VoIP Pioneer Neide Telecom Helps Lead Modernization Of Iraqi Kurdistan Using PortaSwitch Softswitch/Billing Platform

COQUITLAM, British Columbia, June 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Iraqi Kurdistan has catching up to do. Despite being the most stable portion of Iraq during the Allied occupation, the autonomous region, led by the Kurdistan Regional Government, is pressing forward with the kinds of infrastructure investments that will allow it to compete on a world stage in the decades ahead.

Since its founding in 2009, Neide Telecom has been the region's innovator in voice and data services. The company was the first in all of Iraq to offer VoIP, providing support for SIP trunking, SIP interconnections with other carriers, ISDN and PSTN services. With international points of presence (POPs) deployed in Tier 1 global data centers and over 100 nationwide POPs, Neide Telecom is not only helping broadband and mobile operators extend their services, but also establishing a reliable communication infrastructure to foster development across the nation.

When Neide Telecom began searching for a software platform to support the core elements of its operations, the company's engineers and management came to the same conclusion. "We felt PortaSwitch was the best possible choice," said Jihad Ibhaiss, Neide Telecom General Manager. "Unlike many other software products on the market, PortaSwitch gave us very attractive options to create as many SIP accounts as we wanted, and as many interconnections with our partners as we needed."

PortaSwitch, PortaOne's flagship product, is a comprehensive, convergent billing software system, Class 4-5 softswitch, and media application server solution. Capable of handling all the call control, routing, proxying and converged billing functions of a full-service digital services company, PortaSwitch unifies voice and data traffic within a single network. Moreover, the platform provides billing and provisioning as well as a host of network functions including SIP call control, unified messaging, IP Centrex and hosted IP PBX, callback management, IVRs, conferencing and more.

"One of the things that makes us different and competitive in our market is our ability to offer SIP-to-SIP calls free of charge, plus very low rates for national and international calls within and outside of Iraq," stated Fadhil Ali, Voice Manager for Neide Telecom. "PortaSwitch helps reinforce our low-cost, high-service reputation. Through the PortaSwitch customer self-care portal, for example, our customers can access their historic data, call records and active calls."

On the operations side, Ali pointed to the performance aspects of PortaSwitch. "PortaSwitch provides us with an extremely instrumental facility to debug failed calls by using call trace messages. If we require more advanced support, PortaOne provides excellent 24/7 technical assistance at very reasonable fees," he stated.

Ibhaiss, the general manager, believes PortaSwitch to be a key reason why Neide Telecom is able to offer state-of-the-art service to consumers and businesses throughout Iraqi Kurdistan. He stated that PortaSwitch's scalability, ease of implementation and ability to add services as needed have all been critical to his company's success.

"All of this amazing functionality is available through a very simple interface that required a really short time to configure," he said. "We have never experienced any downtime with PortaSwitch. That has significantly lowered our labor costs and helped us stay on top of our customers' expectations."

About PortaOne:
Based in Canada, PortaOne is a leading global provider of software for the telecommunications and utility industries. The company's products enable service providers and carriers to run a broad line of retail and wholesale services within a single software package. PortaOne's flagship products, PortaSwitch (www.PortaOne.com/PortaSwitch/index.php) and MetroBilling (www.MetroBilling.com) are a fundamental part of the business infrastructure for over 380 service providers and telcos in 80+ countries worldwide. Over two-thirds of PortaOne staff are support engineers providing the best-in-industry 24/7 technical support services for clients involved in hosted IP PBX and SIP trunking services, calling cards, wholesale origination and termination, residential triple-play, MVNO/MVNE, callshops and more. To learn more, visit www.PortaOne.com.

SOURCE PortaOne