Accanto Partners with Telefònica Germany and ITIS to Provide Road Congestion Information in Real-time

The joint project, in support of ITIS Precision Traffic™, re-defines state-of-the-art in analyzing and predicting traffic flow for German motorists

HELSINKI, Finland, June 8, 2011-Accanto Systems, a leader in Customer Service Assurance solutions for today's converged networks, announced today that it has partnered with Telefònica Germany and ITIS, the leading supplier of traffic and travel information, to develop the next generation of road congestion monitoring and reporting, called ITIS Precision Traffic ™.
Road congestion remains a critical problem in roadways across Europe. While standard navigation devices already use the traffic message channel (TMC) to transmit congestion reports, the current information sources do not provide enough data to create accurate reports. As cellular networks have far greater coverage than any other data source (including GPS and fixed sensor data), a much more effective mechanism is to derive congestion information using actual mobile devices as probes. This forms the backbone of the Precision Traffic™ system.

Precision Traffic ™ uses anonymous signaling data generated at the network level, where over 17 million probes (mobile devices) are used as inputs to the system. As a result, traffic congestion can be detected as it happens, and because the traffic information is transmitted in real time, the best possible route can be recommended to individual drivers.

Accanto’s intelligent Customer Service Assurance (iCSA) monitoring platform plays a key role in the project, as it provides data collection and correlation capabilities. iCSA gathers real-time location information about the subscriber, fully anonymises it to protect subscriber privacy, and feeds it into the ITIS systems for final analysis and presentation to the driver. Because iCSA is a real-time system, the information is provided extremely quickly, with a total delay of less than 60 seconds between an event and when it’s available to the user.

“ITIS Precision Traffic ™ represents a huge advancement in an application that truly affects people’s lives,” said Alexander Seitz, Manager Performance Management of Telefónica Germany. “Accanto’s ability to collect a huge amount of information on subscribers, as well as their ability to seamlessly interface with the Telefónica network and ITIS software, provided a critical element to the success of the project.”
 “This is a great example of how the advancements Accanto has made in Customer Service Assurance and monitoring technologies can be leveraged for use in high-impact, value-added applications,” said Paolo Trevisan, VP of Marketing of Accanto Systems. “We are proud to be a part of the Precision Traffic ™ project, and look forward to innovating other applications that require the same real-time access to customer-related information, something that Accanto excels at.” 
As an initial barometer of success for the project, as already announced, the ITIS Precision Traffic ™ system will be featured in all new BMW models starting in September, 2011. 
For more information on Accanto’s iCSA solution visit: accantosystems.com.
For more information on ITIS Precision Traffic ™, visit http://www.itisholdings.com/article.asp?id=482

About Accanto Systems
With solutions deployed to 180 customers in over 60 countries, Accanto Systems is a leading supplier of advanced Customer Service Assurance and troubleshooting solutions to communications service providers. Accanto’s probe-based Customer Service Assurance solutions provide in-depth monitoring, analysis and troubleshooting capabilities, helping operators overcome the massive challenges associated with migration to converged, next-generation telecom architectures. Their solutions can be utilized by any level of the organization, from the NOC to Marketing, and scale easily for use by new technicians all the way to technical experts. Accanto’s team of OSS and Operations consultants allow each Accanto solution to be optimized and fully integrated into the organizations’ operational and business processes. Visit accantosystems.com.

About Telefónica Germany
Telefónica Germany is one of the world’s leading integrated operators in the telecommunication sector, providing communication, information and entertainment solutions, with a presence in Europe, Africa and Latin America. It operates in 25 countries. As of December 2010, Telefónica’s total number of customers amounted to 287.6 millions. Telefónica Germany’s mobile customer base in Europe’s biggest market increased significantly. This performance was largely due to Telefònica’s revolutionary tariff offering and the investment by Telefónica in a state-of-the-art mobile network. The business has introduced its first Jajah-powered offering, the Global Friends international calling product, to great acclaim, and recently added to its smartphone portfolio as it started selling the iPhone 4, which has been by far the most successful device launch ever in Germany. www.telefonica.com.

About ITS Deutschland GmbH
ITIS Deutschland GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ITIS Holdings plc, a world-leading in the provision of traffic information technology. ITIS has depoyed their technology across the globe including Australia, Singapore, South Africa, Ireland, Belgium, Costa Rica, China and the US. In addition, ITIS delivers traffic information to BMW, Mercedes, Toyota/Lexus, Ford, Renault, Jaguar-LandRover, Porsche, the BBC and Sky Television amongst others.