Comverse names 10 finalists for fourth annual Innovation Awards

WAKEFIELD, USA: Comverse has announced 10 finalists for its Fourth Annual Innovation Awards. The winners will be announced next week during Comverse EXPO 2009, the telecom industry's leading virtual event.

The awards, organized in association with market research firm Yankee Group, honor service providers that have creatively implemented a Comverse solution to achieve significant business success. Examples include new monetization schemes, exceptional speed and scope of deployments, outstanding launch and business models, unique market penetration approaches, and significant cost reductions.

The 10 finalists are:

Bezeq (Israel): Migrating to IP-based residential and business voice services using Comverse MyCall Broadband IP Telephony, IP Centrex and IP Trunking;

m:tel (Montenegro): Deploying Comverse Converged Billing in an ultra-fast fashion, which allowed the service’s launch to capture roaming traffic during the summer tourist season;

SFR (France): Solving the problem of limited message storage space in handsets by saving text messages on the web using Comverse Messaging Router with Messaging Personalization and MT Interception capabilities;

SingTel (Singapore): Offering ground breaking advertising services to top-tier advertisers, media agencies and small- to mid-sized enterprises using Comverse Mobile Advertising;

Softbank Mobile (Japan): Innovative mobile enterprise telephony solution that integrates mobile phones with PBX-based enterprise telephony using Comverse Converged IP Centrex and IP trunking;

Telecom Italia: Consolidating postpaid billing operations for 22 million accounts using the Comverse Billing Solution;

Telefonica Moviles (Movistar Chile): Implementing a new Comverse Real-Time Billing feature that provides SMS notification to callers trying to reach prepaid subscribers whose service has been temporarily disrupted;

Telstra (Australia): Deploying an online integrated inbox to support unified messaging from multiple devices and platforms using Comverse Messaging Gateway;

Vodafone Group (Global): Driving a leading industry group for mobile communications (Open Mobile Terminal Platform) to recommend industry specifications for visual voicemail, which will support its mass market penetration; and

Vodafone India: Creative prepaid marketing offerings, including Special Tariff Vouchers, using Comverse Real-Time Billing.

“We selected the finalists from a large, diverse group of customers, spanning all regions, tiers and lines of business,” said Urban Gillstrom, Global President of Group Sales at Comverse, the world's leading supplier of software and systems enabling value-added messaging and content services, converged billing and active customer management, and IP communications.

“Their successful and innovative deployments of our Billing, Value-Added Services and IP Communications offerings reflect the great versatility and breadth of Comverse's solutions, which can be easily tailored to the business needs of each operator,” Gillstrom said. “The Innovation Awards are an integral part of this year's highly anticipated Comverse EXPO event.”