Providers of alternative fixed services traditionally offer residential indirect access or carrier pre-select services, in
which calls are routed from the incumbent network operator’s access network to the alternative fixed service provider’s network
before being carried to the dialled destination. On an indirect access service, the customer dials a prefix code before each
outbound destination number (hence these are also known as “1xxx services” in some countries), whereas for carrier pre-select
services the incumbent network operator is obliged to route the call to the service provider without requiring a prefix to be
dialled. The benefits to the customer are cheaper rates for long distance and international calling, while the service provider
gains the margins between competitive retail pricing and wholesale termination rates.
However, as fixed telephony rates have fallen, the margin opportunities for indirect access services have also diminished.
Depending on their location and market focus, fixed service providers have therefore looked to exploit their market presence
with additional residential and wholesale services such as callback services, wholesale rates, call shop support, number
translation and call distribution, broadband IP telephony and hosted business IP telephony. The suite of applications provides
fixed service providers with multiple options to address their chosen markets, whether pre-paid or post-paid, residential or
business, retail or wholesale.
APPLICATIONS
DIGITALK offers fixed service providers a complete portfolio of revenue-generating applications to bring to the market on a
single Multiservice Platform:
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Prepaid Residential
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DIGITALK’s Prepaid Residential services enable fixed service providers to offer full, regulation-compliant, interconnect-proven
indirect access and carrier pre-select services with either pre- or post-paid charging. In territories where telecommunications
services have not been liberalized, customers can be offered callback services, triggered by a local call, an SMS or a web link.
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Prepaid Wholesale
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A key concern for fixed service providers to achieve low rates for international calls based on favourable agreements with
international carriers. Having obtained competitive rates for their own services, they may then be in a position to offer
wholesale services to other providers of telephony services. DIGITALK’s Prepaid Wholesale application enables fixed service
providers to offer a secure service with real-time revenue protection alongside their existing retail services.
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Broadband Telephony
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For those fixed service providers venturing into the residential IP telephony market, DIGITALK has applications specifically
targeted to the needs of residential consumers and business users. Available on the DIGITALK Multiservice Platform, these
applications come with the network interfaces, provisioning, service management and customer care facilities to enable rapid
service rollout and revenue generation.
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IP Virtual Office
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Fixed service providers with access to services and sales channels serving the enterprise market can significantly benefit
from hosted business telephony solution that supports many accounts and scales with usage.
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Conferencing
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Whether offered as a standalone service to local businesses or as an adjunct to IP Virtual Office, Conferencing enables
fixed service providers to tap in to the growing demand for professional reservation-less conferencing.
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PLATFORM
The DIGITALK Multiservice Platform is inherently designed to support the multiple service-ready applications, service creation environment, real-time charging and least cost routing capabilities required by fixed service providers operating in highly competitive markets.
CUSTOMERS
The DIGITALK Multiservice Platform has been widely deployed with a large number of fixed service providers offering competitive and profitable services, including the following:
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