Corsair Communications Inc. introduced this week its PrePay Open billing system, as well as its PhoneFuel mobile commerce application, both of which allow carriers to add Internet access to their prepaid wireless offerings.
PrePay Open is capable of supporting the functionality of the Wireless Intelligent Network II standard and has a plug-and-play software migration to WIN II when the industry is ready, Corsair said. The real-time billing system supports analog, Time Division Multiple Access and Code Division Multiple Access networks. Global System for Mobile communications support will be available next year.
Corsair’s original PrePay billing system exclusively supports Ericsson Inc.’s platform, but the PrePay Open system supports wireless infrastructures from various providers, including Motorola Inc., Lucent Technologies Inc. and Nortel Networks, the company said.
Originally in the business of cellular fraud-prevention, Corsair acquired Subscriber Computing in early 1998, according to Carla Schneiderman, Corsair’s vice president of marketing, business development and operations. The company “had what looked to be some interesting extensions to the fraud-prevention industry,” she said, but the company had the Ericsson-exclusive PrePay product as well.
“We wanted to start carriers down the path to WIN II,” she said. “Ericsson was willing to provide the trigger information.”
PrePay Open is in beta testing with a major Latin American carrier and should be generally available in the second or third quarter, Schneiderman said.
The PhoneFuel application offers carriers Wireless Application Protocol-enabled phone replenishment and account management services for PrePay Open users, Corsair said.
“We recognize that the prepaid market is growing at a rapid rate in emerging countries such as Latin America and Asia, and that by offering [mobile] commerce applications integrated with a prepaid billing solution, Corsair can begin to open up the Internet to the millions of subscribers who use wireless phones as their primary means of communication,” said Schneiderman.
PhoneFuel is still in development, but should go into beta testing soon, she said.
