Vivo, part of the Telefónica group, is the largest mobile operator in Brazil and one of the largest in Latin America, serving well over 100 million subscribers and holding roughly a quarter of the Brazilian market. Its network spans a vast country with demanding coverage, capacity, and voice-quality expectations. For an operator of Vivo’s scale, the transition from legacy TDM voice infrastructure to an all-IP core is not optional - and it is precisely this challenge where a dependable CARRIER-GRADE SS7 VOIP GATEWAY becomes indispensable. Synway’s Digital VoIP media gateway line has been field-proven by Brazil’s and South America’s largest carriers, and Vivo-class networks are exactly the environment it was built for.

The Challenge

A national operator of Vivo’s size runs a mixed estate: millions of legacy voice minutes still ride on E1/T1 circuit-switched trunks, while newer services, IP backbones, and modern softswitch platforms are all-IP. The business goals are clear - retire aging TDM hardware, reduce the footprint and power of the voice network, preserve SS7 signaling integrity with partner operators, and above all keep the subscriber-facing voice experience flawless during the migration. An ordinary E1 VOIP GATEWAY cannot carry that responsibility; Vivo-class traffic demands carrier-grade depth.

The Solution: An E1/T1 MEDIA GATEWAY Layer for the Migration

For this kind of national transition, Synway’s SMG3000 family serves as the convergence layer between the remaining TDM trunk network and the IP core. Deployed as an E1/T1 MEDIA GATEWAY, it terminates live E1/T1 trunks and carries the media and signaling onto IP, so legacy voice traffic flows over the packet core while the end-user sees no change. Because it is a genuine CARRIER-GRADE SS7 VOIP GATEWAY - with up to 64 SS7 links, ISUP, MTP1-3 and TCAP, and SIGTRAN support - the operator keeps full, standardized SS7 interworking with interconnecting carriers throughout the migration. Any-to-any signaling interworking across SS7, R2, ISDN/PRI, SIGTRAN and SIP means Vivo’s multi-vendor core (spanning platforms such as BroadSoft, Avaya, Asterisk and others) is bridged without bespoke glue.

Carrier-Grade Reliability at National Scale

At Vivo’s traffic levels, gateway availability is a revenue issue. The platform is specified for 99.9999% availability at full load and can carry up to 32 E1 (960 channels, expandable to 1,920 ports) per unit, with dedicated DSP resources for media processing and TDM redundancy plus hot-swap redundant power. This is what allows a single DIGITAL TRUNKING GATEWAY to sit on the critical voice path of a major South American network and sustain the busy hour, unstable backhaul links, and failover events without dropping calls or degrading voice quality.

The Result

The outcome for a network like Vivo’s is a controlled, low-risk TDM-to-IP migration. Legacy E1/T1 trunks are progressively consolidated onto the IP core, TDM hardware and associated CAPEX/OPEX fall, standardized SS7 interconnect is preserved, and integrated transcoding on the gateway removes separate transcoder platforms. Crucially, the subscriber experience remains untouched - calls connect with the same clarity and stability as before. It is a textbook demonstration of what a production-grade E1 VOIP GATEWAY should deliver at national-operator scale.

Why It Matters

The Vivo application shows that the requirements of a leading Brazilian operator and those of any large carrier are fundamentally the same: signaling fidelity, resilience, and seamless migration. That Synway’s Digital VoIP media gateway has been field-proven across Brazil and the broader South American market is the strongest endorsement a CARRIER-GRADE SS7 VOIP GATEWAY can carry. For operators planning their own TDM-to-IP journey, the Vivo-class story is the blueprint - and the right DIGITAL TRUNKING GATEWAY is the platform that makes it possible.

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