Telcordia Technologies

Telcordia Technologies, Inc., dba iconectiv
Private
Industry Telecom Research
Founded October 1983
Key people
 Richard Jacowleff (CEO)
Products

Common Language® Information Services
Mobile Messaging

Numbering Solutions
Owner Ericsson (2012–present)
Number of employees
 350 (March 2015)
Website iconectiv.com


Telcordia Technologies, Inc., doing business as (dba) iconectiv, is a subsidiary of Ericsson that provides interconnection technology and clearinghouse solutions for numbering plan, routing, call billing, and technical standards coordination between competing telecommunications carriers.

The company’s headquarters are in Piscataway, New Jersey, U.S.A., and it has several branches and subsidiaries around the world in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

History

Telcordia Technologies, Inc. formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, was the telecommunication research and development (R&D) company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T).

Bellcore's initial staff and corporate culture drew heavily via transfers of personnel from the nearby Bell Labs locations in northern New Jersey, plus additional staff from AT&T and regional operating companies. The company originally had its headquarters in Livingston with dedication by New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean in 1985, but moved its headquarters to Morristown a decade later. Bellcore operated the former Bell System Center for Technical Education in Lisle, Illinois.

Separation from the Baby Bells

In 1996, the company was provisionally acquired by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).[1] The sale was closed one year later, following a regulatory approval process that covered all the states individually. Since the divested company no longer had any ownership connection with the Bell regional companies, the name was officially changed to Telcordia Technologies, Inc. in 1999.[2] The headquarters was eventually moved to Piscataway.[3] Stake in the company was subsequently sold in November 2004 to Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus, who both held equal stakes in the company. On June 14, 2011, Ericsson announced an agreement to acquire Telcordia for $1.15 billion.[4] On January 12, 2012, Telcordia became a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson.[5]

Telcordia has been a major architect of the United States' telecommunications system and has pioneered many services, including caller ID, call waiting, mobile number portability and toll-free telephone number (800). Its expertise is in managing large, complex projects across the operations and communications spectrum.

Telcordia offers products and services in the area of network planning and engineering, service assurance, delivery, fulfillment and data management and operations support. Telcordia’s software products are designed to solve communications problems, support complex operations missions and system interoperability issues. It also writes proposed generic requirements (GRs) for telecommunications industry hardware and offers consulting and testing to these GRs.

Telcordia has its headquarters in Piscataway, New Jersey, and has a Software Development Lab in Chennai, India. Telcordia pioneered the prepaid charging system, the Intelligent Network. Most of the development work in Intelligent network now comes from the labs in India and the United States. Its headquarters campus at Piscataway and its offices and laboratories at Red Bank, New Jersey, are former Bell Labs locations that were transferred to Telcordia.

Acquisition by Ericsson

On June 15, 2011, Ericsson announced that it would buy Telcordia for $1.15 billion[6] from private-equity firms Providence Equity Partners and Warburg Pincus[7] in order to pursue industry trends that include mobile broadband, managed services/outsourcing and global OSS/BSS transformation.[8] The acquisition, which officially closed on January 12, 2012,[9] added about 2,600 employees to Ericsson’s staff.[10] Telcordia was folded into Ericsson’s multimedia unit,[11] now called Support Solutions.[12] On June 4, 2012, Telcordia and its products were officially rebranded as Ericsson.[13]

As part of the deal, Telcordia’s Advanced Technology Solutions business unit, the company’s research arm, was rebranded as Applied Communication Sciences, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson operating independently on day-to-day operations pursuant to a proxy structure mandated by the U.S. government.[14] In October 2012, Applied Communication Sciences relocated its headquarters to Basking Ridge, New Jersey, occupying the former headquarters of AT&T Wireless.

In February 2013, Ericsson launched iconectiv as the new brand for its Interconnection business.[15] Ericsson will maintain a presence in Piscataway, New Jersey, where Telcordia was headquartered.

References

  1. ↑ Dr. J. Robert Beyster with Peter Economy, The SAIC Solution: How We Built an $8 Billion Employee-Owned Technology Company, John Wiley & Sons (2007) p.73
  2. ↑ State of Delaware, Office of the Secretary of State, March 17, 1999
  3. ↑ Tim McElligott & Jason Meyers, BELLCORE 3.0, Connected Planet, September 22, 2003 – accessed July 8, 2010
  4. ↑ Ericsson to acquire Telcordia, press release, Ericsson, 2011-06-14
  5. ↑ "Ericsson closes Telcordia acquisition". 2012-01-12.
  6. ↑ "Ericsson to Acquire Telcordia for $1.15 Billion". New York Times. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  7. ↑ "Ericsson Says It Will Buy Telcordia for $1.15 Billion". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  8. ↑ "Ericsson deepens back-office focus with Telcordia acquisition". Connected Planet. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  9. ↑ "Ericsson closes Telcordia acquisition for US $1.15bn after short delay". Vanilla Plus. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  10. ↑ "Ericsson To Buy Telcordia For $1.2 Billion To Add Services". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  11. ↑ "Ericsson Completes Telcordia Purchase". Billing & OSS World. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  12. ↑ "Ericsson Forms Support Business Unit Around Billing Systems". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  13. ↑ "Say Goodbye To Telcordia". Light Reading. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  14. ↑ "Telcordia Applied Communication Sciences Becomes Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of Telcordia Technologies". OSS News Review. Retrieved 2012-08-30.
  15. ↑ Interconnection solutions renamed iconectiv

External links