Telefónica taps ASSIA for multinational DSL network management

Telefónica has decided to extend an existing agreement with DSL management specialist ASSIA, Inc. to cover management of ADSL and evolving VDSL networks, with an initial focus on South America. The contract extension will see ASSIA offerings applied to more than eight million customer lines worldwide.

ASSIA, a portfolio company of Telefónica, will supply its DSL Expresse line optimization module and ClearView customer-care recommendation engine. The deployments will improve Telefónica’s ability to proactively detect and repair problems in its DSL networks as well as improve the care the carrier’s customer service reps can provide, ASSIA says. They also will enable real-time line optimization; support for single-ended loop test (SELT) for enhanced diagnostics, cost savings, and service delivery; micro-filter detection, which enables call-center agents to detect missing micro filters on customer lines; power management; and ADSL2 diagnostics.

ASSIA recently enhanced DSL Expresse to support VDSL2 vectoring. A source at ASSIA says that Telefónica will use DSL Expresse to manage its growing VDSL footprint, but that vectoring support is not currently part of ASSIA technology deployment.

The initial roll out will focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru.

“We are pleased to incorporate the latest DSL Expresse features, which reinforce the value of our operations and technical assistance tools in improving service performance and customer care, as well as reducing our maintenance costs,” said Enrique Blanco, global CTO of Telefónica. “The improvements that we have realized with ASSIA for the past three years since we first invested in them clearly justified the expansion of our relationship as we continue to focus on delivering the highest speeds and latest services to our customers.”

“As consumers around the world increasingly expect high-speed broadband for services such as streaming video, ASSIA is delighted to expand our partnership with Telefónica and to offer our new business and technical solutions for improving customer care and engagement,” said Dr. John Cioffi, CEO and chairman of ASSIA. “With this agreement, Telefónica is clearly at the leading edge of service providers dedicated to improving the customer experience.”

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