ThinkTel Communications, an Edmonton, Alberta-based company takes an innovative approach to providing service. Instead of acting like the typical service provider, looking exclusively to external suppliers for new applications, ThinkTel looked for true innovation in leveraging the latest trends in technology with its small-but-fast in-house development team. ThinkTel wanted to combine flexible, open interfaces with a carrier-class platform for call control and signaling/media processing. MetaSwitch, a leading vendor of IMS-ready switching and applications solutions, was the obvious choice in ThinkTel’s eyes.

“We looked at a number of softswitch and feature server providers, and it really came down to architecture and flexibility,” said Dave Damer, founder, president and CEO of ThinkTel. “We wanted to develop our own SIP-based applications and MetaSwitch had the most open environment for developing those applications. MetaSwitch provides the rock-solid core of our network and a consistent, easy to manage interface for us to deliver the applications that talk to the world.”
Initially, ThinkTel, founded as a pure-IP company, delivered VoIP-based services via a network of media gateways which only served limited functionality. Moving towards MetaSwitch, which supports open access to the call processing flow and subscriber database via IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)-compliant interfaces, enabled ThinkTel to develop and deploy a range of new services including hosted Voice over IP, interactive voice response (IVR) systems, voicemail, and conferencing. All of these applications are built on ThinkTel’s proprietary integrated provisioning and billing system, which link directly to the MetaSwitch Class 4/5 softswitch, enabling ThinkTel to completely automate its service delivery process from order to invoice; resulting in increased revenues and customer satisfaction, without growing operations or support personnel.

ThinkTel plans to install another MetaSwitch system in eastern Canada next year, along with plans to deploy two additional systems for expansion into the United States where it will offer IVR, voicemail, VoIP termination, and voice marketing solutions.

“For customers like ThinkTel that have embraced the all-IP world of next-generation communications, MetaSwitch is an ideal solution because it offers an open applications environment that enables customers to quickly develop and deliver new SIP-based services - from conferencing to ‘triple play’,” said Mike Ward, MetaSwitch Senior Vice President of Sales. “We are pleased to help support the growth of one of Canada’s leading providers of voice solutions.”

On Tuesday, April 4 at 4:15pm, John Lazar, MetaSwitch CEO, will present an “Industry Perspective” on the societal trends fueling changes in the communications industry. In addition, Paul Drew, director of product management for MetaSwitch, is speaking on a panel entitled “Fixed-Mobile Convergence: Bringing it All Together” on Wednesday, April 5 at 2:00pm.