Nortel and Austria’s Kapsch CarrierCom have been selected by mobilkom austria to deliver a platform for new mobile broadband services, including TV and satellite navigation system services, across Austria, Lichtenstein and Slovenia. Nortel’s All-IP Voice Core Solution converts mobilkom austria's existing WCDMA/HSPA network into a robust, carrier-grade network and offers ease of transition to enhanced services, including IMS, enabling the operator to cut operating costs and increases cost-effectiveness. As part of the project, Kapsch CarrierCom is managing the system implementation and system integration.

Nortel* [NYSE/TSX:  NT ] and Kapsch CarrierCom AG are helping mobilkom austria deliver new mobile broadband services, including TV and satellite navigation system services, to customers in Slovenia, Liechtenstein and Austria. The mobilkom austria group is the leading mobile service provider in Central and Eastern Europe, connecting nearly 15 million mobile customers in eight countries.

Mobilkom austria is using an enhanced network based on a IMS-ready Mobile Switching Center (MSC) solution supplied by Kapsch CarrierCom AG and Nortel. The solution converts mobilkom austria's existing network into a robust, carrier-grade network with added flexibility for introducing new services and enhanced reliability, as well as ensuring quality of service. The companies have completed the first phase of the project in Austria and work has already begun on the Liechtenstein and Slovenia upgrades.

The enhanced mobilkom austria network meets the standards defined by the  Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) **, the global standard for 3G mobile phone systems for the creation, delivery, and playback of multimedia over 3G mobile networks. For the user, this standard aims to provide uniform delivery of rich multimedia to multimedia-enabled wireless devices.

"For us, the focus is on improving the individual's experience with our services," explains Bernhard Heimerl, head of group purchasing at mobilkom austria group services GmbH. "We aim to deliver service choice, quality and cost-effectiveness, and our innovative IMS-ready network solution is already helping us do this. For example, it can typically take up to a year to create a new telecom service, at a cost that can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars; IMS offers us a new and simpler way to create and deliver new services quickly."

"Together with our long standing partner Nortel, we are helping to create a new, highly reliable and secure network solution for mobilkom austria group which is unique in Europe. This project shows just how efficiently Nortel and Kapsch CarrierCom collaborate on evolving existing networks," said Thomas Schöpf, member of the board of Kapsch CarrierCom.

"The ATCA-compliant, All-IP Voice Core Solution being used by mobilkom austria helps cut operating costs and offers ease of transition to enhanced services, including IMS," said Peter Newcombe, vice-president, Carrier Networks, EMEA, Nortel. "This allows service providers to increase productivity and improve customer service." This new generation technology also delivers significant reductions in power consumption that provide operational cost-savings for operators while preserving the environment. Many of Nortel's ATCA-based products are now achieving power savings of up to 60 percent over their TDM predecessors."

Consolidating the core of its network to IP technology enables mobilkom austria to significantly reduce operational expenditures, deliver new services to market faster and help simplify the use of communications services for users.

mobilkom austria's solution is founded on Nortel's Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA)-based Mobile Switching Center (MSC) server. This solution has clear advantages for operators because it offers lower maintenance and operation costs and requires less space and power. This 3GPP Release 4 network solution also gives operators more flexibility in handling regional voice communications. This is the first time MSC Servers based on the ATCA platform are being used in normal operation in Europe.

As part of the migration project, Kapsch CarrierCom is also managing the system implementation and system integration for the countries of Slovenia, Liechtenstein and Austria.

About Kapsch CarrierCom AG
Within the Kapsch group Kapsch CarrierCom AG specialises in communication solutions for operators of fixed and mobile networks in the fields of voice and data transfer. Kapsch CarrierCom covers all areas, from analysis, consulting, design, development, integration, installation and training through to maintenance and the operation of complete networks.
 
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that make the promise of Business Made Simple a reality for our customers. Our next-generation technologies, for both service provider and enterprise networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications. Nortel's technologies are designed to help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people to the information they need, when they need it. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries around the world. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com . For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.

Source: http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&locale=en-US&oid=100251516