Bridgewater Systems Introduces GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter

(PRWEB) May 5, 2005 -- Bridgewater Systems, a provider of dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions, today introduced GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter, the GPRS version of its mediation solution that filters, formats and streams usage records to appropriate billing and settlement systems.

According to Russ Freen, co-founder and chief technology officer of Bridgewater Systems, “While Bridgewater Systems is primarily known for its CDMA and Wi-Fi offerings, many service providers utilize GPRS networks. The introduction of GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter is in direct response to that need.�

GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter has been licensed by First Cellular of Southern Illinois, the only locally owned and operated wireless provider in the region. In this deployment, GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter functions as the charging gateway for roaming traffic generated by Tier 1 GPRS service provider subscribers roaming on the First Cellular network. The new offering will enable First Cellular to gather usage records, sort and format and then deliver them to a Verisign billing system for billing and clearing. Testing of the system began in January.

“One of the primary reasons we selected Bridgewater Systems’ solution is that it offers both GPRS and CDMA 1X versions of its Revenue Collector and Formatter,� said, Tania Seger, vice president and chief financial officer, First Cellular. “While we require a GPRS system now for our roaming network, we are also interested in Bridgewater Systems’ CMDA 1X solution for our CDMA network down the road.�

GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter quickly and affordably integrates with existing systems to aggregate event-based accounting data into single-session records that identify subscribers and their usage. It then filters, formats and streams these records to external billing and settlement systems, providing an affordable alternative to custom or mediation-based solutions.

Records can be converted and formatted to accommodate virtually any external billing and settlement system. For protection, service providers can back up records in two geographically separate locations.

Using a simple, XML-based formatting language, extensible data-driven formatting allows new output record formats to be defined with no need for any development or professional services.

GPRS Revenue Collector and Formatter is currently available. Pricing is based upon an expected return on investment of less than one year.