Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Optimization Deployments [127]: Telkomsel [Indonesia] Uses Ericsson/Akamai to Monetize Business OTT


Ericsson announced that "Indonesia's Telkomsel is now experiencing MCA (Mobile Cloud Accelerator, made by the strategic alliance between Ericsson and Akamai) for selected users, marking the first time the service has been deployed in a live operator's network. .. MCA provides operators with a means of monetizing over-the-top (OTT) traffic, and content providers with a way of improving quality of experience, conversion rates and brand perception".

"Indonesia's Telkomsel is now experiencing MCA for selected users, marking the first time the service has been deployed in a live operator's network. Using MCA, page load times have been reduced by as much as 70 percent - thereby providing a better and more consistent user experience".

Sarwoto Atmosutarno (pictured), President Director of Telkomsel, says: "Priority capacity, which ensures a high quality of experience for our end users, is a valuable asset for us. It increases our ability to monetize over-the-top traffic, keeping our customers happy, and helps us to further differentiate ourselves from the competition in Mobile Broadband business."




See "Ericsson and Akamai accelerate Telkomsel's mobile content delivery" - here.



Procera's DPI Enables Yoigo VoIP's Monetization


Procera Networks had so far a number of announcements regarding its Spanish customer, Yoigo (here, here). Unlike many other DPI deployments, Yoigo does not hide and does not afraid to explain how it uses DPI showing interesting use-cases.

This time Procera shows a deployment of "OTT - VoiP Monetization" use-case - a DPI based business model - something that usually exists only in vendors' presentations.

Yoigo "has announced VOIP Bono (here, Spanish), a Mobile VOIP add-on plan to their standard mobile data offerings. This service allows access from phone or other device for voice calls over Internet (VoIP) via Skype, Viber, or any other VOIP application. Customer can expect to get about 600 minutes of talk time with the 100MB allowance devoted exclusively to VoIP calls, and will cost 6 euros per month, with an average cost of 1 cent per minute for Mobile VOIP".

Yoigoo's "VOIP Bono is powered by the PacketLogic solutions that Yoigo has deployed in their network since 2007" - that is DPI is used to detect the use of  VoiP applications, and count minutes - this is not easy! 

Johan Andsjö (pictured), CEO of Yoigo said: "The growth of voice over IP has the potential to change the mobile operator landscape .. VOIP Bono delivers a price leading Voice over IP service that is cheaper than SkypeOut for mobile broadband customers. Procera’s Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions enable Yoigo to stay current on the latest VOIP applications and accelerate Yoigo’s new service launches."

See "Procera Networks Powers Yoigo Mobile VOIP Services" - here.

NI Deployments [126]: Telkomsel [Indonesia] Selected NSN to Monitor and Analyze Customer Insights


Nokia Siemens Networks announced that "Telkomsel .. expects to provide improved service quality using Nokia Siemens Networks’ Customer Experience Management* (CEM) on Demand portal .. [the] portal will enable the operator to offer several benefits to its customers. For instance, they can enjoy targeted offerings based on personal preferences. Telkomsel’s hotline could be faster in solving customer issues and necessary information being available instantly. Network problems could be solved even before the customer realizes there are any".

"CEM on Demand provides a new portal as a single entry point to dashboard views of mobile operators’ key performance indicators (KPIs) and recommends actions they can take to improve their customers’ experience. CEM on Demand makes it easier to access and share this information across the entire operator organization while in the office, or on the go via smart devices such as laptops and iPads" (see announcement  here).

Sarwoto Atmosutarno, President Director of Telkomsel said: “It is very important for Telkomsel to monitor and analyze customer insights to be able to offer optimal service quality at all times. We needed a solution that would not only do that, but also help us understand how services are delivered to, and perceived by, end users in order to prioritize corrective actions".

See also "Telkomsel Uses Ericsson for Service Differentiation and Traffic Control" - here.

See "Telkomsel Indonesia takes control of customers’ experience with Nokia Siemens Networks technology" - here.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

PCRF/DPI Deployments [125]: Hutch Telecom [Sri Lanka] Selected Comverse to Enable Monetization

  
Comverse announced that "Hutch Telecom Lanka, part of the Hutchison Whampoa Group, selected the Comverse Mobile Internet Data Management and Monetization (DMM) solution for the network’s rapidly growing data traffic, accelerating implementation of new plans and offerings to enrich the user experience and generate new revenues in Sri Lanka"

" .. The comprehensive solution selected by Hutch Telecom Lanka includes a pre-integrated DMM PCRF Policy Manager with the DMM DPI Traffic Manager [see here about Comverse DPI] and the DMM Application Gateway. .. Pre-integration with Hutch’s existing Comverse Real-Time Billing makes the solution truly end-to-end for rapid creation of data monetization plans facilitating lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and accelerating time to market." (see also "Comverse Adds Policy Creation Graphic Tool; Integrates with Billing" - here).

