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Throughout the incredible journey of the telecom OSS/BSS sector over the last 10 years, VanillaPlus has remained a reliable source of both key news but also informative, objective and thought-provoking assessments of the key trends which have shaped our industry. I am looking forward to VanillaPlus and their more recent Stream journal continuing to play a key role in providing valuable insights as we enter one of the most exciting phases of the telecoms OSS/BSS market evolutions.

Kieran Moynihan
Vice President & CTO Telecoms
IBM Tivoli Division

New Products

T-Mobile Germany launches Comverse and Jamba’s Fun Broker off-deck ringback tones

Commercial implementation of the Fun Broker off-deck ringback tone platform at T-Mobile Germany, a unit of Deutsche Telekom has gone live. This was enabled by Comverse, a supplier of software and systems for enhanced communication and billing services, with Jamba, a provider of digital entertainment services, and a joint venture between News Corporation and VeriSign.



Now available globally, Fun Broker allows content providers to sell ringback tones directly from their portals. Integrating ringback tones into the dynamic off-deck content retail market helps subscribers to personalise ringback tones easily from multiple media sources, which can increase the service’s penetration. Fun Dial, Comverse's popular ringback tone service, allows users to personalise ringing and busy signals with music and content to entertain callers waiting for the phone to be answered.



The entry of leading content players like Jamba into the ringback tone service arena will increase user awareness and choice, which can generate substantial new traffic and revenue in ringback tone content.



Lee Fenton, COO at Jamba said: "Operators have too much to do already to successfully take on the entire burden of constant promotion of ringback tones. By turning to Jamba and Comverse, T-Mobile gains energetic and motivated market-savvy content and service delivery partners, and benefits from our highly popular portal fordigital entertainment."

BT and Microsoft partner to deliver TV, games and movies through Xbox 360

US-based Microsoft Corporation and the UK’s BT are bringing together the next-gen TV service, BT Vision with Microsoft’s Xbox 360 games and entertainment
system. BT broadband customers will soon be able to receive the best in
high definition gaming, television and movies through an Xbox 360
console, in an “all-in-one entertainment experience”, as the companies
put it.



BT Vision, which is powered by the Microsoft Mediaroom Internet
Protocol TV (IPTV) platform, plans to launch this first-of-its-kind
device and service offering in mid-2008. The partnership will enable any BT Broadband customer to use an Xbox 360 console to access the BT Vision service and its extensive library of
on-demand content, giving instant access to hundreds of movies and
thousands of hours of sporting events, television programming, music videos and other digital content, such as BT Vision Sport’s English FA Premier League football matches. The service will be available to existing and future Xbox 360 console owners.



Xbox LIVE, described as “the largest online social network in the
living room”, will be integrated to provide consumers with a wide range
of community-based features, such as voice chat, sending and receiving
text and voice messages, and accessing Xbox LIVE Marketplace, all while
watching TV. For example, while a TV viewer is enjoying his or her
football game, they can receive a message from a friend inviting them
to join a voice chat, or play a game of their own with FIFA Soccer.

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Billing Dictionary launched by Billing College and Althos

A 600-page dictionary covering all areas of billing, including business and operations support systems (BSS & OSS), and customer care, has been published by The Billing College. The Billing Dictionary is edited by Avi Ofrane, the college's president and CEO, along with Lawrence Harte, the president of Althos, a provider of research, training and publishing services.



The dictionary contains over 8,000 of the latest billing terms, more than 2,000 acronyms, and 200 diagrams and pictures to illustrate complex terms. It also lists world currencies and the magazines (including VanillaPlus) that cover this sector. (ISBN: 1-932813-38-1) For more details visit: www.BillingDictionary.com

Comarch integrates LBS with instant messaging

MobiLoc is a new system from Poland's Comarch that integrates the instant communication of
mobile users with a mobile presence that they
can control. The
system can be used with all popular mobile platforms and devices including
mobile phones, PDAs, smartphones as well as PCs.



