MetaSwitch made its name in the early days by being a good supplier to second- and third-tier telephone companies, including many rural operators. The company grew the old-fashioned way, by adding customers -- it hit 500 customers for its softswitches and media gateways last summer -- and by expanding its product line and adding software capabilities.

What MetaSwitch didn’t do was fall victim to the current industry trend of consolidation. The company was employee-owned until just recently, when it decided to seek outside funding to enable a global expansion.

To be sure, this is a risk -- the employee-ownership stake is now obviously diluted, and MetaSwitch and its parent company, Data Connection Ltd., now have investors to whom they must answer. Making its own global push has inherent risks that are fairly obvious.

But the other logical alternative would be acquisition by a larger company, with a totally different culture, that has the global resources needed already in place. We have seen how some of these mixed marriages have fared, and it’s often not good news for the smaller company being acquired.

I, for one, am very interested to see if MetaSwitch, by retaining its current management and its corporate culture, can succeed in going global on its own. The company has laid out other challenges in the past and generally succeeded in meeting its goals. Certainly, MetaSwitch is taking on bigger players and more difficult markets, but the company says it is doing so in measured, cautious fashion.

Rural telcos have a small stake in whether or not MetaSwitch succeeds. In the past, many have thought the independent telco market incapable of providing the launch pad needed to vault a company to global success. This is one company that is poised on proving that thinking wrong, and possibly setting the example for future successes and greater interest in this market from new technology companies.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.