JOHANNESBURG, South Africa-Telcordia Technologies Inc. signed what it said is its biggest international agreement to date with South Africa’s incumbent telecommunications carrier Telkom.
Telcordia will provide its end-to-end integrated service activation and assurance solution to replace Telkom’s existing operations support system infrastructure, said the company. The agreement includes Telcordia’s service provisioning and assurance suite that includes 14 integrated software products designed to support multiple technologies and services. Telcordia also has agreed to provide training, change realization and business process consulting.
Mark Effinger, executive director and chief OSS architect at Telcordia, said the agreement initially is focused on local voice and data services (including wireless local loop), to residential and business customers, although the agreement eventually could be expanded to include mobile and other applications.
Advantages of the system, said Effinger, include lower costs, higher quality and greater efficiencies, which will be important as competition heats up in the area.
“Real serious competition is going to be introduced in South Africa,” said Effinger. “A lot of people look at the region of the world as one of the hubs in a global internetwork.”
South Africa’s telecommunications network is concentrated in the nation’s well-developed areas, while rural areas lack access to basic telecommunications services, said Telcordia. In addition, the country’s growing business community is demanding faster, more modern and efficient services.
Telcordia won the Telkom contract through a competitive-bidding process. The company is working with Hewlett Packard and South African companies PQ Africa and Safika to provide in-country services.
