Sterlite Technologies Acquired Elitecore for $27M

 
Elitecore Technologies, often covered in my blog with its PCRF and other OSS products, was acquired for an "overall enterprise value of approximately Rs180 crore ($27.2M) in an all cash deal".

Sterlite Technologies announced it has "entered into a definitive agreement for the acquisition of Elitecore Technologies.. Elitecore is a leading provider of Operations Support Services / Business Support Services and is majority owned by First Carlyle Ventures Mauritius, whose affiliate is advised by The Carlyle Group. Elitecore was established in 1999 by highly experienced software technocrats with over 20 years of experience.

.. Elitecore is a profitable niche player with FY 15 revenues of Rs147cr ($22.2M) and EBITDA of Rs16cr ($2.4M) and is cash positive on a net debt basis"

Related posts:

• 3 Wins for Elitecore PCC in Cable - here
• EliteCore Offers PCRF as Cloud Service  - here
• Named Deployments: Aircel , O-Zone

"The company has been continuously profitable for the last 7 years and the financial performance would continue to improve given the strategic decision to build its service capabilities and focus on investing in right growth product categories.

..Sterlite has taken a strategic decision to capitalize on the broadband data network creation globally by offering a larger range of products and solutions especially focusing on the high value product segments. Elitecore’s portfolio enables Sterlite to serve Telco operators’ mission critical applications that drive profitability and scalability".

See "Sterlite Technologies announces acquisition of global telecom software company Elitecore Technologies" - here.

EliteCore Offers PCRF as Cloud Service

Elitecore Technologies follows the trend of offering cloud-based policy management and analytics systems, in a service business model (see Tango Telecom, Openwave Mobility and Sandvine)

The company announced the ".. availability of Virtualized NetVertex PCRF on Cloud as SPI model for CSP on a Pay as you go. The Pretested and Preconfigured NetVertex Policy Control Solution comes bundled with integrated NetVertex Policy analytics and on board EMS system.

.. The complete solution is available Preconfigured on cloud, enabling operators accelerate ready- to- use deployment timelines from 4-6 weeks to 1 day and also considerably reduce cost, time and effort for IOT and POC ..  it offers Rule based Auto Scaling to meet CSP Peak hour traffic, where by capacity is increased and up within minutes for the Peak time only. This does away need for additional hardware procurement and database each time to increase capacity. It offers greater Elasticity to increase performance and scale at a lower cost in minimal time.

NetVertex PCRF is available on cloud across 41+ Point of Presence connected to over 25+ Datacenters, offers added advantage of local presence across all these locations with committed SLA of 99.999% uptime and Secure connectivity over VPN or Direct link to CSP in premise data center".

See "Elitecore Announces Network function Virtualized NetVertex PCRF on Cloud available to CSP as SPI (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)" - here.

Elitecore Offers Integrated PCC @ $500K/100K Subscribers

Elitecore Technologies announced ".. Pre-integrated LTE RCM an end to end platform comprising; OCS, PCRF, Convergent Billing, Customer Management, Provisioning, Business Analytics and Selfcare Portals for LTE operators at USD 500K for 100,000 subscribers. 

..The platform comes with Integrated Policy and Charging solution enabling launch of innovative plans & services on day one. A centralized product catalogue with Policy, Billing enables quick designing and readiness for new plans and packages and meet dynamic market changes faster than competition. Inbuilt business analytics provides subscriber insights and usage/ plan trend analysis to launch advanced revenue generating plans.

[Related post - "EliteCore Integrates Charging, Billing, PCRF, DSC, AAA and Mediation" - here]

The platform is available on premise or as cloud and virtualization ready. It can be scaled seamlessly to support 10 Mn subscribers and meet the growing demands for future services like HD Video, VoLTE and facilitate the provisioning & management of large subscriber base at reduced operational cost and resources.

Operators can launch various use cases including Shared wallet/family plans ,Day / Event pass, URL/Application/OTT based charging, revenue sharing, ToD based charging, Bill-shock Prevention, unlimited data, Tiered FUP, Turbo-boost/BoD, Time/Device based plans etc"

See "Elitecore Announces Pre-Integrated LTE Revenue and Customer Management Platform at USD 500K" - here.