The user tailors and decides
whether he or she uses the complete version of the software together with
detailed maps on his mobile terminal or just a ‘lite’ version with
more detailed information obtained via a PC. This approach minimises the problem
of illegible information being displayed on a small mobile screen. The user
decides what information is crucial for him, what is to be accessed instantly and
what to check later in the office using a PC.

 

"Technologies like LBS, allowing a user to
precisely determine their position, have become popular due to their usage in
automotive navigation systems. Comarch MobiLoc adds more content to this
application integrating existing communication, social communities and
information services with localisation opportunities. When my friends are close,
I want to be notified. I would certainly call or IM them if I know they are 400
metres away. I want to search for new contacts, new places and new pubs just
around the corner," says Stanisław Zbroja, senior product manager, Comarch
SA.

 

The
solution creates new opportunity for location commerce enabling a mobile user to
obtain immediate information, not only about a location but also about nearby hotels, restaurants, ATMs, hospitals, pubs, offices and car parks.
The information can be obtained either as a query from a mobile terminal user or
it can be pushed as an advertisement, together with basic information, a map and
instructions how to get to the place.

Martin Dawes Systems speeds new services' time to market

Warrington, UK, 17 April 2008 - Martin Dawes Systems, an
international provider of billing, customer care and business assurance
solutions for the communications market, has announced the launch of its
Business Process Engine (BPE), a new SOA-based solution for service providers
who want to customise their customer service management systems.

The latest addition
to the Martin Dawes Systems product family, BPE is a fully customisable
system that dynamically and efficiently automates labour-intensive processes,
including fixed-line and broadband provisioning, sales order processing and
e-commerce order fulfilment. Using BPE will reportedly help service providers achieve
their goal of bringing complex offerings to market much faster, more
cost-effectively and successfully.

Based on a service-orientated architecture (SOA), BPE allows a service provider to encapsulate key business
processes, such as new subscriptions or contract upgrades, into individual
reusable modules.  Customer service agents can activate and link these together
using a graphical interface, quickly and easily automating complex functions. This
delivers considerable operational benefits with the costs per transaction
significantly reduced because processes are much more streamlined and require
less manual intervention to complete routine tasks.

The modularity of
the BPE relieves the pressure on service providers who must customise their
subscriber management systems to keep pace with a succession of new product and
service roll-outs. BPE allows for the rapid adaptation of processes to take
account of changing business requirements and the strategic migration of
systems.

Designed to be
integrated with third party systems, BPE automatically performs a range of data
integration functions, such as creating new customer records or updating
inventory levels in real-time.  Combined with how it tracks individual orders
using the administrative console view, customer service agents can use BPE to
simplify common and complex tasks such as identifying the status of an order
through to doing a credit check.  

BPE is available as
a stand alone product or pre-integrated within diseMP, the end-to-end subscriber management solution from Martin Dawes Systems.

Gary Steen, technology director, Martin Dawes Systems said: “Operators have to bring new
services and products to market much faster than ever before. And with each
new service innovation, a positive customer experience must be delivered every
time or the marketing opportunity is lost. Achieving this presents a real
challenge and one that BPE is built to overcome by enabling operators to adapt
processes and systems without compromising on service quality and systems integration.”

Sony Ericsson’s sort-of-answer to iPhone really grows on you

OK, so it’s not as cool as the iPhone, and it’s
not hyped as much as Samsung’s F700 with QWERTY keyboard. But at the end of a
few days together the W960i was growing on Jeremy Cowan, who was in no rush to
send it back.

 

Perhaps we
got off to a bad start, it and me. It’s a little slow to boot up, well slower
than my trusty W850i. It’s bigger too; but then it would be, to accommodate a
39 x 52 mm screen. But it soon started to win back some ground with its 3.2
megapixel camera and high screen resolution. My first digital camera barely
matched the 960’s camera and it never matched the screen size.



The change of GUI was just annoying though. I’ve had a number of Sony Ericsson
phones and – though I’ve liked them all, more or less – the applications menu
alters with every iteration. Sony Ericsson is no more guilty here than other
manufacturers; they all annoy me with needless menu changes that erode the
pleasing familiarity of an easy search for the next function.

