re: Unstrung's Top 25 StartupsThink my company should be atop this list... like way up there.
About TELOS Technology: TELOS Technology, Inc. is an industry leader in the development, marketing and sales of wireless solutions, with systems deployed around the world. As an innovative leader in wireless IP and 3G solutions, TELOS Technology is delivering the key components and software needed to build the networks of the future. These include Next Generation Wireless SoftSwitch platforms that provide the operational benefits of a packet-based core for 3G, 2.5G and 2G networks, Enterprise Network solutions that open new opportunities for operators to serve their enterprise customers, Feature Servers which allow operators to offer IN-based, value-added services, and IP Base Stations that extend the packet core to the edge of the network.
For more information about TELOS Technology, Inc., contact:
I was going to flame you for the blatant self-promotion, but in fairness we never really know if anyone on this site is who they say they are so I decided instead to appreciate the honesty.
But now that you have stuck your neck out, let me see if I can chop it off :-)
I'll be happy to hear what the Unstrung staff has to say about you, but I've done my own digging around and I am left wondering how you can possibly hope to succeed when you are making pretty much the same equipment as the big wireless vendors and thus competing head on without the backing of a solid reputation or reference customers of any caliber in a market that is going to be overflowing with low cost offers as the big vendors are feeling the squeeze in the current wireless market.
Let me take an example of what would worry me as a prospective customer: You are going to make your own SGSN(?!) and you are looking for a Chief SGSN Architect now. Apart from being a tad(!) late into the market, lacking in senior engineers even in this job-market?! And who knows how you are going to achieve interoperability with the other big vendors MSCs, RNCs, HLRs, GGSNs, SMSCs etc. Are you proposing to hand over the cost of all the interop testing to the operators? Just because there is a standard for the interfaces between these boxes doesn't stop there being a million little things that need tweaking before the boxes will interoperate.
Is there a strategy that operators can beleive in?
Yes you do have some interesting partnership agreements that would let you interop towards one small (in 2.5G/3G sales) vendor of each type of node, but I am talking about being able to have e.g. your SGSN talk to a Nokia GGSN.
I think in the current situation you either have to have the critical mass (which you don't - even lucent doesn't) or you have to have finances to last long enough to see if the big vendors start cracking and losing their grip/repuation. However, that kind of strategy just doesn't deserve a place in the top 25 startup list now does it?
Yah, I know, advertising/broadcasting my company... something we don't do that often I guess, but are busy enough already with real customers and deployments that we don't really need to really. Word of mouth has amazing powers. Of course, we're going to do the speaker's and conference stuff more and more now as well.
Taking up your challenge, I think you'll find that we have unbeatable technology, and we're now executing against that to be the premier NGN wireless softswitch based solutions vendor.
We have been around since 1994. Shipped over 130 turn-key mobile systems. We had a TDM based MSC since 1994.
Today, we support 2G/2.5G/3G and soon, yes, we will be, supporting AMPS, on our wireless softswitch platform. That itself is different. I'm talking about a commercially available, carrier grade softswitch solution for 2G/2.5G CDMA, GSM, GPRS, 3G CDMA2000 1X and 3G UMTS.
No one in the world has that. We work with the big guys and their RAN's. We work with the small RAN vendors too.
We also have our own IP based RAN. Inline ethernet powered GSM inbuilding basestations. IP based backhaul. Microbasestations as well.
CDMA2000 1X IP based basestations, IP based backhaul. Voice stays as 8k EVRC on the backhaul and all signaling (IOS) done over IP.
No one in the world does this. And we're getting the traction worldwide now, as we introduce this more and more in front of customers.
Interoperability has always been a part of TELOS' success and continues to be our strength. Be it with other vendors RANs, RNCs, MSCc or SS7 based gear (SGSN/HLR/SMSCs) We're involved.
Our SGSN partner is China's largest equipment manufacturer of telecom gear. There is a specific architecture and set of capabilities that cannot be publicly discussed that makes the solution attractive to the major operators in China. This partnership is just another testament to our design/technology expertise. They want our help to assist them in doing this.
I guess part of it is that we're not a fresh start-up, per say.
What we have that's hot: 1) Wireless Softswitch. 2) IP Based GSM/GPRS, CDMA2000 1X BSS. 3) IP based in-building solutions for the same.
I think the qualification was the Top 25 privately funded firms in the wireless sector. We've been around since 1994. No comment on financials.
Real products, real solutions, real customers... I guess in that way, we're not a startup...
re: Unstrung's Top 25 Startupsx-Eri wrote: "Just because there is a standard for the interfaces between these boxes doesn't stop there being a million little things that need tweaking before the boxes will interoperate."
