Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU – News) and BT Group (London SE: BT Group) today announced the signing of a contract for innovative new technology that will sit at the heart of BT’s all-Internet protocol (IP), 21st Century global network. The award of this contract today follows BT’s selection of Lucent as a preferred bidder for the core of the network, and subsequent successful testing and development work conducted throughout the summer.

Lucent will help BT deploy a more efficient core network that will enable it to offer customers a diverse set of feature-rich services including voice, broadband, Ethernet, virtual private networking (VPN) services and IP VPN — as well as supporting established packet data capabilities such as Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) transport services — over the MPLS core.

In the UK, BT’s 10 billion Pounds Sterling 21st Century Network (21CN) programme involves the migration of 30 million customer lines and the withdrawal of the legacy voice (PSTN) platform. 21CN will deliver today’s and future services, sending them through one dedicated IP network.

BT Wholesale chief executive Paul Reynolds said: “With 21CN, BT and our suppliers are leading the world in next generation networks. Where we go with 21CN, others will follow and the experience gained and expertise developed in this transformation of BT’s network will set the standard for other NGN deployments. We’re moving forward strongly with world class suppliers and the first customers in the UK will start enjoying services over 21CN within 12 months.”

Lucent is one of the suppliers providing network equipment, its deployment and maintenance services in the core domain element of BT’s infrastructure upgrade — one of the world’s largest — which is already underway. “We are proud to be providing a key element in this revolutionary all IP next-generation network, which will position BT as a world leader in the implementation of new technologies,” said Andy Williams, President of Lucent Europe. “It is a significant step forward in the strong relationship we have forged with BT, which will play a key role in ensuring the health and well-being of the U.K’s future economy.”

Lucent is working with Juniper Networks to provide BT with best-in-class solutions that enable carriers around the world to create innovative and revenue-generating services, which will be installed and maintained by Lucent Worldwide Services. Based on Juniper Networks M320, T640 and TX Matrix routing platforms, the new core MPLS network will enable BT to converge multiple service-specific networks into a single, robust, reliable and flexible architecture that will carry a breadth of new and existing services over a common IP/MPLS core.

Lucent Worldwide Services provides multi-vendor support for many companies and carriers, including remote and on-site technical support, along with professional and managed services. It is also engaged in major migration projects taking legacy networks and migrating them over to next-generation all-IP technology.

ECtel, a leading global provider of Integrated Revenue Management(TM) (IRM(TM)) solutions, announced today the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Elron Telesoft, a prominent revenue assurance solution provider. With the acquisition, which is expected to be closed at the end of the month, ECtel enhances its position in the revenue assurance market, and expands its comprehensive IRM(TM) offerings.

At the closing of the transaction, ECtel will purchase all of the outstanding share capital of Elron Telesoft Ltd. and Elron Telesoft Export Ltd. from their parent company, Elron Electronic Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:ELRN), in consideration for US$2.1 million in cash. The seller will be entitled to receive an additional US$400,000 if certain milestones are achieved by Telesoft during 2006. The acquisition is subject to customary approvals and closing conditions.

Telesoft brings to ECtel its flagship RAP product, a cutting-edge solution that manages all revenue-related business processes for communications service providers (CSPs). RAP effectively complements CashView(R), ECtel’s best-in-class cost and revenue assurance solution for interconnect, CDR and SS7 reconciliation. This combination will allow ECtel to provide CSPs with a flexible, end-to-end solution that addresses all of their revenue assurance needs.

“Operators are facing growing revenue leakage that affects both their top and bottom line. As a result, they have made revenue assurance a top priority,” said Eitan Naor, ECtel’s President and CEO. “We are committed to offering CSPs the very best in revenue assurance solutions. As part of our long-term strategy, we are expanding our recently-launched IRM(TM) product framework with Telesoft’s RAP, an excellent product that audits and controls end-to-end revenue-related processes. We have selected Telesoft since it provides outstanding value to operators, addressing their growing revenue assurance needs.”

The acquisition strengthens ECtel’s global sales presence and tier-one customer base in the US, Western Europe, and Asia Pacific. It also significantly expands ECtel’s revenue assurance domain expertise through the addition of Telesoft’s vast industry experience.