Pros

* Touch screen – many will opt for the W960i for this alone. It’s sensitive
without being overly so. Job done.

* Jog dial – Apologies to Jonny, the first person to call me after I received
it and who I accused of mumbling -- I’d brushed the side-mounted Jog Dial which
is both navigation tool and volume control when putting it in a coat pocket
inadvertently cutting the speaker volume (duh! Faulty operative; it didn’t
happen again).

OK, so the Jog Dial’s not strictly necessary when you’ve already got a good
touch screen and a finger or stylus as your OS. But it gives usesr a quicker
option when navigating the menu and works well; rotate the discreet wheel on
the side to highlight various options until you press the wheel, mouse-style.

* Stylus (I
started thinking it was a pain, and ended up using it all the time, even when a
finger might have been quicker).

* Better battery life than previous Sony Ericsson smart phones.

* Walkman is good (though I prefer downloads from Omnifone’s Music Station).

* 8Gb memory.

Cons

* Small-ish
screen means the touch screen is susceptible to (my not very) Fat Finger
Syndrome. Try the Jog Dial or Stylus instead.

*
Inconsistent GUI and applications menu: Memo to all handset makers: Find a menu
format that your customers like and flippin’ stick with it. Unless you’ve come
up with a genuine improvement, that
is. It took me a while to find the Silent mode. Eventually I even had to read
the manual. (I know, it’s a bloke thing!).



Verdict(s)

Day 1: I almost sent the W960i back.

Day 5: I may be out when they come to collect it.

Openet loyalty app allows Tier 1s to enhance customer experience

April
18, 2008 – Openet, a provider of transactional intelligence for the world’s largest and most diverse service providers, has launched its new Loyalty Programs application.
Through the Openet FusionWorks
Product Suite™, Openet is
enabling service providers to more effectively leverage their existing
transactional data to enhance and extend customer relationships.

According to Openet, telecom
operators are finally realising that service innovation and convergence
are not the only ways to increase revenue and ARPU (average revenue per
user). Instead, they are shifting their primary focus from customer
acquisition to customer loyalty — innovating creative loyalty and affinity
programmes to increase “stickiness” and improve customer satisfaction and
brand perception. Innovative loyalty programmes can stimulate service usage
and the deployment of new opportunities, however they must be timely,
targeted and relevant in order for customers to see and appreciate the
value.

“Service
provider marketers are racing to keep up with customer expectations for
personalised services and
enhancements, and well-designed loyalty programmes are a tremendous
opportunity to communicate directly with enticing offers that will keep
customers coming back,” said Openet CMO, Mike Manzo. “The key is accurate and
real-time data on usage, thresholds and style of account to ensure you’re
targeting the right offer to the right customer. Leveraging FusionWorks
together with our Loyalty Programs application gives marketers the
real-time visibility and actionable information to capture and retain
customer attention and revenue, now and in the
future.”

Some
of the enhancements more readily possible with
Openet’s Loyalty Programs
application include:

•
Awarding points based on usage, tenure or transaction thresholds

• Points
programmes that allow customers to take advantage of service provider and
third-party offerings

• Free initial usage of new or existing services,
such as SMS, video downloads and ringtones. For example, service providers
can offer long-time customers a free month of text messages to coincide
with a user’s birthday month.



Tier
1s are constantly faced with high churn rates for pre-paid, hybrid and contract
subscribers. The ability to segment customer data brings service providers
the chance to identify the right situations where loyalty programmes can
either enhance a relationship or counteract the timing when users might
consider another provider, such as when a pre-paid customer is about to
top off and extend minutes. As service providers focus on extending
customer relationships and revenue for next generation services, capturing
and keeping customer attention is paramount, and targeted loyalty
offerings — such as these enabled by Openet — are
a direct way to positively impact lifetime subscriber value, improve
satisfaction and brand perception, and stimulate new services usage.

