HP Introduces GSM Test Solutions to Help Mobile-Service; Operators Fight Fraud and Increase Operation Efficiency

HP Strengthens Its Overall Solution Offerings for
Mobile-Service Operators

At a press conference today, Hewlett-Packard Company launched test products for the GSM network-operator market and announced the company's intention to deliver a GSM fraud-detection application for its industry-leading HP acceSS7 network-monitoring system.

The GSM solutions will provide network operators and service providers with innovative ways to fight fraud, improve quality of service, trouble-shoot GSM base stations and mobile phones, and increase overall customer satisfaction.

"HP has long been recognized for test products that help mobile-phone manufacturers build GSM handsets successfully," said Byron Anderson, HP vice president and general manager of the Microwave Communications Group. "Today we are highlighting a strong set of solutions that benefit GSM service providers in Europe's fast-growing, highly competitive mobile-communications market."

Fraud Detection for GSM Operators

To help GSM service providers reduce their fraud losses, HP announced its plan to provide a GSM fraud application for its HP acceSS7 system sometime this spring. The application would enable network operators to rapidly detect and resolve GSM fraud scenarios, such as subscription fraud, and GSM-handset and subscriber identity module (SIM-card) abuse, such as roaming fraud and parallel call forwarding.

The HP acceSS7 system monitors the SS7 network links to provide information about the network, calls and services for use in a variety of applications. In addition to fraud management, these applications include network surveillance and trouble-shooting, billing-data collection and business-intelligence applications for business decision-making.

Improved Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction

In separate announcements, HP today focused on new products and product deployments that are helping GSM service providers deliver faster, better service to their customers:

-- HP is lowering the cost of GSM mobile-phone repair with the 6 HP
E6392A GSM mobile-station test set. To help local service centers
cope with the growing number of phones coming in for repair, the
test set provides module-level trouble-shooting and repair
capability for the price of an entry-level, "go/no-go" tester.

-- Orange PCS Ltd., a leading mobile-phone operator in the United
Kingdom, has installed the HP acceSS7 system to maintain customer
satisfaction proactively as Orange expands its network and
launches new services. The system assists with network
monitoring, diagnostics, management and planning. According to
Orange, the system already has helped solve several network
problems.

-- Ericsson, a leading manufacturer of GSM base stations, has helped
HP develop a base-station test set that meets real-world test
needs by providing reliable, easy-to-use measurement tools. As a
result of this cooperative effort, the HP 8935 Series E6382A test
set enables base-station installation, commissioning and
maintenance personnel to become more efficient in the field.

-- Also highlighted at the press conference was HP's recently
introduced family of portable drive-test systems, which provide
air-interface measurements for GSM networks. By combining
receiver and phone measurements, the systems provide an efficient
way to optimize the performance of a GSM network and quickly
uncover the source of a service problem.

About HP

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP has 124,600 employees and had revenue of $47.1 billion in its 1998 fiscal year.

Information about HP and its products can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.hp.com.

CONTACT: Hewlett-Packard
John McCreadie, 408/553-7342

dearjohn@sc.hp.com
Mirain De Baets, 31-20-547-7799

miriam-de_baets@hp.com

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