Seven Iowa Phone Companies Buy Tekelec Gear

MORRISVILLE, NC — In deals worth "several million dollars", seven independent telephone companies in Iowa have purchased switches and servers from

Tekelec

, the telephone gear manufacturer said Thursday.

The deal covers 12 Tekelec 7000 switches and several Tekelec 6000 voice over Internet Protocol application servers.

The purchasers include the six companies that own the Northern Iowa Communications Partnership: Ayrshire Farmers Mutual Telephone Company, Northwest Telephone Cooperative Association, Palmer Mutual Telephone Company, River Valley Telecommunications Cooperative, Royal Telephone Company and Terril Telephone Cooperative.

The other buyer is Farmers Mutual Telephone Company based in Stanton.