Holger Schreyer, Vice President Corporate Marketing at Infitel, dubs the problem as the lost call syndrome. He says: "Half the time calls are not completed because phones are turned off, there is no coverage or because the party being called is busy. Currently, the cure for this is to leave a voice mail, then hope and pray that the person hears it and returns your call. This puts the obligation on the person being called to return the call, and also makes it their financial responsibility. Worse still, thirty percent of users are reluctant to use voice mail."

Infitel has a better remedy. Its Advanced Call Completion application is built on a solid business case with a proposition as attractive to operators as it is to users. The idea is simple. Instead of an uncompleted call, callers are notified when a called party becomes available, or calls may even be automatically set up.

In the event of an unsuccessful call attempt, the calling party (A) will be connected to an automatic voice response system and offered the opportunity to book an automatic re-connect to the called party (B). Upon A's acceptance, the system registers the automatic re-connect. Once party B is online and free again, the system calls and connects both parties. Customization allows operators to define specific charging for this call or charge additional fees for the re-connect service.

Infitel's Advanced Call Completion application has been defined for deployment as an OSA/Parlay-based service, as well as for an IN-based implementation.

Schreyer says: "The network leaves all the work to the application (Infitel application server) to set up the call. Operators can drive up call completion minutes, leading to increased revenue. Their return on investment (RoI) can be made in as little time as four to five months – easily within the 'magic' 12 months that operators expect today as maximum time of RoI. That creates a very nice business case.

"A good value-added service argument is the ability to customize the application. Segments can be targeted, personalizing it to attract users, unlike an operator offering ten million subscribers the same inflexible solution." The flexible and lucrative solution has appealed to at least one major European mobile operator, who will launch the service later this year.

Although Infitel hit a few stumbling blocks along the way, taking the idea from conception to launch went surprisingly quickly. Schreyer credits teamwork between Infitel's developers and Ericsson for the success. "The service demanded a lot of integration work and cooperation – both partners were on board. It could only have worked if there was good cooperation."

Speaking from the recent Parlay Member Meeting in Osaka, Marc LeClerc, from Ericsson Canada and chairman of the Parlay Group Marketing Workgroup, said there has been a huge increase in tenders for Parlay applications, some of which include up to 10 applications in a single tender. There were 40 public tenders in 2004 and there are at least 15 tenders under way so far this year. He says Parlay is increasingly seen as a key part of any service delivery platform, and Parlay/OSA solutions are becoming more prevalent at software developer conferences.

Schreyer urges developers to go and try Parlay technology. "It's a mature technology that works exactly as it's supposed to. It is much faster to develop with today than, say, four years ago when it made its introduction. And Ericsson's Network Resource Gateway is a highly-recommended and mature product."

Find out more about Parlay and Ericsson Network Resource Gateway

Visit Infitel's website

By Kris Walmsley