Ascade Wins in NZ

STOCKHOLM -- Ascade, the global market-leader in Business Operations Systems for trading and exchanging voice traffic, today announced that it has delivered a QoS solution to TelstraClear in New Zealand. TelstraClear Limited is wholly owned by Telstra Corporation Limited, Australia's largest telecommunications company.

Through the Test Calling solution, TelstraClear will be able to perform interactive and scheduled testing of voice, modem, fax, and ISDN call quality. The solution includes a large range of quality parameters which are presented in real-time allowing TelstraClear to test currently implemented suppliers as well as potential suppliers to ensure the optimal QoS to its customers.

"Quality of service is very important to TelstraClear and the addition of the Test Calling solution from Ascade gives us a sustainable competitive advantage. We want to make sure that all traffic routed on our international destinations can be terminated with the quality our domestic and international customers expect. For TelstraClear, higher quality means our customers make more calls, talk for longer, and are less likely to churn. The Test Calling solution reduces the time spent testing routes, allows more testing to be done, and also reduces fault calls into our Call Centre and Network Operation Centre. The ability to schedule testing allows us to work around timezone differences between New Zealand and the rest of the world. The solution allows us to safely try out and take advantage of better-priced routes without sacrificing quality. All of these factors improve our customers' experience, make employees' jobs easier and more productive, and improve TelstraClear's profitability", comments Paul Partridge, International Business Manager at TelstraClear Ltd.

"Ascade sees an increased demand for Quality of Services solutions in competitive markets. Quality is increasingly becoming the major service differentiator and consumers are requesting more and more in terms of QoS and SLA-commitments", comments Henrik Anderberg, CEO of Ascade. Mr. Anderberg continues,"The implementation at TelstraClear shows that the process from decision to an operational solution that proactively improves quality can be very fast".

Ascade AB

TelstraClear Ltd.