NOW FREE, TSI TRIPLES NETWORK CAPACITY

Telecommunications Services Inc. bucked the declining capex trend this week by announcing the completion of a multimillion-dollar capital investment in its signaling network.

The Tampa-based SS7 hub provider extended its physical presence to both coasts and tripled its signaling capacity by adding two pairs of Tekelec Eagle signal transfer points. TSI added STPs in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Seattle. The company also installed Tekelec's Sentinel network monitoring and diagnostic system and introduced a Web-based provisioning system.

After absorbing TSI through its acquisition of GTE, Verizon Communications sold the company to Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR Golder Rauner earlier this year for $800 million. Analysts said at the time of the sale that Verizon was holding the company back (Telephony, Jan. 7, page 20).

“Independence gave us the flexibility and freedom to make the decisions we needed to make,” said Bill Gerhardt, group product manager of network solutions at TSI. “And we made them as soon as we were given that freedom.”

The STP expansion provides economic benefits to both sides, lowering the cost of the links for TSI customers by shortening circuit lengths and bringing TSI closer to some of its signaling partners.

There also are less tangible benefits. “It gives customers a sense that they aren't traversing hundreds or thousands of miles for signaling purposes with their trading partners,” Gerhardt said. “And the increase in the number of nodes decreases the reliance on any individual node, giving us a more robust architecture.”

TSI's biggest market is with wireless operators, which is reason enough to expand the network, said Christin Flynn, director of carrier convergence infrastructure for The Yankee Group.

“A lot of signaling providers are being overloaded,” she said. “Wireless voice generates a lot more messages than traditional circuit-switched voice because of all the roaming features.”

TSI's expansion also included heavy, but undisclosed, investment in SS7-over-IP capabilities. “We feel that is where our customer base will be in a couple of years, and we want to be there in front of them,” Gerhardt said.