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Seeking to further establish itself in the Central and South American markets, where voice is gradually being deregulated and cable operators are hungry to launch triple play services, network equipment maker ARRIS has opened a new testing and interoperability lab in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The company, which is planning several voice-over-cable deployments with carriers in Argentina in the coming months, established the lab so it can provide support and services for its present and future customers in the region. The lab will be staffed by ARRIS field support engineers and system integration specialists and will house a complete line of ARRIS CMTS and CPE equipment, as well as the ARRIS Universal CPE Test Station (UCTS), third party call servers, gateways and appropriate testing and interoperability equipment. These will be used to ensure effective field service and support.

“Delivering primary line voice service is a difficult proposition and one that ARRIS understands very well,” said Claudio Cerioli, ARRIS senior vice president of international sales, in a press release. “It requires the highest standards of reliability and scalability, so it was in our customers’ best interests to have trained engineers and dedicated testing facilities in the region to deliver them the world-class service they have come to expect from ARRIS.”

ARRIS already powers several VoIP deployments in the region - including a long-standing relationship with VTR of Chile and the recently-announced launch of VoIP by Mexican MSO Cablemas. Both companies are using the ARRIS C4 CMTS and Touchstone (News - Alert) E-MTAs for their VoIP services. Additionally, ARRIS E-MTAs are currently deployed in numerous Central American markets and the Caribbean.

ARRIS made news on TMCnet in January when it announced that it was purchasing IPTV and digital video equipment maker Tandberg (News - Alert) Television for approximately US $1.2 billion in a stock-cash transaction. However, the deal, which was expected to be completed in 2Q2007, fell through when ARRIS was out-bid by Ericsson (News - Alert), which made a higher competing offer, which the board of directors of Tandberg Television subsequently endorsed. Tandberg Television then terminated the transaction agreement with ARRIS.

Hade the deal gone through, ARRIS would have become one of the largest network equipment providers in the world.

For more information, visit www.arrisi.com.

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Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.