Grand Mound Cooperative Telephone Association has replaced its legacy Class 5 switching system with CopperCom’s Converged Switching eXchange next-generation switch as part of the Iowa-based CLEC expansion strategy.

The Grand Mound Cooperative’s expansion plans include a major fiber-to-the-home rollout and the deployment of voice over IP. CopperCom’s CSX will support both legacy voice services as well as the next-generation services the Coop plans to deploy. The CSX recently added a Switchmaxx Unified Self-Care Web portal and applications Web-based interfaces.

Mark Harvey, general manager of Grand Mound, said in a statement that the upgrade has enabled his company to move forward by bolstering its service offerings.

Grand Mound installed its first digital switch in 1981 for $350,000 and added a Nortel DMS 10 in 1989. Today it has begun implementing the fiber network in sections within its CLEC territory and plans to continue expanding the FTTH area to include a large portion of its customer base.

In the last few months, CopperCom has deployed its CSX at Garden Valley Telephone Co., a 100-year IOC in northwest Minnesota; Bevcomm, an IOC in Blue Earth, Minn. (its second CSX); and Lakeland Communications, an IOC serving Western Wisconsin. Lakeland also deployed CopperCom's Switchmaxx Web-enabled Voicemail. Mississippi’s Franklin Telephone Co. purchased four CopperCom CSX’s

With the help of its parent company, The Heico Companies, CopperCom acquired the Switchmaxx division of Phonetics LC in April.