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
Service Provisioning & Activation
Comptel delivers Axiom broadband licenses in India
OSS vendor, Comptel has
signed an agreement to deliver and maintain the AXIOSS suite for
broadband services at a leading telecom operator in India.
Comptel announced in April that it was strengthening its position in broadband and IP fulfilment by acquiring Axiom Systems, developers of the AXIOSS product suite. (For more details see our April report: http://www.vanillaplus.com/news/view/23 )
The
total value of the agreement is put at US$4.0 million. Comptel estimates that US$2.2
million of this will be recognised as revenue during 2008.
“This is a major
broadband service fulfilment delivery for us,
following our recent acquisition of Axiom Systems. The deal further strengthens
our established position in the fast growing Indian telecom market”, said
Sami Erviö, president and CEO of Comptel.
Orange World portal launched in Austria with ChangingWorlds
Sept 24, 2008. Dublin, Ireland & Vienna, Austria. The Orange World portal has today been launched for Orange Austria’s two million subscribers, following work done by ChangingWorlds, a leading provider of intelligent mobile portals and data personalisation solutions for mobile operators.
The latest launch extends the Orange World brand to 28 countries worldwide. This is an important strategic step for Orange as it increases the footprint of one of the world’s strongest telecoms brands.
The new Orange World portal offers a wide range of news, music, entertainment and gaming content to subscribers. Based on ChangingWorlds’ ClixSmart Intelligent Portal Platform, it offers a dynamic, multilingual portal, with content presented in an easily accessible layout that enables users to quickly reach topics of interest.
ClixSmart’s intelligent content discovery capabilities ensure that content is relevant to individual users and is optimally presented on the user’s handset by leveraging the device’s capabilities to maximum effect.
ClixSmart’s intuitive multi-portal management features have enabled Orange to create a compelling and user-friendly Orange World service that optimises the user experience for subscribers. It is said to have been easily integrated with Orange’s infrastructure systems and content providers. ClixSmart’s ‘one-click’ publishing capabilities will help to minimise time-to-market with new mobile internet services while simultaneously reducing portal administration overheads.
Speaking today, Günter Lischka, head of marketing from Orange Austria said: “The Orange ethos is to make mobile communications more simple, human and compelling and ChangingWorlds' portal and personalisation solutions are an integral element of this strategy. We are very impressed with how quickly and smoothly we have been able to switch from the old ONE portal to the new Orange World portal and we are excited about the benefits that it will bring to our customers."
Also speaking today, Oliver Cavanagh, ChangingWorlds’ business development director for Central Europe said “Having worked with Orange Austria since May 2007, we are delighted to have contributed to the launch of their new Orange World portal. Orange is an exciting and innovative mobile operator and is a great addition to the very competitive Austrian market. We look forward to helping them deliver an even more compelling mobile internet experience to their customers in the future by leveraging ClixSmart’s leading edge mobile content delivery and personalisation technology.”
Clarity buys business and assets of Dot Communications
Sydney, Australia. October 7, 2008 -- Clarity, a leader in Unified Operational Support
Systems (OSS), today announced it has acquired certain customer contracts and
assets of Dot Communications Pty Ltd relating to their Viper business,
including a source code license to use Dot’s Viper Wholesale Service Delivery
Platform. The sale (for an undisclosed sum) involves a combination of an upfront cash payment and
success-based royalty payments over three years.
The acquisition of Dot’s Viper Business will strengthen
Clarity’s ability to deliver customer self-service and wholesale IP
provisioning capability.
Tony Kalcina (above), founder and executive director of Clarity
comments, “We are strengthening our position in the market with this
acquisition and will not only be better placed to provide superior customer
solutions for our clients but offer an additional accountability tool to ensure
strong results. It is our belief that empowering our customers is the surest
way to success."
Rory Brennan, CEO of Dot Communications adds, "Viper has
been an extremely successful product for us in recent years, albeit in a local
ANZ context, so we are delighted with this new partnership with such a strong
market leader. We look forward to continued success, helping Clarity to build
on their existing customer base and taking Viper into the broader international
arena”.
Naughton moves to VoluBill
London, UK. October 24, 2008 -- Martine Naughton has left the service fulfilment
company, Axiom Systems – which was recently acquired by Comptel – to join France-based
VoluBill. Martine had led the marketing and PR team at Axiom Systems since 2001.
She has now been appointed head of Marketing at VoluBill, working in the policy
and charging space. Martine will continue to be based in the UK, working from VoluBill’s London office.
