Tiscali Opts for Advanced Billing in Europe

[London, ENGLAND] European ISP Tiscali
S.p.A.
announced Monday a strategy agreement with software solutions supplier
Belle Systems to deploy advanced
IP
billing services throughout Europe.

Headquartered in Italy, Tiscali operates via subsidiaries in Germany,
Switzerland, Spain,
France, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Its network, named TiscaliNet, will
now
be integrated with Belle Systems’ Internet Management System (IMS) for
management
and billing of voice- and fax-over-IP services.

Tiscali’s ever-growing list of services is typical of today’s large-scale
ISPs, but with growth has come the need for a more sophisticated approach
to management and billing. Among Tiscali’s services are dial-up Internet
access, Web, FTP, e-mail, IPFax, VoIP, and ADSL.

Belle Systems consultant Michael Jonsson said that changeover to the new
billing
system took less than 30 days, even though Tiscali is one of the fastest
growing
ISPs in Europe — a fact that added to the complexity of the job.

“IMS has clearly demonstrated that is has the flexibility, reliability and
scalability needed to adequately meet the stringent requirements for
advanced
services and to meet tomorrow’s strong growth,” claimed Jonsson.

The new system will let Tiscali network administrators manage users via all
kinds of criteria and identifiers, including IP addresses, user names,
addresses,
departments, payment method and service type. One key benefit is being able
to construct common user groups within which users share the same rating
scheme.

Founded by Renato Soru in 1998 after the liberalization of the Italian
telecommunications market, Tiscali launched Italy’s first free Internet
access
service in March 1999. It has invested over $130 million in building a
fiber network linking major European cities, due for completion towards the
end of 2001.

To finance its expansion, Tiscali sold 23 percent of its shares via an IPO
on the Nuovo Mercato in October 1999, when it rolled out its services across Europe.