Amdocs and ECtel launch joint fraud detection and prevention offering

ECtel Ltd, a provider of Integrated Revenue Management™
(IRM™) solutions, has joined forces with Amdocs, a provider of customer experience systems, to deliver a state of
the art fraud detection and prevention system, based on ECtel's fraud prevention product -- FraudView®, and
Amdocs' system integration services.

Communication service
providers continue to be challenged by growing fraud, resulting in revenue loss (see in-depth Fraud Report in VanillaPlus Magazine's June issue).
In addition, fraudulent activities can lead to increased churn as customers seek
providers that can deliver a flawless service experience.

Designed to meet the
needs of wireline, wireless, convergent and next generation service providers,
FraudView is the market’s leading and most comprehensive fraud management
solution. FraudView goes beyond traffic and usage monitoring, allowing advanced
detection of fraudulent activity as part of customer acquisition, credit risk
management and new subscriber evaluation processes.

The Amdocs-ECtel
offering incorporates ECtel’s FraudView and I-Probe™ technology. FraudView
provides comprehensive fraud detection capabilities such as a sophisticated
real-time fraud rules engine, advanced score cards, velocity and collision
engine, subscriber profiling and evaluating capabilities, advanced neural models
and credit limit monitoring. When integrated with I-Probe, FraudView allows
operators to enjoy unbiased and independent probe-based CDR coverage and
real-time collection, with optional call blocking and in-band analysis.  This
provides customers with superior capabilities for real-time monitoring and
preventing fraud.

"The joint offering
from Amdocs and ECtel combines ECtel’s state of the art products with Amdocs’
unrivalled delivery track record and deep knowledge of the service provider’s
operational systems environment and business processes,” said Itzik Weinstein, president and CEO of
ECtel.  “This combination creates one of the leading fraud solutions available
for service providers today, providing the best software out there while
ensuring it can be deployed at low risk and cost-efficiently.”

ariesoGEO aims for faster, more accurate subscriber data collection

Current subscriber data monitoring techniques often provide data
that is incomplete or imprecise, leading to unnecessary and ineffective
expenditure without solving the real network issues. Now, wireless
network optimisation provider, Arieso has launched a geo-location event
observer, ariesoGEO, for network performance monitoring and
optimisation.

Using the new software, which is compatible with
both UMTS and CDMA2000 networks, operators will be able to pinpoint
technical performance issues as and when they occur, based on the
subscribers’ experience.

Through the real-time, automated
collection and analysis of existing data, ariesoGEO enables operators
to solve potential network faults before subscribers are aware of them,
thus reducing churn and minimising operating costs.

ariesoGEO
collects data transmitted by mobiles in the normal course of conducting
a call and requires no additional hardware, such as GPS handsets. By
geo-locating tens of millions of calls per minute, ariesoGEO reportedly
creates a true-to-life picture of network performance as witnessed by
the networks’ subscribers, whether they are indoors or outdoors, or in
business or residential areas, and at any time of the day, any day of
the week.

ariesoGEO was recently used by a tier-1 US operator to
identify critical problem areas within its network, in order to gain
the maximum return from a limited budget. The outcome was said to be a
dramatic improvement in all of the operator's strategic KPIs, including
a 24% reduction in dropped calls.



Shirin Dehghan, CEO of Arieso, commented: “By providing access to more accurate
and timely data, ariesoGEO will enable operators to focus their resources and
drastically reduce their CapEx and OpEx for both current and future network
developments. ariesoGEO will, for the first time, enable operators to really
know how their network is functioning at any given time or
location.”



Dehghan added: “Access to information of this quality that
allows you to spot and correct the kinds of faults that lead to unhappy
customers and increased churn is unprecedented. Knowing what the subscriber is
experiencing, without the need to invest in expensive probes, will give
operators a huge competitive advantage.”



ariesoGEO estimates the
geographical location of mobile subscribers, and identifies the spatial
characteristics of the subscriber profile and network performance, enabling
operators to visualize a diverse set of metrics in the form of high-resolution
maps and detailed charts or reports. These metrics may range from explicitly
financial (e.g. revenue and ROI) to technical (e.g. interference and call drops)
Key Performance Indicators.

