CUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 25, 2001--
Integration of Portal's Infranet and HP Opencall Addresses the
Exploding Wireless Prepaid Voice Market
Portal Software, Inc. (Nasdaq:PRSF), a leading provider of
business infrastructure software for next-generation communications
services, today announced a co-marketing and co-development agreement
with Hewlett-Packard Company to integrate Infranet(R) Wireless, Portal
Software's convergent wireless customer management and billing product
line, with the HP Opencall Intelligent Network (IN) Service platform,
a real-time call processing platform. The integrated solution will
extend Portal's convergent customer management and billing
capabilities to the prepaid voice market by enabling existing 2G, 2.5G
and emerging 3G operators to deploy prepaid services on convergent and
voice-only wireless networks.
The integrated solution will address the needs of communications
service providers by combining the sophisticated authentication,
authorization, and rating capabilities of Portal's industry-leading
customer management and billing platform, Infranet(R), with HP
Opencall IN's Service Execution Platform, a highly flexible and
scalable environment for processing voice services in SS7 networks.
The comprehensive, real-time capabilities of the Infranet and HP
Opencall IN platforms form a solution that is virtually revenue
leakage-free, and that generates a single prepaid or postpaid balance
for voice and mobile Internet services. The combined solution will
support a variety of prepaid call scenarios that demonstrate advanced
voice rating capabilities such as dynamic mid-call time-of-day rating
changes.
"We recognize HP's depth of experience in the telecommunications
market, particularly with IN services in voice-based SS7 networks,"
said Steve Sommer, vice president of marketing and business
development at Portal. "Combined with Portal's proven expertise in the
prepaid packet telephony and wireless Internet markets, the joint
solution fully addresses the needs of today's convergent carriers. Our
alliance will deliver a product-based solution that mobile operators
urgently need to control costs associated with the low-margin prepaid
segment."
"By integrating our technologies, we're able to offer an
industry-leading, real-time, convergent wireless billing platform,"
said Sebastiano Tevarotto, vice president and general manager, HP
Network and Service Provider Business Unit. "Mobile operators can
deploy this standards-based joint solution to upgrade their existing
IN voice infrastructures and to help plug leaks in their revenue
stream."
The market for prepaid wireless voice services is expected to grow
dramatically over the next few years as mobile operators focus on
expanding their offerings to customers in this segment. International
Data Corporation expects the number of prepaid wireless subscribers in
Western Europe to grow from 74 million in 1999 to 189 million in 2004,
representing 48 percent and 62 percent of the total wireless customer
base, respectively.
The HP Opencall and Portal Infranet solution will be featured on
both the Portal (stand No. 50) and HP (stand No. 107) stands at
Billing Systems 2001 at Olympia in London, April 24-26, 2001.
About HP Opencall
HP Opencall is an HP Netaction product, providing comprehensive,
carrier-grade platforms for the development and deployment of next
generation voice, data and converged services. With more than 1,000
installations in 50 countries worldwide, HP Opencall is the world's
leading SS7 software stack and the number one software for Service
Control Points and Short Message Service Centers. Backed by HP's
Telecom Critical Support, which provides world-class restoration
service internationally, as well as HP's superior combination of
hardware and software, HP Opencall enables the communication industry
to harness the convergence of the Internet with the world of voice
communication.
Further information on HP Opencall platforms is available at
www.hp.com/go/opencall.
About Portal Software, Inc.
Portal Software provides software to manage next-generation
communications and e-services. The Infranet software platform enables
service providers to rapidly deploy new services, define optimal
business models and price plans, and bill their users. Portal's
software is licensed by more than three-quarters of the world's 25
largest communications services companies to support wireless,
broadband Internet, next-generation voice, and other e-service
offerings. Customers include AOL Time Warner, Reuters, Qwest
Communications, Sprint, NTT, Deutsche Telekom, Telenor Mobil AS, China
Telecom, and France Telecom. Portal Software employs over 1,500 people
at more than 40 offices worldwide. For more information, visit
www.portal.com.
Note to Editors: Infranet is a U.S. registered trademark, and
Portal and the Portal logo are trademarks of Portal Software, Inc. All
statements made in this press release are made only as of the date set
forth at the beginning of this release. Portal undertakes no
obligation to update the information in the event facts or
circumstances subsequently change.
--30--jag/sf*
CONTACT: Portal Software, Inc.
Barry Katcher, 408/572-2199
bkatcher@portal.com |
