Telecom Italia introduced the Intelligent Network in Italy in early 1992. The solution, based on Italtel's technology, was the world's first implementation that followed the ITU-T model.
The Italian telephone network has three main switching system suppliers and several types of electromechanical techology.
In the first phase in 1992, the Service Switching Point function was installed on 36 existing Linea UT exchanges. By the end of 1994, this function was running on 360 Linea UT exchanges. The other switch suppliers are adding this function in 1995 and 1996.
Italtel supplied all centralized systems: Service Control Point , Service Management System, the STPs, and the OSSs and integrated all these systems according to Telecom Italia's specifications.
Because in that period the ITU-T standard INAP (IN Applications Part) was still under discussion, a group formed by Telecom, Italtel and CSELT (the STET-owned research group) designed an INAP according to the ITU model which was then proposed and in large part accepted by ITU-T and ETSI.
The following services have been activated or will soon be activated; they were supplied in 1992 but were marketed according to a precise plan:
Several tens of thousands of Green Numbers are active; an extra numbering code had to be added. These have been sold to companies all over the world, so that the operators who answer can be anywhere. Of course, the calling parties are usually Italians, so many of these companies are struggling with the language problem.
The Private Virtual Network service is rapidly expanding and includes many companies in the United States with offices in Italy.
Premium Charging has been a huge success, as anyone might expect.
Televoting has already been used for television shows generating millions of calls in a short period, without disturbing normal network traffic.
Telecom Italia's network consists of two centers, Milan and Rome, with the SCPs in a load-sharing configuration: all services are configured on both SCPs. The network control and supervision center is located in Rome. This center is the most sophisticated in the world.
The SSP function is currently activated on more than 600 exchanges, including more than 360 Linea UTs.
The reason for such a large number of SSPs is easy to understand when considering the Mass Calling and Televoting services. These calls terminate in the nearest SSP and do not get routed to Rome, where the television studies are located. Only the call volumes or voting statistics are forwarded to the television client.
Sixty UT-IP Intelligent Peripherals have already been installed for customized announcements. The management and supervision center in Rome creates the messages and distributes them to all the UT-IPs.
For the Televoting and Mass Calling services, each SSP has trunks to one of the UT-IPs with no alternate routing.
For the other services, there are four UT-IPs, two in Milan and two in Roma, and the calling party is connected to the announcement though the PSTN with alternate routing used in case of all trunks busy conditions.
Italtel Societa' Italiana Telecomunicazioni Spa
Claudio Chiarenza, BUCT BPM
Comments to author:Claudio.Chiarenza@settimo.italtel.it
Contact for Information: Claudio Chiarenza - BUCT BPM
All contents copyright (C) 1995.Italtel S.p.a. All rights reserved. Revised: August 30, 1995