January 12, 2010 |  Tekelec, the network signaling, mobile messaging and performance management company, is deploying its SIGTRAN – signaling system 7 (SS7) over Internet protocol (IP) – solution at TELUS, a Canadian national telecommunications company. The deal gives TELUS an important component in the company’s planned migration to long term evolution (LTE) technology.

By rolling out SIGTRAN on Tekelec’s market-share leading EAGLE® 5 platform, TELUS is implementing an IP-based network architecture that lowers transport costs and increases bandwidth for network signaling while maximizing the value of current network technology. The TELUS network upgrades also provide the operator with more comprehensive international roaming and faster mobile broadband speeds.

“Interoperability among equipment underpins our ability to improve customers’ services and experiences,” said Ken Kerrigan, TELUS vice-president of technology strategy. “Tekelec brings a flexible and scalable SIGTRAN solution, ensuring that we can support a combination of network technologies as we grow our customer base and provide new offerings.”

The EAGLE 5 SIGTRAN solution provides a signaling foundation for operators to migrate to session initiation protocol (SIP) signaling in IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) and LTE architectures. SIGTRAN offers more capacity over IP, reducing link quantity requirements, improving efficiency of bandwidth utilization, and lowering transport costs. The introduction of standards-based SIGTRAN is fully compatible with the existing SS7 signaling network. In addition, the EAGLE 5 platform supports multiple core networking functions, including signal transfer point (STP), intelligent routing and number portability. Cumulatively, these benefits lead to more advanced and cost-effective services.

“TELUS is planning for the inevitable transition to 4G networks, taking a practical approach by leveraging today’s technology while investing in future needs,” said Ron de Lange, executive vice president at Tekelec. “We are excited to route nation-wide SIGTRAN traffic across Canada and support the TELUS evolution to next-generation networks.”