[By NBC-1TV H. J Yook]Telefónica, via its global operating business unit (Telefónica Global Resources), and ASSIA, Inc., a leading solutions company for broadband service providers, are pleased to announce an agreement to expand a global contract for DSL network management to improve network performance and customer care. The expansion of the existing contract, which was signed in 2010, covers more than eight million customer lines globally, and will initially focus on South American countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Peru. ASSIA is also a portfolio company of Telefónica.

Under terms of the contract, Telefónica plans to deploy the DSL Expresse real-time line optimization module for proactive line repair, and ClearView, a customer-care recommendation engine that presents comprehensive customer line and service information to customer-care professionals through an easy-to-use interface, enabling them to provide the fastest-possible responses and resolutions to customer calls.

“We are pleased to incorporate the latest DSL Expresse features, which reinforce the value of our operations and technical assistance tools in improving service performance and customer care, as well as reducing our maintenance costs,” said Enrique Blanco, global CTO of Telefónica. “The improvements that we have realized with ASSIA for the past three years since we first invested in them clearly justified the expansion of our relationship as we continue to focus on delivering the highest speeds and latest services to our customers.”

“As consumers around the world increasingly expect high-speed broadband for services such as streaming video, ASSIA is delighted to expand our partnership with Telefónica and to offer our new business and technical solutions for improving customer care and engagement,” said Dr. John Cioffi, CEO and chairman of ASSIA. “With this agreement, Telefónica is clearly at the leading edge of service providers dedicated to improving the customer experience.”

Under the agreement, ASSIA will provide Telefónica with the following advanced features of DSL Expresse and services for deployment, training, support, assessment and maintenance:

· ClearView, a state-of-the-art expert system that tracks problems to their exact source and provides clear and concise recommendations to a contact center agent or field technician to resolve a customer DSL issue immediately.

· Real-time line optimization, which significantly improves customer satisfaction and reduces service calls and repair costs.

· Support for single-ended loop test (SELT) for enhanced diagnostics, cost savings, and service delivery, such as the ability to pinpoint faults and direct dispatches to the appropriate location.

· Advanced micro-filter detection, which enables call-center agents to see missing micro filters on customer lines and guide the customer to easily and quickly install them. This can rapidly help solve performance problems, avoiding the need for costly, time-consuming field-technician dispatches.

· Power management, which reduces power consumption and costs, and can help Telefónica attain its green initiative goals.

· Advanced ADSL2 diagnostics that enable service personnel to address physical impairments efficiently in the copper plant.