Chinese ISP JiTong Network Communications Corporation has awarded a US$9 million contract to Datacraft Asia to roll out an IP-based billing and messaging infrastructure across 166 cities on the Mainland.

In a statement to the Singapore Exchange, Datacraft said it will deploy its iBOSS portfolio of software and services to support the ISP's fast-growing broadband Internet access and Web hosting business throughout China.

The new billing architecture will enable JiTong to launch new services and pricing plans quickly, while the messaging platform from Openwave will bring speedier and more reliable e-mail communication services to JiTong's more than one million subscribers, the statement added.

JiTong owns the country's National Public Economic Information Communication Network and operates ChinaGBN, one of the five largest business networks in China. It is also one of four Government-approved companies providing nationwide IP telephony services.

"JiTong's decision to engage Datacraft to take on this mammoth billing and messaging solution across 166 cities in China wasn't made lightly," said JiTong vice-president Yu. "Datacraft has a long standing track record of delivering high-value solutions and we are confident in entrusting them to take on the planning, engineering, project management and integration of this project for us."

At the core of Datacraft's iBOSS' IP billing and CRM system is the Portal Infranet, which offers multi-level customer hierarchies for the easy design of complex service bundles to meet diverse customer needs. JiTong users will only need a single sign-on to access a variety of messaging services, and will only receive one bill for all services used. Datacraft will also deploy a suite of network-enhancement solutions to boost availability of JiTong's network.

Said Wong Wen Ming, Datacraft's director of Marketing, "Since its launch last year, our iBOSS suite of business and operation support systems is fast becoming an strategic tool used by companies to speed up the deployment and delivery of new IP-based services.

"We are pleased with this new win as it would further consolidate our market lead and accelerate our momentum of strong growth. It is another clear demonstration of Datacraft's success in the rapidly growing services and software side of telecom infrastructure."