LAS VEGAS--Hatteras Networks yesterday announced a new customer, competitive services provider Telekenex of California, that it is serving through a partnership with Cisco Systems that the company has had but hasn’t discussed publicly.

In addition, the company announced that it is added embedded time domain reflectometer (TDR) capabilities to its Ethernet-over-copper technology to enable its customers to test copper lines for prequalification or ongoing monitoring from a Central Office or remote site.

Today, companies must send out field technicians with handheld test sets, said Chris Cook, senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer care for Hatteras.

“This was a customer-inspired addition – we’ve had a lot of interest in moving that functionality inside our box,” he said. By not having to send out a field tech, service providers can save money, especially competitive service providers with distributed collocation sites.

The partnership with Cisco has been “ongoing,” Cook said, but this is the first public announcement and the first announced customer. Hatteras has done extensive interoperability testing with Cisco’s 7600 Series routers, its Catalyst 6500 Series switches and its ONS 15454 optical platforms so that the two companies together can offer a Mid-Band Ethernet solution on an end-to-end basis, Cook said.

“The solution from Hatteras Networks and Cisco enables Telekenex to extend business-grade Ethernet technology to all customers at all locations over existing copper infrastructure, a key advantage as we roll out our Managed Ethernet service network-wide,” said Brandon Chaney, chief executive officer for Telekenex, inn a prepared statement. “Hatteras and Cisco provide a complete end-to-end solution that forms the foundation of Telekenex’s compelling last-mile offering, designed to provide our customers with groundbreaking network performance and scalability.”

Telekenex is a business ISP offering managed services including hosted VoIP along with MPLS-based Internet, managed Ethernet and data center services.