Telstra's MPLS net picked to support global cellphone roaming

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 24 January 2008 08:29

IT Industry - Strategy

Telstra appears to have scored a coup over the global players in the international network services market, winning a contract to provide MPLS services in the Asian region to Aicent, a US company that provides inter-network roaming services for many of the world's largest cellular operators. Aicent's customer list of more than one hundred wireless operators includes four of the world's top five mobile carriers who between them serve more than one billion mobile subscribers globally. Through direct connections and peering arrangements, the Aicent network is claimed to reach nearly all 2.5G/3G operators across the globe. Aicent also operates integrated mobile messaging services, including one of the world's first and largest multimedia messaging (MMS) exchanges, and offers other value-added services to its carrier customers.

Telstra scored the business through its US subsidiary, Telstra Inc, and will supply Aicent with "a global MPLS solution to deliver improved scalability, operational efficiency, as well as extending network coverage throughout Asia Pacific." The network will be deployed largely over ethernet and, according to Telstra, will reduce infrastructure costs and increase speed and efficiency for Aicent's customer base across Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, providing connections between Aicent's mobile data services and its mobile operator customers.

Separately, Aicent has been providing network services to Telstra's mobile network since 2004, including GPRS Roaming Exchange (GRX) services, multimedia messaging services (MMS) and more recently SMS. Telstra recently became the first mobile operator to connected to more than 100 roaming partners for MMS.