“We are proud of our success in building a winning product that serves tier-one operators,” said Benny Yehezkel, Elron Telesoft’s CEO. “Telesoft is delighted to become an integral part of ECtel, a leading revenue assurance player. By joining forces with ECtel, we believe we are well positioned to provide the industry’s leading revenue assurance offering.”

Comptel Corporation, a leading convergent mediation, charging, provisioning and network inventory software solution vendor has been granted Innovative Product of the Year 2005 -award for its Comptel InstantLink® provisioning solution. The award was granted in Decemberat Billing IT Telecom Forum organised by Automatics and Telecommunications Association. The event was organised for the sixth year and it is considered to be the only great event in Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) that gathers competent industry leaders. Annually about 1000 experts from all Russian regions, the CIS and European countries participate in the Forum.

Comptel’s provisioning solution was considered to move towards all-around enabler software solutions for operators from the basic cost and time saver product. The latest developments have seen provisioning take an increasingly important role when rolling out new multimedia services, organizing wholesale business and auto-configuring customer handsets. This means that the strategic value of provisioning has also increased: it has become a key enabler for competitiveness, new revenue strategies and a high-quality customer experience.

“We are proud to receive this award. The Russian telecom market has fast become one of Europe’s leading markets. Russian operators are among the largest players in the industry, and now they focus on providing advanced services and raising ARPU. This sets new challenges and requires new business models with higher complexity of processes. In order to support this development and operators’ new businesses Comptel has developed its offering to meet these needs with new innovative solutions based on provisioning, mediation and network inventory solutions,” said Antti Jukarainen, Vice President of Sales in Europe, Comptel Corporation.

The trend of providing telecommunication applications and services independent of the access network through fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is gaining significant momentum and initiating changes across the value chain from the end users to the core network infrastructure. Intensifying competition both within the fixed and mobile markets and between them is also prompting the adoption of FMC and fixed-to-mobile substitution strategies aimed at fostering customer loyalty and combating the high costs of customer acquisition and retention.

“FMC is a gradual trend, but it is a fundamental shift with wide-reaching implications on all carrier types”, says Jennifer Fruehauf, ICT Research Manager at Frost and Sullivan (http://wireless.frost.com). “FMC is possible at many different levels, from core network infrastructure, business support, operations and access networks to different applications and services. Hence, operators must adopt clear, long-term strategies that prepare these different elements for the changes to come.”

To successfully exploit the growth opportunities in the fixed-mobile convergence market, carriers and service providers will benefit by devising effective strategies at various levels such as the application, service, device and network levels. Carriers enabling end-users to access a range of core services irrespective of the device or access network and service providers that offer value-added services are entering into agreements, partnerships or acquisitions to capture greater market share. The penetration of the wireless local area Network (WLAN) technology into the telecommunications market through its integration into broadband and cellular data and the development of voice over WLAN products and solutions will further spur FMC. Fundamental changes in the core network levels of various carriers following the implementation of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) will lead to savings in operations and capital expenditure and will further underline the appeal of FMC.

Application-level strategies will assume importance with the deployment of IMS, which will facilitate the implementation of a single application platform that can be offered as services for fixed and mobile access. This will encourage the telecommunications industry to shift form a vertical structure based on access technologies to a horizontal one that emphasises applications and services.

To avail of the opportunities that FMC offers, carriers will do well to offer complete service bundles, which will enable cross-selling, by which additional services can be sold to existing customers to avoid the high costs of customer acquisition. However, carriers providing value-added services such as unified messaging or communication must ensure that legacy infrastructure and billing systems are capable of charging for such services.

Moreover, carriers can significantly reduce capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX) by integrating core networks and sharing back-end functions such as customer service, network operations and maintenance, customer relationship management (CRM) and other administrative functions. In addition, the IMS architecture, which breaks down barriers between fixed and mobile networks, will also encourage carriers to develop new applications and services with lower investment requirements.

The emerging trend of several users replacing their fixed lines, offers opportunities for carriers to develop an integrated device and eliminate the need for multiple address books, passwords and message portals. However, despite these benefits, the market for integrated devices is still at a nascent stage due to limitations such as short battery life and the high costs associated with integrated devices.

Fixed carriers in the market, such as cable operators, Internet/DSL service providers, fixed network operators and wireless hotspot network operators/(VoIP) service providers can also avail of the increasing opportunities to offer converged solutions due to the well-developed support systems they possess. Moreover, their understanding of enterprise requirements is likely to induce enterprise mobile data solutions, which promises tremendous potential. Integrated carriers (with their own cellular and fixed networks) are also likely to benefit from the integration of core networks and offering converged solutions will be viable for such carriers due to their strong market positions.

