Frost & Sullivan selected Tekelec as the recipient of the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Line Strategy in recognition of its full line of IP communications infrastructure equipment that not only accommodates both legacy and cutting-edge technology but also provides a growth path for customers when they install the latest applications on their networks.

"The depth of Tekelec's offerings within each product category enables clients to choose from various types of products, and its breadth across related products allows distributors and service integrators to easily put together a package of products for each customer," says Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Shirley Hunt. "Tekelec also is able to approach the market on its own or as part of a larger offering, giving it a flexible distribution strategy."

Among Tekelec's cost-effective easy-to-install products, the Tekelec 6000 VoIP Application Server is particularly in demand. It supports a wide variety of applications and services, making it simple for carriers and service providers to create new services for its customers.

The Tekelec 6000 also offers integrated session border controller (SBC) functionality, eliminating the need for operators to integrate third-party SBCs at every node or gateway. It has one-to-one redundancy for carrier-grade reliability and uptime and certain applications, such as conferencing and voicemail, are integrated into the application server.

In short, the Tekelec 6000 makes the service control environment more accessible and is more cost-effective for both large and small service providers to deliver revenue-building VoIP services. Consequently, service providers can gain revenues for IP-based services in the short term before implementing a full IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) platform.

When combined with one of Tekelec's softswitches, VoIP services are available for VoIP and plain old telephone service (POTS) users -- a significant advantage and revenue source for service providers.

"Tekelec also is building on its IMS migration strategy for service providers," notes Hunt. "The goal is to aid carriers in evolving their networks to IP and SIP while leveraging existing legacy signaling infrastructure."

The company's IMS components consist of a service management gateway, a voice call continuity (VCC) mobility manager, a SIP-to-SS7 gateway, a presence gateway, a Service Control Interaction Manager (SCIM) and the TekCore Call Session Control Function (CSCF). These components may be used for SMS, IP Centrex and voice over Wi-Fi. It also offers residential features such as click-to-dial, Find Me and IP Centrex-like capabilities for the residential market that will operate on current AIN-enabled digital switches such as 5ESS and DMS-100.

Today, the T6000 has approximately 200 systems installed and more than 130 carrier customers globally, with NTT Comware being the largest. Other carrier customers include Airband-Go-Comm, Globalcom, M5, Nevada Tel, One Connect, Primus Canada, Rural Telecoms, Telekenex and Telus.

The Best Practices employed by Tekelec have enabled it to maintain product line strategy in the application and media server markets, create credibility in the marketplace and continue to influence the direction of the industry. Carriers and service providers can rely on Tekelec to not only provide high- quality, user-friendly products, but also to continue to innovate into the future and provide new revenue opportunities. It is for these reasons that Frost & Sullivan honored this company with the 2006 Award for Product Line Strategy.

Each year Frost & Sullivan presents this Award to a company that has demonstrated the most insight into customer needs and product demands. The recipient company should have optimized its product line by leveraging products with the various price, performance and feature points required by the market.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.