Italian telecommunications company Tiscali has selected China-based firm ZTE to develop its IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network, a platform that can improve the multimedia functionalities of IP services and is compliant with every network technology.
Both the companies have signed an agreement, under which they plan to launch the first three commercial sites in Cagliari, Roma and Milano by the end of May and the migration of Tiscali subscribers to the new IMS platform by the end of the year.
ZTE will install a single platform in place of the two platforms currently utilised by Tiscali, to enable Tiscali manage its network easily and efficiently, reducing energy consumption and optimising operational costs.
Built on IP-CAN (IP Connectivity Access Network), a 3GPP technology architecture, the IMS is expected to bring the traditional telecom model to IP networks, making it chargeable, controllable and manageable.
The ZTE IMS solution offers versatile services which consist of three types of Application Server Functions (ASF): SIP application server, IM SSF application server and the OSA SCS application server.
Tiscali general director Luca Scano said with the introduction of this unique platform, they will manage to optimise time, resources and results on all their IP communications services, from mobile and fixed phone calls to Internet access, from social networks to email, giving their customers a big advantage in terms of price and quality of service.
ZTE Italy general manager Jeffrey FAN said, "The introduction to IMS technology offers operators the power and flexibility to provide customers with a complete range of services, keeping an advanced position compared to traditional operators or to internet service providers."
With this new service, users can implement traditional phone-to-phone, phone-to-PC, and PC to SIP phone communication modes, as well as use automatic call forwarding to voice mailbox, call forwarding to short message, and call forwarding to Email.