Mobile carriers such as Vodafone, O2 and Bouygues are making efforts to increase fixed-mobile substitution and there are others who are also aiming at inducing clients to scrap their fixed lines altogether. Additionally, most mobile operators are offering converged services by integrating WLAN into their cellular networks. While partnerships with fixed carriers to develop converged solutions will be advantageous, mobile operators must ensure that the new services do not compete with their existing ones.

“Uncertainty in the market is driven by the development of various technologies, especially voice-over-IP, wireless LAN, the emergence of WiMAX (and similar) technologies, dual mode handsets and higher speed cellular capabilities”, cautions Ms. Fruehauf. However, despite the presence of some challenges (essentially supply-related), operators which succeed in creating attractive value propositions and providing adequate customer support, can expect to gain from FMC.

Globecomm Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: GCOM), a global provider of end-to-end value-added satellite-based communications solutions, announced today that the Company’s wholly owned subsidiary, Globecomm Network Services Corporation (“GNSC”), has signed a one-year contract extension with Afghan Telecom.

Afghan Telecom, a newly formed company, has taken on responsibility for all telecommunications services throughout Afghanistan. GNSC has been providing teleport services, in support of international voice and Internet connectivity, to Afghan Telecom since the District Communications Network (“DCN”), which was built by Globecomm Systems, went live. The DCN provides telecommunication connections between districts, central and provincial organizations.

Ken Miller, President of Globecomm Systems Inc., said: “Globecomm looks forward to a long term relationship with Afghan Telecom as we work together to re-build the country’s telecommunication infrastructure.”

NetCracker Technology, the global Solution Leader enabling service providers to deliver and manage converged services, today announced that its Service Inventory module won the prestigious “Product of the Year” award at BILLING. IT Telecom. NetCracker’s Service Inventory module accelerates Communications Service Providers’ (CSPs’) ability to create and provision existing and next generation services across all layers.

The Service Inventory’s robust and flexible Service Catalog enables the CSP to rapidly define and introduce new converged services. It allows the CSPs to mix and match components to create a unique service bundle in real time. By decoupling the network and IT infrastructure from the service components, CSPs are able to create and deliver services faster without having to make wholesale changes to the physical infrastructure.

NetCracker’s inventory of service configurations, combined with its ability to work across siloed inventories at the network and service layers, accelerates the time to market for new services, which is a competitive advantage that CSPs across the globe are looking to achieve.

BILLING. IT Telecom, which took place December 7 to 9 in Moscow, gathered industry leaders to examine innovative operation and business approaches of telecom operators and service-providers.

“This award highlights the strength of our product offerings and remarkable commitment and talent of our team,” said Andrew Feinberg, president and CEO, NetCracker Technology. “Successful communications service providers are those that can effectively deploy and manage converged services. NetCracker gives them the means to do this.”

Alcatel today announced that it has been selected by Zhejiang Telecom, a provincial subsidiary of China Telecom, to upgrade and expand its customer service centre with Alcatel’s Business/Operation Support System (B/OSS) solution across the province.

Alcatel is the integrator and coordinator of the project. Under the contract, Alcatel will integrate its industry-leading Genesys contact center software, access switching and other equipment and will upgrade its recording system, database/application server system and digital switching system. The entire project is expected to be completed in July 2006.

With this project, Zhejiang Telecom is able to extend in a reliable and efficient way its customer service to rural areas in the province. In addition, Zhejiang Telecom can deliver a series of value added services like business customer hotline, voice mail, secretary service, travelling inquiry hotline to meet end-users’ demands.

Frederic Rose, President of Alcatel’s integration and services activities, said, “B/OSS has become an increasingly hot investment for carriers to improve the operation efficiency. And the deployment of 3G, NGN and IPTV will request a powerful B/OSS system to ensure service quality here in China. With our leading technology and wide experience, I believe Alcatel is an ideal and reliable partner. ”

Alcatel is a leading B/OSS solution integrator in the world. To date, Alcatel has successfully deployed B/OSS solutions for over 80 carriers globally.

