethernet-based DSLAMs, as well as to deliver TDM DS1 and DS3 private-line services to their customers. The capacity and flexibility afforded by the new OC-192 system also positions them to deliver services such as video transport and bandwidth wholesaling in the future. Grand River's network, which includes 33 exchanges in Missouri and 15 exchanges in Iowa, serves in excess of 25,000 access lines.
"We have been examining advanced transport alternatives for some time, and while the promise of OC-192 has been looming on the horizon, pricing has made it unaffordable for rural LECs--until now," contends Brian Schuldt, Engineering Staff, Martin Group, who led the engineering plan and evaluation of competitive proposals for the Grand River OC-192 project. "Turin's Traverse system offered a solution that was both cost-effective and technologically advanced, with features such as integrated Ethernet switching, virtual concatenation and advanced VLAN capabilities, to improve network efficiency."
According to Richard Stanfield, co-founder and vice president of worldwide sales at Turin Networks, the company's multiservice transport platform has been deployed by more than 40 customers.
"An increasing number of carriers like Grand River are realizing the significant technological and economical advantages that our Traverse Platform has over competing next-generation SONET, Ethernet over SONET, and DCS products," he contends. "We can accomplish in a single high-density shelf what other suppliers need one or more racks to achieve."