Case Study:
Paratus Builds New Voice Network with TelcoBridges ProSBC+
Summary:
Paratus, an internet and communications provider based in Namibia, Africa, expanded their services to voice communications. However, their initial service infrastructure suffered from scaling and reliability issues. To resolve their challenges, Paratus re-architected their network using geo-redundant TelcoBridges’ ProSBC session border controller software, facilitating a highly reliable and scalable voice platform to expand their business, while addressing operational efficiencies.
Background
Paratus was founded as Internet Technologies Namibia in 2005 as the first privately and 100% wholly Namibian owned telecommunications operator. Paratus has expanded into a pan-African Organisation with operational offices in Angola, Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, DRC and Zambia with a staff compliment of about 500 employees.
Since inception, Paratus has established a prolific network extending though Namibia as well as southern Africa. The network is commensurate of our ability to provide exceptional customer service. Paratus holds a Class Comprehensive Telecommunications Service License (ECS & ECNS) in March 2012, resulting in further expansion of its access technologies, national and international network to provide telecommunications services to the Namibian public at large as well as the private and corporate sector.
Today, Paratus is still 100% Namibian owned. Paratus Namibia Holdings, a public company listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange (“NSX“) holds 100% of the shares in Paratus.
“Open-source software code quality and stability were issues that hurt reliability” – Ricky Innes, Manager of Voice at Paratus Africa
“Billing discrepancies between Paratus and our interconnect operators were a regular occurrence”, said Stefan Frank Schultz, Executive Technology at Paratus Telecom. “Resolving them was very time-consuming and lacked a good audit trail”
“We began looking at replacing voice solution with projects from major voice network software products, but the costs were prohibitive for the market conditions in Africa” – Ricky Innes
Challenges
Building on their success as an international internet service provider, in 2013 Paratus sought to expand their business to include voice communication services to businesses and individual subscribers.
An early voice network was built using open-source software components for call traffic management and billing interfaces. As subscribers were added to the network, some challenges became apparent that would cap their ability to efficiently operate and further grow their business.
Most troublesome were periodic outages and lack of architecture redundancy. The stability of the software was questionable and access to support was difficult, depending on community best-effort or expensive external consultants for assistance.
“Open-source software code quality and stability were issues that hurt reliability” – Ricky Innes, Manager of Voice at Paratus Africa
The process of collecting call detail records (CDR) and accurately billing customers for their usage was also a growing issue. Generating accurate invoices for their subscribers was labor-intensive and very error prone, causing discrepancies when settling accounts with their interconnect operators.
“Billing discrepancies between Paratus and our interconnect operators were a regular occurrence”, said Stefan Frank Schultz, Executive Technology at Paratus Telecom. “Resolving them was very time-consuming and lacked a good audit trail”
Making the billing effort more challenging were the regular rate changes that interconnect operators would publish, requiring frequent modifications to billing algorithms – all being performed manually.
To resolve the reliability and billing challenges, the team at Paratus decided to re-examine the voice infrastructure, exploring a new voice network infrastructure, geo-redundancy and commercial software products that could scale with their business. However, many of the commercial offerings were not a good fit for the emerging communications market in Namibia.
“We began looking at replacing voice solution with projects from major voice network software products, but the costs were prohibitive for the market conditions in Africa” – Ricky Innes
“The first priority was to address stability of call quality and facilitate transcoding requirements…we started working with ProSBC in 2019, using the TelcoBridges video training series to help get started.” – Ricky Innes
Solution
To address their scaling, reliability and billing needs, the team at Paratus restarted with a new ground-up network topology, based on a geo-redundant architecture with facilities in their Windhoek headquarters and nearby Pioneers Park. The new architecture is based on a layered approach with layers for interconnect, access, and billing network interfaces, interconnected via TelcoBridges’ ProSBC session border controller software at the core of each layer. In this architecture, ProSBC manages call traffic and security, while providing an interface to a billing software solution.
“The first priority was to address stability of call quality and facilitate transcoding requirements…we started working with ProSBC in 2019, using the TelcoBridges video training series to help get started.” – Ricky Innes
Realizing there was much to learn in building their new network, Ricky completed the TelcoBridges ProSBC training series and earned his ProSBC TechTrained status. The training gave Ricky the tools and knowledge needed to design and manage the planned network topology.
Addressing their call routing requirements, Paratus selected Jerasoft, a TelcoBridges’ Alliance Partner, that offers sophisticated call traffic management software for service providers. The integration utilizes the RADIUS protocol to pass call detail information to Jerasoft and least-cost routing information back to ProSBC. The integrated ProSBC/Jerasoft solution also automates route changes, significantly reducing the administrative workload.
More recently, Paratus added residential and business lines to their offering, working with a UCaaS/IP-PBX software package hosted in their data center. Access to the IP-PBX is facilitated by redundant ProSBC instances, configured to enable end customer IP-phones or FTTH ONTs to register and gain services.
“Thanks to our training, the project was done completely in-house, by Namibians” – Ricky Innes
“It’s remarkable – with the migration to ProSBC, we have resolved our billing problems, eliminating the discrepancies with our wholesale interconnect operators… this year, we haven’t had one dispute” – Stefan Frank Schultz
Results
The results of the new network topology, security, and billing infrastructure are showing immediate positive results. Paratus is currently serving over 700 commercial and business customers across Namibia and quickly expanding into the residential and small business markets. Additionally, Paratus is also now peering with four national and eight international interconnect operators to provide global calling plans.
“Thanks to our training, the project was done completely in-house, by Namibians” – Ricky Innes
“It’s remarkable – with the migration to ProSBC, we have resolved our billing problems, eliminating the discrepancies with our wholesale interconnect operators… this year, we haven’t had one dispute” – Stefan Frank Schultz
Looking ahead, Paratus is planning to expand voice services across other neighboring African countries, becoming an international operator, focused on the wider African market.
More on Paratus at: https://paratus.africa/
More on TelcoBridges ProSBC at: https://telcobridges.com
More on Jerasoft at: https://www.jerasoft.net/
Case Study Video:
When building new VoIP networks, capturing call details about subscriber traffic is critical for billing and settling with interconnect operators. In this webinar, you will learn the benefits of a fully integrated solution, leveraging ProSBC with Jerasoft billing software to reduce billing errors and settlement effort. Watch to hear from Ricky Innes, Manager of Voice at Paratus Africa as he shares their story in building a new voice network in Namibia and beyond.