OJSC VimpelCom, a provider of telecommunications services in Russia, has announced that it has deployed Openmind Networks’ Traffic Control platform to expand its SMSC systems in the Central and Volga regions of Russia. The project was led by the Openmind’s local partner LANIT and included installation of two separate platforms rated at 2,000 SMS per second in Moscow and Saratov. It has helped VimpelCom to replace old TDM equipment with the modern SIGTRAN-enabled Traffic Control solution.
“This deal heralds the coming-of-age for next generation messaging technology, as it shows that even the largest tier-1 European operators can trust these systems to build business-critical SMSC platforms, and thereby exploit the cost benefits and features that they bring”, said Alex Duncan, Openmind CEO. He added “Previously, it was thought that Tier-1 operators had no incentive to replace the established SMSC vendors – this deal proves that this is no longer the case”.
“Traffic Control successfully met the performance demand of our busy Christmas and New Year period. We are pleased by how quickly and smoothly the migration project was completed”, said Ilya Axelrod, Director, Core & Platforms Planning and Development at VimpelCom. “Openmind was able to maintain the backwards compatibility with billing and charging interfaces used by the old systems and our management infrastructure was completely unaffected by the upgrade of the network”.
Denis Reimer, Director of Integrated Business Solutions department at LANIT added, “We are delighted to have completed this first project with Openmind, and we look forward to many similar projects as other operators in Russia and the CIS begin replacing legacy SMS infrastructure to meet demands for extra capacity, security and advanced services”.