Globalstar to Deploy DSC's INfusion(TM) HLR and Authentication Center Applications
Satellite Network to Draw on Strength of DSC's Intelligent Network (IN)
Equipment
DALLAS, Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- DSC Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DIGI) announced today the signing of a multi-million dollar product agreement with Globalstar, a consortium of international telecommunications companies which offer low-cost, satellite-based mobile wireless communications. Globalstar plans to deploy DSC's INfusion(TM) intelligent network (IN) applications, specifically the INfusion IS-41 Home Location Register (HLR) and Authentication Center. With these tools at hand, Globalstar will be able to implement global roaming and provide advanced authorization and fraud prevention capabilities for its worldwide customers.
A New Approach
Globalstar is a low-earth-orbiting (LEO) satellite-based digital telecommunications system that will offer wireless telephone and other telecommunications services worldwide beginning in 1999. Globalstar will provide low-cost, high-quality telephony and other digital telecommunications services such as data transmission, paging, facsimile and position location to areas currently underserved or not served by existing wireline and cellular telecommunications systems.
Users of Globalstar will make or receive calls using hand-held or vehicle- mounted terminals similar to today's cellular telephones. Because Globalstar will be fully integrated with existing fixed and cellular telephone networks, Globalstar's dual-mode handset units will be able to switch from conventional cellular telephony to satellite telephony as required.
In remote areas with little or no existing wireline telephony, users will make or receive calls through fixed-site telephones, similar to phone booths or ordinary wireline telephones. Each subscriber terminal will communicate through a satellite to a local Globalstar service provider's interconnection point (a gateway), which will in turn connect into existing telecommunications networks.
Globalstar will sell access to the Globalstar system to a worldwide network of regional and local telecommunications service providers, including its strategic partners, AirTouch Communications, Hyundai/DACOM, France Telecom/Alcatel, China Telecom and Vodafone, which, together with Elsacom and Loral, have agreed to act as Globalstar service providers in over 100 countries. Each service provider will have the exclusive right to offer Globalstar service in its operating areas and will market and distribute Globalstar service, obtain all necessary regulatory approvals and own and operate the gateways necessary to serve their respective markets.
"We are pleased to announce that we have selected DSC as our vendor to provide IS-41 HLRs to be deployed around the globe," said Dr. Michael Sites, vice president of telecommunications systems for Globalstar. "DSC's extensive expertise with worldwide SS7 networks and experience in deploying the product in different regions of the world will assist us in deploying our network in a timely manner. DSC's HLR also provides us the flexibility to customize the service features for our system in a very short time period."
Bruce Hill, vice president, DSC's IN Division, said: "This new satellite- based application marks another milestone for our industry-proven INfusion products. As more advanced service expectations and market competition come into play, we expect to see the need for IN platforms to continue to grow, both in wireless and wireline networks.
"Carriers are finding that our INfusion family fits the bill, no matter what kind of underlying technologies, protocols or equipment they have embedded in their networks," said Hill. "DSC's flexible applications allow for smooth system interaction, even in a multi-switch vendor setting, and help operators do more with their existing infrastructures."
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