Company Description
With roughly 3,700 residential and business
customers, Tele-Media Solutions is one of
eight telephone cooperatives and 35
independent telephone companies in the
state of Indiana. Encompassing an
exchange area of 120 square miles, Tele-
Media Solutions provides telephony, Internet
access and digital television to consumers in
the South Central Indiana region.
Challenge
As Tele-Media Solutions continued to
expand, it sought a new, high-performance
hardware solution to handle the increased
bandwidth required to serve its customers.
The cost of acquiring additional Lucent
routers was not a feasible solution for
building a network with long-term
performance.
Solution
Tele-Media Solutions purchased two
Gateway routers from ImageStream Internet
Solutions and was able to build an entire
network, including replacing their existing
Lucent router, for one-third the cost of what
they would have had to pay for two
additional Lucent routers. Not only did the
new linux-based routers handle the
company's immediate bandwidth needs,
they were easy to configure and scalable for
future growth. Tele-Media Solutions
purchased several additional routers as it
began to enhance its voice, video and data
services to include VoIP, video interactivity
and data security.
Results
ImageStream continues to support Tele-
Media Solutions throughout its growth path,
and its routers continue to handle the
company's bandwidth needs with plenty of
capacity to spare. The ImageStream routers
offer Tele-Media Solutions great flexibility in
setup and configuration, along with low
maintenance costs, extended service,
product warranties and future upgrades. |
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SITUATION
The Washington County Rural Telephone Cooperative (dba Tele-
Media Solutions) uses a converged access delivery model to
deliver
voice, data and video accessibility to its customer base of
roughly
3,700 South Central Indiana residential and business customers.
Beginning in 2000, the cooperative's reach began to expand,
causing
its bandwidth needs to increase. By late 2001, Tele-Media
Solutions
outgrew its Lucent Access Point 1000 router. This Lucent
equipment,
an expensive investment for the company, was handling traffic
from
three OC3 card interfaces, and began overloading because it
could not
handle the volume of bandwidth needed to support the company's
current customer base. These and other performance issues led
Tele-
Media Solutions to look for hardware options with greater
processing
power.
At the time, the cost of purchasing two more Lucent routers was
more
than $50,000 plus service contracts, which was a substantial
investment for Tele-Media Solutions. Even if the company decided
to
purchase the two additional Lucent routers, it did not have a
high
degree of confidence that the routers would offer adequate
long-term
performance.
SOLUTION
Tele-Media Solutions discovered that for one-third of the cost
of the
Lucent routers it was considering, it could purchase two linux-based
Gateway routers from ImageStream Internet Solutions. These
included
a RAM upgrade to 256Mb, an OC3 interface and redundant power
supplies. So the company installed the Gateway routers in late
2001
and was able to replace the Lucent router and build an entire
network
for what they would have had to pay for two additional Lucent
routers.
Tele-Media Solutions began with two of Imagestream's Gateway
routers and split the traffic between the two routers. The
company
found that the configuration for the new routers was a fairly
simple and
quick process, and that the technical support staff at
ImageStream was
readily available to assist Tele-Media Solutions along the way. The Gateway routers allowed
Tele-Media Solutions to provide high
speed data (Internet accessibility) to its customers in
different areas
because the DSL platform was ATM-based. The company connected
to the broadband distribution terminals in those areas with OC3
Cards
in the Gateway routers, and was able to transport Internet
traffic back
to the central office over fiber.
Based on the performance of the routers and the outstanding
service and support provided, Tele-Media Solutions' further
expansion in 2003 brought them back to ImageStream to invest in
two additional routers. The company also bought a Rebel router
to place at the edge of their network. As Tele-Media Solutions
began to
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enhance its voice, video and data services to include VoIP, video interactivity and data
security,
it purchased a fifth Gateway router, replacing their existing
ATM-based
platform with an IP-based platform. This new platform utilizes
Pannaway Technologies' Service Convergence Network access
solution for the delivery of broadband voice, video and data
services to
its customers.
To date, the first two ImageStream routers that were installed
have
been in service for over three years, and Tele-Media Solutions
now
has a total of seven ImageStream routers in use (one Rebel
router and
six Gateway routers).
