Ukrtelecom Joint Stock Company
Challenge
It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of Ukrtelecom in the telecommunications market: it is the only operator which provides fixed telephony services in the territory of Ukraine for all categories of consumers. As the biggest fixed line operator in Ukraine, Ukrtelecom has a duty of care for socially deprived areas of the population. It is unique in its provision of socially important services such as rural telephony, wired radio (approximately 2.5 million subscribers) and services of exchanges and payphones. Its transport network forms the basis of the telecommunications infrastructure of the country. However, the highly competitive and dynamic telecommunications market is equally tough for all market players: customers choose the most attractive services at the minimal prices. As of today, Ukrtelecom is a leader in the fixed line market with over 70% share. For example, in 2010 Ukrtelecom maintained more than 10 million phone devices. Nevertheless, since 2004, as a result of the global strengthening of mobile communications position, the operator’s relative income share from fixed telephony (including international) is constantly decreasing. In an attempt to increase its profitability, Ukrtelecom has started to promote broadband Internet access (trade mark “OGO!”), and has become the leader in this market by following key indicators: range of services, number of subscribers and geographical network coverage. Ukrtelecom became one of the leaders in small and medium-sized cities with its ADSL broadband access. In a competitive environment, Ukrtelecom was keenly interested in implementing solutions that increase efficiency in all areas of business settlement with its partners operators (content providers, internet service providers) and for a variety of services and types of telecommunications traffic.
Solution
For any vendor, the provision of billing for a national carrier is both a prestigious task and a critical responsibility. A national operator chooses suppliers carefully, by tender, with heightened requirements as to quality of support the solutions provided and for their efficient modification. Successful cooperation between Ukrtelecom and Telesens began in May 2007, when Tinterconnect (T-IC), the Telesens inter-operator settlement system, was implemented in Ukrtelecom. T-IC’s functionality for support of internet provider settlement (including prepaid) became particularly important to the company, and enabled receipt of information regarding ISP balances virtually in real time. After mastering the basic functionality of Tinterconnect, after one year of its active use, the company faced the need of further functional development of the system.During year 2008, new types of reports were created for Ukrtelecom, which allowed analyzing the amount of traffic and services, receiving aggregated data with different levels of details, depending on the criteria chosen. The following year, for the first time in Ukraine, an international traffic processing service for closed user groups was implemented for the national operator. At the same time, to provide billing of content services between Ukrtelecom and content providers, Telesens implemented the corresponding functionality at the national operator. The next step in improving the efficiency of interconnect business of Ukrtelecom was the introduction of traffic trade management functionality. Holding a leadership position in the international telecommunications market in terms of voice traffic, Ukrtelecom saw the need to automate the processes of traffic trading and to improve the quality of decision making in this area. Telesens’ solution, Traffic Trade Management system (T-TTM), helped to automate the management of the master numbering plan, load price lists, analyse quotations from suppliers on destinations, and generate analytical data to ensure the effectiveness of traffic trade. Today, the companies continue beneficial cooperation: solution support continues; custom system modifications are performed in order to use new types of settlements while rendering new services.
Results
The Year 2011 was a significant one for the national communications service provider of Ukraine: after 10 years of expectation the company received a private investor. Consequentially, it anticipates a new era of telecom development based on a strategy of growth and innovation. Ukrtelecom sets ambitious goals – exploration of the most promising market of fixed-speed Internet access and Internet TV. Despite all global trends, the operator maintained its position in traditional telephony and now expects improvement of the situation in future. The company upgrades and increases the capacity of both internal and external network channels and invests in business support systems. For Ukrtelecom, the four years of experience of operation with Telesens Interconnect Business Suite has provided a reliable platform to plan the introduction of new services and offers to its subscribers. The main outcomes from use of Tinterconnect (T-IC): The T-IC system meets all international standards and interconnect business requirements, as is evidenced by the success of Ukrtelecom’s settlements with more than 150 international telecommunications companies. The high level of automation of technological processes has minimized resourcing effort and reduced interconnect billing cycles with partners (by up to 4-5 times). Consequentially, the company has witnessed accelerated receipt of revenues and increased competitiveness as a result of increased decision-making speeds. The system provides tools for operational data analyses, traffic volume trend generation, prices, predicted income and expenses – all of which facilitate timely adjustments in partner contracts and profitability management. A high degree of accuracy, completeness, instant calculations and a reduction in human intervention, all minimize risks and financial losses. System flexibility enables the implementation of all settlements rules used in the international telecommunications market, as well as facilitating a choice of marketing strategies in terms of interconnect agreements. The Traffic Trade Management functionality (TTM) allows fast and flexible tariff management: loading of automated price lists, manipulation and analysis of dynamic information from partner operators; increase in revenue as a result of decision-making for traffic routing. The introduction of a reconciliation subsystem for detailed traffic prevents financial losses associated with payment of incorrect bills. A high level of technical support provided by Telesens enables reliable work processes, prevents technical failures in settlements, and promotes practical utilization of Ukrtelecom’s IT resources.
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