According to analysis recently published by Dittberner Associates, the telecom billing industry, previously written off as a “mature market”, is now catching its second wave of growth. Dittberner forecasts the billing sector will grow at a 3.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from $4.6 billion in 2005 to $5.5 billion in 2010.

While Dittberner acknowledges that the end of the telecom recession is a key factor in the telecom billing industry’s revival, other significant reasons include the following market trends:
* Real-time Revenue Generation
* Converging Postpaid and Prepaid Billing
* The Rise of Virtual Network Operators
* Wireline Billing Consolidation

More specific information about the telecom industry and their analysis is available to subscribers of Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase. [Read more…]

Mer Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. (NASDAQ Capital Market: MTSL), a global provider of business support systems (BSS) for comprehensive telecommunication management and customer care & billing solutions (CC&B), announced today the completion of the acquisition of the telecom expense management and call accounting software assets of TelSoft Solutions, Inc. The acquisition will expand MTS’s TEM (Telecommunications Expense Management) solution. [Read more…]

InfoVista (Euronext: IFV, ISIN: FR0004031649, NASDAQ: IVTA), a leading performance management software company, today announced financial results for the quarter and full year ended June 30, 2006.

Reflecting on InfoVista’s fourth quarter performance, Gad Tobaly, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The fourth quarter was the best quarter ever in our company’s history. Fiscal year 2006 is another year of profitability and double-digit revenue growth. In an environment where IT functionalities are increasingly delivered as services, performance assurance is becoming more and more critical. This transformation is a key success factor for us. We are growing faster than our markets, confirming InfoVista’s leading position in its segment.”

Total revenues for the quarter increased to EUR11.3 million, up 18% over the comparable period last year. InfoVista achieved positive net income in the quarter, totaling EUR0.8 million, an improvement from EUR0.4 million in the comparable quarter last year. For the year ended June 30, 2006, total revenues amounted to EUR40.6 million, an 18% increase over the previous year. Net income improved to EUR0.5 million for fiscal year 2006 from EUR0.1 million in fiscal year 2005. [Read more…]

MTS, Mer Telemanagement Solutions Ltd. (NASDAQ Capital Market: MTSL), a provider of business support systems (BSS) for comprehensive telecommunication management and customer care & billing solutions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the telecom expense management and call accounting software assets of TelSoft Solutions, Inc. of Glendale, California. The acquisition will expand MTS’ TEM (Telecommunications Expense Management) solution.

“This acquisition is in line with our business objectives and delivers on our strategy to improve our market position, accelerate growth and profitability and as a result enhance shareholder value,” said Eytan Bar, President and CEO of MTS.

Under the terms of the agreement, MTS will acquire certain assets of TelSoft and assume certain enumerated liabilities. MTS will pay TelSoft $1.1 million in cash plus earn-out payments based on revenue milestones for the 12 month period following the acquisition. The acquisition is expected to be completed on July 31, 2006. [Read more…]

Nakina Systems Inc. (“Nakina”), a provider of multi-vendor security and element management solutions to network operators worldwide, today announced that Dave Vicary, president and CEO at Nakina, was recently named an Ontario finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 awards. Vicary is one of three finalists in the Information Technology category. Nominees in a total of 12 categories were chosen based on demonstrated leadership, drive and innovation.

“It is truly an honor to be recognized by Canada’s most prestigious business awards program,” said Vicary. “This acknowledgement clearly validates the progress Nakina Systems has made during its few short years of existence in delivering innovative telecom and data network management solutions to service providers worldwide.”

On October 19th, one finalist in each business category will receive a regional category award. One person chosen from among the 12 category winners will then be awarded Entrepreneur of the Year for Ontario. The Ontario award winner will compete against other top entrepreneurs from across Canada for the national award. The Canadian winner will then face off against more than 35 country recipients for the title of World Entrepreneur of the Year. The Ernst & Young achievement follows other recent Nakina accomplishments. [Read more…]

LecStar Telecom Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix(R) Corp. (OTCBB: FNIX) offering a full array of fixed wire-line voice, data, Internet and operator services to business and residential customers in the Southeast, has entered into a management agreement with Lightyear Network Solutions, LLC (“Lightyear”) in order to decrease LecStar operating and related costs.

