Maitland, Fla.-based Phoenix Wireless Group Inc. this month announced the company is taking its software-defined telecommunications products in a new direction.
A four-year-old company that established itself as a player in the international market primarily for wireless local loop networks, Phoenix now says it plans to focus on the domestic enhanced services market.
“What’s new are the applications, not the underlying software,” said Michael J. Boyle, president of Phoenix Wireless. “Our Phoenician software, now deployed on four continents, is the foundation for our current and future enhanced services products.
“The engine of the car is the same; we’ve just added about 100 new places you can get to,” he said.
Phoenix Wireless will introduce its Phoenician Virtual Network Solution and demonstrate its new Wireless Office application that runs on PVNS this week at PCS ’98 in Orlando. The product is scheduled to be commercially available during the fourth quarter.
PVNS is based on Phoenix Wireless’ patent-pending Phoenician distributed call-control model, which has been deployed internationally for WLL, cellular mobility, international gateways and tandem switches, said the company.
“Dealing in the international market was a perfect environment for validating our software,” said Boyle. “In the United States, we felt we could migrate our basic product into the enhanced services arena.
“Our research and development showed us what was needed was a more robust, lower-cost solution than traditional wireless intelligent network-based solutions for wireless carriers.”
PVNS includes two products-The Phoenician Location Register and the Phoenician Interworking Exchange. The PLR is a pseudo Home Location Register based on IS-41C that interfaces with the cellular network like the HLR of a mobile switching center. The PIX is a circuit-switched intelligent node that can provide enhanced services on its own or act as a wireline interface to existing enhanced-service components.
Wireless Office, the initial application Phoenix Wireless will introduce this week, is a transparent integration of private branch exchanges with wireless networks. The application is targeted for enterprise customers.
Examples of functions include 4-digit or 5-digit extension dialing, centralized voice mail, least-cost routing through the private network of the enterprise and simultaneous ringing between the PBX and the cell phone.
Phoenix said the solution could help increase minutes of use on the wireless network and reduce churn. In addition, using a system based on IS-41 translates into lower initial costs and highly scalable architectures, said the company.
“The need is clear,” said Peter Stanforth, vice president and chief technology officer at Phoenix Wireless. “Carriers need to establish brand differentiation and customer loyalty to reduce churn.
“Price alone doesn’t really do that now and will certainly not do it in the future,” continued Stanforth. “Carriers need enterprise-based enhanced services that can be tailored to individual enterprises.”
