New generation convergent services

Among the latest convergent services, having access to a messaging system and an address book for individual and business users on the move is a key concern for consumers and enterprises alike. Operators are offering both kinds of user convergent services including unified voice messaging, fixed-mobile portals, and video phone services.
Below are two examples of unified messaging services implemented by Bull, one for a mobile operator who wanted to develop its VoIP services, and the other for an integrated operator.

Unified messaging system

This mobile operator offers its business customers a range of services including:
• Unified voice messaging, accessible from a mobile or fixed telephone
• Access to an electronic messaging system from a PC or mobile phone
• A single address book for a shared fixed-mobile connection.
• For individual subscribers, the offering applies to ‘Multiple Play’ convergent services integrating high-speed ADSL access, VoIP, as well as convergent messaging (text and voice) and a unified address book.

Bull has provided end-to-end integration services for this project: from the telecommunications infrastructure itself, to integration with information systems, and in particular ‘self-care’ and billing. It is also delivering upgrades, systems operation, maintenance and support services.

Bull’s solution features products supplied by its partners including StreamWIDE’s Audiostream for messaging, Dilithium for the video gateway, and Thomson Cirpack Class 5’s Softswitch for the transit. The scalable hardware platform is a Bull NovaScale® Blade Center server with NFS NetApp storage.

Unified address book

In this instance, the challenge for this integrated operator was to offer all its subscribers with a single, unified address book that gave them one-click Internet exchanges (instant messaging, email...) and access to a common Internet, fixed and mobile phone address book. The second objective was to reduce costs by using a common platform for the different messaging, fixed-mobile telephony and mobile services.

Bull’s solution is integrated into the existing infrastructure, and interfaces with the different services the operator already delivers. Bull chose Voxmobili’s PIM (Personal Information Management) solution, which offers functions for interactive business cards, single-click verification procedures, and SyncML synchronization. The project is deployed on Bull NovaScale clusters running under Linux® and Oracle.