Telecommunications

May 25, 2006
TELES helps service providers reduce costs

BANGALORE -- TELES India, a leading telecom manufacturer dedicated to serving the needs of fixed and mobile operators worldwide, recently launched CDMA gateway. The gateway offers convenient and flexible option of automatically routing telephone calls to alternative telephone network providers with low tariffs. It integrates with the corporate telephone network, which would ensure all calls going out to a mobile network are routed through one single service provider.

According to Devasia Kurian, managing director, TELES India, with this CDMA gateway, traffic from all PRI (Primary Rate Interface) from different service providers can be captured by positioning the gateway as a cheaper alternative path. In addition, this is easy to install without a high initial investment, and can be remotely managed. The CDMA gateway is designed to enable the user to select the most optimal service provider based on cost and quality of service for his telecom needs.

Convergence Plus spoke to Devasia Kurian to know more about the CDMA gateway and in what ways will it benefit the service providers. Excerpts from the interview.

Convergence Plus: What is the latest on TELES GSM/CDMA gateway?

Devasia Kurian: In FY04-05, we launched our flagship product TELES.iGATE GSM, the least cost router (LCR), a technology that offers convenient and flexible option of automatically routing telephone calls to alternative telephone network providers with low tariffs. Today, most of the corporates in Bangalore are using our equipment to save their telephone costs.

We are expecting the Convergence bill to be passed in the forthcoming fiscal, which will bring in tremendous potential for cost saving by deploying LCR technology in a heterogeneous network consisting of ISDN, GSM, CDMA and VoIP.

Last year, we started R&D for extending the LCR technology for CDMA networks, especially Reliance and Tata. Currently, we are deploying these gateways at the customer premises.

CP: How does TELES products help operators/organisations efficiency? Which of your products have done well?

DK: The mobile operators use TELES.iGATE (GSM/CDMA/UMTS) to capture traffic directly from customer premises to mobile operators network. They form better alternatives to E1/FCTs used currently by mobile operators. This equipment might also be used for interconnects to mobile operators.

TELES.iSWITCH is a carrier grade switch for VoIP, PRI and SS7 Gateways. NLD/ILD operators use these equipment to route the traffic in a cost-optimised manner. The unmatched price-use combination in the segment of 20 to 400 E1 positions TELES uniquely for small to medium sized Class4/Class5 scenarios. TELES provides migration architectures to transition your network from TDM to next-generation IMS network.

CP: What are the technical advantages of TELES.iGATE? In what ways will it benefits the service providers?

DK: The TELES iGATE is a carrier-grade LCR designed to capture high volumes of traffics from the customer premises. It contains professional features such as network management, CDR, etc. required to monitor and maintain a carrier network.

This product simply plugs in behind the terminal device or PBX system. The installation is quite simple, and initialises with automatic protocol recognition. It can also automatically choose alternative routing when network provider is overloaded.

CP: How do you evaluate the Indian market in terms of operator activities in the GSM/CDMA businesses?

DK: Mobile operators are increasing their subscriber base at a rapid pace, which brings in quite a few opportunities for equipment vendors. This trend is going to stay in the medium term.

CP: What has been the response for TELES GSM Gateways (TELES iGATE) in India? What are the benefits of using it? Who are your customers?

DK: The response to TELES iGATE and the whole concept of LCR has been tremendous as far as the Indian customers are concerned. TELES is working together with multiple service providers in various cities.

A number of scenarios would be possible based on services required and tariff agreements with various service providers. The following common scenarios will help us understand the benefits to any service provider.

Benefits of TELES iGATE to a service provider:

• Offer comprehensive tariff plans to his corporate customer;
• Capture all mobile traffic to his network;
• Sale of multiple high ARPU (> Rs. 5,000) SIM cards;
• Save interconnect charges to his own network;
• Profit-on-interconnect charges to other networks.

CP: Which carrier applications are addressed by TELES iSWITCH?

DK: TELES.iSWITCH enables seamless transition from existing TDM networks to future IMS networks. It can cater to the following scenarios:

• Class 4 switch for intercarrier/transatlantic routing;
• Class 5 switch for TDM/VoIP subscribers;
• Prepaid calling card application;
• MediaGateway with PRI/SS7/VoIP, etc.

CP: How is TELES positioned uniquely in the carrier switch market?

DK: TELES.iSWITCH has an unmatchable price-use combination in the 8 E1 to 400 E1 segment in heterogeneous network with PRI/SS7/VoIP, etc. With increasing customer demand, the carriers are trying various innovative application scenarios. It helps them tremendously to test the scenarios in smaller variants of 8E1 and then scale the application to 400 or even 2000 E1s. TELES can ensure a seamless scaling from 8E1 up to 2000E1 as well as transition from TDM world to next-generation IMS world.