See "Hutchison Telecommunications to Optimize Mobile Internet User Experience with Comverse Data Management and Monetization" (here)

DPI Deployments [124]: ClearSky, Nex-Tech Wireless [USA] Use Sandvine


Sandvine announced that ".. it is bringing its Network Policy Control solutions to ClearSky Technologies, a provider of hosted and managed mobile data solutions for 80 wireless carriers serving eight million subscribers, and Nex-Tech Wireless, a North American wireless operation".

Clearsky Technologies is a provider of mobile data services to regional wireless carriers, and recently annouced an LTE Services Suite: "ClearSky’s LTE Services Suite enables smaller carriers to offer high-speed, low-cost, reliable 4G data services to subscribers in rural areas. The LTE Services Suite includes: Hosted Evolved Packed Core (EPC) and Radio Access Network (RAN) (here)".

Bill Poellmitz (pictured), ClearSky President & CEO said: “Adding Sandvine products and solutions to our technical repertoire broadens our managed services offering for carrier customers and will help ensure the best experience for subscribers across North America .. Sandvine’s Real-Time Entertainment dashboard will enable us to deliver the tools and features our clients need for valuable insight into actual subscriber metrics”.

NEX-TECH Wireless, a subsidiary of Rural Telephone, Golden Belt Telephone and Mutual Telephone, is a premiere wireless provider offering high-tech wireless solutions to residents in 40 counties of central and western Kansas as well as local coverage to 4 counties in Colorado.

See "ClearSky Technologies and Nex-Tech Wireless deploy Network Policy Control' - here

AT&T Considers "1-800" Model for Mobile Data


Good news (if the following happens) to policy, charging and billing vendors.

Anton Troianovski (pictured) interviewed to the Wall Street Journal John Donovan, senior executive vice president – AT&T technology and network operations, AT&T, who said the carrier is ".. considering a way to let the providers of mobile services pay for the cost of the data traffic associated with things like streaming movies and smartphone applications, opening up a new round of debate over the rules of the mobile Internet .. the equivalent of 800 numbers that would say, if you take this app, this app will come without any network usage .. What they're saying is, why don't we go create new revenue streams that don't exist today and find a way to split them".

See also "AT&T Will Invest $20B in 2012, Focus on Wireless; Mobile Traffic Doubled in 2011" - here and "AT&T Tests Openet & Cisco for LTE: Session based Pricing, Speed Tiers" - here.

See "AT&T May Try Billing App Makers" - here.

Security Deployments [123]: KDDI [Japan] Uses Arbor for DDoS Prevention


Arbor Networks announced that "Japan’s KDDI .. has deployed Arbor’s Peakflow SP platform .. among the first providers in the world to include the new ATLAS Intelligence Feed (AIF) in a service offering. The AIF provides automated, up-to-date protection against the growing threat of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks ensuring that KDDI is offering leading edge security solutions".

"Peakflow SP combines network-wide anomaly detection and traffic engineering with TMS’s carrier-class threat management capabilities. When Peakflow SP identifies an attack, customer traffic is diverted to the Arbor Threat Management System where it is scrubbed, and network and application-layer attack traffic surgically removed, while legitimate business traffic is passed through to the customer without interrupting services. This powerful combination of visibility and security helps enable KDDI to maintain availability, reduce support costs and optimize current or future business service .. A new feature within the Peakflow platform is the ATLAS Intelligence Feed (AIF) which delivers deep DDoS signatures in real-time to keep networks protected against hundreds of botnet-fueled DDoS attack toolsets and their variants".


See "Japan’s KDDI Deploys Arbor Networks’ Peakflow SP Platform" - here.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Openet <-> Bytemobile <-> Citrix for Better Quality of Experience

  
Advise to vendors: if you want full attention to your press releases, don't wait for the first day of MWC .. and compete with the 8  releases from Ericsson, 4 from NSN and so many others. 

So in this post I will cover two announcements, in which Bytemobile serves as a pivot.

