Procera: "16 Tier1 Trials; 15% growth in 2014"

Several quotes from Procera's Q4 earning call, by James Brear [pictured], President and CEO, and Charles Constanti, CFO:

• We expect revenue growth of 15% in 2014 (see "DPI Market Grew by 10% in 2013 ($278M Revenues for Allot, Procera and Sandvine" - here) 

• There are a number of dynamics we saw in the quarter that impacted our Q4 results. The shortfall relates to lower-than-expected orders from U.S. cable market and we believe this reflected uncertainty and potential consolidation in the market. There were a number of new and existing cable customers that we were targeting that were impacted by these market dynamics. While we continue to aggressively seek new orders from U.S. cable operators, we are taking a more cautious view to that market in our future outlook

• There were no competitive losses in Q4 [in cable] 

• We have 16 direct trials with Tier-1 global service providers. These trials are underway or planned to begin in the next 60 days

See "Procera Networks Management Discusses Q4 2013 Results - Earnings Call Transcript", by SeekingAlpha, here.

DPI Market Grew by 10% in 2013 ($278M Revenues for Allot, Procera and Sandvine)

With the release of Procera Networks' results, all 3 public DPI companies published their full year 2013 reports, totaling to $277.8M compared to $252.5M in 2012 (+10%), with Sandvine replacing Allot as the market leader.

A short comparison of the main indicators:

	Allot Communications	Procera Networks	Sandvine  (Nov 30)
Symbol	NASDAQ: ALLT	NASDAQ:PKT	TSX: SVC
2013 Earning press release link	Here	Here	Here
Revenues
2013	$96.5M	$74.7M	$106.5M
2012	$104.8M	$59.6M	$88M
Change	-7.9%	+25.3%	+21%
Net Income (GAAP)
2013	-$6.5M	-16.3M	$12.9M
2012	-$6.7M	$5.3M	-$5M
Gross Margin
2013	72%	55%	74%
2012	70%	67%	67%
Market Cap (Feb 27, 2014)	$562.1M	$238.9M	$444.6M
Cash (end of 2013)	$121.6M	$106.6M	$89.3M
Enterprise Value	$440.5M	$132.3M	$355.3M

2013 to Feb 27, 2014 stock performance chart of Allot, Procera and Sandvine benchmarked against NASDAQ:

TM Deployments [292]: MTN [Congo] Deployed Comviva PCEF/PCRF

Mahindra Comviva announced that its "Mobile Data Platform (MDP) [a package of PCEF, PCRF and Mobile Internet Gateway - see chart below] has gone live with MTN in Congo B. MTN will now be able to offer an unrivalled number of personalized data plans to its subscribers in Congo B. A holistic broadband management platform, MDP will also help MTN to manage, optimize and monetize its data infrastructure. It will provide enriched user experience by employing intelligent bandwidth management techniques, such as dynamic bandwidth throttling. It will provide real-time advice for charges, notifications and credit/usage limits to subscribers on home and roaming networks for bill shock management over all communication channels such as SMS, USSD, Web application".

MTN Congo has more than 1M subscribers.

See "Mahindra Comviva's Mobile Broadband Solution goes live at MTN CONGO B" - here.

PCC Deployments [291]: Tishknet [Iraq/Kurdistan] Selected Alepo

Alepo Technologies announced that "Tishknet, a leading 4G service provider in the Middle-East, is upgrading its WiMAX network to LTE [here] in order to provide faster and more modern services to a rapidly expanding customer base. As part of its migration, Tishknet will be deploying Alepo’s Service Enabler 9 Suite including its CRM, OCS and PCRF for End-to-end Convergent Service Management. Through integration with a third-party Evolved Packet Core [Ericsson's SSR 8000 - here], Alepo’s solution will provide the backbone for an innovative, Policy 2.0-ready LTE network including mobile apps for easy access and control of the service"

See "Alepo to Deploy LTE CRM, OCS & PCRF Solution with 4G Tishknet in Kurdistan" - here.

DSC Deployments [290]: Oi [Brazil] Selects F5/Traffix

F5 Networks announced that "Oi selected the F5®Traffix™ Signaling Delivery Controller™ (SDC™) to meet the Diameter signaling management demands of their LTE network.

