Nepal Telecom focuses on enhancing ‘user experience’ with Aricent

Like any emerging market, India’s service providers want to clear up network congestion and focus on fast growth, scalability and quality of service.

Nepal Telecom, already the largest provider of wireless and wireline services in Nepal, is no different, as it needs to accommodate the growth of subscribers across its PSTN, ADSL, CDMA, GSM and Internet services. Just two years ago, the organization had 2 million subscribers, and today it has 5 million subscribers. With growth estimates of 8.9 million subscribers in the next three years, Nepal Telecom plans to implement 3G and IP-based CDMA services and provide integrated voice and data services.

As it grows, it needs to expedite time to market with next-generation services and seamlessly change promotions and business models according to market trends. The service provider also wants to look at self-service enablement features for its customers as well as implement more sophisticated partner settlement and management as it expands its networks with other providers within and outside of Nepal.

To this end, Nepal Telecom will re-architect its operations/business support systems through a three-year contract with Aricent, which will provide systems integration and end-to-end real-time billing and interconnect settlement solutions.

The hope is that the companies can work together to build a common, unified billing mediation platform and a single interconnect system for Nepal Telecom’s entire network.

“They are collecting and processing huge volumes of transaction data related to voice, messaging, VoIP and video over multiple networks. To derive intelligence from the enormous volumes of data, the company will be implementing data analysis and reporting systems to improve routing and tariffs,” said Shrikant Latkar, AVP worldwide marketing for Aricent. “Additionally, we will provide real-time service control, rating, charging and billing, as well as implement a unified and network-independent rate and tariff plan.”

The solution comes in the form of an Aricent mediation server platform for real-time data collection and charging. Additionally, Aricent will provide integration and support services for the Nepal’s Intec InterconnecT billing system, as well as 24/7 local support, strict adherence to service level agreements, and training and programming management.

Aricent has been espousing “experience engineering,” the concept of optimizing the network and integrating BSS to bolster the user experience.

Through its active mediation platform, Aricent will support billions of transactions each day, as well as leverage Intec’s interconnect systems.

“We will help them to conduct data aggregation, data analysis, real-time charging and rating so that they can create compelling and innovative services across their fixed-, GSM and CDMA networks,” said Steve Manuel, senior director of corporate marketing for Aricent.