Citrix and Bytemobile announced a partnership between the two companies that "combines Citrix NetScaler's expertise in mobile computing solutions and flexible application delivery with Bytemobile's best-in-class traffic management and data optimization solutions, as well as its global footprint of MNO deployments. The synergy between these core competencies will enable operators to deliver the best possible subscriber experience under all network conditions and fully monetize all subscriber traffic – while scaling their solutions to meet subscriber demand"

See "Citrix and Bytemobile Partner to Develop Scalable Solutions for Mobile Operators" - here

See also "Sandvine and Citrix Integrated Offload Solution - See How !" - here.

Openet and Bytemobile announced a partnership ".. designed to deliver smarter traffic management and personalized quality of experience (QoE) for carriers and their customers. Openet’s Policy Manager and Bytemobile’s Smart Capacity platforms will work together to analyze and control traffic while creating and enforcing policies for individual users".

"Sample use cases for the Openet-Bytemobile collaboration include:
  • Management of traffic-intensive applications by differentiating and personalizing data services – delivering the appropriate level of video quality to roaming users for specific services to prevent bill shock
  • Quality-differentiated service plans by subscriber, content and content provider
  • Intelligent device- and content-type enforcement based on subscriber entitlement"
See "Openet and Bytemobile Partner for Smarter, More Personalized Quality of Experience" - here.












DSR Market - 5 New Wins for Tekelec (there is life outside the US)

  
Tekelec continues to announce new customers (anonymous, unfortunately) for its Diameter Signaling Router

Following last week press releases (see "DSR Market - Follow-on Order and New Tier1 for Tekelec" - here) the company reports now 5 new customers, this time from other regions of the world as well:
  • Two Asia-Pacific tier one operators that will use the DSR’s core routing and roaming capabilities for their LTE networks.
  • A tier-one Western European operator that is testing core LTE network routing with the DSR. The operator began testing LTE last year.
  • A Mexican wireless operator testing several Diameter traffic routing scenarios for its 3G network.
  • A Canadian tier one LTE operator.
Tekelec says that "Nine service providers have selected 13 DSR systems from the company. Four of the customers are U.S. LTE providers". The latter includes Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS.

See "Tekelec wins five new diameter signaling router customers" - here.


BroadForward Offers "Policy Gateway" - Connectivity to Broadband, Policy, Charging or IT interface

   
BroadForward announced the "BFX Broadband Policy Gateway enables connections to and from virtually any Broadband, Policy, Charging or IT interface, straight out-of-the-box. BFX features a rich set of translation, mediation and service logic functions for a wide range of protocols, such as Diameter, XML/HTTP, SOAP and Radius. The availability and flexibility of on-board protocols and functions prevents high customisation costs or upgrades associated with EPC, IMS or BSS systems that are required to fit within targeted Policy Control architectures. Either standalone or as embedded software, BFX can simultaneously handle multiple connections and roles on different interfaces in the operator’s network, at a small footprint". 


See "BroadForward announces BFX, the world’s first Broadband Policy Gateway" - here.

[Guest post]: Transparent Caching: A Means Rather than an End

By Larry Peterson*, Chief Scientist, Verivue

Transparent caching is often viewed as something distinct from an Operator CDN—it is used to cache over-the-top (OTT) content from content providers and aggregators with which the network operator does not have an explicit delivery arrangement. But a better model is to view transparent caching as one use (application) of a CDN, no different than other uses (e.g., multi-screen video delivery, multi-tenant CDN for B2B customers, CDN-assisted VoD). In each case, the application leverages a core caching service, plus one or more auxiliary mechanisms. In the case of transparent caching, the delta is an alternative content acquisition mechanism—one that transparently intercepts requests rather than explicitly redirecting requests for pre-registered content. Or said another way, transparent request interception is a means rather than an end.
 

A general-purpose transparent request interceptor does three things. First, it interacts with the surrounding network infrastructure to divert candidate requests to the interceptor. This can be accomplished through proper configuration of some standard protocol—e.g., DNS, BGP, PBR, WCCP—at the operator’s discretion. Second, for diverted requests for cacheable content, the interception service redirects the end-user to the caching service, which in turn acquires the content from the origin server if it is not currently cached. Third, for diverted requests for non-cacheable content, the interception service either proxies the corresponding flow to the origin server or re-configures the network to forward the flow rather than divert it. The better job a transparent request interceptor does at diverting only cacheable content at step one, the fewer “false positives” need to be proxied at step three.
 
