Ditech Networks Opens Propriety Voice Quality Measurement Solution to Global VoIP, Mobile Industries
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EXi Everywhere Partner Program Now Available To Handset Makers, Equipment Vendors, Test and Measurement Providers, Carriers, Consulting Firms, Standards Organizations
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 11 / / -- Ditech Networks (NASDAQ:DITC), a leading provider of voice quality solutions to the world's communications industry, today announced that it is opening its proprietary Experience Intelligence (EXi) solution to all carriers and vendors in the global VoIP and mobile services industries. In addition to deploying EXi on its own voice quality platforms, Ditech will make multi-platform support available to the communications industry as part of its EXi Everywhere Partner Program, including mobile handset and headset manufacturers, communications providers, network equipment vendors, test and measurement companies, standards organizations, consulting firms and other solutions providers.
Since its introduction in February 2006, EXi has been used by 16 carriers in 12 countries to measure real-time voice quality on more than 630 million live calls. EXi is the industry's only solution that quantifies the impact of voice quality impairments caused by the places where people make calls, codec impairments, and by the wide variety of mobile devices like phones and headsets. Before EXi, the communications industry was unable to identify meaningful trends or the root causes of substandard voice quality, such as ambient noise or echo on live calls.
EXi has been utilized in the industry as a complement to existing test and measurement solutions. By incorporating EXi into existing drive tests and network monitoring solutions, the communications industry can add important new information from the subscriber's actual call experience to data from the network. When voice quality impairments originating from the subscriber's environment are added to impairments originating in the network, the communications industry finally has a complete and accurate picture of actual voice quality that is experienced by customers.
Carriers use this information to identify and address the impact of substandard voice quality on churn, customer satisfaction, subscriber additions, marketing programs and network design. The powerful combination of subscriber and network information gives the industry new insight and knowledge on shaping voice quality for specific markets.
"By unhooking EXi from its voice quality platform products, Ditech opens to the industry an important solution that's needed to fully access voice quality," said Stephane Teral, an industry analyst with Infonetics. "Before Ditech, there was no objective way to quantify voice quality impairments caused outside of the network. By pinpointing the source of substandard voice quality, the industry can make critical adjustments to networks and devices to deliver a consistent, high-quality call experience."
EXi operates in the voice stream on live calls to unobtrusively collect real-time information about impairments. Ditech uses Telchemy's implementation of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) G.107 E-Model to produce an R-Factor, which is a standardized rating of voice quality. In the mobile industry, the R-Factor is often converted into a MOS (Mean Opinion Score) value. Although many organizations use Telchemy's E-Model to measure network parameters like dropped packets and jitter, EXi is the industry's only solution to combine network parameters with real-time information about live impairments in the voice stream.
An R-Factor of 50 (or MOS 2.5) is considered by the ITU and the communications industry to be the minimum level of acceptable voice quality. Industry research has shown that calls falling below the industry minimum often cause churn, which is when subscriber dissatisfaction is so strong that the service is terminated. Calls rated below R-Factor 50 or MOS 2.5 are often described as being in the "churn zone."
The EXi Everywhere Partner Program allows VoIP and mobile carriers to establish a new Key Performance Indicator (KPI), which can track the impact of voice quality on the subscriber's call experience in real time, in addition to establishing trends over time. EXi can also be used with PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation Of Speech Quality) and other methodologies to correlate the impact of the radio frequency network and the caller's environment on voice quality.
"The EXi Everywhere Partner Program demonstrates Ditech's commitment to accurately assess voice quality, and to pinpoint impairments that cause subscriber dissatisfaction," said Todd Simpson, President and CEO of Ditech Networks. "Consumer surveys have uniformly shown that users blame service providers for voice quality problems, regardless of where they originate. Now the industry has the tools needed to identify and quantify voice quality impairments that exist outside of the network, and to take action to fix them."
Previously, EXi was available exclusively as part of Ditech's industry- leading Voice Quality Assurance (VQA) solution. VQA unobtrusively and proactively reduces and removes voice quality impairments on live calls, in both directions, including ambient noise and echo, in addition to restoring lost packets that can cause clipped or choppy speech. In IP networks, Ditech's VQA and EXi solutions are deployed on the company's Packet Voice Processor platform. In TDM networks, VQA and EXi are deployed on the Broadband Voice Processor and Quad Voice Processor platforms. All three platforms provide high-density, high performance foundations for processing the large number of calls that traverse carrier networks.
About Ditech Networks
Ditech Networks is shaping the future of voice quality through continuous innovation and leadership for the world's communications companies. Ditech's voice quality solutions are deployed in wireless and wireline networks to optimize the call experience. By delivering consistent, dependable voice quality, Ditech's products help global communications companies meet the multiple challenges of service differentiation, network expansion and call capacity. Ditech's customers include Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, Orascom Telecom, AT&T, China Unicom, Global Crossing and West Corporation. Ditech Networks is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information, visit www.ditechnetworks.com.
Ditech Networks, Experience Intelligence and Voice Quality Assurance are trademarks or registered trademarks of Ditech Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Source: Ditech Networks
Web site: www.ditechnetworks.com/
