IBM unveils facilities for telecom industry

ARMONK, USA: IBM recently announced the opening of telecommunications development centers to help Communication Service Providers (CSPs) create new business models while improving the customer experience and operational efficiencies.

Located in China, South Africa and Malaysia, the centers provide a broad array of advanced technical skills and specialized offerings, said a press release.

IBM also announced a dedicated center in France for solutions based on products and services from Comverse, a leading supplier of software and systems for the telecom industry.

Drawing on IBM's globally-integrated network of capabilities and partnerships, the centers offer a range of new telecommunications software solutions based on IBM's Service Provider Delivery Environment (SPDE) 3.0 framework, as well as hardware, services and business partner applications, the release said.

"To sustain growth in today's economy, service providers are seeking ways to offer subscribers a more positive and differentiated user experience while reducing complexity and cost," said Scott Stainken, general manager for IBM's telecommunications industry.

"IBM's specialized global centers and labs offer the telco industry an unparalleled level of expertise and support to speed implementation and facilitate more effective use of applications and technologies," he added.

Comverse CoE

IBM's new Comverse Center of Excellence (CoE) has been established within the IBM Telecom Solutions Lab in France. Its goal is to reduce risk and speed time-to-value of telecom solutions.

The CoE creates a BSS/OSS (Business Support System/Operational Support System) and Service-Delivery environment using software components from IBM and Comverse that allow clients to test proofs of concept, said IBM.

China Telecom Solutions Center

Located in IBM's China Development Labs, the IBM Telecommunication Solutions Center (TSC) has been established to accelerate solution development and streamline product delivery.

Recently, China Mobile Communications Corporation has been working closely with experts at the China TSC to deploy a platform that supports service creation, deployment, execution, integration and management, the release added.

S.Africa Telecom Solutions Lab

IBM's main Telecom Solutions Lab (TSL) in Sub-Sahara Africa is located in Johannesburg, but clients will also be able to access IBM solution demonstrations from three additional satellite locations in Africa, said IBM.

ASEAN Telecom CoE

IBM is also opening an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Telecom Center of Excellence (CoE) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to support CSPs in this diverse and challenging region.

CSPs in ASEAN are faced with the requirement to innovate and invest in new services while simultaneously grappling with challenges from mobile number portability, decreased roaming revenue and competition from next generation broadband networks, added the release.

IBM said its goal in this region is to help CSPs improve customer life cycle management through business intelligence, analytics and service delivery platforms while reducing cost through increased infrastructure and operational efficiencies.