Blending Reliability and Functionality for Worldwide Connectivity
Enghouse Networks
As more people globally require access to fast communication across large distances, telecommunications has become an increasingly essential utility. As a result, telecoms are somewhat invulnerable to business cycles. Still, they face some very distinct challenges of their own.
One of these challenges is finding the right solutions and building different network elements and services from scratch that will fit well together. Telecom26 has a decade’s worth of experience evaluating solutions and developing a flexible approach to users’ connectivity needs.
Global Coverage in the Most Remote Places
Telecom26 is an independent global full MVNO based in Switzerland, with our own network core and operational assets. We offer a wide range of flexible IoT cellular connectivity solutions for business-critical and security-critical applications. As a fully accredited mobile operator and a proud full member of the GSMA, we help our customers obtain secure IoT network coverage wherever they need it.
We continuously expand our customer footprint, which spans essential markets such as healthcare, telemetrics, maritime, government, and humanitarian or disaster relief. We currently focus on growing our business in four areas: IoT connectivity, secure mobile connectivity, private network, and maritime solutions.
What differentiates us from other MVNOs is that we provide multi-IMSI SIM cards and multi-profiles eSIMs to allow customers to choose the best-performing network based on cost. Alongside our focus on security and reliability, we have a global presence thanks to roaming agreements. These agreements allow us to offer one SIM for global coverage, even in the most remote areas. This has a significant benefit, especially in developing countries, where network coverage is often poor.
For many years, we have relied on Enghouse Networks to help us expand our services. We choose to work with them because of their reliability, the rich functionality of their products, and most importantly, their flexibility in adapting to multi-IMSI support and quickly launching new, innovative services. We use two Enghouse products: the mobile VAS-in-One solution since 2015 and CDRator for billing and customer care since 2018. From the mobile VAS-in-One suite, we have purchased SMSC, MMSC, USSD, and Smart Guard.
Today, my team and I provide assistance and guidance to implement the latest technologies in security, mobile core, VAS, billing, SIM/eSIM, and IoT domains in cooperation with the mobile core and BSS teams. We also work closely with R&D to design and develop in-house services for Telecom26 customers.
The Search for the Holy Grail
The particular nature of Telecom26 as a global connectivity provider means we have unique needs. We have to support multiple subscription identities and integrate with multiple sponsor networks. These integrations require flexible message routing and address manipulation. As a result, we used to have concerns around stability and reliability when deploying new services with customized functionality.
These days, Telecom26 goes through a complete RFP process, including a proof of concept (POC), to select new partners for our projects. In 2015, however, we had tight time constraints. We needed a partner who could provide consistent and reliable solutions, was keen to customize their products to meet our requirements, and could do so without impacting product quality. Enghouse was a partner we knew we could trust, and their team was committed to accommodating our needs and change requests.
The Mobile VAS suite stood out for several reasons, including Jinny’s track record, reputation, and willingness to develop custom solutions. The first component commissioned in the rollout of the Mobile VAS suite was the SMSC in 2015. In subsequent years, we added voicemail and MMSC. With each of these deployments, Enghouse customized the suite of products to meet our network and service requirements, allowing us to roll out the features we needed at the right time.
Our VAS platform now includes:
- customizations to the CAMEL and diameter-based charging platform
- the rules engine for SMS message address manipulation
- the solution for multiple MSISDN/IMSI support
- the gateway for mobile location services
Telecom26’s positive experience with the Enghouse VAS suite encouraged the company to pursue the partnership further and build our BSS system on the Rator platform.
Later, we deployed Rator, which involved replacing the in-house billing system that we had developed. Our new system would handle billing TAP records from different partners and include a customer care platform. We then added an Online Charging functionality to provide real-time rating and charging capabilities.
A Trusted Partner Who Flexes to Our Needs without Compromise
The VAS services we currently use are SMS and MMS for person-to-person or application-to-person messaging. USSD allows a customer without data connectivity to still manage their profile, change IMSI, check their credit, and so on. Meanwhile, DSC secures the mobile VAS network with filtering. Enghouse’s BSS based on the Rator platform manages the entire lifecycle of our customer, from ordering and provisioning to rating and invoicing, including real-time billing. We can bundle services, assign them to customers, and create promotional campaigns around new service bundles.
The reliability and scalability of Enghouse’s VAS solutions are, once again, tailored to our needs. It gives us the confidence to create and offer our subscribers differentiated services, such as switching between different identities based on country or network and seamless message delivery independent of the subscriber’s location. Enghouse’s expertise in security, specifically at the SS7 signaling level, enables us to protect our subscribers against network vulnerabilities by alerting them to potential threats.
The innovative billing and rating platform allows us to offer flexible rating plans and a wide array of data and SMS bundles. These can be easily customized based on a simple workflow configuration. Enghouse even granted our development team access to the platform’s internal hooks, so we could integrate it with our in-house portal. By doing so, we can deliver valuable billing and usage data to our end customers.
When Companies Are Aligned, Great Things Can Happen
Enghouse continues to be a trusted partner and expert resource we can call on to solve complex problems. Their expansive suite of products and capabilities make them a go-to provider.
Enghouse provides future-proof platforms compliant with the latest standards, allowing Telecom26 to develop and deploy innovative solutions for our customers. We plan to continue this partnership as we strive to provide forward-looking services to our customers.
