Neustar, CITIC1616 bring borderless communications to China

"As China gets ready to unveil number portability, PathFinder will prepare CITIC 1616 to meet this challenge and promote growth in new services. Through PathFinder, CITIC 1616 will be able to deliver its IP-based services across network boundaries," said Steve Edwards, senior vice president, Carrier Services at Neustar. "We are pleased that CITIC 1616, which delivers telecommunication services to more than 527 operators across the world, has chosen PathFinder."

PathFinder is a GSMA-managed service operated by Neustar that enables operators to route telecommunications traffic and interconnect with other operators. Based on the telephony mapping standard, ENUM, PathFinder covers approximately 85 percent of the telephone numbers worldwide that can be ported, according to a company representative.

"We selected PathFinder based on its history of enabling interoperability across the globe. As the Asian telecommunications market continues its aggressive rollout of IP-based services, it is increasingly important for CITIC 1616 to be able to deliver services across network boundaries," says Sutton Cheung, chief technology officer of CITIC 1616.

Neustar and the GSMA supply PathFinder to more than 60 service providers. Interoperability is particularly important in facilitating the uptake of emerging services. Asia continues to advance its leadership in IP-based services.

"Asia represents an enormous potential market for IP services," says Adrian Dodd, senior director, managed services at the GSMA. "With number portability soon becoming a reality in one of the world's largest economies, we expect the rich next generation service creation environment to accelerate as operators deliver new services to retain customers. The critical success factor, as these beneficial new developments take place is being able to deliver communications accurately and reliably to consumers regardless of their chosen device, technology or service provider and PathFinder was designed to facilitate this requirement."