Mobile service providers face challenging times in middle of next decade, iSuppli study says

El Segundo, California, USA, July 8, 2008 — The gloomy findings of a mobile social networking study have been released in a White Paper by its authors, iSuppli Corp.  In it they predict that the Technology,
Media, and Telecoms (TMT) business will undergo a fundamental
transformation during the next 10 years, courtesy of the coming wireless social
networking revolution. Because of this, iSuppli Corp.
believes, content providers, advertisers, telcos and
electronics suppliers — must transform their business strategies as well if they
want to maintain their relevance in the coming years.

Said Derek Lidow, president and chief executive officer at iSuppli, “The shifts
will impact most value-chain participants, and will be highly
interrelated." With
today’s TMT business representing 5% of global Gross Domestic Product, these industry realignments will have
impacts far
beyond the value chain itself.  Major
findings of this study include:

·          Within 10 years, Social Networking + Me
(SME), primarily driven by wireless devices, will become ‘must-have’
applications and devices for global consumers.

·          Although there have not been any
successful implementations of wireless social networking to date, the widespread
adoption of mobile Internet devices like the iPhone will spur an entirely new
generation of wireless social networking businesses and business models starting
in 2009.

·          Many wireless service providers
will face very challenging times in the middle years of next decade as intense
battles break out against alternate providers of wireless access over who
controls the distribution of all the content and services that will be enabled,
and will be highly sought after by wireless subscribers.

·          By 2020, there will be close to 7
billion wireless accounts, with many individuals having more than one account,
and with wireless communication devices being the primary communication, service
and content delivery channel for virtually all users.

·          Basic wireless social networking
service could be provided for a global average of around $15.30 per month per
user, using constant 2007 U.S. dollars.

iSuppli has summarized the findings from
its wireless social networking study in a new whitepaper, entitled: Social
Networking Wireless Social Networking Revolution Set to Reshape Global Tech
Industry.

www.isuppli.com

BT buys Silicon Valley's Ribbit for US$105m

London, UK. July 29, 2008 - Ribbit has been acquired by UK incumbent telco, BT for  $105m.  Ribbit is an open platform for multi-protocol communication, that is said by its US creators to "empower a new market of voiceware applications and services".  BT's mission with Ribbit is to accelerate voice innovation by enabling
developers to bring to market the applications and products that end users need to stay in touch with their friends, family, colleagues
and customers.

As communications and computing are quickly coming
together, we are seeing new technologies being invented, new business models forming
and new partnerships being created.  Ribbit and BT intend that, through Ribbit's developer community, they will enable the dvelopment of improved voice services.

The Ribbit platform is designed to give developers,
integrators and product innovators the opportunity to ride on our
platform and leverage its APIs to create new communication solutions
for private businesses, global enterprises, vertical markets and the
masses.

The platform enables developers to bring
together the richness of voice calling and Web 2.0 experiences. With
Ribbit, voice can become a rich feature that can be added to any
application, on any device. Free from a traditional handset or the
latest mobile phone, voice can now be delivered and received on
multiple devices in multiple locations, across any network. It can be
integrated, monetized and personalized using the Ribbit platform.



Inevitably, Ribbit will be seen in the contect of Google's Android and Apple'siPhone. For some the former is merely a cloak for increasing Google's Advertisement sales, while the latter is tied to the Apple iPhone platform.  Although this is an open platform technology, BT's challenge will be to see if it can escape being associated purely with BT's own services. 

IBM software mimics PC features on mobile devices

Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software simplifies customer communications

Windsor, UK. September 17, 2008 – Pitney Bowes Group
1 Software has unveiled EngageOne™ Interactive Communications, a system that expands the capabilities of the company’s Customer Communications
Management (CCM) suite. EngageOne Interactive reportedly enables business users to easily
create, deliver, and manage real-time personalised, interactive customer
communications, such as correspondence, new business applications and negotiated
documents, across the enterprise.

