Transaction Network Services acquires ICG signaling assets

ICG Communications has sold its customer contracts and Signaling System 7 network assets to Transaction Network Services for an unspecified price and will contract with TNS to support its internal signaling needs.

TNS, a Reston, Virginia-based provider of business-critical data communications and network services for transaction-oriented applications, including SS7, will inherit four pairs of signal transfer points (STP) that currently support call setup, call alerting, and call addressing in Englewood, Colo.-based ICG’s 18 metropolitan markets.

Once a reseller of signaling services from TNS and other signaling network providers, ICG will contract with TNS for its internal network requirements and transition its service provider customers to TNS during a transition of up to 90 days. TNS will begin to assume management control of ICG's SS7 customer base and signaling network assets immediately.

"It’s a tremendous expansion opportunity for TNS and at the same time a great opportunity for ICG to partner with a hubbing provider that they have a long history and relationship with," said Barry Toser, senior vice president and general manager of TNS’ Telecom Services Division

TNS' Telecommunication Services Division operates a nationwide, unaffiliated SS7 network, which provides the signaling related to the transaction component of telephone calls. It offers a full range of SS7 services, validation and fraud control, inter-carrier billing, custom network engineering and professional services to wireline and wireless carriers.

Although TNS picks up four pairs of STPs, Toser said the equipment was not the primary driver for the sale. "The deal was not done with the STPs in mind. It was done with the SS7 business of ICG and their customers in mind, although it’s nice to have the equipment thrown in," he said.

With this acquisition, TNS eliminates a competitor of sorts, picks up a customer in ICG and picks up the customers for whom ICG was delivering services from VeriSign and Syniverse.

TNS’ new customers will be able to get services they may not have been getting from ICG, said Toser. "ICG had not spent a lot of time expanding their SS7 portfolio. That’s another key selling point for customers coming over to TNS. We have a very robust portfolio," he said.

That portfolio includes TCAP services such as local number portability and Calling Name delivery. TNS has signed about a dozen carriers over the last two years for its transaction services and has at least one carrier using its SS7-over-IP service.

TNS also has a major carrier in the latter stages of testing for a new service that does CNAM queries using session initiation protocol.