Open Telecommunications finds U.S. entry slow

ATLANTA—In its own part of the world, Australia-based Open Telecommunications is a household name and has built software systems for the likes of Telstra, Optus, Telecom New Zealand and Hong Kong Telecom. But the 10-year-old company, which opened offices in Seattle a year ago, is finding its U.S. entry slow-going. 

According to Alastair Dodwell, Open’s vice president of sales and marketing, breaking into the U.S. market has been tough. “[The market] is attractive because it’s big, but it’s a complex market with many players,” he said. 

So far Open has announced only one U.S. carrier, Williams Communications, which licensed Open’s openCI provisioning product. “Williams was brave to buy software from a company that is a long way from Tulsa,” Dodwell said. 

The carrier spending slowdown, of course, is not making it any easier to penetrate the tier 1 and tier 2 accounts that Open targets. 

“It’s definitely a global slowdown,” Dodwell said. Packet telephony is seeing the most dramatic slowdown in spending, he said. In the current environment, “people aren’t going to chuck out everything they own and deploy a packet network,” Dodwell said.  

Still, Open Telecommunications is pursuing large carriers that are getting their feet wet in the packet world. On Monday, the company introduced its openSignallingGateway product, which allows SS7 messages to be carried over IP networks. “It’s a way for carriers to enter the packet world for switching in a low-cost manner,” Dodwell said. 

Additionally, Open’s softswitch product openCallAgent is presently being tested by two major international carriers. No U.S. deployments or trials have been announced. 

The spending slowdown also presents an opportunity for Open Telecommunications because carriers are taking a hard look at their networks in an attempt to optimize what they already own, Dodwell said. “They may be able to find an extra 5% capacity because the network model is updated and accurate,” Dodwell said.  

In deploying Open’s openCI provisioning tool, for example, Williams is converting four databases into one and using the installation as an impetus to cleanse their data, Dodwell said. 

“We take a very aggressive view of the network database and go to rigorous lengths to make sure the data is reliable and accurate,” he added.
Vince Ryan is Business Editor for Telephony. He can be reached at vryan@intertec.com.