SYSTEMS

Indonesia's cellular market leader, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), has selected Datacraft, the region's leading independent IT services company, to expand its Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) network to another 33 locations across the country. The network is comprised of equipment from Cisco Systems. MPLS is used to help ensure that all packets in a particular flow take the same route over a backbone, delivering the quality of service (QoS) required to support realtime voice and video as well as service level agreements (SLAs) that help guarantee bandwidth. Telkomsel is Indonesia's leading cellular telecommunications service provider, commanding more than 52% share of the nation's mobile market and supporting more than 10 million customers on its nationwide GSM network. It initiated its MPLS backbone network project in 2001, awarding the first and second phase implementation contracts to Datacraft. "The high-performance MPLS backbone is designed to help provide predictable services for our delay-sensitive applications such as billing record information, voice-over-IP and WAP," said Ivan C. Permana, Head of Packet Data Network of Telkomsel. "We are now building out the network to include nodes in the major provincial centres, enabling us to raise customer satisfaction levels and revenues through innovative services that will keep Telkomsel ahead of the competition. Datacraft's professionalism, strong relationship with Cisco and track-record of success during the first phases of MPLS backbone implementation made it the natural choice of partner to entrust with this important expansion." Telkomsel's Datacraft-designed MPLS infrastructure is based on Cisco's advanced routing and switching technology. Cisco 7500 Series and 7200 Series Routers provide Telkomsel with redundancy, reliability, and performance at the network backbone, while redundant Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Switches at the outer sides of the MPLS backbone provide entry point and help ensure non-stop services for users and other access requirement throughout the archipelago. Datacraft Primer, the company's installation and project management service, is being deployed to ensure the network expansion is completed on time and within budget. Telkomsel is also making use of Datacraft Professional Services to extend its previously installed iBOSS integrated network management system (iNMS) to provide consolidated event and performance management of the new infrastructure. "Telkomsel's MPLS infrastructure is truly mission critical," said Handy S. Wirawan, General Manager of Datacraft Indonesia. "Not only does it deliver consistent quality of service to customers across the country, but it does so in a highly efficient and dynamic manner, automatically adjusting to different types of traffic and changing conditions in real-time. That increases Telkomsel's return-on-investment and ensures that, like Datacraft, Telkomsel maintains high levels of customer satisfaction over the long-haul." "Telkomsel is one of the more innovative and forward-looking service providers in the country. Their decision to continue working with Cisco and Datacraft speaks volumes of the professionalism and customer service that both companies are known for," said Irfan Setiaputra, Managing Director, Indonesia, Cisco Systems.