With the growth of the nationwide network of ImageStream
resellers, Tele-Media Solutions is now able to work with
authorized Midwest distributor Solutions4ebiz, which makes the
ImageStream product available online at
www.imagestreamsolutions.com.
RESULTS
The greatest benefit of utilizing Imagestream's Gateway router
product was that it helped Tele-Media Solutions handle
its bandwidth needs with plenty of capacity to spare, for far
less money than rival products such as Cisco. The
flexibility built into the ImageStream product line has enabled
Tele-Media Solutions to greater flexibility to move
network cards between routers with minor configuration and no
additional costs.
Some of the savings Tele-Media Solutions realized by switching
to ImageStream's linux-based routers included lower
maintenance and extended service costs. ImageStream products are
backed with one full year warranty on parts and
labor, one full year of maintenance and free lifetime software
upgrades. These benefits were not offered with many
rival hardware products, whose manufacturers often require
additional payment for operating system upgrades and
support contracts.
ImageStream continues to support Tele-Media Solutions throughout
its growth path. Tele-Media Solutions enjoys
ImageStream's personalized support and its strong customer
service orientation, with access to Imagestream's
software development team for meeting any unique requirements.
About Solutions4ebiz:
Solutions4ebiz develops customized software for unique,
industry-specific
customer needs. The company has deep experience in
Internet-based
technology solutions, and has designed software applications for
a wide
variety of industries, including tourism, manufacturing,
distribution, retail,
membership organizations and professional services. Founded in
2000
(formerly The eBiz Shop), Solutions4ebiz specializes in Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) software that enables companies to
manage sales efforts and communicate with customers more
effectively.
CRM4ebiz, the company's affordable, Web-based CRM software,
offers
unique contact management, customer profiling and online
marketing tools.
The company has also developed CRM4Tourism and D2000, Web-based
CRM software and marketing applications for the tourism
industry.
Headquartered in the Indianapolis, Indiana metro area,
Solutions4ebiz
supports its custom software applications with website design,
custom
programming, hosting, support, hardware and professional IT
staffing
services. Solutions4ebiz is also the exclusive Midwest
distributor of Linux
routers and related products from ImageStream Internet Solutions
at
www.imagestreamsolutions.com. To learn more about
Solutions4ebiz, call
317-915-1625, email sales@solutions4ebiz.com or visit
www.solutions4ebiz.com.
About Tele-Media Solutions:
Tele-Media Solutions is the Washington County Rural Telephone Cooperative, one of 8 telephone cooperatives and 35 independent
telephone
companies in Indiana. Tele-Media Solutions provides telephony,
Internet
access and digital television to roughly 3,700 residential and
business
customers in the South Central Indiana region. This cooperative
serves
members in portions of Clark, Floyd, Scott and Washington
counties,
encompassing an exchange area of 120 square miles. The
cooperative is
headquartered in Pekin, Indiana. For more information about
Tele-Media
Solutions, visit www.tele-mediasolutions.coop or call (877)
967-3171.
About ImageStream:
ImageStream Internet Solutions, Inc. is a
leading supplier of Linux-based LAN and
WAN solutions for small offices, corporate
LANs and WANs, and Internet backbone
providers. ImageStream products include
high-performance routers and switches,
network cards, monitoring taps, and network
management software, with installations in
more than 75 countries. Headquartered in
Plymouth, Indiana, ImageStream has
developed a reputation for providing superior
technical support and a high level of
customer satisfaction, with its success driven
by a focus on real-world customer
requirements, and a value proposition that
delivers more routers for the money.
To order ImageStream routers, visit
www.imagestreamsolutions.com , call
877-666-3249 or email sales@solutions4ebiz.com.
WHY IMAGESTREAM
ROUTERS? - Competitive price
- Wire-speed
performance
- Performance
guarantee
- Runs on Linux
- Free support for 12
months (no contract
required)
- Software included
- Driver component
technology
- Source code for
developers
- Transferable end user
licensing
- Free Internet-based
software upgrades for
life, including newlyreleased
product
features
- One-year warranty on
parts and labor
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