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Azure Solutions, the revenue-assurance company, today announced that BT Global Services has implemented an inter-party billing solution (IXBS NG), based on Azure Interconnect version 9.0, for billing on its BT Switchless Reseller Service.
The BT Switchless Reseller Service enables business ventures (resellers) that don't have their own network to sell voice access and termination services to their own subscriber base. Using BT's national and international networks, resellers can establish their own brand and take on the retail billing and customer care responsibility of their subscribers. The service is available to BT Global Services customers in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland and Spain.
The inter-party billing solution will enable BT Global Services to invoice resellers at wholesale rates for subscriber access, network access and services. Call detail records (CDRs) are then passed onto individual resellers enabling them to retail bill their own subscribers. The initial implementation is already live in Germany and the remaining countries will follow shortly.
Azure Interconnect 9.0 collects CDRs allowing operators to analyse call data, bill more accurately and verify the traffic usage of other partners across their networks. Azure Interconnect 9.0 recently set an interconnect benchmarking world record of processing 90 million CDRs per hour using a 16-way HP server 32GB RAM, which easily meets the requirements of tier-1 operators.
"The number of resellers and virtual-network operators is continuing to grow strongly around the world," said Brendan Logan of Logan Orviss International, the specialist telecoms consultancy. "The operators who put together a combination of the right commercial package and the best billing and OSS will be in prime position to win new business in this market."
Steven Webb, voice product business partner at BT, said: "The inter-party solution will be of great benefit to BT and our wholesale business customers. It is the first deployment of the system in BT and its scalability will enable us to roll it out across the whole of our European network."
Saul Nurtman, senior vice-president of products at Azure Solutions, said: "This is a great endorsement of Azure's products and software from a tier-one operator. BT's European reseller customers will now be able to fully benefit from BT's heavy investment in IXBS NG and its network expertise and technology. This in turn will enable resellers to bill their subscribers more effectively."
About Azure Solutions
Azure Solutions is the world's largest revenue-assurance company. It is headquartered in London, with people in Westminster (Colorado), Ipswich, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne and Mexico City. Azure's end-to-end revenue-assurance product portfolio for current-generation networks includes Data Integrity, Wholesale and Interconnect Billing, International Settlements, Fraud Management, Mediation Management, Translation and Rating, Event Integrity and Route Optimization. Over the last 12 months Azure has launched Azure Inter-Party Management, Azure Fraud Control System and Azure Certo 2 as the first products in its next-generation portfolio. Azure provides individual products or complete revenue-assurance solutions using a common platform and any combination of products that a customer might need. Customers can choose a system that they own and operate themselves or a bureau that Azure manages on their behalf. Azure has 80 customers in 32 countries comprising PTTs, mobile operators, national operators, carrier's carrier and cable TV companies. Azure has significant carrier experience and understands the problems faced by all these operators.
The company's heritage can be traced back to BT in the early 1990s. Azure was spun out of BT in April 2003 and is backed by New Venture Partners, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures and Intel Capital.
Azure won the 'Best Revenue-Assurance Project' award at the World Billing Awards 2005 in London, and 'Most Promising Company' at the TeleStrategies Billing & OSS World Excellence Awards 2005 in Philadelphia.
About BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in more than 160 Countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2005, BT Group's revenue was £18,623 million with profit before taxation of £2,354 million.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
Further information:
In the U.S. please contact Guy Murrel at Catapult PR-IR
T: +1 303-581-7760 -E: gmurrel[.]catapultpr-ir.com.
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alex.crawshaw[.]catalysis.co.uk 