LogicaCMG today announces that it has formally joined Bridge Mobile Alliance as one of its technology associate members under the alliance’s associate membership scheme. The scheme was initiated by Bridge Mobile to act as an extension of the alliance membership structure to include major global players with technology leadership across the mobile industry value chain, such as handsets, network and platform solutions, and SIM card technologies. The purpose is to promote knowledge exchange and joint collaboration between mobile operators and technology solutions providers across the mobile service development value chain – so as to develop next-generation mobile technologies that are customised for the Asia Pacific mobile markets.

The alliance comprises eight top-tier mobile operators – Airtel (India), CSL (Hong Kong), Globe Telecom (Philippines), Maxis (Malaysia), SingTel Mobile (Singapore), SingTel Optus (Australia), Taiwan Mobile (Taiwan) and Telkomsel (Indonesia), serving over 70 million subscribers.

By joining the alliance as a technology associate member, LogicaCMG will have access to regular planning and dialogue sessions, will actively contribute and exchange ideas in order to generate collaborative opportunities with Bridge Mobile’s other technology members such as Axalto, Gemplus, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Nokia, QUALCOMM and ZTE. The sessions will support a service incubation programme which aims to enable both member operators and technology associate members to test and co-develop solution models for next-generation mobile technologies and services in Asia Pacific.

“With the extension of the alliance community, member operators will be able to partner with global technology players to pioneer the development of Asian-centric mobile technologies and services. This will lead to the creation of more seamless and innovative mobile services for our 70 million subscribers across Asia Pacific,” said Dr. Patrick Sim, CEO of Bridge Mobile. “I am pleased to welcome LogicaCMG to this alliance, and look forward to tapping into its expertise in rolling out mobile solutions customised to the Asia Pacific mobile markets.”

Boudewijn Pesch, managing director, LogicaCMG global telecoms in Asia added: “The Bridge Mobile Alliance provides the eight member operators a universal platform to seamlessly integrate and deploy innovative mobile offerings. We recognise the need for operators to identify and secure new revenue streams, and are excited at the prospect of supporting these alliance members with mobile applications and systems integration expertise to make innovative solutions a reality.”

LogicaCMG was previously selected to set up part of Bridge Mobile’s core infrastructure with a Common Access Gateway and a Wholesale Billing and Settlement System, as well as enabling the initial Bridge Prepaid service. Bridge Prepaid for the first time enables the alliance member operators’ pre-paid subscribers to conveniently and quickly top-up their pre-paid account while roaming in any of the member countries.

Recently LogicaCMG had provided its systems integration expertise to support Bridge Mobile’s roll-out of the World Cyber Games (WCG) Mobile Asian Championship.

Atos Origin, an international IT services company, and CDRator, a provider of an integrated Business Support System (BSS) for telecom companies, have partnered to offer hosted BSS services to telecoms service providers. The global partnership means that Atos Origin will offer CDRator’s integrated BSS – an all-in-one package for billing, customer care and business management – as a hosted service to its clients and prospects, particularly those in the emerging Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) market.

Atos Origin and CDRator have collaborated together before, most recently on a Netherlands-based project for KPN Mobile – Simyo* – launched in September to the Dutch market. Simyo is KPN’s mobile brand with a ‘no nonsense’ concept aimed at people that would like to call and SMS at low tariffs without any obligations of subscriptions fee. Atos Origin, as KPN’s preferred IT partner, managed the complete IT project for which it chose CDRator’s hosted solution. Atos Origin’s services included: consulting services, business analysis and process modeling, design and integration of IT architecture and process architecture.

Cees de Jong, Senior Vice President, Global Telecom Market at Atos Origin said: “The Simyo project showed us the potential of a partnership with CDRator. Simyo was implemented in record time of three months thanks to the effective work of flexible CDRator and Atos Origin team members, to the complete satisfaction of KPN Mobile. CDRator is an innovative organization with an excellent track record in the European MVNO industry and together we will offer our existing and new customers a competitive proposition.”

Jesper Philipp, CEO of CDRator, concluded: “We believe Atos Origin has excellent in-depth knowledge of the European telecoms market and its consult-build-operate approach and geographical reach complements our specialist knowledge of this market. We feel that this partnership will prove to be highly productive and reinforces our market presence in the MVNO and Service Provider domain. MVNO’s that are already using the solution are among others Debitel, EasyMobile and Telmore.”

