February 16, 2009, Barcelona, Spain – Leading independent network planning and optimisation consultancy, AIRCOM International has today announced a partnership with Aria Networks, a leading provider of forecasting, planning and optimisation solutions for fixed-line and mobile network carriers.

Under this partnership AIRCOM will market, distribute and support Aria's iVNT software suite to its partners and mobile telecoms customers around the world.

Backhaul transmission infrastructure transformation is an important part of most mobile operators' strategies, but the planning and optimisation of these networks is complex, time-consuming and requires highly skilled staff. AIRCOM, with over 3.5 million man hours experience of network optimisation and design will leverage Aria's iVNT suite to provide products and solutions that will enable its customers to reduce the complexity and time it takes to plan the backhaul network.

"In this current economic climate and with the ever-increasing demand from the user to provide high-speed data access, operators need to ensure that their backhaul network cost-effectively meets the demands of their customers. AIRCOM is increasingly seeing the need from our customers for the planning and optimisation of the entire network infrastructure - from the handset to the core, but with a new focus on the transformation of the capital-intensive mobile backhaul infrastructure,” said Ricky Watts, AIRCOM’s director of solutions and innovation.   

“Having spent many months evaluating the currently available products in the market, AIRCOM has found in Aria's iVNT suite an ideal extension to its’ own extensive ENTERPRISE product portfolio. Through the joint AIRCOM/Aria partnership, mobile operators will be able to plan and optimise all parts of their fixed-line and radio infrastructure with solutions directly available from AIRCOM. We can better help our customers save capital expenditure and bring operational efficiency to these backhaul networks," Watts continued.   

Aria's iVNT is an intelligent and flexible, multi-technology planning suite that enables AIRCOM to offer its customers an advanced set of planning capabilities. It provides design, planning and optimisation support for technologies including IP, MPLS-TE, WDM, GMPLS, Ethernet, SONET/SDH, and VPNs and has advanced multi-layer capabilities.

"AIRCOM is regarded as the leading provider of planning solutions to the mobile market with an extensive world-wide customer base," said Tony Fallows, Aria's CEO. "This partnership means mobile carriers can fully benefit from our unique iVNT product suite, as AIRCOM can market, implement and support our solutions to customers who are currently beyond our reach."