“Outsourcing LecStar Telecom’s telecommunications and customer service functions to Lightyear significantly reduces the company’s operating costs in the wake of recent regulatory actions that have negatively impacted small CLECs,” explained Thomas A. Murdock, chairman and CEO, Fonix Corp. “This change further enhances the company’s financial and competitive positions, while better enabling us to focus on developing and deploying integrated communication technologies.”

Under the terms of the agreement, effective July 1, 2006, Lightyear will manage all operating support services for LecStar including billing, provisioning, customer relationship management systems and telecommunications services under the terms of LecStar’s commercial agreements with wholesale telecom providers. Lightyear will receive specified fees from LecStar for these services. [Read more…]

Coastal Technologies Group Inc. (CTGi), a leader in call detail processing, back-office accounting process and OSS support for the telecommunications industry, today announced the appointments of W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, former U.S. Representative from Louisiana and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman and Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation and Zero Gravity Corp., to its board of directors.

“Coastal Technologies Group is at an exciting point in its development, and we are thrilled to add both Congressman Tauzin and Dr. Diamandis to our board of directors at this time,” said Richard Kane, president and CEO for Coastal Technologies Group. “Representative Tauzin has been a staunch supporter of the telecommunications sector and led the way to develop key legislation during his tenure as the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Likewise, Dr. Diamandis is a brilliant entrepreneur who has successfully founded and grown multiple space technology and communications companies over the last 20 years. Both of these men will provide critical guidance and influence as we look to expand our operations and customer set worldwide.”

Former Congressman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin was one of the most powerful Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and served 12 terms in the U.S Congress representing Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District before retiring in 2004. Tauzin was Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection in 1997 and was involved in much of the legislation affecting telecommunications and the Internet. Tauzin holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Nicholls State University and a Law Degree from Louisiana State University. [Read more…]

TelecomIQ, a division of IQPC (International Quality & Productivity Center) have recently announced their upcoming Next Generation OSS Integration Summit titled “People, Process and Systems in the Migration to IP-Based Services”, which will be held on September 25-27, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts.

“Today, an increasing number of IT executives in the telecom OSS space are recognizing the value of process-oriented thinking and a service orientation in dealing with the migration to IP based services. The OSS Summit in September will provide case studies from the Service Providers on dealing with implementing SOA, Web Services, business process management, and Quality of Service initiatives for improving the efficiency, quality and flexibility of the organization’s Operational Support Systems.”

At the summit, you can learn about defining the right approaches and tools for this service orientation using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). You can also learn about the key factors for successful integration of the SOA into Enterprise Architecture and obtaining organizational buy-in (demonstrating the value and ROI of SOA to management). Other topics include “How OSS business case can aid or hinder production of new services”. [Read more…]

Sobha Renaissance Information Technology, providers of outsourced IT business services and software products in HealthCare, Telecoms and the Enterprise space, has acquired Munich-based Billing Components AG. This strengthens SRIT’s offering in the Telecoms Operational and Business domain.

Billing Components AG are the creators of software components for the telecoms market in the areas of customer care, billing & collections, rating, usage collection, provisioning and inter-carrier reconciliation and settlements. The exact value of the acquisition was, however, not revealed. [Read more…]

AsiaInfo Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASIA), a provider of telecom software solutions and security products and services in China, announced today it has entered into a contract with Shanghai Netcom to construct a phase II prepaid service management platform.

”Through AsiaInfo’s enhanced prepaid service management platform, Shanghai Netcom will be able to increase their prepaid service offerings and improve the quality and speed of customer services,” said Steve Zhang, President and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaInfo. ”The platform will also integrate their support functions and increase general operating efficiency.”

