Open Telecommunications enters U.S. market via provisioning contract

Global software provider Open Telecommunications entered the U.S. market for the first time with a multi-million dollar contract from Williams Communications to integrate the former’s openCI provisioning platform.

The deal will create a single solution for Williams’ network management systems and provision the company’s network infrastructure and network services more efficiently.

“It’s a powerful entry point … for us in the USA,” said Colin Chandler, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Open Telecommunications. “We are a global company, but this is our first foray into the North American market.”

Williams will deploy openCI across its North American network and its points of presence in Europe and Asia. The contract includes licensing, integration and support for Open Telecommunications’ openCI software.

“openCI is very robust,” Chandler said. “Inside, it is open so you can write very many interfaces to it. It has a powerful order assignment algorithm that allows for multiple designs to be undertaken in one step. It [also] is highly scaleable so it can grow to any size a carrier wants to grow.”

Implementation will commence immediately. Completion of integration is expected in nine to 12 months.

The platform has been under development since 1994. It originally was developed by Siemens Research, which was bought by Open Telecommunications in 1999. The openCI platform has been in the market for about three years.

Open Telecommunications set up a North American operation in June 2000.