Octel and Qualcomm Agreement Ushers in New Era in Enhanced Mobile Communications
Wireless service providers seeking a more complete solution will soon have a new generation of high-quality, innovative services to choose from as a result of a marketing agreement signed today between telecommunications leaders Octel Communications Corporation and Qualcomm Incorporated.
Octel and Qualcomm have agreed that Qualcomm will act as an authorized sales representative for Octel's Sierra voice processing platform and applications in the global wireless market, allowing Qualcomm service provider customers to immediately deploy new, revenue-generating enhanced services, such as voice messaging, call message delivery and fax messaging services. The agreement leaves open the opportunity for both companies to pursue other joint activities, such as tighter product integration and new product development.
Service providers focusing on the emerging PCS market will now be able to quickly develop competitive enhanced services and products using Octel's technology that will run on Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless infrastructure equipment. Subscribers will gain the advantages of Qualcomm's superior voice quality and signal transmission, as well as access to Octel's enhanced voice messaging services. As a result, these new enhanced services will provide incremental revenue opportunities to service providers, as well as reduce wireless subscriber churn rates by increasing customer loyalty.
"Enhanced services are a vital part of our strategy to offer complete digital wireless infrastructure products to our customers worldwide. By partnering with Octel and others, we will be able to offer service providers both superior CDMA wireless technology and revenue-generating enhanced services," said Ron Foerster, senior vice president and general manager, Wireless Infrastructure Products for Qualcomm.
"This partnership provides a foundation upon which both Octel and Qualcomm can deliver additional services such as short message services and single-number call processing to end users. We see it as a win-win for everyone involved," said Margaret Norton, senior vice president, Voice Information Services, Octel.
About Qualcomm
Headquartered in San Diego, Qualcomm develops, manufactures, markets, licenses and operates advanced communications systems and products based on its proprietary digital wireless technologies. The Company's primary product areas are the OmniTRACS® system (a geostationary satellite-based, mobile communications system providing two-way data and position reporting services), CDMA wireless communications systems and products and, in conjunction with others, the development of the Globalstar™ low-earth-orbit(LEO) satellite communications system. Other company products include the Eudora Pro™ electronic mail software, VLSI components, and communications equipment and systems for government and commercial customers worldwide.
About Octel Communications Corporation
Octel Communications is the voice messaging company. Its worldwide leadership extends to over 40 countries and includes more than 30,000,000 users of Octel voice mail. Octel's products are bought and used by businesses of all sizes, governments, educational institutions, telephone companies and cellular service providers. Through Octel Network Services, the company is the world's largest outsourcer of voice mail providing a wide range of outsourcing services to phone companies and businesses. Founded in 1982, the company is headquartered in Milpitas, California. The company has development centers in California, Texas, England, France and Israel and major operations centers in California and Texas.
Editor's Note: Qualcomm's digital CDMA technology greatly expands cellular network capacity - vitally needed where analog networks are saturated. By using spread spectrum techniques to allow multiple calls on a single 1.25MHz channel, Qualcomm's CDMA technology can accommodate a 10- to 20-fold increase in capacity over today's analog system. In addition to capacity benefits, CDMA provides far superior voice quality and privacy, and its digital control channel enables the industry to meet user demands for enhanced services like those offered by Octel.
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