Zain Group, Tekelec deal enhances consumer offerings

•As Zain Nigeria goes on all IP

Zain Group, last weekend, entered its first deal with Tekelec’s Eagle 5 platform, to enhance consumer offerings on the network, just as Zain Nigeria, has migrated into an all-Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia system (IMS).

A press statement from Zain Nigeria signed by the public relations manager, Mr. Emmanuel Otokhine, said that with this development, the network signaling, mobile messaging and performance management company have been taken to the next level.

According to him, Zain Group which provides mobile services in 23 countries and prides itself as the world’s fourth-largest telecommunications company based on geographic presence selected Tekelec based on the technology’s market-proven reliability and ability to scale to the growing demands of global service providers.

Another important feature in Zain’s selection of Tekelec’s Eagle 5 platform was Tekelec’s support of SIGTRAN (SS7 signaling over IP), which is a stepping stone for cost-effectively migrating to an all-IP network.

He said that SIGTRAN enables service providers on the public-switched telephone networks (PSTNs) to use an underlying IP transport vehicle, thereby allowing them to offer their subscribers multimedia services through the existing network.

“Zain Nigeria completed the Eagle 5 deployment in fourth quarter of 2008,” he disclosed. Otokhine quoted the Technical Director for Zain Nigeria, Mr. John Earley, as saying that the project has been managed by Tekelec in an exceptionally professional and consistent manner even when faced with integration into a challenging environment such as Nigeria.

“I can say with confidence that Tekelec’s handling of this project from start to now has been faultless. We are looking forward to a seamless integration into our existing core and anticipate substantial improvements in network signaling performance,” he said.

ITRealms Online recalled that in 2007 and 2008, 37 of Tekelec’s 40 new customers purchased the Eagles 5 platform across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and the Middle East. The company’s solutions are now deployed in 103 countries.

Also speaking on the development, the Tekelec’s senior vice president of global sales, Mr. Wolrad Claudy, noted that on the global basis, Tekelec is experiencing strong success with its Eagle 5 platform.

“Customers consistently cite Tekelec’s commitment to innovation and how that’s demonstrated in the Eagle product family’s constant evolution as a platform to support their migration to next-gen and IMS networks.

In the majority of cases, including Zain Nigeria – the Eagle 5 platform displaced another that could not reliably support the service provider’s migration plans in a flexible and scalable manner,” he said.


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