Looking to expand beyond its Perham, Minn., of operations, Arvig Communication Systems today announced that it has deployed a Metaswitch VP3510 Class 4/5 softswitch and UC9000 unified communications system. The switch also will be used to relieve capacity on Arvig’s existing switch, which is has been under pressure because of a rapidly expanding customer base.

Arvig, which serves 11,000 lines in seven communities across southern Minnesota, has recently acquired three smaller telcos, and has been aggressively expanding some of its CLEC operations. The deployment is the first step in the company’s strategy to migrate to an all-packet network. Initially that will mean adding more capacity to the CLEC side of the business. The goal eventually is to deliver voice, data and video over IP.

“Until recently we’ve had our CLEC sharing capacity on our ILEC [Nortel DMS 10] switch,” said David Arvig, general manager of Arvig. “We want to migrate that all to IP. Also, right now we have to charge a [subscriber line charge] for every Centrex line. With the Metaswitch, that goes away.”

Though the CLEC, like most others, is focused largely on the business market, Arvig sees the switch as a potential springboard into residential VoIP services. Additionally, the company plans to sell wholesale switch capacity with a goal of serving 30,000 subscribers within 5 years on the system.