New Contracts: Accenture, Syniverse, Telcordia and More
11/15/2007
TerreStar Chooses Intec for 4G Billing, Mediation, Activation
TerreStar Networks Inc. selected Intec Telecom’s integrated OSS/ BSS suite, including Intec Convergent Billing, Intec Mediation and Intec Activation, to support its all-IP 4G network offering that is scheduled for launch in 2008. TerreStar plans to build, own and operate North America’s first 4G, integrated mobile satellite and terrestrial communications network. It will provide universal access and tailored applications using conventional wireless devices. TerreStar expects to be the first to offer customer-designed products and applications over a fully optimized 4G IP network that leverages IMS.
Accenture, 3 Italia Honored for Deployment of Mobile TV
Accenture and 3 Italia received top honor in the Content Entertainment, Applications and Services category as part of the IEC’s InfoVision Awards program. In the saturated Italian mobile marketplace, where there now are more mobile phones than citizens, market differentiation via value-added services is essential. Mobile television, based on DVB-H technology, allows the distribution of high-quality content to mobile phones and handheld computers over existing digital television networks. Accenture was selected as the systems integrator and played a crucial role in 3 Italia’s DVB-H deployment.
Rostelecom Places $1.7 Million Order with ECtel
ECtel Ltd. announced that Rostelecom, Russia’s national long-distance operator, placed an order for ECtel’s Integrated Revenue Management solutions. This follow-on order is valued at more than $1.7 million. Rostelecom, the country’s leading fixed-line telecommunications company, owns and operates a nationwide fiber-optic backbone network, and provides services across the entire Russian Federation and international markets. “Russia and the CIS states represent an important geographic region, where we see significant future growth potential,” said Itzik Weinstein, president and CEO of ECtel.
Comptel Corp. announced that convergent operator Tunisiana, a joint venture of Orascom Telecom Holding and Wataniya in Tunisia, selected the Comptel Provisioning and Activation Solution. This follows the recent announcement that Orascom Telecom selected Comptel as a preferred supplier. The solution will be used to improve the service-fulfillment processes for mobile services, including planned 3G services. Established in 2002, Tunisiana is the first private mobile telecommunications operator in Tunisia, serving roughly 3.4 million customers.
Telcordia Secures Largest Contract to Date for Network Engineer
A Tier 1 operator in North America selected Telcordia Technologies Inc.’s planning and engineering solution, Network Engineer, to support all of its geospatial planning and engineering projects, in a multimillion dollar deal that is the largest ever for the solution. The solution will replace existing point products, but will allow the operator to migrate data from them. Telcordia’s Network Engineer is a geospatial network management system that automates network planning, design, documentation and maintenance. The Tier 1 operator will be the first customer to take advantage of the Network Engineer Field Assistant module that improves data accuracy by allowing the mobile workforce to perform electronic work orders in the field.
Agilent Deploys Data Capture/Analysis for Mobile Broadband
Agilent Technologies Inc. announced it is deploying a new data capture, warehousing and reporting solution that handles the huge volumes of transaction detail records (TDRs) generated by new mobile broadband services, such as e-mail, Web browsing and gaming. Agilent is installing the system on the network of one of the largest mobile operators in the United States. Agilent has partnered exclusively with Teradata to develop a joint solution that can correlate the massive amounts of OSS/BSS data associated with next-generation mobile networks. The solution can process more than 2 billion TDRs per day in near real time and enables operators to exploit TDR data, combined with BSS information, to provide consolidated reports on the unique experience of specific customers. Agilent also introduced the first application built on this platform — a reporting application that enables operators to evaluate the performance and popularity of specific handsets over time.
