Northwest Communications Cooperative selects Aztek Networks' ESA solution to ensure network resiliency

Rural telco turns to Aztek Emergency Stand Alone systems to ensure reliability its rural network.

Boulder, Colo. (April 7, 2008) - Aztek Networks (www.azteknetworks.com), the leader in Emergency Stand Alone (ESA) equipment for enabling network switch collapse, today announced that Northwest Communications Cooperative (NCC) (www.nccray.com) has selected its 5000S ESA solution to help ensure uninterrupted network service and improved community safety. Working together with the Tellabs® 1000 Multiservice Access Series (MSAS). Aztek will deploy 10 of its 5000S units in the Central Office cabinets located throughout NCC’s regional network.

Emergency stand-alone systems assure uninterrupted local calling capability and access to 911 emergency services. Aztek’s ESA solutions are specifically designed to help ensure public safety by continuously maintaining local calling capabilities and subscriber access to emergency 911 services in the event the link to the primary host switch is severed due to an accident or natural disaster.

NCC provides telecommunications services to nearly 6,000 residential and business
customers in Northwestern North Dakota. NCC offers a broad selection of communications services to its subscribers, including voice, high-speed Internet and cable TV. In line with NCC’s mission to be the premier provider of communications services in northwest North Dakota, the cooperative turned to Aztek Networks and Tellabs to improve the redundancy of its network.

“We turned to Aztek Network’s ESA switch because we found it to be both a reliable and cost-effective solution for Emergency Stand Alone needs,” said Dwight Schmitt, CEO at Northwest Communications Cooperative. “With our large service area, it is essential that our outlying rural customers continue to have telephone service in the event of a network outage.”

Tellabs has advanced the NCC telecommunications network to meet the evolving needs of its geographically disparate users. NCC turned to Tellabs in order to deliver highquality voice and data services over wireline to its ever increasing customer base.

“Working with Aztek, we have completed interoperability certification to offer providers a complete ESA solution,” said Mark Cannata, director of product management for broadband products at Tellabs. “With this solution, NCC can continue to deliver reliable, high-quality voice and date with the Tellabs 1000 series.”

Rural telecom operators are turning to ESA as a solution to ensure their subscribers have the same level of reliability and access to emergency services as subscribers connected to a traditional host or remote switch. With Aztek’s family of ESA solution’s, rural telecommunications providers know that if the network connection to the host central office switch is cut or fails, the Aztek ESA solution will detect the loss of signal and assume all local switching duties, including the handling of emergency 911 calls, until the signal from the host central office is re-established.

“We are experiencing a strong response from rural telecommunications providers who are committed to providing exceptional safety along with superior customer services,” said Steven Bruny, CEO of Aztek Networks.

For more information please visit, www.azteknetworks.com

About Aztek Networks
Based in Boulder, Colorado, Aztek Networks is the leader in Emergency Stand Alone (ESA) switching products that enable switch collapse for network migration. The company's patent-pending True ESA™ technology is the basis for the first and only truly open-standards, environmentally hardened and fully redundant ESA switch. Aztek's TDM and IP-based ESA switches, when combined with fiber-to-the-home or broadband multi-service access systems, offer telecommunications carriers reliable and cost-effective solutions for green-field access applications and the replacement of legacy remote switches. More information is available at www.azteknetworks.com.