Plano, TX, September 13, 2010 – GENBAND, a leading developer of Internet Protocol (IP) solutions and services, today announced that Halstad Telephone Company (HTC), Federated Telephone Cooperative and Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, three recipients of Broadband Stimulus funds, have selected GENBAND’s industry-leading C15™ Compact Softswitch to help deliver voice and data communication services to residential and business subscribers. In each of these scenarios, broadband access and advanced IP communication services will play a critical role in expanding economic, health care, educational and public safety in underserved rural communities.

Leveraging an aggregate of $11.7 million in Broadband Stimulus funds to implement and deploy its network, HTC has deployed the C15 to support the delivery of advanced IP services to previously “underserved” and “unserved” communities across Minnesota and North Dakota.

“HTC is continually working to provide innovative and reliable communication services in the most efficient and modern way possible across Minnesota and North Dakota,” said Tom Maroney, CEO, Halstad Telephone Company. “Sitting at the heart of our network, GENBAND’s C15 softswitch empowers us to significantly and efficiently enhance our capabilities with advanced IP functionality that includes fiber-to-the-home, hosted IP business communications, and high definition TV.”

Federated Telephone Cooperative received $3 million in Broadband Stimulus funds to bring a Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) voice, video and data network to the Rural Morris, Minnesota exchange, while Farmers Telephone Company received $9.7 million to build out fiber facilities and services to rural parts of its serving area. Both Federated and Farmers will deploy GENBAND’s C15 to increase network capacity, improve efficiency, lower costs, and deliver advanced IP residential and business communications services to subscribers. As a part of these network modernization projects, GENBAND is also providing line and feature migration and technical support services which will help ensure seamless implementation.

“We needed a flexible and reliable solution that could support our ILEC and CLEC subscribers simultaneously, and GENBAND’s C15 meets this need perfectly,” said Tom Nelson, General Manager,
Farmers Mutual Telephone Company.

Tom Lorenz, Operations Manager of Federated Telephone Cooperative added, “GENBAND’s C15 will meet our network modernization requirements and also lay the foundation for our hosted IP business offer, which will allow our small and medium business customers to improve worker productivity and collaboration by deploying state-of-the-art Unified Communications (UC), hosted call centers and audio/video conferencing capabilities without having to invest in additional resources to manage equipment on premises.”

“We’re delighted to support these outstanding innovators that are transforming rural communities and helping to drive economic improvement in the upper Midwest through the delivery of advanced communications,” said Dan Lakey, Senior Vice President of Sales at GENBAND. “As evidenced by these strategic deployments, converting TDM/legacy networks to IP offers unbeatable improvements in efficiency, combined with breakthrough functionality and applications. Through our industry-leading technology and unmatched customer service capabilities, we are expanding our installed base as service providers look for VoIP partners that can seamlessly and cost-effectively migrate their existing networks and ensure integration and interoperability with their back office systems.”

With the C15 softswitch, service providers can continue to use GENBAND’s DMS-10, DMS-100, DCO and EWSD line equipment, while migrating their core call control to a next generation network architecture. The C15 also helps to significantly reduce power and floor space requirements by up to 50 percent due to its innovative and compact design.

According to Infonetics, Synergy, and Dell’Oro, GENBAND is the number 1 supplier in the global service provider VoIP market, which includes softswitches, media gateways, session border controllers, media servers and application servers. In addition, according to Infonetics, GENBAND is the leading carrier IP softswitch supplier in North America, with more than 60 percent revenue share.

About Halstad Telephone Company
Incorporated in 1904, Halstad Telephone Company (HTC) is a local cooperative delivering state-of-the-art telecommunication products and services to North Dakota’s Hillsboro and Minnesota’s Halstad, Shelly, Nielsville, Climax, Bygland and Fisher communities. Our service plans encompass a broad range of telephone, cable television, and internet choices. For more information, visit www.halstadtel.com.

About Federated Telephone Cooperative
Founded in 1952, Federated Telephone Cooperative offers local phone, long distance, High Speed Internet and Cable TV services to residential and business subscribers across West Central Minnesota. Federated Telephone Cooperative's mission is to provide the best communications services at a fair price; employing modern technology and up-to-date services; offering people choices to be successful and enhance their quality of life. For more information, see www.federated.net.

About Farmers Mutual Telephone Company
Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, managed by Federated Telephone Cooperative, provides communications services to business and residential subscribers in the communities of Bellingham, Marietta, Cerro Gordo and West Marietta. Services cover a broad spectrum ranging from local service to long distance, internet and high speed data. For more information, please visit www.farmerstel.net.

About GENBAND
GENBAND is a global leader of IP infrastructure solutions. The company offers market-leading Switching, Networking and Service solutions, with products deployed in over 600 customer networks spanning more than 80 countries. GENBAND is headquartered in Plano, Texas, has legal entities in nearly 50 countries and operates product, sales and service Centers of Excellence globally. To learn more, visit us on the web at www.genband.com.

GENBAND, the GENBAND logo and icon are trademarks of GENBAND.

Contacts:
Jamie Moody
GENBAND
+1.972.684.7167
jamie.moody@genband.com

Kim Lee
GENBAND
+1.972.265.3766
kim.lee@genband.com