Syniverse Wins Saudi Telecom Anti-Fraud Contract
Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) signed an agreement with Syniverse Technologies Inc. to implement its advanced roaming fraud protection almost a year ahead of the GSM Association’s (GSMA) October 2008 deadline for member companies. STC will deploy the Syniverse DataNet solution, developed in conformance with the GSMA’s Near Real-Time Roaming Data Exchange (NRTRDE) initiative, to ensure data records that track subscriber roaming activity are exchanged more rapidly between home and visited operators. Replacing the existing, outmoded High Usage Reports system with the NRTRDE standard reduces data record exchange time from 36 to four hours, enabling operators to spot fraudulent activity much more rapidly and reduce potential fraud losses by up to an estimated 90 percent. The NRTRDE standard was developed by the GSMA to combat effectively the growing threat of International Revenue Share Fraud.
Verizon Wireless Selects Firethorn for Wireless Banking
Firethorn Holdings LLC and Verizon Wireless formed a strategic relationship to provide Verizon Wireless customers with access to financial institutions using Firethorn’s mobile financial services application. Customers will be able to access and manage their financial relationships through mobile devices securely and in real time. In addition, Verizon Wireless and Firethorn will team with financial institution partners to conduct marketing and consumer education programs aimed at driving adoption. “We expect these mobile banking services will be valuable to our customers, paving the way for us to introduce more comprehensive payment capabilities,” said Jim Straight, senior vice president of consumer products for Verizon Wireless.
Subex Azure Chosen by Zimbabwe’s Econet Wireless Group
Subex Azure Ltd. announced that Econet Wireless Group, Zimbabwe’s largest telecommunications group, is deploying its Nikira Fraud Management and Moneta Revenue Assurance products. Econet Wireless has more than 634,000 customers and total network capacity of 800,000 subscribers, which currently is being increased to 1.2 million. The company wanted to prevent various types of fraud, such as “refilling” calls, where international calls are diverted before they reach Zimbabwe and are renumbered to appear as local calls. This practice has cost Econet millions of dollars and created congestion on international routes. Subex Azure’s Nikira uses flexible rules-based alarms and artificial-intelligence-driven analytics to identify likely fraudulent behavior, helping operators detect known fraud types and patterns of unusual behavior in all telecom environments.
ACE*COMM Earns Two Contracts Worth $700K
ACE*COMM Corp. signed two new one-year contracts to provide continued support at multiple U.S. Department of Defense locations in Asia, Europe and North America. The initial value of the two contracts totals approximately $700,000. Installation of these systems began approximately six years ago and all are supported by the company and have remained in continuous operation since installation. Many of these systems are a second generation of an earlier technology, also supplied by ACE*COMM. In these locations, NetPlus, an enterprise OSS/TMS solution, is meeting an essential requirement in the military for communications network systems management. The company expects other support contracts to be added over time as new systems come online.
Telcordia Fast-Tracks Broadband Services at Hawaiian Telcom
Nine weeks after selecting Telcordia Technologies Inc. to support its next-generation IP services, Hawaiian Telcom deployed Telcordia’s Granite Inventory with native activation capabilities to automate the provisioning of high-speed DSL service over its new MPLS network. This project is an example of how Telcordia can fast-track complex projects so operators can launch new services and provision them in a fully automated mode. The nine-week time-to-deployment began on June 14, 2007. By Aug. 20, Hawaiian Telcom began using the Telcordia Granite Inventory and Activation modules in its live production environment.
Comptel Corp. announced that Datagroup, a fixed broadband and satellite service provider in Ukraine, selected Comptel Fulfillment Solution to provision its network and activate services. The Comptel Fulfillment Solution is a suite of pre-integrated inventory and provisioning modules to cover end-to-end service fulfilment functionality from order capture to activation and reconciliation. Initially, the focus is to automate service delivery for the residential market, especially fixed voice and broadband access services. Subsequently, the project will extend to value-added services, such as triple- and quad-play, as well as services targeting the business market. Until now, Datagroup did not have a fulfillment solution, as Datagroup’s focus was on the business-to-business market. Datagroup now is moving into the business-to-consumer market and aims to gain a foothold in the market by providing triple-play services faster and more reliably than its competitors.
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