Telcordia Scores Two New Contracts, T-Mobile Selects Minotaur, and More

Nokia Siemens Implements Subscriber Database for T-Mobile Germany
T-Mobile Germany chose Nokia Siemens Networks to implement a subscriber database platform to increase its focus on offering personalized services.

The Nokia Siemens solution for Common Network Subscriber Management, which already supports some 15 million users of T-Mobile’s MMS application, will replace T-Mobile’s multiple legacy databases with a single common database, featuring open interfaces and real-time capabilities. T-Mobile also will replace its legacy Home Location Registers (HLRs) by deploying new dataless HLR application servers provided by Nokia Siemens Networks.

Joachim Horn, CTO of T-Mobile, says the deployment of this system is part of the company’s ongoing effort to redesign its network over the next few years, starting first with multimedia messaging, and continuing on with HLRs and other applications. In addition to the HLR, the product also includes the open, real-time subscriber database platform provided by Apertio.

Nokia Siemens acquired Apertio on Feb. 11 to help customers simplify their networks and manage key asset subscriber data. Besides implementation of the new system, Nokia Siemens also provides professional services like database management support, subscriber migration, network and application integration, security services and maintenance.

Dan Mikesell, regional vice president for Latin America at Telcordia, says this is a strategic region of growth for Telcordia and the latest example of how the company is helping service providers evolve their network operations to remain competitive and profitable in this increasing IP-centric world. The Telcordia Service Management Suite was launched in February 2007. It analyzes disparate network and operational data to help operators maximize their customers’ service experience.

Telcordia also landed a deal with Cincinnati Bell. The Ohio company selected the Telcordia Fulfillment Suite for its Optical Network Management platform. The suite includes Telcordia Granite Inventory with the Assign and Design module. It standardizes inventory management and helps Cincinnati Bell to automate customer provisioning and record the fiber-based access equipment and configurations. It also enables the automation of the subscriber assignment of the fiber network facilities and services using Telcordia’s lifecycle management of service requests.

Robert Strickland, senior vice president and CIO for T-Mobile USA, says Minotaur has the flexibility to add new data feeds, rules, neural models and profiles as his company’s business needs change and because it has a single technology platform for multiple risk-management applications and is configurable.

T-Systems will serve as the prime contractor and integrator for hardware and software integration and services for the rollout of the fraud management system. Additionally, T-Systems and Neural Technologies will work together to address the evolving risk-management needs of T-Mobile.

Convergys’ Infinys solution rates and bills for all of HCPT’s converged voice and data services and includes next-generation services based on IP. It also helps bundle voice and data services with cross-product discounts. The implementation took less than one year.

Convergys also announced a three-year master agreement with a potential value up to $50 million that expands its relationship with a U.S.-based communications provider.

Convergys implemented its Relationship Management solution at AT&T Mobility. Convergys’ Dynamic Decisioning Solution assists customer service agents in providing consistent and proactive care by enabling centralized policy creation and management, as well as automated and real-time policy enforcement across all contact channels. AT&T Mobility signed a 5-year license and support contract for this solution.

Vertek’s financial assurance tool is a hosted data management service offering analytical tools to validate and reconcile the accuracy of communications service providers’ monthly operating costs and billing for a fixed monthly fee. It finds the source of discrepancies that cause unnecessary costs, record fallout, pervasive data integrity issues, missing accounts and uncollected revenue. New Horizon Communications maintains wholesale agreements with numerous carriers, including AT&T Inc., PAETEC and Verizon Communications Inc.

Redknee Launches IP Rating & Charging 5.0

Mobile operators deploying the new product now can control bandwidth requirements on a service or application level per subscriber and tie them directly to real-time rating rules. Through such advanced capabilities as "Fair Usage Policies," mobile operators can efficiently manage network resources by segmenting their subscriber base by usage or value level as well as allocating capacity for their mission-critical applications and services.

HP Updates Core OSS, Teams With Cisco
HP released TeMIP 6.0 network management software as well as a new version of its Service Activator Software. Additionally, it built a partnership with Cisco Systems Inc. to offer a managed services solution built around Service Activator.

HP’s new TeMIP release helps diagnose problems faster and gets information through the process flow better and faster to field technicians and operations center personnel. To this software enhancement, HP has added consulting services to apply lessons learned from one account to another and thereby fine-tune the root cause analysis process. HP also has increased support for new protocols such as MTOSI and interfaces such as OSS-through-Java (OSS-J) and XML/SOAP OSS/J.

HP’s Service Activator streamlines the service fulfillment process by further automating core activation processes and integrating them with order management and inventory. The software also will
be available as a managed service through a relationship with Cisco Systems. Called the HPSA-MSS, this version will integrate with Cisco’s CNS Configuration Engine, Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business, Cisco Integrated Services Routers, Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express.

SIP Director is based on the company’s AppDirector product and designed specifically for SIP-based applications. It takes Radware into the core of IMS and provides solutions for all three planes of the network: applications, controls plane and access plane. Although SIP is widely deployed in enterprise and edge applications such as voice mail, integrated voice response systems, messaging servers, conference applications, media servers, call center applications and 911 services, the protocol is becoming more mission-critical and requires an end-to-end guarantee of application delivery. Radware sees SIP as being at the same stage as the HTTP revolution in the early 1990s and is addressing similar security concerns.

The SIP Director provides intelligent SIP ADC performing health monitoring, failover and disaster recovery, as well as in-depth SIP message analysis that routes traffic based on service fulfillment and availability. It has an integrated SIP proxy that supports UDP, TCP and TLS protocols to guarantee interoperability and service availability.

Based on Unipier’s Intelligent Policy Suite, service providers will be able to integrate Web 2.0 applications and user-generated content into their own service offerings while supporting service-marketing policies, subscriber-aware information management and community-based activities. This extends the service providers’ reach beyond their own networks and brings the Web 2.0 Internet experience into the mobile arena.

Unipier’s Intelligent Policy Suite is a centralized system for policy domains such as service offers and bundles, promotions, viral recommendations and promotions, mobile advertising, loyalty plans, content access control and subscriber privacy management. Unipier has integrated its Intelligent Policy Manager and mobile advertising solution into Accenture’s Service Delivery Platform blueprint.