Irish telecommunications software firm Accuris Networks has won a deal worth $1.5 million (€1.12 million) to supply its technology to Telecom New Zealand. John Collinsreports.
Accuris Networks' AccuRoam software will be used to enable Telecom New Zealand to roam on significantly more networks when travelling internationally. The deal covers subscribers to Telecom New Zealand who use the CDMA standard for mobile phone service. The software, which is installed on the network and does not require any user intervention, fools the network into thinking the phone is a GSM phone using Hong Kong's CSL network.
As a result, calls to the phone are routed to the network that the subscriber is roaming on and voicemail and all other services work as normal.
According to Aidan Dillon, chief executive of Accuris, Telecom New Zealand faced a particular challenge as the vast bulk of its roaming comes from subscribers travelling to Australia. While Telstra in Australia offered a CDMA network, it wasn't a strategic part of the company's business and it is now closing the network down.
The deal with Accuris means that travellers to Australia will be able to use any available GSM network, giving them much greater network coverage, particularly in rural areas of Australia where the CDMA network was not available.
The service, which Telecom New Zealand is branding as WorldMode, will be made available to subscribers in the next month.
"Accuris Networks' history of innovation in telecommunications technology, and specifically CDMA, was one of the attractions for us," said Kevin Bowler, general manager consumer marketing, Telecom New Zealand. "We looked at the number of vendors offering CDMA to GSM roaming and quickly deduced that not only could AccuRoam be deployed quickly helping us to meet our aggressive WorldMode campaign rollout timeframe, but that it represented the best solution both technically and operationally available to us."
Mr Dillon said the deal validates the company's approach to fixed mobile convergence which enables telecoms providers to service customers over whatever type of network is available.
"Prior to AccuRoam, CDMA networks were limited in their ability to offer inter-standard roaming to GSM networks," said Mr Dillon.
"We view our ability to enable network operators, and especially CDMA carriers, to connect their subscribers to GSM networks and Wi-Fi networks as a real differentiator."
Mr Dillon said Accuris had dealt directly with Telecom New Zealand to win the business and had carried out the work using staff at its office in Malaysia, with additional engineers travelling from Dublin for the project.
