ADTRAN builds on decades of voice experience with a new kind of router.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [March 7, 2006]

Huntsville, Ala.-based ADTRAN introduces this week a new converged services router. The NetVanta 7100 is an IP PBX switch router with 24 Ethernet ports, capable of managing up to 50 voice stations.

Tim Saunders, vice president of product management for ADTRAN's enterprise networks division, explains that ADTRAN's product development is always guided by two key issues: total cost of ownership and ease of use. As a product line develops, individual items in the product line are developed for specific customer segments. "We can make it larger or smaller, add or remove features, all to drive the cost down," he says.

The new product builds on ADTRAN's award winning [.pdf] NetVanta 1224STR (which also had 24 ports), part of a product line (NetVanta) that we described in It's About the Basics, not About Rocket Science.

"It's like a NetVanta 1224 with PBX, voicemail, and a SIP gateway added," explains Paul Smelser, product manager for the NetVanta 7100. The sweet spot for the product, he says, is between 10 and 40 stations.

On the work station side, the company OEM's phones from Pleasanton, Calif.-based Polycom, the IP 501. SIP Phones are available from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based CounterPath, formerly known as X10, at a list price of $100 per SIP phone.

Of course, if you grow from 20 to 30, you will need an additional switch when you grow beyond the device's 24 ports, but that's a problem any enterprise would like to have.

"You could use any switch with PoE for the additional 26 ports," says Smelser, "but there are advantages, including ease of administration, in using an ADTRAN product, such as the NetVanta 1224R, to provide additional ports."

ADTRAN's voice networks experience covers several decades, and the product networks neatly with analog devices using modules that the company has sold in other devices (such as DSLAMs) for many years.

Clear channels, no conflict
Smelser explains that ADTRAN does not have a direct sales channel to compete with its resellers. "We sell through resellers and carriers who may be agents of ITSPs or CLECs or ILECs," he says. These VARs also handle support contracts, and ADTRAN provides firmware updates for free.

"A key selling point," Smelser says, "is that no additional licenses are required to do things like activate phones or voicemail boxes. If you grow from 10 to 20 employees, you need to buy phones but there are no other charges."

Pricing and availability
The NetVanta 7100 is available now in North America at a list price of $5,195.

ISPs that wish to sell the product must complete ADTRAN's IP Telephony Program (IPT Program) certification. Individuals who have completed the training program acquire an ADTRAN Technical Support Professional for IP Telephony (ATSP/IPT) certification and are given an ATSP/IPT Certification ID number

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