Tom Carter, VP Worldwide Sales, Carriers and Service Providers, F5 said: “F5’s signaling solutions have been deployed by more than 30 operators around the world We view this as a result of F5 offering the most mature routing, load distribution, and Diameter signaling capabilities on the market”

Oi has "46.3 million clients in the segment of personal mobility, of which 38.0 million pre-paid and 5.3 million post-paid users and 9.0 million users in the business/corporate segment, including fixed and mobile telephony and broadband"
See "Oi Selects F5 Diameter Signaling Solution" - here.

Product Announcements: Sandvine, Tilera/Procera, Openwave Mobility, Citrix/Bytemobile, Aricent, Ulticom, Elitecore

MWC announcements, 2nd round:

• Sandvine Usage Management Brings New Mobile Billing Innovations (here): "Sandvine announced the launch of Usage Management release 5.0, which offers new capabilities to help both fixed and mobile communications service providers (CSPs) create, manage and implement new service plan offerings .. SmartRoam .. Pay-Per-Click Billing .. ServiceDesigner"

• Tilera Chooses Procera Networks’ NAVL Engine for SDN and NFV Architectures (here): "Procera Networks and Tilera announced the availability of DPI-on-a-NIC for high performance deep packet intelligence. .. This integrated solution for SDN and NFV environments combines Procera’s Network Application Visibility Library (NAVL) software development kit with Tilera’s TILEncore-Gx™ Intelligent Application Adapters and ART software framework on a Network Interface Card (NIC)." 

• Openwave Mobility Launches Industry’s First NFV-ready Audio, HD and Media Optimization Solution (here): "Openwave Mobility announced General Availability of DynaMO, the latest incarnation of its congestion control software ..The solution can also be deployed in a virtualized environment with dynamic scaling that is fully aligned with the industry initiative for Network Function Virtualization (NFV) .. DynaMO uses a combination of contextually-selective and congestion-aware optimization techniques. It provides the highest quality of video experience by intelligently adapting video optimization to fit the original video with each user’s device. DynaMO monitors individual users’ data sessions, optimizing video only when networks are congested and to the extent where smooth playback can be achieved".

• Citrix Powers Data Monetization for Mobile Operators (here): "Citrix announced ByteMobile Insight, a big data analytics solution designed to provide immediate, actionable intelligence for mobile operator monetization, marketing and customer care organizations ..  ByteMobile Insight is a purpose-built solution encompassing data acquisition, processing and business intelligence. It collects and enriches usage, location and customer relationship management (CRM) data from a wide variety of sources, including ByteMobile platforms deployed in the mobile core network. Actionable intelligence is delivered to any operator organization via a sophisticated, interactive user interface as ready-to-use reports or via API or file extracts".

• Aricent Launches Multi-Technology Universal SON – A Self-Optimizing Network Solution That can Automatically Optimize 2G, 3G, and 4G Networks Simultaneously (here): "Aricent launched an advanced self-optimizing network solution called Universal SON (Uni-SON). It automates optimization of multi-technology and multi-layered radio access networks thereby reducing operational expenditure (OPEX) and improving user experience significantly .. The biggest advantage of Uni-SON is that a single solution can help automate the optimization of 2G, 3G and LTE networks simultaneously. Its centralized architecture helps to capture a global view of the network, with decision variables spanning across different technologies and network layers".

• Ulticom Upgrades Successfully Deployed DSC Product (here): "Ulticom announces the availability of Release 4.1 of their Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC).. Release 4.1 brings enhanced congestion avoidance, and simplified integration with operational management systems. Feature enhancements in Release 4.1 include: Enhanced SLF-based routing (SLF=Subscriber Location Function), Simplified operational management of connections, Congestion Avoidance via intelligent, prioritized traffic redirection based upon message content, Enhanced operational capability to allow improved network monitoring and flexible formatting to ease integration with back-end network management systems".

• Elitecore introduces Passpoint-enabled Hotspot 2.0 and ANDSF support in its Wi-Fi Service Management Platform (here): "Elitecore Technologies announces that its SMP is ready to support PasspointTM certified Hotspot 2.0, an approach introduced by Wi-Fi Alliance for public access Wi-Fi to provide secure Wi-Fi access (Access Network Delivery Selection Function) from a list of Wi-Fi networks available for the client devices. Hotspot 2.0 complies with industry standards, which provides better bandwidth and seamless experience to alleviate mobile carrier traffic overheads. It will allow devices to discover and automatically select and connect to Wi-Fi networks based upon user preferences and network optimization. No user intervention will be required, all the user has to do is turn on the device and get automatic secure Wi-Fi connectivity.

