At Gitex for the first time Ashpool Telecom plc announces installation of a 2880 port prepaid switching platform based on its advanced SoftCall technology

The project, valued at US $500k, commenced operations in September 2005. This three site distributed voice switching network will give Sea Tel an advanced technology platform enabling prepaid calling card and account based services throughout Pakistan. Added Value features include voice mail services, multiple accounts, message forwarding, conference calling and account re-charge.

Key factors in the selection of Ashpool are the extremely competitive price per port, Ashpool's experience of working in the Pakistan telecoms market and its depth of expertise gained world-wide in the operation of prepaid solutions.

"As the region's telecoms markets ready themselves for a new era of competition Ashpool Telecom makes it's début at Gitex 2005. Anyone who is planning to enter the market for prepaid telephony services should visit us at GITEX 2005 for an introduction to our feature rich, competitively priced products," said Richard Ramsey, Sales Manager, Prepaid Solutions. "Ashpool have market leading solutions that will ensure new growth opportunities for our business partners and top-performance products for our customers in the region."

The LCT SoftCall system supplied comprises Ashpool's unique SoftCall call control technology and proprietary high performance SS7 ISUP protocol stack, SQL database server and web based interfaces for both system control and administration functions. The initial installation has capacity for 2,500,000 calls a month , which is to double in a second phase expansion. Ashpool's LCT technology is a powerful, open and fully scalable turnkey solution for prepaid and post-paid telephony applications both account based and calling card. Designed to enable operators to meet market challenges in the increasingly competitive global prepaid calling card and prepaid mobile business, LCT SoftCall delivers exceptional service levels in each area of operation.