Atos Origin has a proven record of over 20 years of accomplishment and experience in the Telecoms sector and has the capacity, skills, and capability to provide global services. Atos Origin delivers reliable end-to-end solutions and has a customer base covering major telecom operators in Europe such as France Telecom, KPN, Vodafone, and Telecom Italia. The company’s annual revenue in the telecom industry is close to EUR 1 billion.

Psytechnics, the global leader in voice and video quality assessment software for the telecoms industry, has appointed Nav Chander as director of product management.

In his role, Chander will be responsible for driving the product requirements and market growth for the company’s voice and video quality assessment tools in VoIP, IPTV, and mobile applications as well as ensuring that Psytechnics continues to lead the test and measurement industry for the telecoms market.

For the past 20 years, Chander worked in a variety of senior product management and marketing positions at Motorola, 3Com, Alcatel/Newbridge Networks and SHL Systemhouse. His innovations include the industry’s first frame relay access products for VoIP, the first multiservice router while at Motorola Codex and the first layer 3 switching product while at 3Com.

“I am eager to work with the telecom industry’s top minds and collaborate on a set of exciting and important technologies that will shape the quality of video and voice communications in the future,” said Chander. “Psytechnics’ innovation stems from delivering not only what each customer needs now but also predicting what the customer will experience with the new mobile and triple play services. I look forward to working with the inventive team whose foresight has created the industry standard.”

“Nav Chander is a tremendous asset to Psytechnics,” said CTO Dr. Mike Hollier. “We are fortunate to have someone of his caliber leading our marketing efforts. His experience will ensure that Psytechnics continues to create industry leading technology in the future. Mr. Chander will be instrumental in Psytechnics’ continued success as the company continues to grow.”

appliedlogx, a leading provider of communication infrastructure engineering, procurement and installation services to the telecommunications industry, has launched Virtual Operations Services (VOS), a web-based operations support platform designed to help telecommunications, cable and VoIP service providers deliver comprehensive services to the residential and business marketplace.

“Installation services have primarily been delivered by the internal staff of service providers due to operational and logistical challenges,” says Rob Cash, CEO, appliedlogx (www.appliedlogx.com). “VOS overcomes those challenges through a robust, web-enabled application that manages the entire process, from initial order processing to equipment ordering and tracking through installation and turn-up to ongoing customer service.”

Because traditional last-mile support typically required a physical presence to handle installation, trouble-shooting and ongoing customer service, outsourced installation providers were limited by their geographic scope. However, today’s advanced telecommunication technologies mean installation and repairs can often be handled remotely. VOS manages that process and, when on-site work is required, provides immediate access to a nationwide network of highly qualified technicians.

The VOS core engine is comprised of four key components:

• Order Management, a web-based ticketing program that creates service orders, provides auto-cost calculations and instant dispatch visibility, as well as manages in-process orders. The Order Management tool tracks items serviced and parts/labor used on an order, tracks exchanges for customer inventory and manages quality control.
• Equipment Fulfillment, which provides online ordering capabilities, order tracking, multiple location tracking and purchase order status, and manages existing vendor relationships. The Equipment tool records automatic transfer per location, tracks serial numbers and MAC addresses, tracks login and passwords and delivery assemblies and kits.
• Installation/Deployment, which captures all user information, manages parent-child relationships, provides quick information for deployment and manages a delivery flow based on FOC dates and CPE delivery. Through the Installation tool, users can quickly dispatch experienced technicians who possess all the current certifications and who have committed to following the appliedlogx Scorecard System, which measures and monitors each process and provides the feedback that is essential to successes.
• Customer Service, which provides Tier One and Tier Two customer support, including the ability to conduct remote configurations and remotely capture call information on demand for analysis and repair. The Customer Service module also manages billing and finance, inside sales and quality control.

VOS installation service offers flat rate pricing to its customers – a telecommunication industry first. It also provides a knowledge base to improve troubleshooting and decrease truck rolls. VOS service components can be purchased individually or as a complete operations platform.

“VOS users benefit from increased efficiency in responding to customer issues as well as the quality of service derived from our nationwide coverage ability,” says Cash. “It’s a turnkey solution for any traditional and non-traditional telecommunication service provider wishing to reduce operating costs, increase geographic reach and enhance the quality of their customer service.”

Verso Technologies, Inc. VRSO(Nasdaq: VRSO), a leading provider of packet based solutions, announced today that Splendor Telecom, an international carrier, has selected the Verso I-Master(R) solution to expand its suite of local and wholesale services in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa (EMEA) regions.