Netflix: First we take Comcast, then we take AT&T and Verizon; How Much it Costs?

After making peace with Comcast (see "Comcast and Netflix - BFF ("no preferential network treatment")" - here) Netflix is now said to be in discussions with AT&T and Verizon. 

Who cares about Net Neutrality now?

Jeff Baumgartner reports to MultiChannel that "Add AT&T to the list of major U.S. broadband service providers that’s in interconnection talks with Netflix.We’re in discussions with Netflix to establish a more direct connection between our networks, similar to agreements we have with others, so that AT&T broadband customers who use Netflix can enjoy an even better video experience,” AT&T said in a statement issued Monday.

According to Variety, Wedbesh Securities estimates that Netflix is paying Comcast between $25 million and $50 million, versus the $400 Comcast had been seeking, but predicted that payments to ISPs will grow in the coming years.

Also on Monday, Verizon Communications CEO Lowell McAdam [pictured] told CNBC that the telco has been holding similar talks with Netflix for over a year, adding that “I would expect that we would” sign a deal with Netflix.

See "AT&T, Netflix In Interconnection Talks" - here. 

Procera Expands Optimization Offering; Partners with Qwilt

  

Loyal to its partnership model (see "Procera Partners with Avvasi; Prefers Partnerships over Allot's Acquisitions Strategy" - here), Procera Networks partners with Qwilt for additional optimization capabilities.

The two vendors announced a " partnership to offer network operators a best-of-breed transparent caching and Internet Intelligence solution that addresses network challenges resulting from the rapid growth and consumption of online video. Qwilt’s QB-Series transparent caching technology and Procera’s PacketLogic™ platform together provide network operators with a unified, plug-and-play solution to seamlessly deliver over-the-top (OTT) video traffic and improve quality of experience (QoE) for their subscribers.

..With this partnership, network operators can prepare their networks for the growth of online video traffic, bandwidth utilization and QoE, and optimizing traffic with network insights. Network operators will benefit by: Ease of Deployment, Network Resources Optimization and Service Model Innovation"

See "Procera Networks and Qwilt Partner to Launch Online Video Delivery and Analytics Solution for Network Operators" - here.

Tata Adds Tango Telecom's PCC to its Hosted Solution

  

Tata communications expands (or changes?) its hosted PCC/DPI offering (see "Tata Communications Builds Hosted Policy Management and Enforcement w/Allot and Openet" - here) with Tango's Telecom Policy Control Solution (as well as Procera's DPI - see Procera's CEO comments here).

Tango announced that "Tango Telecom and Tata Communications announced a collaboration to deliver hosted policy and charging control solutions to mobile network operators (MNOs) .. With an extensive range of revenue-generating use cases available out of the box, the hosted policy control platform enables mobile operators to improve their profitability while enhancing their subscribers’ experience with dynamic, innovative and personalised data services".

See "Hosted Policy Engine launched with Tata Communications" - here.

Product Announcements: Ixia, Ulticom, RADCOM, NSN, SAP, DigitalRoute, Avvasi, Centri. Smith Micro

With MWC starting today, the number of product announcements made in the last few days does not allow a separate post for each .. so here is a short digest:

• Ixia Provides Three Times More Network Visibility In Half The Rack Space (here) : Ixia ".. introduced, as part of its Visibility Architecture, its most advanced, highest capacity platform that is designed to provide three times the visibility in half the rack space for enterprise and service provider applications .. Ixia’s newest network packet broker, the Net Tool Optimizer 7300, .. helps service providers and enterprises to improve real-time insights into the data traversing the network".

• Ulticom Diameter Signaling Controller is Virtualization Ready (here): Ulticom announced that "more than half of their Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) deployments are in Virtualization environments. The Ulticom DSC is being deployed using both traditional dedicated server solutions and in Virtualized environments. As a software solution, Ulticom’s DSC is architected and ideally suited for deployment using virtualization. The product is hypervisor independent and can be scaled dynamically during operation. It has a proven track-record in operational deployments using virtualization and cloud technologies. Compatible hypervisor technologies include VMware, KVM, and Virtual Box.

