mSAFE, Texas Instruments Introduce Innovative ‘Handset-Based’ Method for e-Billing Applications on 2.5G and 3G Mobile Devices

mSAFE has announce a new handset-based Billing Agent that will be optimized for TI's high performance, power efficieint family of TCS wireless chipsets and OMAP application processors for 2.5G and 3G wireless devices. The solution will enable wireless service providers to bill more easily for 2.5G and 3G services such as usage-based services, Prepaid IP and content push.

(PRWEB) May 4, 2002

McLean, Va. (May 2, 2002) – While the race for next generation cellular applications and services rages on, wireless service providers know that sophisticated billing methods will be needed to properly charge consumers who use those services. mSAFE has announced a sophisticated Billing Agent, known as e-billing, that will be optimized for Texas Instruments Incorporated’s (TI) high performance, power efficient family of TCS wireless chipsets and OMAPTM application processors for 2.5G and 3G wireless devices. The first-of-its-kind billing agent can easily be controlled by a wireless service provider’s Customer Care and Billing (CC&B) system to meter device usage of its services over a next-generation wireless network.

Current legacy centralized billing systems present several challenges for wireless service providers, including billing for transmitting content over a wireless data network, and planning and executing new billing schemes such as content-based or QoS-based-billing. With mSAFE’s e-Billing technology running on TI’s wireless chipsets and OMAP processors, usage will be metered on the wireless handset or PDA. mSAFE’s Billing Agent uses a method similar to other industries, such as electric and gas utilities and pay-per-view cable television networks, to effectively assess customer usage.

“Using mSAFE’s Billing Agent along with TI’s TCS wireless chipsets and OMAP processor platform will allow cellular service providers to more easily bill customers using 2.5G and 3G services such as usage-based billable packages, pre-paid data services, pushing content over wireless data networks, and outsourcing billing services for content providers,” said Meir Lasry, VP Marketing and Sales, of mSAFE. “At the same time, we will reduce the service provider’s infrastructure cost and allow the carrier to differentiate itself further from competitors.”

Next-generation wireless service providers will enable rapid introduction of new services, and flexible billing schemes like e-Billing must be used to generate new revenues and profits. Services enabled by handset-based-billing include:

· Content-based billing (premium site billing, premium content, etc.)

· Prepaid IP billing

· Volume-based billing (bytes, packets, connections, etc.)

· Location-based billing (LBB)

· Quality of Service (QoS) and Service Level Agreement (SLA) monitoring (including service completion assurance and filtering)

· Billing and self-provisioning of Content Push (enabling sophisticated CellBroadcast billing for mass-media content push, content distribution, advertisement, etc.)

“With the mSAFE’s e-Billing solution running on TI’s TCS wireless chipsets and OMAP processors, 2.5G and 3G wireless manufacturers and service providers will not only be able to introduce innovative and new next-generation applications and services, but they will also be able to effectively bill for them,” said Tom Pollard, worldwide marketing director for TI’s chipset business.

Availability

mSAFE’s Billing Agent on TI’s TCS2100 GPRS chipset will be available for wireless device manufacturers during the third quarter of 2002.

About mSAFE

Founded in January 2000, mSAFE (http://www.msafe.com) provides the enabling platform for mCommerce used with emerging new cellular technologies. mSAFE helps operators maximize IP network profits by enabling advanced billing technologies for content and data services. The mSAFE client-based Secured Agent products (patent pending) enable the implementation of features such as usage-based billing, Prepaid data services, QoS/SLA monitoring, content-based-billing, location-based billing, and more. mSAFE addresses the new billing challenges of the cellular service providers (SPs) expected to emerge with the launch of a large number of new mobile applications developed for the 2.5G and 3G mobile networks.

About Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments Incorporated is the world leader in digital signal processing and analog technologies, the Semiconductor engines of the Internet age. In addition to Semiconductor, the company's businesses also include Sensors & Controls, and Educational & Productivity Solutions. TI is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and has manufacturing or sales operations in more than 25 countries. More information is located on the World Wide Web at http://www.ti.com.

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