Bridgewater Systems Targets Telecom Clearinghouses With Solution That Enables CDMA 1x, Wi-Fi Service Providers to Offer Roaming Data Services.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

KANATA, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 16, 2003

Out-of-Box Application Offers Unmatched Scalability;

Includes Sophisticated Redundancy and Repudiation Features

Bridgewater Systems(TM), a provider of dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions, today announced Clearinghouse Solution, which is targeted at telecommunications clearinghouses working with CDMA 1x and Wi-Fi service providers that wish to offer subscribers roaming data services.

Data roaming is becoming increasingly important, as wireless subscribers require the same ubiquity of access in data services as they have in voice services. But to provide this, service providers must effectively manage how they exchange records and payments between themselves when subscribers roam.

Clearinghouse Solution, which is comprised of Bridgewater Systems' AAA Service Controller and Revenue Collector systems, enables clearinghouses to manage CDMA 1x and Wi-Fi payment and reconciliation information as subscribers roam between services.

Clearinghouse Solution offers the following features:

-- Brokering of real-time authentication of the roaming partner

subscribers.

-- Collection and distribution of usage information between the

roaming partners.

-- Rating of transactions on a wholesale basis.

-- Summarization of usage data for partners, showing their

subscribers usage of partner networks.

-- Dispute resolution.

According to Celine Bak, vice president of products for Bridgewater Systems, "Allowing subscribers to roam enables service providers to generate new revenue streams and increase the usage of data services. However, because of their flat rate nature, these revenues must be protected from the current per transaction charges associated with the voice clearing processes or the necessity of paying multiple parties to enable the payment and reconciliation between service providers. Bridgewater Systems' Clearinghouse Solution enables service providers to offer subscribers the type of roaming data services they want at an acceptable price."

To handle dispute resolution, Bridgewater Systems includes a facility that maintains a copy of all user records as they pass through in their unprocessed format. This copy is kept in an easily searchable archive, which can be searched by service providers to save the overhead cost of using a third party. Vital information is protected through built-in redundancy features.

Bridgewater Systems' new offering is highly scalable. It has been lab tested at Sun Microsystems and shown to support 30 million subscribers and 9000 transactions/second. Scalability of this magnitude is crucial. Clearinghouses must manage massive amounts of roaming traffic with a minimum-computing infrastructure. Intelligent support is built in to the solution to enable the efficient and simple distribution of information between the roaming partners. Beyond this, it is the first out-of-the-box application of its kind for the clearinghouse market, which speeds implementation and reduces associated costs.

Clearinghouse Solution is available immediately. Pricing is individually based upon an expected return on investment of less than a year.

About Bridgewater Systems (www.bridgewatersystems.com)

Bridgewater Systems provides dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions that enable service providers to generate profits from their networks while enhancing customer loyalty. The modular Bridgewater Systems product suite extracts greater value from existing operations support systems (OSS), business support systems (BSS) and network assets to enable service providers to realize new revenue sources. Unlike traditional OSS vendors, Bridgewater Systems' proven products deliver on-demand dynamic IP and data services, offer extensive revenue capture capabilities, provide out-of-the-box value and can be deployed in weeks -- instead of months.

Bridgewater Systems products are currently deployed by top-tier global service providers such as Bell Mobility, ICG Communications, Covad and Telia. Founded in 1997, Bridgewater Systems is a privately held company.

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