Vivo Selects Cisco for Billing Systems

Cisco Systems (www.cisco.com) announced that Vivo, the largest cell phone carrier in South America with more than 27 million customers, has deployed the Cisco Mobile Exchange (CMX) solution to streamline measurement and billing systems developed by Portugal Telecom Inovação (PTI).

Depending on customer use, data volume is not always the optimal parameter for billing. In Vivo's situation, it is more efficient to distinguish services accessed and bill customers based on access rather than data volume.

With solutions provided by Cisco and PTI, Vivo is now able to do intelligent billing based on actual content accessed. The project is being implemented by systems integrator Medidata.

"In such a competitive market like the one of mobile telecommunication providers where data access technology evolves quickly, mobile operators need an integrated and flexible solution that allows for the creation of dynamic and interactive services", says Átila Branco, Vivo's networks engineering manager.

Currently, Vivo employs 2G, 2.5G and 3G data access technology. Using the infrastructure provided by Cisco CMX operating with PTI systems, it will be possible to bill each service in an integrated and transparent way.

The Cisco Mobile Exchange (CMX) solution is an integral part of Cisco's ongoing endeavor to deliver solutions that exploit the full potential of Internet Protocol (IP) Services.

"Cisco has worked with Vivo's team to assist the real needs of the company. With a convergent and high performance platform, Vivo will offer much more customized and differentiated solutions for customers", says Rafael Steinhauser, Cisco Brazil president.