Note that the only difference between transparent caching and the other example CDN applications is that for the latter, step one involves the content provider explicitly diverting user requests to the request router using a CNAME or by making the request router an authoritative DNS server for some region of its URI name space. This, in turn, means there are no false positives, so step three is not required. As for step two, both transparent caching and all the other CDN applications leverage exactly the same request routing service and caching service.
 
In other words, we can think of these various CDN applications as being constructed from building block services: 
Transparent Caching = Caching + Interceptor + Request Router + Analytics
Multi-Screen Video = Caching + Request Router + Analytics
Multi-Tenant Operator CDN = Caching + Request Router + Analytics
CDN-Assisted VoD = Asset Manager + Streamer + Caching + Request Router + Analytics
where each component is a general-purpose, stand-alone service. The power of this building block approach is that the next application that comes along can either be constructed from a different configuration of existing services, or requires only an incremental addition to the current service catalogue. This both reduces the time-to-market for new applications, and increases the operator’s ability to leverage (and possibly re-purpose) its existing investment.
 
Of course, this is easier said than done. One key enabler is to run on a virtualized platform, which simplifies the process of provisioning services on the underlying hardware infrastructure. This is the central insight of cloud computing, except applied to the network edge instead of the data center. A second key enabler is an extensible management framework that unifies how operators control and monitor the available services. Having to deal with one-off OSS/BSS processes is an unacceptable burden. The third key enabler is truly general-purpose building block services that work across a wide-range of usage scenarios. In contrast, purpose-built mechanisms generally result in stovepipes solutions that cannot be reused.


_________

*As Chief Scientist, Larry Peterson provides technical leadership and expertise for research and development projects. He is also the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University, where he served as Chairman of the Computer Science Department from 2003-2009. He also serves as Director of the PlanetLab Consortium, a collection of academic, industrial, and government institutions cooperating to design and evaluate next-generation network services and architectures. 


Larry has served as Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Computer Systems, has been on the Editorial Board for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking and the IEEE Journal on Select Areas in Communication and is the co-author of the best selling networking textbook Computer Networks: A Systems Approach.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE, and the 2010 recipient of the IEEE Kobayahi Computer and Communication Award. He received his Ph.D. degree from Purdue University in 1985.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Optimization Announcements: Skyfire Adds Audio and Image Optimization; Can rest now!

 
Historically, optimization solutions started with text, image and then moved to video. The younger players jumped directly on the most lucrative media - Video, but it seems that they still need to go the basics, and provide the full solution.

Skyfire (see "Optimization Market: Verizon Invests in Skyfire" - hereannounced that it added "image and audio optimization to its carrier-grade product line.. Skyfire’s [existing] video optimization solution increases effective network capacity by 25-30 percent across RAN and network core. With the addition of image and audio support, Skyfire can increase network capacity by an additional 10 percent for a total of up to 40 percent capacity increase".

With that, Skyfire believes its work has been completed: "Skyfire analysis shows that video, images, and audio together make up more than 90 percent of the bits on the web that can be optimized. As for the rest, most modern web servers already compress HTML, Javascript, XML and other text-heavy content and the approximately 2 percent on potential savings does not justify the cost of deploying text compression services in the network".


See "Loud and Clear: Skyfire Rocket 2.0 Platform Gets Enhanced With Image and Audio Optimization" - here.

Mobixell Explains its Joint Solution with HP


   
Mobixell Networks plans  ".. to demo Policy-driven Mobile Data Optimization solutions and Value-based Charging solutions ..designed around the Mobixell Seamless Access Mobile Internet Gateway (MIG) and the Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) of the HP Subscriber, Network and Application Policy (SNAP - here) solutions .. Together with the PCRF of the HP SNAP solutions, techniques used to optimize data streams are applied or not applied by Mobixell Seamless Access according to pre-defined rules such as whether the subscriber is pre or post-paid, roaming or in the home network, etc. This approach can dramatically save on optimization resources which are often employed under circumstances when they are not actually needed".