Mexico's Axtel uses dynamic OSS for number portability
Comptel Corporation, a leading
vendor of dynamic operations support system (OSS) software, announced today that
Mexico’s Axtel is using mediation, provisioning and activation solutions to
support the newly launched number portability. Comptel Convergent Mediation
Solution supports the correct recording and billing of new subscribers ported
into Axtel’s network; Comptel Provisioning and Activation Solution manages both
the process of porting in (new subscribers to Axtel's network) as well as
porting out (subscribers choosing to take their number to another service
provider).
Mexico, a country with 19 million fixed
line users and 71 million mobile users, launched Number Portability (NP) in July
2008, leading the way in Latin America.
Brazil is planning to bring NP soon,
and many other countries in the region are considering it as a way to increase the level of competition.
A recent poll carried out by Telesemana on behalf of a
select group of independent solution vendors including Comptel found that Latin
American operators believed almost unanimously (92%) that Wireless Number
Portability (WNP) was needed by 2010. Forty-three per cent of the respondents
have either implemented or intend to implement the portability functionality in
the next 12 to 18 months. At the same time, 72% of respondents
considered it necessary to make some changes to their current OSS/BSS systems to
support WNP.
Alexandre Troise, VP for Comptel in Latin America
explains: “Number Portability is a very important issue in Latin America right
now, and operators are rightly concerned about the ability of their OSS to support this. At
Comptel we have gained experience in Number Portability around the world, and
were able to apply this at Axtel to meet our customer’s
objectives.”
Ignacio Muraira, IT Director for Axtel says, "We have
always relied on Comptel's state-of-the art mediation and provisioning solution
to help Axtel react quickly to new market demands. The introduction of Number
Portability here in Mexico was no exception. Changes at
the OSS layer
can be complex and time-consuming, but thanks in part to the flexibility and
reliability of Comptel's solutions, Axtel was able to implement Number
Portability on schedule".
Troise concludes: “Over the years, Comptel and Axtel
have worked together to introduce new technologies and services such as WiMAX
and now Number Portability. We are proud of the great partnership we have built
with Axtel.”
T-Mobile launches personalised service for mobile customers
Manchester, UK. 24 October, 2008 -- T-Mobile is launching the next
stage in its customer service strategy through multi-channelled mobile
personalisation.
The global telecoms provider has announced the
structured deployment of pioneering VoiceObjects technology across European
markets as part of its “self-service in your pocket” customer initiative. This
multi-channel approach ensures that a useful mix of service channels is
available to T-Mobile customers on-demand.
The VoiceObjects “design
once, deploy anywhere” technology approach is important to T-Mobile’s initiative
because it enables the one-time development of an application which can run on
every available phone channel: voice, video, text or mobile Web.
As a
result, T-Mobile customers will experience a fast, personalised self-service
across mobile web, SMS and voice portals, driving the company’s long-term
strategy of developing a complete self-service environment capitalising on the
strengths of each individual channel.
“These days, customer self-service
must fulfil two needs,” stresses Daniel Hendling, program manager at T-Mobile
International. “First, the service must be easy and attractive so that the
customer wants to use it as a preferred channel. Secondly, we have to optimise
efficiency for the company so that ultimately, we can offer affordable services
through a range of channels. With VoiceObjects, we have found an ideal
technology partner to provide us with a simple, yet cost-effective self-service
architecture.”
“VoiceObjects is in a unique position of being able to
deliver personalised phone self-service over popular phone channels, used by
consumers every day,” said Michael Codini, VoiceObjects CTO and managing director EMEA. “With VoiceObjects, T-Mobile can lower costs by having one
development and deployment environment and by deploying applications built for
one channel across multiple channels.”
VanillaPlus Recruiting: More Telecoms Writers Needed
Owing to recent expansion, VanillaPlus is looking for additional freelance writers with experience of writing in the fields of telecoms, media and entertainment. If you have the communications skills to match writing by the likes of Alun Lewis, George Malim, and Mark Dye we'd like to hear from you.
VanillaPlus takes complex information on a rapidly evolving communications industry from varied sources including news agencies, PR companies, network operators, independent system vendors, analysts and others. Our goal is then to assess it and communicate it in a clear, vibrant, and stimulating way.
A 'can do' attitude, good English and an enquiring mind are more important than engineering expertise, but you should find new technology stimulating. If this is you or you know someone suitable, please contact VanillaPlus's Editor, Jeremy Cowan on Tel: +44 (0)1420 588638 or Email: editorial@vanillaplus.com