• RADCOM Rolls-out Enhanced End-to-End VoLTE Monitoring Capabilities (here): RADCOM announced that it has ".. added new Voice over LTE (VoLTE) monitoring capabilities to MaveriQ, RADCOM’s NFV-based network analytics probe. The enhanced VoLTE capabilities allow service providers to monitor the VoLTE service end-to-end across the LTE and IMS domains. MaveriQ continuously monitors VoLTE calls in multiple network areas, including eNodeB, EPC, policy and charging, and in the IMS network itself. With real-time and historical end-to-end call tracing, proactive alarming and KPIs that constantly monitor service QoE, RADCOM’s MaveriQ gives operators clear visibility into all quality aspects of high-speed 4G LTE, VoLTE and LTE-Advanced networks. Providing advanced troubleshooting tools for VoLTE service degradation, MaveriQ assists in achieving VoLTE accessibility, retainability, integrity and availability. The MaveriQ solution has already been deployed in four Tier 1 service provider networks in APAC and LATAM"

• Enhanced Flexi Zone controller powers up indoor, outdoor capacity and coverage, brings Liquid Applications to small cells (here): Nokia Solutions and Networks is "extending its award-winning Flexi Zone architecture, making it the most versatile small cell solution able to cover all deployment scenarios. A Flexi Zone controller application can be added to existing macro-cellular base stations to run a large number of nearby small cells. Flexi Zone’s cluster approach can now be used for indoor deployments. In addition, Flexi Zone controller supports the integration of NSN Liquid Applications to deliver locally-relevant, fast services directly from small cell base station clusters
  The third major development enables the Flexi Zone controller to support the integration of NSN Radio Application Cloud Server functionality to enable Liquid Applications on a cluster of small cells. Radio Application Cloud Server provides processing and storage, together with the ability to collect real-time network data. These features can be exploited by applications to offer context-relevant services that transform the mobile broadband experience. Liquid Applications offers caching and local offload for street level deployments, as well as enabling operators to provide value added services indoors to enterprises and public indoor locations".

• SAP and DigitalRoute Join Forces to Enrich Customer Experience for Telcos (here): SAP AG  today announced a "..significant expansion of its relationship with DigitalRoute .. The targeted result is an enhanced solution that shall bring together data from both operational and business support systems (OSS and BSS), providing unique insights that are expected to help communications service providers (CSPs) navigate toward monetizing their Big Data in today’s stormy market conditions".

• Avvasi Launches “Xperium Video Minutes” (here) Avvasi announced the launch of its “Xperium Video Minutes solution .. Xperium Video Minutes allow networks, for the first time, to measure and manage a video’s quality in real time and to charge for video traffic on a duration basis, rather than by volume (megabytes). This innovation has the double benefit of simplifying the usage, consumption and purchase of video services, while providing a new revenue stream for network operators".

• CENTRI Technology’s BitSmartCX Solution Ready for Wireless Operator Integration (here): ".. On the heels of completing successful trials in Latin America of its BitSmartCX solution, CENTRI Technology announced that its flagship product is now ready for wireless operator integration. Designed to help mobile network operators intelligently optimize and manage the flow of data across their networks in real-time, CENTRI’s BitSmartCX reduces the need for operators to invest in additional network infrastructure while lowering backhaul, spectrum and transport costs".

• Smith Micro and Amdocs Validate ANDSF Interoperability for Seamless Wi-Fi Access and Traffic Optimization (here): Smith Micro Software announced the "successful completion of interoperability tests between the Amdocs Smart Net intelligent offload solution and the Smith Micro NetWise® traffic management client. Amdocs used Smith Micro’s NetWise I/O toolkit to validate ANDSF interoperability that would enable seamless Wi-Fi offload and traffic optimization over heterogeneous networks".

Comcast and Netflix - BFF ("no preferential network treatment")

While the relations between Netflix and Verizon are not clear (see "The Post-Net Neutrality Era - Does Verizon Shape Netflix and Amazon?" here and "Netflix Reports Slower Speeds for Verizon" here), the future for Comcast customers looks much better, with no Net Neutrality issues (?). It seems that the bad days ("Netflix CEO: 'Comcast no longer following net neutrality principles'" - here) are over.

The giant MSO and the OTT provider announced a " .. mutually beneficial interconnection agreement that will provide Comcast’s U.S. broadband customers with a high-quality Netflix video experience for years to come. Working collaboratively over many months, the companies have established a more direct connection between Netflix and Comcast, similar to other networks, that’s already delivering an even better user experience to consumers, while also allowing for future growth in Netflix traffic. Netflix receives no preferential network treatment under the multi-year agreement, terms of which are not being disclosed".

See "COMCAST AND NETFLIX TEAM UP TO PROVIDE CUSTOMERS WITH EXCELLENT USER EXPERIENCE" - here.