Swisscom North America goes live with Intec

• Existing Swisscom licence extended to support US subsidiary
  
• InterconnecT supports Swisscom's growing international wholesale business

January 31, 2002 - Intec Telecom Systems has announced that Swisscom North America (NA) has begun operation with Intec's InterconnecT billing solution. Based in Washington DC, Swisscom NA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switzerland-based Swisscom AG, one of the largest international traffic carriers in the world. As part of a global co-operative agreement signed with Intec, parent company Swisscom AG promotes and supports InterconnecT among its subsidiary companies. Its existing InterconnecT licence was extended to its North American operations to effectively settle interconnect agreements with US operators.

Swisscom NA operates as a facilities-based carrier providing international wholesale services to long distance carriers in the United States. With direct access to Swisscom AG's infrastructure and agreements, Swisscom NA offers low cost international minutes to its customers and provides U.S. companies doing business in Europe with customised bandwidth, voice, and data services. Swisscom AG supports the international private-line business between the United States and Europe from its operation in Switzerland, providing seamless connectivity through its new Hi-Speed EOS network. As traffic volumes continue to increase with the success of the US wholesale business, InterconnecT will facilitate the transatlantic billing process by settling international inter-carrier billing agreements between major US and European carriers.

"The decision for Swisscom AG to extend its license to its US subsidiary is a positive endorsement for Intec's core product," says Christian Ciupek, Regional Director for Intec Telecom Systems in France. "InterconnecT has the maturity and technology to support Swisscom NA as its wholesale business evolves and expands, without the need to perform major upgrading procedures in the future."

Swisscom NA's business is growing rapidly, particularly with its "easyRoam" service, which enables US subscribers traveling abroad to access more than 219 networks in 106 countries. The company has already created 14 new distributors for its voice service in North America since the beginning of 2001. "InterconnecT helps to support the growing number of intercarrier agreements that are generated by these types of services," adds Ciupek. "The solution offers a highly flexible and cost-effective billing software that can maximize revenue in the increasingly complex, deregulated environment of Europe." InterconnecT can verify Swisscom NA's incoming inter-connect statements and invoices with European and US customers and create accurate billing invoices based on real-time data. The scalability of the solution also ensures that the company can manage the number of CDRs generated by increased network activity.

"Swisscom NA will immediately see the benefits of the InterconnecT system, which is specifically designed to support expanding business operations and offer fast service provisioning and customer support" said Kevin Adams, Intec's CEO. "This will help to bolster the company's market presence in the US and provide the capital needed to offer new local services to its customers."