Zain Kuwait Focuses on Customer Experience with NSN

Zain Kuwait is using live network monitoring, reporting and analytics software from Nokia Siemens Networks to focus on the customer experience. Nokia Siemens Networks has developed two new platforms, Serve atOnce Traffica and Serve atOnce Intelligence, to provide improvements in mobile network quality by monitoring network traffic.


Nokia Siemens Networks' Serve atOnce Traffica is used to monitor end-to-end network performance for each service in real time, improving the quality of every voice call and SMS. Switching from traditional network-based alarms to subscriber-based alarms, Zain can prioritize customer problems with its operations department and proactively solve them even before the customer notices that there's an issue. This will help to speed up request and complaint resolution in customer care, boosting operational efficiency.


Zain Kuwait is also deploying Nokia Siemens Networks' reporting and analytics platform, Serve atOnce Intelligence (SAI). Integrated with the existing Nokia Siemens Networks' subscriber data management and device management platforms, SAI draws data from multiple sources and reflects real-time user patterns in dynamic and flexible dashboards that show mobile terminal performance in the network, roaming, international call performance as well as Service Level Agreement reporting for Zain's corporate customers. It is expected to allow Zain to segment customers on the basis of terminal, service, value and use of the platform as well its customer experience, allowing it to sharpen the focus of its marketing campaigns.


The roll-out marks the region's first such extensive customer experience management deployments.


"Improving customer experience is the best way to differentiate from the competition," added Mounzer El-Achmar, head of the Zain Kuwait customer team at Nokia Siemens Networks. "In that respect, Zain has shown great foresight in not just focusing on reactive problem solving in customer care but emphasizing the delivery of an improved customer experience at each stage in the customer journey."http://www.nsn.com

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Clearwire Outsources to Ericsson

Clearwire will transfer the day-to-day management of its 4G network to Ericsson under a seven year managed services agreement.


Ericsson will be responsible for network engineering, operations and maintenance, including field services, 24X7 network monitoring, end-to-end engineering, provisioning and routine maintenance. Clearwire will retain ownership of all network assets and full responsibility for future technology and strategy decisions.


Approximately 700 Clearwire employees are expected to begin performing their network functions as Ericsson employees in locations around the United States before mid-year 2011.
http://www.clearwire.com
http://www.ericsson.com

• Clearwire currently operates a nationwide WiMAX network but has been testing LTE. Specifically, Clearwire has conducted trials with Huawei Technologies and with Samsung Electronics to test multiple coexistence scenarios between LTE and WiMAX radio technologies. Trials in Phoenix used both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) configurations using 40 MHz of spectrum paired in 2 x 20 MHz contiguous channels ("LTE 2X"), and Time Division Duplex (TDD) configurations using 20 MHz of spectrum. The tests confirmed that the company's LTE 2X trial network achieved peak download speeds on commercially available equipment and devices in excess of 90 Mbps and upload speeds of more than 30 Mbps. Clearwire expects to conclude the tests in Q1 2011.



• In 2009, Ericsson entered into a similar network management partnership with Sprint.

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Mellanox Sets New Low-Latency Record

Mellanox Technologies a new record in low-latency messaging performance for Ethernet networks based on the latest STAC-M2 benchmark test conducted by Mellanox on IBM systems. The record was achieved using Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN 10GbE NICs with RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), the IBM BNT RackSwitch G8264 10GbE switch, and IBM x3550 servers running IBM's WebSphere MQ Low Latency Messaging (LLM) technology.


The companies cited a 30% imimprovement over results that were announced just two months ago by a competitor with a comparable configuration.


"Financial organizations require performance-leading, low-latency solutions to drive competitiveness and growth," said Dan Tuchler, vice president of strategy and product management for IBM System Networking. "This STAC benchmark demonstrates that Mellanox and IBM are addressing the performance requirements of the financial services industry by providing financial services enterprises with innovative server, storage, software and networking solutions that meet their customers' needs for fast transactions and value-added services."http://www.mellanox.com

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Metaswitch CommPortal Unifies Wireline and Mobile

Metaswitch Networks introduced a customizable unified communications client for PCs, smartphones and tablet computers.



The Metaswitch CommPortal Communicator, which can be private labeled by service providers, is a UC client that bridges wireline and mobile handsets. It presents a suite of hosted PBX services to a classic enterprise desk phone, a mobile handset and a PC. Support is offered for Windows PC, Apple iOS and Android mobile devices. It implements wideband HD voice quality and high definition video calls and conferencing, along with a standards-based instant messaging and presence that can integrate business and social contacts, such as Outlook or LDAP/Active Directory and Facebook, on a single interface.



The CommPortal Communicator is the first UC client to leverage Metaswitch SIP Service Provisioning and Assurance Server platforms, which simplify the wide-scale deployment of telephony endpoints for the carrier, the enterprise customer and end user.





"With the advent of the always-on workplace, employees are increasingly leveraging their mobile phones and walled-garden instant messenger networks to communicate with colleagues and partners" said Steve Gleave, vice president of marketing at Metaswitch. "With CommPortal Communicator, service providers can complement hosted VoIP with IT-approved enterprise telephony features delivering high definition voice and video plus presence and IM, regardless of location."http://www.metaswitch.com

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Taqua Introduces New High-Capacity IP eXchange Peering Applications

Taqua introduced a new high-capacity IP peering application for its flagship Taqua T7000 Intelligent Switching System (T7000). Taqua's IP eXchange (IPX) is designed to provide fixed, mobile, and enterprise network operators a high-capacity, secure, low-cost peering solution for IP interconnect.



