NEW YORK-Bundling of multiple prepaid wireless and wireline services is about to get easier and cheaper for small and large carriers, according to InterVoice Inc., Dallas.
InterVoice, which produces the Network Services Platform called NSP-5000, announced earlier this month that it expects to complete by mid-January its $4.5 million purchase of the Enhanced Services Platform product line from Integrated Telephony Products Inc., Aurora, Colo.
In its announcement, InterVoice cited a 1997 report by the Yankee Group projecting that revenue for enhanced services will grow to $1.27 billion in 2006 from $98 million this year.
“Service providers now have the ability to deploy multiple, fully integrated enhanced services, [like] prepaid wireless, calling card, voice mail, international call back, one-number fax service, conferencing and Internet access,” said Eric Pratt, vice president of telco sales/systems engineering for InterVoice.
However, wireless roaming in a prepaid environment still isn’t an option because of various issues the carriers have yet to resolve among themselves, said Al Samball, director of product management and strategic business development.
“The first element in our strategy was the development of the NSP-5000 platform for the many carriers that are seeking a single, cost-effective platform for basic and enhanced services,” Dan Hammond, chairman and chief executive officer, said.
Incorporating a modular, open system design, the NSP-5000 is comprised of industry standard communications, computing hardware and operating systems. At the core of the platform’s call processing capabilities are advanced Telephony Resource Modules, which use a passive backplane architecture that accommodates expandability and migration to more advanced technologies as they become available. Its client server architecture allows for efficient maintenance of required databases and a distributed network.
The ESP suite of enhanced network services software modules includes a database engine with the ability to deploy one or many applications independently or as a single, fully integrated application.
Samball said the modular system, which is configured as an adjunct service node, is scalable for systems with anywhere from 24 to more than 1,500 ports. InterVoice has developed a spreadsheet of criteria to help carriers decide what size is best for them, he said.
“We can go to both extremes-serve the needs of providers with advanced intelligent networks and those with `stupidnets’ where all the intelligence has been moved to the end device and the phone company is a `dumb’ entity leasing transport from another carrier,” Samball said.
Once ordered, the system can be operational within 60 to 90 days, he said.