I asked Noam Green (pictured), Mobixell's VP Marketing, why would operators use optimization based on subscribers' profile, instead of just using it whenever they can in order to relive congestion and reduce operation costs:

Noam: "Reducing operator’s operation costs (and specifically reducing overall data volume) was indeed the initial compelling reason for deploying optimization solutions. Over the past year and a half we have seen a shift in operator’s view of why and when to activate content optimization, from mere volume saving towards Quality of Experience and network congestion management. This is one of the reasons Mobixell has introduced a new way of approaching mobile data optimization. That’s Mobixell EVO™, an Evolved Optimization approach for mobile networks. This new approach focuses only on congestion rather than just arbitrarily reducing data volume. Network congestion, is one of the major effects on user’s Quality of Experience which is becoming a very important factor for using optimization. 

User profiling is another level operators are already deploying, which enables them to enable different levels of services (Class of Service (CoS)), or according to their billing cycle (e.g: closer to the end of their quota), or even location (roaming, vs. local). Some of our customers are deploying different levels of optimization according to pre and post-paid customers, or enabling DBRA (Dynamic bitrate adaptation) to their premium customers or only on premium content.

Web acceleration and Video Optimization are expanding from mere network savings towards quality experience enhancers. Combining these two with policy engines (such as standard PCRF) enables maximum flexibility and best Quality of Experience for operator’s customers".

See "New Mobile Solution to Let Operators Customize Data Optimization Strategy for Each Individual Subscriber" - here.

AT&T Deploys Intucell SON Solution (Est. $55M Over 4 Years)


AT&T plans to "to invest about $20 billion again in 2012 with a focus on wireless" (here) includes also an estimated investment of $55M, in 4 years, in SON - Self-optimizing Network technology, according to Inbal Orpaz report to The Marker (here and here - Hebrew). See also "Infonetics Sees $3B Mobile Optimization and SON Market by 2015" - here.
  
Intucell announced that "AT&T has begun deploying Intucell’s SON (Self-Optimizing Network) technology across its U.S. wireless network, as part of AT&T’s ongoing efforts to further enhance network reliability.Intucell was introduced to AT&T in April of 2011 through the AT&T Foundry innovation centers, which are designed to bring innovations to market 3x faster .. Initial field trial results from California and Georgia have shown as much as a 10 percent improvement in call retainability, 10 percent improvement in throughput speeds and 15 percent reduction in overloading. Based on that success, AT&T plans to deploy SON throughout its network this year"

"One way Intucell’s SON improves network quality is by detecting when too many users are connected to a single tower, where neighboring towers could serve the same calls. Intucell’s SON then instructs the nearby towers to either join in helping to maintain the call, or in some cases to expand their footprint to cover some of the users on the overloaded cell, while the overloaded cell shrinks. It does this automatically in real time, rather than requiring manual adjustments from human operators"





See "AT&T Is Deploying Intucell’s SON Technology as Part of Latest Wireless Network Upgrades" - here.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Cache Wins: Oversi Announced its Largest Win Ever


Oversi announced it has ".. been awarded as the winner of the largest project to date, for a nation-wide deployment of Transparent Caching, by a very large operator in LATAM [with its] OverCache™ offers a breakthrough OTT caching and content delivery platform".

David Tolub (pictured), President and CEO, said: “We are proud to have been selected after a rigorous evaluation process that included all transparent caching vendors in the market".


See "Oversi Wins Largest Transparent Caching Project" - here.

NTT Explains Outage and its $1.5B Corrective Action

 
Last month NTT DoCoMo experienced network outage due to smartphone signaling storm originated by an Android VoIP appication (see "VoIP Signaling Crashed NTT DoCoMo; Asks Google to help" - here). 

So probably help from Google was not enough, and NTT decided to "optimize resource allocation of packet switches, to expand the number of signals that can be processed", by mid August 2012, for ¥2B, and to "expand the capacity of packet switches and increase installation of packet switching system capable of accommodating 50M smartphones"  for another ¥120B, to be completed by 2014. Both totaled to $1.5B, and NTT also provided an explanation of the problem itself.

NTT decided to solve the problem by expanding network capacity, however vendors claim for a better solution (although I am sure someone is happy with the "brute force" solution) - see "[NSN]: Chatty Android Phones should Move on to Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" - here



See "Response to Series on Network Malfunctions" - here.

PCRF Announcements: HP Integrates Policy and Charging


HP, like Openet and Amdocs (see discussion - here), sees the advantages of offering a single vendor integrated policy (PCRF) and charging servers.
 
The vendor announced that that "The HP Subscriber, Network and Application Policy (SNAP) management solution now integrates real-time charging (billing) so CSPs can apply business rules that allow personalized services and offers to customers .. With the integrated, real-time HP SNAP platform, CSPs can develop insightful policy and charging rules that enable personalized, context-aware offerings for customers. Such offerings can include tiered pricing plans, content packages, customized service bundles, and real-time up-sell offers".

