Canadian billing and charging specialist Redknee Solutions has announced a $6m deal with Austrian incumbent Telekom Austria that will see the vendor’s real-time billing, charging and customer care solution deployed across the operator’s portfolio in Central and Eastern Europe.

Earlier this month Redknee announced a deal with Telekom Austria’s Croatian subsidiary, Vipnet. In both instances Redknee emphasised the benefits of its solution for multiplay operators looking to deliver bundled solutions.

Günther Ottendorfer, CTO at Telekom Austria Group, said: “This strategic deal is part of Telekom Austria Group’s objective to expand our presence in existing markets by delivering differentiated communications solutions to our customers.”

In a recent interview with Telecoms.com Telekom Austria CEO Hannes Ametsreiter stressed the importance the firm places on convergence and multiplay services.

“We believe convergence means all-IP and we are using fixed and mobile technologies to generate better products for the customer. Some 60 per cent of our customers are saying they want everything from one provider so we believe it is necessary to be a full communication provider, offering mobile, broadband, TV and content. This is why we acquired the biggest cable operator in Croatia and two fiber companies in Bulgaria, this is the way forward.”

He also stressed the importance of bundled offerings as a retention tool among the group’s customer base, noting that it has seen an 80 per cent reduction in churn among customers that have taken Telekom Austria’s multi-play bundles.

“You need to work on your penetration of bundles,” he said. “This is the magic ingredient and the development we have seen is stunning. It gives us the opportunity to significantly increase average revenue per line or per user, it significantly reduces churn; it has a very positive effect on the business.”

Redknee reported its Fiscan 1Q14 results at the beginning of February with revenue up more than 300 per cent to US$60m. Gross profit was also up at $33m, compared to $8.9m for the same period in the previous year, although the firm’s margin was down and its loss for the quarter deepened to $3.1m