Taqua said its T7000 multi-media gateway and controller enables operators to converge voice, data, and video traffic onto a common IP infrastructure to deliver improved margins and interconnect traffic across multilateral interconnects. Configured for IP peering applications, the T7000's session densities can exceed over 60,000 concurrent SIP sessions, equivalent to 120,000 G.711 ports.



"Taqua combines high session densities, security, and CODEC diversity all within a carrier grade platform that has been deployed by hundreds of carriers for over a decade," said Scott Weidenfeller, chief marketing officer at Taqua, LLC. "Now deployed in high density IPX peering applications, the T7000's unique architecture has allowed Taqua to change the economics of high-capacity switching applications and carriers can benefit dramatically via reduced session costs."



Taqua's T7000 Intelligent Switching System is a high-density media gateway, Class 4, Class 5, and/or wireless media gateway and wireless media gateway controller in a single chassis. As a high-density media gateway, the Taqua T7000 can provide the necessary high capacity IP-IP and IP-TDM media gateway (MG) and media processing/server function (MRF). With a comprehensive set of fixed and mobile voice and video codecs and transcoding functionality, the T7000 enables a smooth evolution of the next generation IMS-based network to support real-time services over 4G/LTE with interworking capability with legacy networks. The flexibility of the T7000 architecture allows for per-channel allocation of each resource for transcoding or gateway on a per-session basis.



Taqua also announced that that IntelePeer has chosen its T7000 Intelligent Switching System (T7000) for high-capacity peering applications. IntelePeer provides on-demand, cloud-based communications services to service providers, contact centers and enterprises. These services provide high quality voice and multimodal communications to any phone or network-connected device. The company's "SuperRegistry" directory, with more than 400 million telephone numbers and end point identifying addresses, enables an intelligent Media Peering Grid that directly transports over 20 billion minutes annually between wireless and wireline phones, and IP devices.http://www.taqua.com http://www.intelepeer.com

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Bridgewater Cites Another HSS LTE Customer in U.S.

Bridgewater Systems has signed another mobile operator customer for its Bridgewater Home Subscriber Server (HSS) for an LTE Evolved Packet Core (EPC) deployment. The unnamed customer serves 35 states in the U.S. and has been a Bridgewater customer since 2005. With this new implementation, Bridgewater extends its footprint to support the new 4G network.



The Bridgewater HSS will manage LTE service control functions, such as authentication and authorization, which ensure secure subscriber access to LTE data services. As part of this deployment, the HSS will integrate with the existing subscriber data management system using open, standards-based interfaces.



The Bridgewater Home Subscriber Server (HSS) is the master repository in the LTE Evolved Packet Core that contains subscriber and device profile and state information, and supports authentication, authorization and mobility management functions in LTE. The Bridgewater HSS supports broad multi-vendor interoperability using standards-based interfaces with all major network equipment vendors. Fully compliant with 3GPP Release 8 standards, with interfaces and performance requirements designed and tested for multi-vendor environments, it supports standardized LTE and IMS interfaces.http://www.bridgewatersystems.com

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Pioneer Deploys Actelis' Broadband Accelerators

Pioneer Telephone Cooperative, which serves more than 140,000 lines in Oklahoma and southern Kansas, is deploying Actelis Networks' Broadband Accelerators (BBAs) to deliver broadband services with greater coverage area to residential subscribers who typically have been underserved or unserved.



The Actelis BBA helps deliver broadband to residences that are too far from a central office or remote DSLAM. The environmentally unit is line powered by the existing POTS infrastructure and can be used on any ADSL/ADSL2/ADSL2+ line. The unit can boost broadband rates by as much as 100% on typical loops and more than 400% on long loops. This is sufficient for delivering broadband at 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream.



"BBAs have enabled Pioneer to deliver broadband services to a greater number of customers across a geographically challenging serving area," said Lloyd Green, department manager of new technologies at PTC. "BBAs provide an extremely effective, low-cost solution that has helped Pioneer meet increasing customer demand for broadband, while staying ahead of our competitors by providing the necessary broadband rates, reach and reliability."



Actelis also noted that it has been recognized by Infonetics Research as the #1 global supplier of Ethernet over bonded-copper Ethernet Access Devices (EADs). . This marks the third consecutive year Actelis has been recognized by Infonetics Research as the number one global market leader for Ethernet over bonded-copper products. According to the Infonetics report, Actelis led with a market share of 40%.http://www.actelis.com http://ww.ptci.com

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CloudShield Shows its Next Gen Cyber Platform

CloudShield Technologies, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), unveiled its CS-4000 next generation trusted network security platform for protecting critical carrier and enterprise infrastructure.



The CS-4000 deep packet inspection platform allows carriers and enterprise customers to integrate a variety of subscriber data privacy products. It also brings significant improvements to data rates and network security while reducing the total cost of ownership of the network architecture.



CS-4000's multi-faceted architecture combines the power of CloudShield's fourth-generation deep packet inspection (DPI) capabilities with the most advanced multi-core, general-purpose processing in a single converged platform for scalable, active network solutions. The system is hardened both at the operating system and with physical security countermeasures protecting the system itself.



"The CS-4000 provides network visibility and cyber control to commercial organizations and telecommunications providers with the advanced technology needed to enable the real-time protection of critical infrastructure and data against today's more sophisticated and prevalent cyber network attacks," said Matt Jones, president of CloudShield. http://www.cloudshield.com

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