Jul 27, 2001 12:00 PM,

Convergys wins first Atlys customer in Europe

Amalia D. Parthenios

Convergys has signed its first wireless billing contract in Europe with mobile operator Orange France, which will use the Atlys billing and customer care solution as part of its move into next generation services.

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Orange France will use Atlys—which is designed to support all mobile network standards, including CDMA, TDMA and AMPS—in general packet radio service (GPRS) and universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) services.

“The Atlys platform in its current configuration is very capable of providing support for [Orange France’s] 2G and 2.5G services that they have today,” said Randy Mysliviec, senior vice president of marketing for Convergys. “The system is architected and designed such that, as 3G networks come out, we will have the product available to support Orange France when they’re ready to roll out those services.”

Version one will be operational by mid-2002. Orange France plans to migrate its more than 15 million subscribers to the Atlys system during the next three years.

“Today, one of the biggest challenges carriers have is the continued erosion of their margins because of the high cost of the licenses they had to buy to insure their future viability,” Mysliviec said. “The biggest way to solve their problem is to grow their average revenue per user and [carriers cannot] do that unless they can offer some new and differentiated services in the marketplace. Those 3G networks have the technology necessary to offer those.”

Orange France and Convergys have signed a five-year contract, which includes implementation and integration of the Atlys system. Convergys also will supply the customer service contract. An international provision is included, which lets the Orange Group use Atlys in global affiliates.

The wholly owned subsidiary of Orange/France Telecom Group, Orange France provides about 5.1 million customers with voice and data services.

In other recent news, Convergys announced a customer win in the United States, as AT&T Wireless also will be using Atlys.