The phase II prepaid service management platform will allow Shanghai Netcom to provide a greater variety of prepaid services to customers and improve the management of all prepaid service data. In addition, it will connect the process management system to the integrated accounting system. It will also reduce complicated system interfaces and enhance the real-time performance and accuracy of information transfer. [Read more…]

Global Technology Transfer Group, Inc., (GTT) is has recently announced the availability of two key telecommunications patent portfolios. The first portfolio focuses on subscriber services technologies that are currently deployed in the wireless communications industry. This portfolio is specifically applicable to telecommunication service providers on a system level. The Subscriber Services Portfolio includes technologies such as transaction-based billing, short messaging services (SMS), multi-functional subscriber identity modules (SIMs), and changing service profiles based on geo-location capabilities.

The second portfolio focuses on Mobile Radio Networks and includes technologies such as traffic density estimation, cellular handover optimization and short-range communications. [Read more…]

Coastal Technologies Group Inc. (CTGi), a leader in call detail processing, back-office accounting process and OSS support for the telecommunications industry, has introduced its WorkFlow Proâ„¢, a business process automation (BPA) tool that enables carriers to improve order processing and back-office telecom management.

“The CMP and OSS Connect suites have always given telecom carriers and service providers a single source for managing the fixed and variable costs of operating a network,” said Richard Kane, president and CEO for Coastal Technologies Group. “By introducing WorkFlow Pro, and enabling CMP, OSS Connect and WorkFlow Pro to work together seamlessly, we can now give service providers an automatic way of detecting and addressing network anomalies, such as phantom traffic or fraud, in a matter of hours as opposed to weeks or months. We have taken what used to be a difficult manual process, and given service providers a seamless way to reduce their service order error rate, mitigate fraud and capture unaccounted for revenue.”

CTGi has also added enhanced capabilities to its current ASP Call Management Program (CMP) and OSS Connect product lines in order to provide more detailed network snapshots and call management. Ultimately, these new tools and capabilities give service providers a 360-degree view of their network and the costs associated with provisioning, delivering and managing valuable triple play services easier, faster and more cost effectively. [Read more…]

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) has been selected by Telefonica of Spain to maximize the availability and responsiveness of Telefonica’s application servers and end-to-end performance of all network traffic (WiFi, LAN, etc.) using Lucent’s VitalSuite(R) Application Performance Management software.

“We chose Lucent’s VitalSuite(R) Application Performance Management software to significantly increase our overall network and application performance,” said Olegario Mendez, corporate network operations manager at Telefonica de Espana.

Lucent will provide Telefonica Sistemas — Telefonica’s IT department, which is responsible for managing Telefonica’s worldwide network — with VitalSuite(R) performance management agents that monitor key applications and system resources, which are key for millions of Telefonica’s business and consumer customers worldwide. Using software agents and scripts, Telefonica’s IT group will be able to increase the performance of its application servers and systems resources throughout its entire, global network. [Read more…]

Valista (www.valista.com), the leading provider of payments and merchandizing solutions enabling the purchase of premium digital services, today announced that mBlox, the world’s largest mobile transaction network, is deploying Valista’s end-to-end transaction engine — PaymentsPlus. mBlox selected the payment platform after a close comparison of the world’s leading vendors and will use it to support its next generation mobile billing services, including WAP billing.

Andrew Bud, Executive Chairman of mBlox, said, “The evolution of premium SMS, an industry we lead, into the next generation of mobile content billing is a huge opportunity for us. We will be able to offer a wider range of innovative and effective payment services for our customers. The mobile content industry will be able to deliver and bill content including mobile TV, video clips, gaming and music downloads. We chose Valista’s technology because it is proven to be the best in the industry, and are pleased to be working with a company with a similar customer-focused ethos to ourselves.”

