ARRIS, a Suwanee, Georgia-based provider of technology solutions supporting triple- and quad-play broadband services, announced that it has extended its relationship with the National Cable Television Cooperative, Inc. in order to supply NCTC members with end-to-end broadband access solution components.

Under the terms of this master purchase agreement, ARRIS will be the exclusive supplier, through the NCTC, of select customer premise embedded-multimedia terminal, E-MTA, equipment.

E-MTA combines a DOCSIS cable modem and analog telephone adapter, wherein the cable-modem provides the data interface, while the telephone adapter provides the voice over IP (VoIP) interface. The terminal adapter facilitates conversion between analog voice signals and IP packets, delivers dial tone and manages the call setup.

Company officials said in the release that the new agreement between both the companies has facilitated ARRIS Touchstone (News - Alert) CPE product family with exclusive distribution rights.

NCTC is a Lenexa, Kan.-based not-for-profit corporation. It operates as a programming and hardware purchasing organization for nearly 1,000 member companies who own and operate cable systems throughout the United States and its territories.

According to a press release, NCTC is serving over 26.7 million households in the United States.

Tim Gropp, senior vice president sales at ARRIS, said, 'NCTC enables independent operators in smaller markets to provide their customers with the same level of service and features as their counterparts in much larger, urban telecommunications environments.  ARRIS is honored to continue being a trusted provider to NCTC and to have been singled out in the E-MTA category as an exclusive provider.'

Richard Frey, vice president and general manager, hardware, NCTC, said, 'Our membership has a long history of successfully deploying ARRIS solutions in their systems and this new agreement will offer them competitive pricing and ARRIS' highly regarded after-sales support to better plan any upgrades or green-field network extensions.'

ARRIS provides broadband operators with the tools and platforms they require to deliver carrier-grade telephony, network video processing, whole home video, demand driven video, next-generation advertising, network and workforce management solutions, access and transport architectures and ultra high-speed data services.