BellSouth Mobility DCS Selects Clear Communications to Help Ensure Network Availability and Reliability for its Wireless Customers - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Jan 17, 2000

BellSouth Mobility DCS, a provider of GSM digital wireless services in the southeastern United States, and Clear Communications, a leading developer and supplier of service assurance software solutions for the telecommunications industry, announced Monday that Clear's service assurance software has been deployed to proactively manage and monitor the wireless transport network that supports BellSouth Mobility DCS. Clear's proven expertise in service assurance solutions will assist BellSouth Mobility DCS in ensuring peak levels of availability and reliability for its wireless network, and consequently, increased customer acquisition rates and reduced customer churn.

Wireless networks, by design, rely extensively on landline circuits leased from other carriers for transport. This reliance leaves wireless carriers particularly vulnerable to telecom outages, which can be devastating to customer acquisition and retention efforts.

"To deliver consistently high levels of service to our customers, we must improve the availability and reliability of the supplier landline circuits that are a key component of our end-to-end wireless network," said Scott Daniel, transport manager, BellSouth Mobility DCS. "Clear's service assurance software provides us with direct visibility into the multiple T1 wireline circuits that connect the base stations of our wireless network. Through proactive monitoring of these circuits, we are better equipped to manage our suppliers, and to work with them to detect and repair degrading T1 circuits before our DCS customers' service is affected."

BellSouth Mobility DCS' service assurance solution consists of three Clear applications:

-- Clearview CircuitView - will allow BellSouth Mobility DCS to isolate problems more effectively by combining graphical circuit layout details with alarm status and historical performance;

-- Clearview ReportCard - will enable BellSouth Mobility DCS to consolidate raw performance data collected from numerous intelligent network elements, and organize it into a variety of easy-to-understand graphical reports; and

-- Clearview EarlyWarning - will collect and analyze historical network performance data so BellSouth Mobility DCS can identify and repair service problems before they negatively affect customer service.

With these three applications, BellSouth Mobility DCS will manage and monitor network conditions from its network management center (NMC), and from its regional offices. Clearview CircuitView will provide an interface from which service technicians can launch testing on circuits from a single application. BellSouth Mobility DCS' Florence, SC site was the initial site selected for monitoring, and the company plans to roll out additional monitoring sites in the next few months.

Clear's service assurance software delivers substantial benefits to wireless carriers and their wireless communications customers. With Clear, wireless carriers are better equipped to: manage the performance of their wireline suppliers, work with those suppliers, improve call capacity and network utilization, retain the best customers, realize potential growth of their customer base and market share, and differentiate themselves in an increasingly competitive market. Wireless communications customers will enjoy peak levels of service, including availability and reliability, and an improved sense of control over wireless services and their choice of carrier.

"BellSouth Mobility DCS views quality of service as a key metric in measuring its commitment to customers. We are extremely pleased that a wireless carrier of such caliber and reputation has chosen Clear as its service assurance partner," said Dan Pierce, vice president of marketing, Clear Communications. "As a rapidly growing wireless carrier, BellSouth Mobility DCS simply cannot afford network outages. With Clear's service assurance solutions, BellSouth Mobility DCS will be better equipped to consistently deliver excellent service to its customers."

"In the wireless business, network outages can result in a tide of lost customers, revenues, and market share, the effects of which may be felt for months," said Daniel. "Our customers expect the same levels of availability, reliability and performance that are characteristic of wireline networks. With Clear, we are better equipped to deliver just that."

BellSouth Mobility DCS launched service in 1996 and became the first company in the Southeast and the third company in the United States to introduce the latest in PCS technology. The company provides GSM-based digital wireless service in North Carolina, South Carolina, East Tennessee and eastern Georgia, an area of more than 13 million people. GSM is the world's leading wireless technology, with more than 215 million subscribers in 140 countries. BellSouth Mobility DCS is a subsidiary of BellSouth Corporation (New York Stock Exchange: BLS). Visit us on the Web at www.bellsouthdcs.com.

Clear Communications Corporation develops and supplies service assurance software solutions that are Year 2000-compliant to ensure network reliability, peak performance and improved efficiency for telecommunications service providers. The company's solutions help telecom customers identify and correct problems before they escalate into major outages. Clear's customer base includes many of the local exchange, interexchange, competitive local exchange and wireless carriers.