See "HP Helps Telecoms Tap LTE Networks to Deliver Personalized Mobile Experience" - here.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Monday's Guest Post: About Transparent Caching and CDN


A new guest post will be published on Monday. In his article, "Transparent Caching: A Means Rather than an End", my 14th guest, Larry Peterson, will look into transparent caching its building blocks as part of an Operator CDN.

"Transparent caching is often viewed as something distinct from an Operator CDN—it is used to cache over-the-top (OTT) content from content providers and aggregators with which the network operator does not have an explicit delivery arrangement. But a better model is to view transparent caching as one use (application) of a CDN, no different than other uses (e.g., multi-screen video delivery, multi-tenant CDN for B2B customers, CDN-assisted VoD)" says Larry.

Stay tuned.

If you like to propose a guest post, please send me a proposed subject, abstract and the author details.

French Copyright Law - 165 Cases Reached Court; File Sharing Declines


I was following the French anti-piracy law for during last year, through stories on the government agency, Hadopi, that enforces the "3-strike" law (see background here).

A year ago Hadopi reported that it has sent 100,00 Emails ("1st strike" - here) and in last May it was reported that "France Hadopi - Shows Success (while working)" - here.

Another year passed, and while it seems that the copyright infringement is a smaller problem now (due to lots of legal content available at a reasonable price and quality and specifically to France, Hadopi activity), Hadopi continues to look for the bad guys, and filled 165 cases to court (i.e 3rd strike).

Eric Pfanner reports to the New York Times that "The agency that administers the three-strikes system, known by the French abbreviation Hadopi, had sent 822,000 warnings by e-mail to suspected offenders as of the end of December. Those were followed up by 68,000 second warnings, issued through registered mail. Of those, 165 cases have gone on to the third stage, under which the courts are authorized to impose fines of €1,500, or nearly $2,000, and to suspend Internet connections for a month"

" .. Éric Walter, the secretary general of Hadopi [pictured], said that the relatively low number of third-stage offenders showed that the system had succeeded .. A report commissioned by Hadopi, which has a budget of €11 million and employs 70 people, showed a sharp decline in file-sharing since the system was put in place".

See "Copyright Cheats Face the Music in France" - here.


PCRF Announcements: Comverse Adds Policy Creation Graphic Tool; Integrates with Billing

 
Comverse announced ".. Mobile Internet Data Management and Monetization (DMM) Policy Studio to help service providers streamline the creation and implementation of data plans to improve the user experience and drive data revenues .. The DMM Policy Studio is designed to significantly accelerate creation, testing and implementation of customer-centric plans and innovative approaches to marketing by speaking the language and sharing the mindset of operator marketing teams. The attractive self-explanatory graphic interface [see screenshot below] can enable even the most non-technical marketers to begin rolling out superior revenue-accelerating data plans intuitively and quickly – with practically no learning curve".

Using the Policy Studio, the CSP marketer can choose from a multitude of segmented plan templates .. divided to categories .. Examples are Basic Tiering, Prepaid Experience, Parental Services, Upsell, Sharing, Priority Services and Two-Sided Models with OTT Providers.
Like previous announcements from HP, Openet and Amdocs, Comverse also emphasizes its combined policy management-billing/charging integration - "Tight linkage between policy management / policy enforcement and Comverse ONE® BSS differentiates the solution with a unified approach that can boost agility — expanding the range of functionalities and policy-based services while reducing costs"



See "Comverse Introduces Mobile Internet Data Management & Monetization Policy Studio to Accelerate Creation of Revenue-Boosting Data Plans" - here.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

DSR Market - Follow-on Order and New Tier1 for Tekelec

   
Tekelec announced this week 2 wins with its Diameter Signaling Router product, both in the US.

It now has 4 operators in the US, 3 of which are Tier1 including Verizon Wireless (see "How does/will Verizon Wireless Use Tekelec's Diameter Router?" - hereand MetroPCS (here).

  1. "A U.S. tier one LTE operator selected mobile broadband solutions company Tekelec to expand its new Diameter network. The service provider will implement two new Tekelec Diameter Signaling Router (DSR) systems, in addition to the one announced in June 2011."

    See "U.S. Tier one service provider selects Tekelec to expand new diameter network" - here.
     