EngageOne Interactive
offers an efficient means to replace costly and hard to maintain
legacy correspondence applications. Business users gain complete control of
content and design of interactive documents, creating pre-defined templates.
Template management, version control and workflow approval, along with metrics
and analytics, ensure the quality of every document before it is delivered to
the customer. Front office users can quickly and easily find the right template
and tailor the communication to the specific needs of the customer interaction.
 

EngageOne Interactive
is the first offering from Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software’s new EngageOne
service-oriented architecture (SOA) framework. The ystem is engineered to
ease deployment and integration with a variety of business applications,
including Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software’s data capture, data cleansing, mail
efficiency, document composition, document archive and content management
services for a true end-to-end content solution.

“Today’s enterprises
require faster, more intelligent personal interaction that enables them to
differentiate the customer experience, improve customer loyalty and increase
market share,” said Lawrence O’Hagan, chief technology officer, Pitney Bowes Group 1
Software. “EngageOne Interactive ensures a highly
productive, accurate, personal interaction each and every time. With the ability
to more quickly respond to market, competitive or customer conditions,
organisations can ensure that customer communications help build the brand and
drive additional revenues.”

EngageOne Interactive
enables organisations to:

• Easily create communications in-context – Through its web-based WYSIWYG (what
  you see is what you get) document editor, front-office users can easily create
  and manipulate communications in-context of the document itself, and present the
  document exactly as it will be printed.  
  


• Improve business process automation
  – With
  built-in document management, workflow, web services and optional archive for
  easy integration in existing systems, interactive documents can be shared and
  accessed across the enterprise.
  


• Reduce costs – By relying on a
  combination of functions that reduce preparation time, organisations can
  accurately respond to more customer inquiries in a shorter time frame, and
  reduce production printing and mailing costs.   

EngageOne Interactive will be
available in mid-November 2008.

New roaming hub system launched by Syniverse

TAMPA, FLA, USA. 15 October 2008 -- Syniverse Technologies has launched a roaming hub to help mobile operators solve the
business and technical complexities of wireless roaming. Enabling operators to
quickly deliver ubiquitous voice and data services wherever their subscribers
may roam, the Syniverse Roaming Hub features a comprehensive suite of roaming
services, including data clearing, financial clearing and award-winning fraud
protection.

"Our more than 20 years of global interoperability experience clearly
shows that Syniverse is well positioned to cater to the diverse roaming needs
of operators around the world," said Tony Holcombe, president and CEO,
Syniverse. "Moreover, through strategic partnerships with established players
in the market, the Syniverse Roaming Hub will expand on our ability to provide
seamless connectivity and a full range of roaming services to the wireless
marketplace."

Holcombe said the Syniverse Roaming Hub, which is designed to replace
today's inefficient bilateral agreement business model, will provide mobile
operators with a means to economically expand their roaming footprint, quickly
launch new services and cost effectively manage roaming partner relationships.
Some of the hub components include Syniverse Data Clearing House (DCH),
Financial Clearing House (FCH), signalling, agreement management, RAEX,
operational support services and the company's award-winning Syniverse DataNet
NRTRDE system.

Through its
active participation in the GSMA, Syniverse is defining many of the technical specifications
for roaming hubbing. As a result, the Syniverse Roaming Hub is fully compliant
with GSMA specifications.

Also, during a recent GSMA trial, Syniverse demonstrated the strength of its
roaming hub by successfully testing three of the four technical architectures
defined by the GSMA -- the most of any participant. During the trials, Syniverse
worked with the largest pool of operators, which included six operators in four
countries and three continents. This interaction helped ensure Syniverse's
roaming hub would be effective on a global scale.

