Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Starcomms, Mach Win 2011 Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award

Starcomms Plc, Nigeria’s leading telecommunications operator in partnership with Mach, a major provider of hub-based mobile communication solutions have won the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Award 2011 for best wireless network infrastructure innovation.

The award which was organized in Luxembourg, Germany recognized the duo’s successful collaboration in testing and subsequently delivering the world's first inter-standard roaming data service for pre-paid subscribers, having extended the functionality from a post-paid
environment.

Alan Burkitt-Gray, editor of Global Telecoms Business, who presented the award said: "This is the fifth time we've run the Global Telecoms Business Innovation Awards and this year we saw more nominations, from a greater range of operators and vendors, than ever before.”

The editor who said this was a sure sign the industry is working harder and harder to deliver exciting and innovative services to customers worldwide congratulated all who won this year's awards, especially Mach and Starcomms for the first pre-paid inter-standard roaming data service successfully trialed.

Logan Pather, Chief Operating Officer, Starcomms, commented: “We are delighted to have won this award in partnership with Mach. Pre-paid roaming is a strong growth area for Starcomms and Africa in general but has traditionally been difficult to monetise successfully given the complexity of the technology and the associated cost.”

According to him Mach delivered a world-first hub-based solution that provides them with a larger footprint for pre-paid data roaming across different technologies and removed the complexity associated with inter-standard roaming.

He added that for the first time, inter-standard data roaming has become a realistic revenue stream for Starcomms and provides it with significant competitive advantage in the roaming market. With this service Starcomms customers can use their mobile phone service overseas outside of Nigeria to make and receive voice calls, and also send and receive SMS whilst abroad. Customers interested in the service simply need to visit the nearest Starcomms shop to subscribe for it.

Lokdeep Singh, Vice President, Technology and Innovation, Mach, notes: "We are proud to have won this prestigious industry award. The recognition is a testament to our continuous commitment to innovation and firmly positions Mach as the leader in the inter-standard pre-paid roaming market.”

He added that Inter-Standard Roaming managed services solutions offered a more efficient and value-added approach to delivering a seamless extension of operators' home networks, without the capital and operational costs - unlocking new revenue opportunities for operators and providing cost-effective convenience for their
customers.

The inter-standard roaming data service is a project which involved the trialing and deploying of a solution which allows simple and seamless inter-standard roaming for Starcomms' pre-paid subscribers, providing them with full access to the data services they wish to consume abroad, while simultaneously opening up the rewards of the
pre-paid data roaming market to the operator.

The trial was successful in resolving a major industry problem, by neutralising pre-paid protocols and the resulting solution. The Mach Data Roaming Engine provides support for pre-paid data inter-working between different technologies by converting the various network protocols used by home and visited networks.

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