Metaswitch 2.0 was when Microsoft acquired them. Metaswitch 3.0 starts now that Alianza has completed the acquisition.
I have a problem with their PR headline: Alianza Completes Acquisition of Metaswitch from Microsoft to Empower Service Provider Growth and Help Telcos Close a Massive Gap in Services Revenue. It doesn’t say anything about how they are helping telcos with a massive revenue gap. Not a word. Or really how they would help with growth.
Metaswitch is in the voice network of about 1000 service providers worldwide. For many of them, Metaswitch has a role as a class 4 switch for GR303 and TDM. There is still 30M copper lines in service. Heck, Verizon just moved the NYFD off Centrex!
I don’t see how a wholesale in the cloud softswitch replaces an on-premise class 4 switch for TDM, but I understand that TDM is ending.
Many ISPs just need digital voice. It is where Alianza amd Momentum got their start — tier 2 and tier 3 cableco digital voice. It is where many ISPs will migrate now that the UCaaS battle has been won by Microsoft (I say that tongue and cheek, but I hear it from folks.)
Approximately, 700 of the telcos will just pay software maintenance. There are about 700 mom-and-pop telcos with less than 5K lines.
That leaves 300 to possibly choose Alianza for their next softswitch.
As RAD-INFO assists service providers with switch decisions, there are many questions to answer.
- Does the platform scale? We don’t know how many lines they have now. We don’t know if it can scale to 30M lines.
- Are they financially solvent? There is debt from the acquisition. Can the company stand on just software assurance?
- How will they afford all those Metaswitch people? That is a significant payroll.
These are questions that need to be asked, because no one wants to migrate to a new platform to do it again in 2 years.