Techwatch: Amdocs extends reach in China

Deal follows Tower Semiconductor winning a contract with California-based Ikanos Communications.

By AVI KRAWITZ
amdocs logo 88 (photo credit: )
amdocs logo 88
(photo credit: )
Amdocs ended a busy week of deals for Israeli hi-tech companies, expanding its presence in the Chinese telecommunications market. The Israeli-founded provider of integrated customer management solutions signed a contract with Jilin Unicom, a service provider in the Jilin province to consolidate and upgrade its current rating and billing systems. This will allow Jilin to create an integrated platform that allows its four million customers to personalize product bundles and choose flexible pricing plans, Amdocs said Thursday. Amdocs, which has its main research and development center in Ra'anana, embarked on a strategy to expand in China and recently bought billing company Longshine for that purpose.
  • That deal followed Tower Semiconductor winning a contract with California-based Ikanos Communications to manufacture its Vx160 high-performance DSL network processor. Migdal Ha'emek-based Tower said the product will be produced in 0.16-micron at its advanced Fab2, and will feature architectural innovations that can easily operate at the 100/100 Mbps (downstream/upstream) wire speeds. Earlier in the week, Netanya-based Saifun Semiconductor extended the license of the Saifun NROM(R) technology to Tower for the manufacture of Embedded Flash and Embedded EEPROM products.
  • Ceragon Networks, a provider of high-capacity wireless backhaul solutions, said that Ukraine's largest mobile operator, Kyivstar GSM, has been deploying its new FibeAir 1500HP since the product's release in late 2005. Tel Aviv-based Ceragon is the sole supplier of the SDH high-capacity backhaul solution used in KyivStar's cellular network. In the first half of this year approximately $1 million in revenue was recognized from this deployment, with the remaining $800,000 expected to be recognized in the second half of 2006, it said.
  • Kadima-based SuperCom signed a $1.75m. follow-on agreement with an unnamed government customer, following the successful implementation of a seven-year agreement. The provider of smart-card and electronic identification (e-ID) solutions said the deal provides for a system upgrade to its Magna solution which Supercom will supply and maintain over a two-and-a-half-year period, starting in October. The agreement was signed by SuperCom Asia Pacific, a fully owned subsidiary of SuperCom Ltd., located in Hong Kong .
  • HP Israel won a tender to establish the new computer environment for the Strauss Elite Group resulting from the new organizational needs arising after the merger of food companies Elite Industries and Strauss in 2004. The new IT formation will service 5,000 workers at the company, located at 30 sites around the country, and will help it leverage its organizational operations locally and abroad. The project is worth NIS 2.5m. to HP.