BULL PROVIDES SATELLITE CUSTOMER CARE AND BILLING SOLUTION FOR GLOBALSTAR AMERICAS Corp.
A solution to support millions of subscribers worldwide
Louveciennes, 16 March, 2000? Bull announces the delivery, installation and deployment of a contract to provide Globalstar Americas Corp. (GAC) with an integrated customer care and billing solution. Globalstar Americas Corp. (GAC) is the exclusive provider of Globalstar satellite telephony services in 7 countries in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Belize, Panama and Costa Rica). This solution will offer a complete customer service to enable GAC to activate services for its customers automatically and bill them country by country.
Bull acted as prime contractor, managing all partners and products involved in the project. The core components were developed, tested, and deployed from the company?s Billing and Customer Care Competence Center located in Paris.
Bull developed a full customer care and billing solution, called ABC (Administration, Billing and Customer Care) and specially adapted for Globalstar Services Providers. This solution was developed in partnership with TE.SA.M (a joint venture of France Telecom and Alcatel), and is now being deployed at TE.SA.M sites worldwide. TESAM, strategic partner of Globalstar L.P, will offer the Globalstar Service in over 30 countries in Europe, South Americas, Africa and Asia.
The Bull customer care and billing solution consists of BSCS (Business Support & Control System), a billing product provided by its partner LHS Group, Inc., and FCC (Flexible Charging Center), a mediation product provided by its partner SOFRECOM.
This agreement with GAC demonstrates the capacity of the Bull customer care and billing solution to be fully integrated with the specific needs of a Globalstar Services Operator.
Globalstar?s constellation of 48 low-earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites will transmit calls from a wireless phone or a fixed phone station to a terrestrial gateway, where they will be passed on to existing fixed and cellular telephone networks in more than 100 countries on 6 continents.
About Bull
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APPENDIX
ABC Solution : an innovative solution fully adapted for satellite telephony services
Capacity to bill the gateway usage for different Globalstar Services Providers. In fact, a gateway covers several countries. It is operated by a Globalstar Services Provider and can be shared by other Globalstar Services Providers.
Capacity to reconcile Globalstar satellites usage. Globalstar will bill Services Providers for the usage of satellites. The system provides necessary data to reconcile these invoices.
ABC Solution : a turn key solution to manage the complexity of the Globalstar billing process
Capacity to bill different LSPs* in different countries with a roaming agreement with the Globalstar Services Provider. This means the billing system is able to differentiate LSPs worldwide and handle these LSPs between the different gateways. Bull is actually introducing two roaming concepts here: intra gateway roaming and inter gateway roaming. The first refers to subscribers of an LSP roaming in a country other than the LSP?s home country, but within the scope of the gateway. The latter refers LSP to subscribers roaming in a country which is covered by another gateway.
Capacity to bill customers within the different countries covered by one gateway. This means the system is in fact a multi-country billing system, with possibly multiple numbering plans and multiple HPLMNs.
Capacity to calculate taxes and gross revenue per country. This is important with regard to the multi-country business of aGlobalstar Services Providers.
Capacity to handle both GSM and IS41 technologies. This means that there will be both IS41 and GSM terminals within the same gateway. HLRs will be either GSM or IS41, or both. They will be managed by LSPs (dual-mode case) or directly by the Globalstar operator gateway (mono-mode case). Also the system should be able to produce roaming TAP files either in TAP2 or CIBER format.
Capacity to bill Globalstar specific terminal services. These terminals can be used on different ways :
Mobile
phone box
fixed residential
fixed business
PBX
About Globalstar LP
Globalstar, led by founding partner Loral Space & Communications, is a partnership of the world's leading telecommunications service providers and equipment manufacturers, including Alenia, China Telecom (HK), DACOM, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Elsacom (a Finmeccanica Company), Hyundai, Qualcomm Incorporated, TE.SA.M (a France Telecom/Alcatel company), Space Systems/Loral, and Vodafone AirTouch. For more information, visit Globalstar's web site at www.globalstar.com
About Globalstar Americas Corp. Globalstar Americas Corp. (GAC) contracted with Globalstar L.P (developer of the Globalstar Low Earth Orbit Satellite Telecomunications Systems) to become the exclusive regional Service Provider for Central America. GACïs main responsabilities are: obtaining and maintaining operating licenses in all the territories, installation and operation of a regional satellite earth station (GATEWAY), and the commercialization of the Globalstar service in the region of Central America.
Globalstar Americas Corp. was incorporated as an international business company (IBC) in the British Virgin Islands on May 28, 1996. A service Provider Agreement (SPA) signed with Globalstar LP gives GAC exclusive rights to provide Globalstar services in Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Belize, Panama and Costa Rica). Wholly controlled subsidiaries have been incorporated in every country and ful time management is currently present in Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, with others soon to follow. GAC is advancing according to its business plan in preparing for commercial service in 1Q 2000. www.globalstaramericas.com
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