- Support for voice, data, IP and other services, and short implementation key factors for fast-growing operator Unisource Belgium
- First implementation worldwide of InterconnecT V6
KPN Belgium, a major and rapid growth Belgian telecommunications provider, has chosen interconnect software market leader Intec Telecom Systems and its business partner, Sun Microsystems, to provide its interconnect billing platform. Unisource Belgium is implementing the latest Version 6 of InterconnecT, the first such installation in the Benelux region, and the first InterconnecT V6 system worldwide.
KPN Belgium will use InterconnecT V6 for its billing requirements to its primary interconnect partner, Belgacom, the national PTT. KPN Belgium cites the capability of InterconnecT to handle billing for its wide range of services, including Voice, Data, Internet (VPN and VoIP), e-commerce, and satellite, as a key reason for its selection. “We chose InterconnecT for a number of reasons,” says Dirk Voet, Billing Manager of KPN Belgium. “The InterconnecT product on Sun enterprise servers, our standard platform, is a high speed and highly-functional product resulting from Intec Telecom Systems’ focus on the interconnect billing market, an increasingly complex environment. Also, we needed a fast, three month implementation of a system that was flexible enough to grow with us, as our range of services, like VoIP and e-commerce, and our customer base, expand.”
Version 6 of InterconnecT brings substantial functionality and performance gains, including a doubling of performance over V5.1, full support for billing in Euros, automated reconciliation between carriers, a more flexible call rating engine, auto-loading of interconnect agreement reference data, multi-language capability and many other new features. InterconnecT V6 on Sun enterprise server platforms offers the scalability and rating/billing capabilities to meet the needs of any type and size of carrier and any telecoms product set. “InterconnecT is a key component of Sun’s complete convergent billing solution set for telecoms companies,” said Chris Hurst, Sun’s Vice President, Telecom Industry Sales Development. “V6 has a new, very efficient and scalable client/server architecture that is a close fit with Sun’s Solaris operating environment and server technology. This allows new entrants to the telecoms market to begin with a minimum system and scale it up to a powerful and reliable, multi-processor, multi-domain enterprise 10,000 server installation capable of handling the highest PTT-level call volumes.”
KPN Belgium performed its own implementation of InterconnecT, with help from Intec Telecom Systems. “InterconnecT V6 on a Sun platform has proved to be fast and reliable, with very good support from both vendors,” said Dirk Voet. “Only a few months into the project we already have our first interconnect agreement with Belgacom in place, and we are working on reconciling the first month’s bills. That’s a significant achievement in such a short timescale, and it underlines Intec System’s claims for the usability of Version 6.”
KPN Belgium SA
KPN Belgium SA was created as a Belgian joint venture of the pan-European telecom alliance Unisource. Unisource SA was founded in 1992 at the initiative of the telephony companies KPN (Netherlands) and Telia (Sweden). This alliance was extended in 1993 with the addition of Swisscom, the national Swiss operator. In November 1998, KPN became the sole shareholder of this Belgian telecom operator. KPN Belgium, which has enjoyed dramatic growth since its foundation, is becoming increasingly known as the alternative telecommunication operator in Belgium. KPN Belgium is also the proud co-initiator of the Living Tomorrow 2 Project, the Home and Office of the Future, in Vilvoorde.