Valista’s PaymentsPlus solution enables mobile transaction network providers and telecommunications operators to adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of the global payments market by offering more flexible payment choices such as direct to mobile bill charging and WAP billing. [Read more…]

Schema, a global provider of network optimization software solutions, announced today that it has signed a license agreement with Avea, one of Turkey’s leading wireless operators. Under the agreement, Avea will deploy Schema’s GSM Forté, a highly advanced automatic RF optimization solution, to optimize the planning of network frequencies in major cities in order to increase network capacity and improve quality of service. This deal, which marks the first phase in Schema’s relationship with Avea, demonstrates the company’s further expansion into Europe and continued deployment of GSM Forté by major wireless operators worldwide. [Read more…]

Redline Communications, a provider of standards-based wireless broadband equipment, today introduced the RedMAXâ„¢ Management Suite, enabling seamless integration and management of WiMAX technologies within operators’ core networks. By integrating the RedMAX Management Suite with their RedMAX network, operators can establish and manage a true carrier-class WiMAX network.

“The RedMAX Management Suite is a key differentiator for Redline and an important component of our RedPATH architecture roadmap,” said Edgar Masri, Chief Operating Officer, Redline Communications Inc. “Network management is a top priority for carriers that want to integrate WiMAX with their core networks and have the ability to expand and manage their networks as they grow and introduce new technologies based on the evolving WiMAX standards.”

The RedMAX Management Suite (RMS) is an element management system that enables broadband network operators to easily deploy, control, monitor and upgrade the Redline products in their network, acting as a gateway to the operators’ NMS and OSS and enabling full automation of operations The RMS is standards-based and platform independent to easily integrate with any IT infrastructure. [Read more…]

Comtrend Corporation has introduced their new Comtrend Auto-Configuration Server (ACS). The product will be officially unveiled during GlobalComm 2006, in Chicago June 4-8, exhibiter booth # 50088. This new Comtrend auto-configuration server provides automated provisioning, management and control of TR-069 compatible customer premise equipment.

Comtrend General Manager, Andrew Morton said, “The Comtrend ACS makes a self-install seem like magic to the consumer. Once the CPE links to the carrier’s network, everything automatically configures and the operator has complete control of the home user’s residential gateway. This product will greatly reduce maintenance costs associated with DSL deployments and significantly reduce truck-rolls. Unique to this market, the cost effective Comtrend ACS is a true Telco-Grade, OSS centric solution.”

The Comtrend ACS is designed to interface with all DSL Forum TR-069 compatible customer premise equipment (CPE) products. The Comtrend ACS will provide telecom service providers with abilities such as: remote CPE WAN Management, secure auto-configuration, dynamic service provisioning, remote firmware management, view status and performance monitoring. [Read more…]

NTG Clarity Networks Inc., (TSX VENTURE:NCI) a leader in delivering network, IT and infrastructure solutions, today announced that it will supply PPL Telcom, a regional facilities-based carrier offering transport services to carriers, ISPs and large enterprise customers, its integrated operations support system (OSS) software. The OSS will manage customer orders, network inventory, service provisioning and trouble ticketing.

“NTG is proud to add PPL Telcom to its list of customers,” said NTG Clarity CEO Ashraf Zaghloul. “NTG’s software solutions have been developed to meet the needs of next generation service providers and new wire and mobile carriers. Our software and services enable customers to achieve increased productivity, faster execution and innovative capability, making us an excellent fit with the new breed of telecom service provider.”

The latest version of NTG Clarity’s OSS product, NTS, utilizes the latest technology and provides an integrated suite of applications to enable customer information management, order management, network inventory maintenance, capacity management, service provisioning, service management, billing and customer relation management (CRM) and trouble ticketing. [Read more…]

According to Research and Markets, the Japanese telecom market faces fiercer competition and a broadened spectrum of services–and the market will experience even faster convergence with other industries. Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c37504) has announced the addition of Fast Dynamics of Japanese Telecom Market to their offering.

In the report, the author identified ten most noticeable topics of Japanese mobile communication market, which is leading mobile convergence in the world. For that, the author analyzed the emerging trends in policies, players, technologies and services. As the leader of the mobile industry, Japanese market will serve as an indicator to help all mobile service providers and related companies around the world to predict future directions of the industry. [Read more…]