Lightyear Network Solutions, Inc. announced that it has commercially launched its new VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Calling Platform. This new carrier-class platform, designed by Lightyear's in-house IT team, offers a number of benefits for Lightyear's popular IP telephony product, including increased functionality and flexibility. The platform provides Lightyear robust controls and features that were not available with the previous proprietary softswitch the company utilized under a licensing agreement.

Lightyear developed its own new platform using open source methodology because of its low cost and high uptime without the need for expensive licenses and long wait times for modifications. Open source developers are constantly updating the base application and adding new features, which Lightyear can easily incorporate into its platform. Lightyear's new softswitch also provides a number of customer benefits, including: cleaner, faster call quality, enhanced feature set not available from traditional offerings, improved business continuity options over legacy systems, cost-competitive pricing for on-network calls, reduced governmental fees compared with traditional phone service.