  2. "A tier one U.S. operator has selected Tekelec, the mobile broadband solutions company, to provide core Diameter routing, intelligent policy traffic routing and security for its LTE network".

    See "Tier one U.S. operator selects Tekelec for new LTE diameter network" - here.

VAS Announcements: Kineto's VoIP Application for MNOs


My last one on VoIP/IM OTT for the day ,..

After seeing the stats from Allot (here), and the recommendations from Ovum and Informa (here), there is also a product that may help MNOs salvage their voice revenues.

Kineto Wireless announced ".. Smart VoIP, the first VoIP application specifically developed to enable mobile operators to leverage their existing network infrastructure to offer a competitive over-the-top (OTT) voice service .. supports a range of standard mobile telephony capabilities and is designed to run on major mobile operating systems, including iPhone®, Android® and Windows Mobile®. The application can be branded by mobile operators and downloaded to subscribers through standard application stores .. Kineto’s Smart VoIP application ..Works over any network .. Ties to main voice service .. [and] Leverages existing core network".

See "Kineto Announces New over-the-top VoIP Application Built for Mobile Operators" - here.

[Informa, Ovum]: How can MNOs Stop Revenues Lost to OTT Voice and Messaging?

 
Allot showed us the huge growth in VoIP traffic (114% in 2nd half of 2011 - here) - what does it mean, and what could be done about it?

A recent report from Ovum shows the hard numbers - "New estimates from Ovum indicate that consumers’ increasing use of IP-based social messaging (messaging that occurs through platforms other than SMS, MMS, or email, and which is either tied to a social network or has a social component attached) services on their smartphones cost telecom operators $8.7bn in lost SMS revenues in 2010, and $13.9bn in 2011".

Informa research concludes that "Operators must provide internet-style communication services to remain relevant to customers and to challenge the OTT services which are beginning to erode voice and text revenues .. In 2012 the increase in smartphone penetration will cause voice and messaging revenue erosion of 3.9% and 1.6% in Western and Eastern Europe respectively .. Operators are implementing a combination of five different strategies in order to face up to the OTT-communication threat".

Dario Talmesio (pictured) principal analyst, Informa said: “Unfortunately for them, most of these strategies are short-sighted as too much emphasis is given to fighting OTT rather than satisfying their customers .. Operators wanting to remain relevant to their customers need to give them internet-style communication services, as voice and messaging as we know it will soon be a thing of the past.”


Neha Dharia (pictured), consumer analyst at Ovum said: “Operators must remain open to partnering with app developers, sharing end-user data with them and allowing integration with the user’s social connections. Working closely with handset vendors will also be important; they control some of the most popular social messaging apps, and can also provide preloaded applications. The most important factor, however, will be co-operation between telcos. They are no longer competing merely among themselves, but must work together to face the challenge from the major Internet players

See "Operators need clear strategy to combat free web-based apps such as WhatsApp" - here and "Ovum estimates that operators lost $13.9bn in 2011 due to social messaging" - here.

See more on OTT traffic monetization from Yankee Group (here and here), Dean Bubley,  ABI Research and TDG,


Allot: Mobile VoIP/IM Grow by 114% During H2 2011


Allot Communications published its periodical mobile traffic report showing that "Mobile broadband traffic grew by 83% in the second half of the year with a CAGR of 234% during 2011".

VoIP and video streaming grow above the 83% average (114% and 88%, respectively) - another testimony to MNOs' revenues challenge (more on that - later today). Web browsing and file sharing showed a more modest growth (see chart).

Looking at the share of each application family in total traffic - video streaming leads with 42% share, file sharing is 26%, web browsing 24% and VoIP and IM are 5%.

Later today - how this effects MNOs revenues, what they should do and a related new product announcement.


See press release - "Allot MobileTrends Report H2, 2011 Shows VoIP and IM Traffic Grew by 114%" - here

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Movik Demos RAN Awareness Solution


As we are approaching  MWC 2012, the stream of products announcements is growing. While last year I spotted the trend of moving DPI based mobile traffic management solutions closer to the subscribers, this year vendors try to get more granular, and track subscriber mobility for a more accurate traffic management.  

