Upon further review, Nortel softswitch wins not so impressive - Updated

Updated on 4/24 to clarify "customers" vs. "units"

Last week Nortel announced it had sold its CS 1500 softswitch - the replacement to its legacy DMS platform -- to more than 135 customers globally. A deeper look at press release numbers between the initial product launch and last week's announcement, however, indicates initial momentum from the product's introduction has died out over the past year.

A May 27, 2008, release by Innovative Systems - supplier of the APMAX application server OEMed to Nortel's CS 1500 - celebrates the 100^th sale of the CS 1500 and notes the product was announced in March 2007.

By Nov. 20, 2008, Nortel had managed to sell the CS 1500 to "more than" 120 regional service providers throughout North America, so that equates to 20 sales over a six-month span and an average of around three sales per month.

Last week's announcement cites "more than" 135 service providers globally - so Nortel has expanded their pool beyond North America, so 135-120 units = 15 net, which leads to 15 units/5 months to deliver precisely three sales per month.

What does it all mean? "Nortel had some initial momentum, some service providers waiting for replacing DMS-10, the initial sales came from pent up demand," said Andy Randall, VP of marketing for MetaSwitch. "As people have looked at product capability more closely and looked at financial capability, there's been a very strong demand on [our] side, and a slowing down on Nortel and others....I think in general market terms, what we're seeing is quite a lot of nervousness about vendor stability, not just in switching, but in every area."

In comparison, MetaSwitch has added more than 300 customers in the past year, and about 30 customers in the last five months. Randle believes presenting a single platform for legacy switch replacement and applications is winning over many carriers.

For more:
- Innovate Systems marks 100 CS 1500 softswitch sale in 2008. Post [1].
- Nortel posts 120 wins in November 2008. Release [2].
- Nortel soldiers on with carrier VoIP [3]

Related articles
The death and life of Nortel - FierceTelecom [4]