Let’s dispel with two myths right off the bat. The Midwest doesn’t always follow the whimsy of our trend-setting coasts and rural operators don’t always follow the Tier 1s. Iowa’s i wireless and Wisconsin’s Cellcom are two examples. Both companies are deploying new systems and software to help them deliver on the promise of next-generation mobility and to keep up with their own imaginations.
i wireless is the T-Mobile and Iowa Network Services partnership that is bringing 3G GSM-based services to the people of Iowa, western Illinois, and eastern Nebraska as well as nationwide and international roaming. INS is a privately owned by a group of 127 independent telephone companies.
It has been a busy year for i wireless. In July the company launched its international roaming service, which gives the ability for Iowans and other subscribers to make and receive calls in more than 100 countries, including the regions of Europe, Asia, Mexico and Australia. In September, the operator expanded its 3G service to the Quad Cities, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo/Cedar Falls, and Iowa City. Mike Haskins, CEO of i wireless, said the launch, in conjunction with its T-Mobile USA and INS partnerships will provide 10x faster data speeds that will enrich customers’ wireless experience in Iowa and across the U.S. The company became a Droid dealer in May and launched a nationwide service plan called MEGAtalk for voice, texting and Web access.
But some of the biggest changes have been in the back office. Last week, i wireless launched a set of BSS and OSS solutions from Info Directions to match and support the new capabilities it has been adding to its network. Info Directions’ CostGuard OSS/BSS and SAS 70 ASP services will be used to manage rating, billing, customer care and retail operations. i wireless has 250 store locations to manage and Info Directions will add some point-of-sale punch as well as help i wireless automate operations and add support for enhanced data products.
i wireless also will add electronic bill payment and presentment with Info Directions’ OnlineBill solution. The deployment took only six months.
“We did a very accelerated implementation and shaved several months out of the process," said Donald Culeton, president and CEO of Info Directions.
Haskins said the company’s 3G rollout was a significant investment in network and that the CostGuard implementation was equally significant in terms of the user experience. "CostGuard gives us the ability to deliver competitive service and support and still control costs," he said.
In the summer of 2009, i wireless contracted with open-source BSS provider Transverse for several BSS applications, including billing and point-of-sale. The status of that implementation is unclear at this point, but Info Directions was on a pretty fast pace to get installed. Both vendors offer their solutions through a Software-as-a-Service model, but Info Directions is not open source.
“Our opinion on open source is we prefer to keep the conversation about open systems, because in the end that’s what carriers are looking for. They’re looking for a partner and systems that really enable their business to go forward and not become and impediment to that forward motion," Culeton said.
Though not his preferred timeframe for implementation, Culeton said his company was able to accelerate the deployment in part because of the repeatable processes it was able to wrap around his product using ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) models, which he says tame and again lead to rapid, successful deployments.
