Alfa ties with UK firm for billing solution

Lebanon's government-owned GSM provider Alfa has signed an agreement with billing solutions company Intec to install the UK firm's mobile billing services.

The deal is the biggest contract signed by Intec in the Middle East region and one that will help Alfa compete more effectively as Lebanon's telco space prepares for a further round of liberalisation, claim Intec officials.

"The installation of Intec mobile business solution and its core modules will give us the billing flexibility and scalability to roll out the most advanced service offerings that we are planning to launch in the course of 2008," said Ineke Botter, managing director and CEO of Alfa.

"Upgrading our billing system is a sound investment for our future business growth and we look forward to using Intec's technology to help us deliver a continuous high quality of service," Botter added.

The installation will replace Alfa's existing legacy system which the operator says is expensive to run and offers limited flexibility to bill customers for different services.Alfa is one of two GSM providers offering wireless services in and Lebanon and is managed by Fal Dete Telecommunications, a joint venture between Detecon International and Fal Holdings Arabia. The other cellular operator is MTC Touch (Zain).