Majority of Tier One Operators Want Independent Policy Servers That Integrate With Separate Charging Systems, Finds

MORRISVILLE, NC, Jan 24 (MARKET WIRE) --
Tekelec (NASDAQ: TKLC), the mobile broadband solutions company, today
published research from industry analyst firm Heavy Reading showing that
the majority of tier one mobile operators plan to integrate policy
servers with existing charging and billing systems rather than deploy
pre-integrated policy and charging systems from a single vendor.

The report, "Policy, Charging & Billing: What Tier 1 Operators Want,"
finds that "scaling pre-integrated solutions based on proprietary
interfaces between policy and charging may be a stumbling block here,
especially if it entails high professional service costs."

Other key results show that:

-- Nearly 70 percent of tier ones said they will use the policy server (a
policy and charging rules function, or PCRF) to perform some charging
or rating functions.
-- Tier one operators have run into significant challenges implementing
online charging for data. For example, almost 60 percent cited higher
costs due to customization and professional services.
-- Use of the 3GPP-specified interfaces is the most popular option for
initial integration of policy and charging.
-- One of the most important policy server buying requirements is
real-world experience integrating with third-party charging systems.

"Only a minority of the Tier one respondents said they would deploy
pre-integrated policy and charging solutions in the medium term," said
Graham Finnie, chief analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the report.
"The majority is seeking good interoperability and integration of policy
with independent charging systems, using standardized interfaces wherever
possible."

The survey also shows that more than one-third of service providers
believe that the new Sy interface, due out in 2012, will simplify
integration between policy servers and charging systems.

"Service providers want maximum flexibility, scalability and signaling
efficiency in their policy servers, coupled with an easy-to-use rules
engine and analytics to create and evolve services. An independent,
best-of-breed policy server is the best way to meet these requirements,"
said Doug Suriano, chief technology officer at Tekelec. "We have
integrated our policy server with charging systems across dozens of tier
one operators. The release of the new Sy interface will improve
integration with charging systems and eliminate cumbersome, proprietary
approaches that limit scalability and increase costs."

Tekelec sponsored the Heavy Reading survey of 30 respondents in network
planning, engineering, CTO, sales, marketing, product development and
customer support departments for service providers with revenues above $1
billion. All service providers have deployed or are in the process of
deploying a PCRF or other standardized policy server.

Supporting Resources
Policy, Charging & Billing: What Tier 1 Operators
Want
Why Tekelec for Policy: Key Considerations in Selecting a
Next-Generation Policy Server
Policy Server product brief
An
Intelligent Approach to Monetizing Mobile Broadband white paper
Current
Analysis: Tekelec Policy Server Product Assessment

About Tekelec
Tekelec's intelligent mobile broadband solutions enable
service providers to manage and monetize mobile data and evolve to LTE
and IMS. We are the architects of the new Diameter network, the
foundation for session, policy and subscriber data management. More than
300 service providers use our market-leading solutions to deliver cloud,
machine-to-machine and personalized services to consumers and
enterprises. For more information visit www.tekelec.com.

Contact:
Adam Parken
Senior Manager, Marketing Communications
(o) +1.919.653.9681
adam.parken@tekelec.com

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