Science & Technology
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Wed, April 8, 2009
Tue, April 7, 2009
Tekelec: Zain Group Taps Tekelec to Enable Enhanced Consumer Offerings & Lower Operating Cost as Zain Nigeria Steps Toward
MORRISVILLE, NC--(Marketwire - April 7, 2009) - [ Tekelec ] (
Major factors in Zain's selection of Tekelec were the technology's market-proven reliability and ability to scale to the growing demands of global service providers. Another important feature in Zain's selection of Tekelec's [ EAGLE 5 ] platform was Tekelec's support of SIGTRAN (SS7 signaling over IP), which is a stepping stone for cost-effectively migrating to an all-IP network. SIGTRAN enables service providers on the public-switched telephone networks (PSTNs) to use an underlying IP transport vehicle, thereby allowing them to offer their subscribers multimedia services through their existing network. Zain Nigeria completed the EAGLE 5 deployment in Q4 2008.
"The project has been managed by Tekelec in an exceptionally professional and consistent manner even when faced with integration into a challenging environment such as Nigeria," said John Earley, Technical Director for Zain Nigeria. "I can say with confidence that Tekelec's handling of this project from start to now has been faultless. We are looking forward to a seamless integration into our existing core and anticipate substantial improvements in network signaling performance."
In 2007 and 2008, 37 of Tekelec's 40 new customers purchased the EAGLE 5 platform across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and the Middle East. The company's solutions are now deployed in 103 countries.
"On a global basis, Tekelec is experiencing strong success with our EAGLE 5 platform," said Wolrad Claudy, Tekelec's senior vice president of global sales. "Customers consistently cite Tekelec's commitment to innovation and how that's demonstrated in the EAGLE Product Family's constant evolution as a platform to support their migration to next-gen and IMS networks. In the majority of cases -- including Zain Nigeria -- the EAGLE 5 platform displaced another that could not reliably support the service provider's migration plans in a flexible and scalable manner."
Industry trends driving the demand for Tekelec's EAGLE 5 platform are continued strong growth in the number of global mobile subscribers in emerging markets like Nigeria, short message service (SMS) growth worldwide, government-mandated number portability, and routing flexibility. The EAGLE 5 platform has been enhanced with increased signaling capacity, scalability and performance to address these issues as well as the complexities of hybrid, next-gen and all-IP networks.
Tekelec continues to execute on its strategy to increase the company's global footprint with more than 60 percent of its revenues now coming from outside of North America.
About Tekelec
Tekelec, a global leader in core multimedia session control and network intelligence, ensures scalable, secure and highly available communications. The company's market-leading signaling solutions enable the interworking of different network applications, technologies and protocols, providing a smooth transition to next-generation networks. Tekelec has more than 20 offices around the world serving customers in more than 100 countries, with corporate headquarters located near Research Triangle Park in Morrisville, N.C., U.S.A. For more information, please visit [ http://www.tekelec.com ].
About Zain Nigeria
Formerly known as Celtel Nigeria, the company ([ http://www.ng.zain.com ]) was established in 2000, by a group of institutional and private investors as well as three state governments. It made history on August 5, 2001 by becoming the first telecoms operator to launch commercial GSM services in Nigeria. In 2006, following Celtel International's acquisition of majority stake in the company, it was re-branded Celtel and became an important part of Celtel's pan-African operations spanning 14 countries. On August 1, 2008 Celtel Nigeria was rebranded Zain Nigeria following the global acquisition of Celtel International by MTC Group, which transformed to Zain Group, a leading emerging markets player in the field of telecommunications aiming to become one of the top ten mobile groups in the world by 2011. Zain Nigeria, which currently covers over 1500 towns and 14000 communities across the six geopolitical zones of the country, scored a series of many other "firsts" in the highly competitive Nigerian telecommunications market including the first to introduce toll-free 24-hour customer care line-111; first to launch service in all the six geo-political zones in the country; first to introduce N500 recharge card; first to commence emergency service (Celtel 199); first to introduce monthly free SMS and first to introduce monthly airtime bonus.
About Zain
Zain is a leading emerging markets player in the field of telecommunications aiming to become one of the top ten mobile operators in the world by 2011. Zain was established in 1983 in Kuwait as the region's first mobile operator. Since 2003, it has grown significantly becoming the 4th largest mobile network in the world in terms of geographic presence with a footprint now in 23 countries spread across the Middle East and Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 63.5 million active customers. Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. In Lebanon, the company manages the network on behalf of the government operating as mtc-touch. The company offers innovative services in its markets such as One Network, the world's first borderless mobile telecommunication network enabling customers to receive and make calls throughout many countries in Africa and the Middle East at free or local rates. The Zain brand is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Stock ticker: ZAIN).
For more information, please visit [ http://www.zain.com/ ] or email [ info@zain.com ].
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Certain statements made in this press release are forward looking, reflect the Company's current intent, belief or expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual future performance may differ materially from such expectations as a result of important risk factors, which include, in addition to those identified in the Company's 2008 Form 10-K and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the effect of the current or escalating economic crisis including the impact of credit availability and currency fluctuations on overall telecommunications spending by our customers, the current or further detrimental changes in general economic, social, or political conditions in the countries in which we operate, the timeliness and functional competitiveness of our product releases, our ability to maintain OEM, partner, and vendor support and supply relationships, our ability to compete with other manufacturers that have lower cost bases than ours and/or are partially supported by foreign governments or employ other unfair trade practices, and changes in the market price of the Company's common stock. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