Splendor will utilize the Verso solution to strengthen its position in the EMEA wholesale pre-paid market in addition offering to VoIP services. Splendor chose the I-Master system after considering several incumbent products, as Verso’s robust solution offered the highest level of stability and reliability, while streamlining revenue and billing issues.

Verso’s I-Master solution provides a superior feature and services platform for service providers seeking to deliver voice and data services that increase revenues and promote customer loyalty, without sacrificing the revenue assurance of the pre-paid model. With a unique and intuitive interface, the Verso solution allows service providers such as Splendor to easily manage complex rating schemes required in a dynamic market like the EMEA Region. The I-Master solution uses an Oracle database running on the Solaris operating system to deliver maximum performance and reliability to service provider networks.

“The I-Master platform’s unique features and services, as well as its ability to preserve the revenue assurance model, were key in Splendor’s selection,” said Monty Bannerman, chief executive officer, Verso Technologies. “Splendor recognized a unique opportunity to deploy in-demand services that will facilitate greater market share,” added Bannerman. “The Middle East is a key emerging market for Verso that will increasingly require complete and bundled solutions.”

“The I-Master solution will streamline our sales process by providing a single price solution, which is particularly important as we work across many countries and currencies,” said Omar Onsi chairman and chief executive officer, Splendor Telecom. “In addition, the solution offers a vast variety of services within the same architecture.”

Telcordia Technologies, Inc. continues to lead the transformation of the telecommunications industry by delivering software innovations that meet carrier demands in a dynamic business environment. The company today announced that Hydro One Telecom Inc., a provider of broadband telecommunications services to carriers, large enterprises and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), has selected Discovery, a new module of Telcordia(R) Granite Inventory, to perform network asset discovery and reconciliation to their existing Granite Inventory database.

“Our goal is to have a synchronized database that matches the equipment as it is actually deployed in our network. Deploying the new Discovery Module in our Telcordia Granite Inventory system will provide an immediate payback by enabling us to fulfill new services faster and with greater accuracy,” said Aaron Cheng, Director of IT Systems, Hydro One Telecom. “We looked at several options and Granite was a clear solution that offered truly integrated Discovery and reconciliation. With this new functionality plus Granite Inventory’s open and flexible architecture, complex IP services are even easier to design and implement.”

Hydro One Telecom is an innovative carrier that currently offers Transparent LAN, Private Line, and Internet Transit Services to its customers. Discovery will “talk” to the IP, and SONET networks that provide the foundation for these services by supporting 12 different types of equipment provided by five different vendors. In addition, Granite Inventory with Discovery will help Hydro One Telecom easily scale to accommodate over 1,000 network devices.

“The complexity of today’s sophisticated telecom networks makes it increasingly difficult for carriers to manage and reconcile network assets and drive revenue through the quick and accurate turn-up of new services,” said Don Wadas, Corporate Vice President of Sales, Telcordia. “The addition of Discovery in Granite Inventory was inspired by the need for absolute and real-time accuracy of the inventory in order for carriers such as Hydro One Telecom to successfully provision advanced IP services and ensure a superior customer experience, exceptional flow through, and expeditious order to cash process.”

Telcordia Granite Inventory is an award-winning, fully J2EE compliant solution that provides an open and flexible data model that stores the entire multi-vendor, multi-technology network image of sites, equipment, configurations & services, and automates service & network provisioning. The Discovery module (Discovery), now available as an integral component of the Telcordia(R) Granite Inventory system, provides discovery with reconciliation to the Granite Inventory database for next generation technologies and services, including optical, SONET/SDH, ATM, Frame Relay, DSL, Ethernet, IP, 3G, GPRS, MPLS, GSM, UMTS, CDMA, and WCDMA.

Discovery sits on the Granite application framework (GAF), providing a tight integration of the discovery software with the entire Granite Inventory product suite. This allows customers to deploy the discovery capability without paying an up-front “integration tax”. In contrast, other vendor solutions require costly and time-consuming development work before launch, thus indefinitely extending ROI and payback periods. Telcordia Granite Inventory has proven performance and production ready credentials in Tier 1 operators around the world. More information on Telcordia Granite Inventory and other Telcordia solutions can be found on the web at www.telcordia.com.