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PACTOLUS IMS SUPPORT DRIVES INNOVATIVE IP SERVICE FEATURES, ENABLES FIXED-MOBILE SERVICE EXPANSION
IMS-Ready RapidFLEX™ and SIPware™ Products Enable Creation of Advanced Service Features & Unified Wireline/Wireless Bundles; Drives 3GPP IP Services Migration
BOSTON, Mass., September 20, 2005 -
Pactolus Communications Software Corporation, the leading developer of Class 4/5 SIP-based IP voice services, today introduced IMS compatibility for its SIPware™ services - prepaid and post paid calling, audio conferencing, voice messaging, and service integrated operator assistance - and IMS extensions to it's widely deployed RapidFLEX™ Application Server and Service Creation Environment (SCE). Believed to be the industry's first IMS-compliant service products, the suite was announced at the VON (Voice Over the Network Show) in Boston to allow service providers to deliver their current market-proven, revenue-generating services to new potential customers such as wireless and emerging fixed-mobile user populations, and introduce IMS-enabled innovations such as rich conferencing service features. As service providers begin to converge cellular, wireline, and VoIP networks, SIP-based voice services will become the key element in offering service bundles to subscribers that leverage any type of network access.
Matt Stein, Vice President of Services for Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., the largest alternative provider of consumer long distance services in Canada, noted: "Primus Canada has already made a significant investment in converged network elements that support a SIP-based services architecture for its wireline focused businesses; wireless IP-based network technologies are a key part of our business expansion model. We've been offering prepaid and post paid calling card services using the Pactolus service delivery platform in our existing network. With the introduction of IMS interfaces for these products, Pactolus gives us clear opportunities to offer new mobile and fixed-mobile services."
IMS was developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Program (3GPP) to facilitate a common approach for building services in both fixed and mobile environments. It enables network operators to converge voice, video and other multimedia services to deliver innovative and compelling bundled services for consumers and businesses. Pactolus is a pioneer in developing IP-based service architectures; capabilities announced today enable its award-winning suite to fit readily into IMS-compliant networks.
IMS: Enabling Services Feature Innovation, Reducing Operating Costs
Pactolus' IMS capabilities and compliance gives service providers the power to create innovative interfaces and service features that can, for example, allow 3G handset users to initiate a conference, determine participants and selectively, privately communicate with participants using SMS for background chat. Such IMS-enabled feature innovations can support service providers in attracting and retaining subscribers, and enable incremental per-feature revenue opportunities.
Pactolus' IMS prepaid support will allow network operators to reduce operating and line costs, and broaden their service bundling flexibility by eliminating the need for expensive AIN network service elements. Not only does the implementation of SIP-based services significantly reduce capex and operational costs, it also affords service providers a new level of flexibility in developing innovative new services. And for service providers with both wireline and wireless subscribers, this approach allows service providers to offer fixed-mobile service plans with a bundle of either prepaid or post paid minutes.
Pactolus has implemented IMS across its RapidFLEX platform and SIPware Services using an open software environment that includes SIP, SOAP, XML, HTTP, RTP and other IP-based technologies in an extensible framework. IMS extensions have been added using the Pactolus RapidFLEX SDK, allowing the current software environment to embrace new protocols required for IMS support such as DIAMETER. This enables service providers to take advantage of the rich set of existing, commercially proven capabilities in any wireless network.
"We designed our service delivery platform, service creation environment and services to be a pure-IP, SIP-compliant service delivery solution right from the very beginning," noted Dave Horton, President, CTO and founder of Pactolus. "The industry-first capabilities and feature innovation potential announced today use the IMS interfaces incorporated in our market-proven product suite, enabling network operators and service providers to use a single services framework across all types of fixed and mobile network topologies. Our goal is to help service providers support the delivery of unified services bundles that subscribers can easily learn and leverage, giving the service provider an important new edge in sustaining subscriber loyalty while expanding their addressable market," he concluded.
Pricing and Availability
The RapidFLEX IMS-compliant release will be initially available for existing customers in Q4 '05 and generally available to new customers in the first half of 2006. Costs will be based on session densities and take rates.
About Pactolus Communications Software
Pactolus Communications Software Corporation is the leading provider of SIP-based voice services for today's networks with over 1 billion minutes of monthly network capacity installed worldwide in carrier networks. The company is the first to bring sophisticated, third-party call control capabilities to SIP-based networks. Pactolus offers a suite of pre- packaged IP voice services that can be customized for deployment in any SIP-enabled carrier network called SIPware™ Services, built upon the RapidFLEX™ software platform.
The SIPware Services suite enable service providers to deliver multiple, advanced voice applications that are versatile and scalable in a single platform environment. These services include broadband IP telephony, prepaid calling card, post paid calling card, conference calling (all available with an integrated operator assistance module), voice messaging, and custom SCE-built applications. The RapidFLEX software platform includes an application server, service creation environment (SCE), software-based IP media server, NAT traversal server, element management system, subscriber self-service portals, high availability features, and other components in an open, extensible software framework. Pactolus is a venture funded, privately held company headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts.
For more information contact:
Ken Osowski
Pactolus Communications Software
508-616-0900 x 328
keno@pactolus.com
Maureen MacGregor
Pelorus Communications
978-525-3699
maureen@peloruscom.com
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