Additionally, Holcombe said Syniverse Roaming Hub services are able to be
implemented in a number of leading-edge approaches as the company develops
different types of relationships with operators and service providers around
the globe. Not only will Syniverse offer its roaming hub solution to individual
operators, the company also will provide services to operators who choose to
implement their own hub solutions for their affiliates. Moreover, Syniverse, in
its mission to provide seamless mobile interoperability anywhere in the world,
will form alliances with other hub providers to expand those providers'
technical capabilities and global reach.

"Although Syniverse already has a significant global presence, we plan
to continue strengthening our hub connections by engaging a number of partners,
making our hubbing capabilities even more robust," Holcombe said.

Comfone and Infobrain establish independent, Swiss-based clearing unit

Bern,
Switzerland. 30 October, 2008 –
Comfone, the Swiss-based roaming specialist and a provider of roaming services to
more than 300 mobile operators around the world, and Infobrain, a global market
leader in providing systems for GSM/3G roaming and TAP3 data management, today
announced the establishment of an independent clearing unit. The new unit
provides data and financial clearing services for mobile operators and is based
on state-of-the-art data and financial clearing systems, NRTRDE, RAEX and fraud prevention systems.

 

The announcement
is part of Comfone’s strategic initiative to become the telecoms
industry’s leading, independent hub provider of integrated solutions for mobile
operators. With over 10 years of experience in roaming services provision,
Comfone offers a wide range of in-house services, including signalling,
financial clearing, hubbing, WLAN roaming, convergence and data services. Until
today, Comfone relied on existing data clearing platforms to support the
provision of its data clearing service (also see Roaming article in VanillaPlus December 2008 issue, out Dec 8). Now, with the setting up of the new
Data and Financial Clearing Unit, Comfone completes its portfolio of in-house
services and secures its position as a fully independent roaming, inter-carrier
and hub services provider.

 

The new Clearing
Unit, provided in partnership by Comfone and Zürich-based company, Infobrain,
is said to ensure premium quality functionality, "Swiss precision" in data handling and
exceptional customer care. By combining Infobrain’s and Comfone’s expertise in
the data and financial clearing business, the aim is that customers will profit from a concentration
of clearing proficiency in Switzerland.
The new Clearing Unit will be fully operational by the end of 2008 and is to
provide data clearing, financial clearing, NRTRDE, fraud prevention and RAEX services. All industry standards will be supported.

 

Mathias Prüssing,
CEO Comfone, said: “I am convinced that the launch of our independent Clearing
Unit offers mobile operators a concrete alternative in a consolidated market.
Together with Infobrain, we are committed to providing dedicated services
supporting the data exchange between mobile operators with the Swiss quality
our customers demand.”

 

Telcordia in 'self-healing' battlefield networks for US Army

Piscataway, USA  -- 5 November, 2008 - The US Army's Communications - Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) has selected
Telcordia to lead the network management portion of its Tactical Information
Technologies for Assured Networks (TITAN) Advanced Technology Objective. The four year, multi-million dollar contract is, says Telcordia, an acknowledgement of its pioneering role in developing advanced, reliable tactical
networks that can automatically route voice, video and data traffic around
damaged nodes in order to keep soldiers and officers connected.

"On the battlefield, communications can mean life or death," said
Ritu Chadha, chief scientist and TITAN Program Manager, Advanced Technology
Solutions, Telcordia. "Self-healing, ad hoc mobile networks are designed
to ensure secure, reliable communications even under the most extreme
conditions, including nodes constantly on the move or destroyed in battle. By
leading the TITAN project, Telcordia is not only helping to ensure that US troops can
stay connected under any conditions, but also developing next generation
technologies that one day can be used to improve the reliability of consumer
and enterprise networks."

Telcordia's work will focus on generating network management policies from
mission specifications; integrated fault and information assurance (IA)
correlation; automated response to diagnosed network faults and IA problems;
adaptive middleware for automated adaptation to network conditions; joint
policy-based network management and software-in-the-loop simulation and
testing.

Working for the Army Research Labs, Telcordia has developed techniques to
analyse mobile network protocols, including various versions of Mobile IP, DNS,
routing and clustering protocols, and recommended improved designs.