- Fast configurability and IP/PSTN capabilities support HanseNet’s new business model
February 7 2001 – Hamburg/London: Hamburg-based HanseNet, one of the leading German regional telephone companies, has installed Intec’s newly-acquired Inter-mediatE convergent mediation* technology. HanseNet is rapidly expanding the scope of its next-generation services, to include a number of broadband-based offerings, following its acquisition by Milan-based e.Biscom in October 2000. Replacing its existing legacy mediation technology with Inter-mediatE will allow HanseNet to roll out new IP-based services more rapidly, as well as saving on administration and technical costs by combining both IP and voice mediation into one system.
HanseNet chose Inter-mediatE after evaluating a number of competing offerings. HanseNet’s evaluation criteria included both fast, in-house configurability of the system, to allow it to introduce new products without delay, and a user interface that gave detailed control over the mediation process combined with effective business reporting.
“Intec demonstrated to us that not only did it have excellent experience in mediation, and a proven mediation product, but it also had the commercial awareness and flexibility to understand and support HanseNet’s innovative business plan and objectives,” says Matthias Mankel, HanseNet’s Billing Manager.
“Inter-mediatE is easy to configure to our requirements, which is particularly important, both in re-engineering the functionality that is being replaced in our existing system, and in allowing us to quickly roll out new services for businesses and consumers.”
*Note to Editors: Mediation is the process of collecting raw network usage data from switches and routers, and processing it into a form suitable for delivery to other telecoms Operational Support Systems (OSS) such as billing, Least Cost Routing, fraud and provisioning. HanseNet is the second largest regional carrier in Germany, serving the region around Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city and a key business area, with a high-capacity, 640 km fibre optic network. HanseNet was acquired by stock-market listed e.Biscom in October 2000. Milan-based e.Biscom is another innovative telco that specialises in IP-based broadband telephony, data and video services for business customers and residential households.
In 2001 HanseNet also plans to release many innovative broadband-based products and to extend its focus to include more private customers, as demand for broadband services grows. Inter-mediatE, which is on target to go into production for both PSTN and IP mediation in the first quarter of 2001, is considered by HanseNet to be one of the key enablers of its business plan.
“HanseNet’s implementation of Inter-mediatE is a direct consequence of the revolution in the way that both business and private customers are looking to broadband services based on IP to deliver much richer communications services,” said Intec’s CEO, Kevin Adams. “The distinction between PSTN and IP services is disappearing fast, as carriers recognise the need to offer a complete range of products to all types of customer. The level of interest we are experiencing for OSS solutions like Inter-mediatE, that include both PSTN and IP support in one package, clearly underlines this transition.”
Overview of HanseNet
HanseNet is one of the leading regional carriers in Germany and operates a fibre optic city network of 640 kilometres. The company offers telecommunications services, fixed and data connections as well as internet services.
HanseNet has approximately 170 employees, 11,900 customers: 3,400 business customers and 8,500 residential customers. On an average working day the company switches more than 2.5 million call minutes. In 1999, HanseNet's turnover amounted to DM 34.0 million (1998: DM 8.9 million) and the number of switched call minutes to 20 million (1998: 48 million minutes). In the first half year of 2000, HanseNet's turnover amounted to pproximately DM 31.0 million which is an increase of 120 percent over the same period in 1999 (DM 13.5 million).
In the summer of 1999, HanseNet began competition in the Hamburg local network. HanseNet offered as the first private telecommunications company a complete change-over including local calls in Hamburg. So far HanseNet has sold more than 12,000 telephone connections in Hamburg. For more information, visit www.hansenet.de