I recently covered several mobility-aware traffic management solution (Sandvine, Broadband Systems), and saw now another one, from Movik Networks

The Boston based vendor annoucned that at MWC 2012 it will ".. showcase the industry’s first Intelligent RAN Awareness Platform that correlates and acts in real-time on all traffic from the RAN, enabling mobile operators to better plan, optimize and manage their most valuable network asset. With Movik’s Intelligent RAN Awareness solution, the individual elements of the access network -- right down to the sector --become independently visible and controllable, allowing mobile operators to tailor actions and policies on a per-sector, per-condition, per-content, and per-subscriber basis .. Movik’s Intelligent RAN Awareness Platform delivers 50% reduction in page download times, 45% reduction in video start times with no user impact and 30% reduction in network traffic".

Unfortunately, I can’t find additional supporting material in the web site, to better understand the offering.

See "Movik Showcases Industry’s First Intelligent RAN Awareness Platform at Mobile World Congress" - here.

[Update 52: Volubill-Ipoque] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

   
Volubill and ipoque announced that "..the companies have partnered to provide PCRF and PCEF solutions for fixed and mobile operators. The partnership will create a best-of-breed solution that gives network operators a better understanding of network traffic required to deliver more dynamic and contextualized data service plans .. Volubill's VBS policy and charging control is integrated with ipoque PRX Traffic Manager for Policy Enforcement .. The pre-integrated solution, which is already integrated within key Volubill and ipoque customer accounts".

The DPI-PCRF matrix (here) was updated, and now includes ipoque as a DPI vendor. The company updated me that in addition to Volubill, they also interoperate with Comverse (related post - here), and "..there will likely be two to three more announced within the next couple of months".

See "Volubill and ipoque Partner to Deliver Real-Time Policy Management and Policy Enforcement Engine for Communications Service Providers" - here.

TM/Security Deployments [122]: StarHub [Singapore] Selected Mobixell

   
Mobixell Networks announced that "StarHub, Singapore’s fully-integrated info-communication company, has selected Mobixell Seamless Access as its mobile data traffic management solution. Seamless Access was chosen by StarHub to reduce costs and enable introduction of new and futuristic services, such as video optimization, personalized advertising and content filtering (see "Mobixell and Commtouch Offer Parental Control W/Real Time Content Categorization" - here), for the next generation mobile Internet".

Liong Hang Chew, Assistant Vice President of Mobile Network Engineering at StarHub said, “ .. At the same time, implementing Seamless Access will enable future services such as content security and other possible revenue-generating features"

At the end of 2011, StarHub had 2.2M mobile subscribers, of which 49% were post-paid, generating 81% of revenues. 

Related links:
  • StarHub (Singapore) Selected Neuralitic for Usage Profiling and Monetization - here
  • StarHub Uses Huawei to Reduce Network Signaling by 83% - here
See "StarHub Chooses Mobixell to Provide Next Generation Mobile Data Traffic Management Solution" - here.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

27% Growth for the DPI Market in 2011


With the release of Procera Networks results, all 3 public DPI companies published Q4 and full 2011 reports.

All together, the 3 pure players of standalone DPI devices, Allot Communications, Procera and Sandvine generated $58.2M from products and services (not all targeting the fixed/mobile broadband market) during Q4 and $211.6M during the FY2011, compared to $167M in 2010 (+26.7%).

A short comparison for Q4 and whole 2011:

Q4, 2011
SymbolNASDAQ:ALLTAMEX:PKTTSX:SVC
Press release link HereHere (1)
Q4-11 Revenues
$22M
$15.6M
$20.6M
Q4-10 to Q4-11 change
36%
108%
-14.7%
Q3-11 to Q4-11 change
10%
28%
-19.4%
Q4-11 Net Income (GAAP)
$3.5M
$1.8M
-$3.6M
Gross margin
71%
56%
72%
Market Cap (2)
$498M
$273M
$203M
Cash
$159.4 (3)
$37.4M
$74M
Enterprise Value
$338.6M
$235.6M
$129M





FY 2011
Revenues
$77.8M
$44.4M
$89.3M
Change from 2010
36%
118%
-0.4%
Margin
71%
60%
74%
Net Income (GAAP)
$8.8M
$3.8M
-$5.8M
Net Income (Non-GAPP)
$12.5M
$5.5M
-$2.2M



See also "DPI Shares Performance in 2011 - The Phenomenal, Great and Bad" - here.

 Comments:
  1. Sandvine Q4 is November 30 (as of Q1, the company reports in $US)
  2. End of day February xx, 2012
  3. Allot issued 5.5M new shares on November 2011, @$14.25 for a total of $78.4M