Certainly a sad commentary on the usefulness of mobile standards. What's the point of all the standardization work, if the operators are still locked in by proprietary "tweaks"?
Don't know whether to blame the equipment vendors for cynically claiming standards compliance yet preventing interoperability, or the operators for tolerating this sort of behavior.
Doesn't change the prognosis for TELOS, but too bad the situation prevails.
It is not even deliberate in most instances (a few years back that was the case, but operators saw through that and beat up their vendors to stop doing that stuff).
It is simply because the specs are ambigious. I've seen examples where only because we had access to the other node's internal interface description did we see that had interpreted certain fields to mean something different than our how our engineers had interpreted the same text in the spec.
My point regarding the SGSN was that since Ericsson and Nokia probably have over 2/3rds of all SGSN/GGSNs/HLRs/MSCs out there the TELOS SGSN would only be properly debugged when it was interop'ed with at least one of them (Since Nokia and Ericsson share many customers they are forced to interop test their kit with each other so if you can interop with one of them chances are it'll work with both)
re: Unstrung's Top 25 StartupsInteresting, it seems to me you are probably riding on the back of Lucent and LGE for a lot of your interop testing which is a good first step, but they don't have much WCDMA/GSM orders so in that area customers will be requiering interop with Nokia or Ericsson I would think (You could probably buy that these days though, just like Megisto did)
The China Putian and Starent relationship could have potential, I will let others closer to the Chinese market determine that. I do note however, that from the news articles it seems like it is only a development partnership and nothing is said about actual orders.
Going through your partner list and news articles I am struck by some arrangements that must be the cause of some conflict. For instance how does Cisco or Lucent like that you are teaming up with PDSN (and GGSN) startup Starent? Are Cisco and Lucent old partners and Starent the one for the future? I know - I love stirring things up :-)
Does anyone else have opinions on how the In-door/entrprise GSM market looks? I would think that it could loose some appeal if WLAN gets widespread in Europe (for data anyway). Ericsson ditched their IP based GSM enterprise solution years ago...
re: Unstrung's Top 25 Startupsx-Eri: Thanks for the background, very insightful.
A similar situation on the Internet side years ago, when it didn't matter what the BGP specification said, but whether you interoperated with Cisco. After a while, the ISPs wanted more leverage and sponsored Juniper into the market, loosening that lock somewhat.
The service providers stopped after that, though. Adding a second vendor gives them more leverage, but a third or fourth vendor mostly increases their cost. Same dynamic that gives Ericsson and Nokia such a lead in wireless equipment, and Boeing and Airbus such control of commercial jets.
One other thought on standards: The IETF requires interoperability testing and demonstration before they declare something a standard, which helps eliminate the ambiguities you describe. Perhaps 3GPP would serve operators better by promoting similar public interoperability, rather than the hidden testing under non-disclosure typical today.
re: Unstrung's Top 25 StartupsInterop and 3GPP is definitely going to become a bigger and bigger issue - just looks at all the "technical issues" that are used to justify the latest round of delays of UMTS launch.
Unfortunately the IETF and "its way of working" is not great example. Especially not for BGP which must rate as one of the world's worst standards are far as compliance goes.
One saving graces are NVIOT (for infrastructure)and GCF (for terminals) - not least for GPRS roll out. Let's see if the industry can get together to correctly test UMTS.
Finally, on a sadder note, one of the biggest sources of trouble in 3GPP is there seem to be too many young kids out there that are happily rewriting stuff that worked fine for GSM. I mean, why on earth do we need to replace the good old A and Gb interfaces with this stupid Iu interface - did anyone really think we were going to do 384 kbit/s circuit switched video conf?? What will be the next mess our Nordic kindergarten friends will come up with?
About TELOS Technology:
TELOS Technology, Inc. is an industry leader in the development, marketing and sales
of wireless solutions, with systems deployed around the world. As an innovative leader
in wireless IP and 3G solutions, TELOS Technology is delivering the key components
and software needed to build the networks of the future. These include Next Generation
Wireless SoftSwitch platforms that provide the operational benefits of a packet-based
core for 3G, 2.5G and 2G networks, Enterprise Network solutions that open new
opportunities for operators to serve their enterprise customers, Feature Servers which
allow operators to offer IN-based, value-added services, and IP Base Stations that extend
the packet core to the edge of the network.
For more information about TELOS Technology, Inc., contact:
Ron Linton
TELOS Technology, Inc.
(604) 276-0055
[email protected]
www.telostechnology.com