Intec predicts convergence of domestic and International interconnect settlement in 1999

• Lower operating costs and better management information result from streamlined interconnect operations

Intec Telecom Systems is predicting that 1999 will be the year when many carriers begin to merge their domestic and international interconnect settlement operations, producing significant financial savings and a global management view of interconnect revenues and costs. Interconnect revenues are growing rapidly for most carriers, as deregulation opens up global markets, with many now taking more than 50% of their income from interconnect.

“There’s no logical reason for the domestic and international interconnect functions to remain separate any longer, and plenty of good ones for them to merge,” says Intec Telecom Systems’ new Product Director, Alan Healey. “The separation that exists is due to historical or technical reasons, neither of which need to be a factor today.”

According to Healey, who counts over 20 years’ experience in the interconnect sector with various AT&T businesses, many of Intec’s new customers for its InterconnecT product will use it for both domestic and international (ITU) settlements, potentially halving operational costs and offering a consolidated view of interconnect revenues and charges. Although the two functions currently have many different requirements, the trend towards calculating and billing international interconnect on a cost-of-service basis rather than by the traditional ITU agreements will eliminate any reason to keep them separate.

“If you take another carrier’s call, it doesn’t make sense in a global market to have one department billing the interconnect charge if it comes from abroad, and a second, duplicated department for domestic calls” says Alan Healey. “It increases your costs, and makes it harder to relate network revenues to network infrastructure. The lack of a coherent management view of interconnect means you may lose the ability to negotiate global agreements and to handle traffic in the most profitable way.”

InterconnecT V6 in international and domestic interconnect settlements
Version 6 of InterconnecT meets the performance, scalability, security and functionality needs of the worldwide deregulated telecoms market through the Year 2000 and beyond. V6 of InterconnecT also introduces substantial new functionality to the process of settling and billing globally between network operators. InterconnecT is able to handle the most complex call rating situations ranging from standard national and international telephony (including ITU) through to sophisticated telecom products like Number Portability, Virtual Private Networks, Mobile communications, Voice-over-IP and Internet services. V 6 has already been contracted by a eight of Intec Telecom Systems’ telco clients.