3 Wins for Elitecore PCC in Cable

 
Elitecore Technologies announced ".. three Cable MSOs (Multi-System Operators) wins for Pay TV and Broadband services; setting up a strong footprint in Asia Pacific Cable market. 

Elitecore will offer a complete pre-integrated as well as modular stack of Convergent Billing and Subscriber Management, Centralized Product Catalog, PCRF, Online Charging, AAA, Captive Portal, Partner Settlement, Provisioning, Self-care Portals and IP Log Management system that will help these Cable MSOs to ramp up their digitization efforts and quickly capitalize on new revenue opportunities with digital TV and Broadband bundled services for around 5 Mn subscribers".

Related post - "EliteCore Integrates Charging, Billing, PCRF, DSC, AAA and Mediation" - here.

See "Elitecore bags 3 new orders from Multi service Cable Operators, Deploys Integrated Real time Billing, Charging & Policy Control Solution" - here.

PCC Deployments [301]: Aircel [India] Uses EliteCore for Service Differentiation

Elitecore Technologies announced that it has "..deployed NetVertex PCRF with Aircel India which has mobile presence across 23 circles .. Aircel went through a detailed evaluation process with leading Policy Control vendors, which also involved in running tests to exhibit compliance on the features and requirement. Elitecore’s Netvertex PCRF scored very high in this evaluation.

On February 2014, Aircel had over 69M GSM subscribers (here), or 9.7% if the Indian market (711M subscribers)

Robert Sewell [pictured], Head, Network Architecture, Aircel said, 'At Aircel our prime focus is on delivering a great customer experience with service differentiation [see "Aircel [India] Offers Facebook Aware Service" - here]. For this we selected Elitecore’s Netvertex PCRF and have been very pleased with the quick implementation of the platform in our network. The support extended by Elitecore’s team during deployment and operations in our network and the platform’s performance has been outstanding'”.

See "Elitecore deploys NetVertex PCRF at AIRCEL" - 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.

Wi-Fi Deployments[281]: O-Zone [India] Deployed 5,500 Hotspots with Elitecore

Elitecore Technologies announced that its "SMP [see "Elitecore Helps Operators Monetize Wi-Fi (w/Location, Analytics and Revenue Generator)" - here] has been deployed by O-Zone Networks, to fulfill its vision of becoming India’s largest Wi-Fi operator. Elitecore SMP will help in delivering seamless connectivity and rich user experience across nationwide hotspots at affordable prices. O-Zone Networks has rolled out 5,500 hotspots in 23 cities of which over 1,000 locations are public hotspots.

As part of Wi-Fi SMP solution, Elitecore offers a captive portal through which O-Zone is able to create different types of login and post login pages which can be differentiated as per the zone or location requirements. It also integrates with various access controllers allowing controller MAC ID binding with specifically created zones ensuring that any user request received from any access controller can be defined by the zone to which the user belongs".

See "Elitecore Wi-Fi Service Management Platform enables O-Zone Networks to roll out nationwide hotspots in India" - here.

EliteCore Integrates Charging, Billing, PCRF, DSC, AAA and Mediation

Elitecore Technologies announces ".. pre-integrated BSS platform comprising online charging, convergent billing, PCRF, DSC, 3GPP AAA and enhanced mediation for LTE networks. It supports gradual migration from existing networks to provide personalized LTE offerings such as shared wallet/family plans, a la carte plans and VoLTE support. The platform also comes with Business Analytics (BI) tool to help the CSPs launch customer-centric loyalty and promotional plans including location-based and device-based plans .. The platform is compliant to TM Forum and 3GPP. Its vendor-agnostic platform help CSPs save cost by reusing the existing network equipment across both DIAMETER and RADIUS .. Elitecore has successfully deployed its integrated BSS platform for LTE network in ME and APAC regions.

Elitecore BSS platform is integrated with packet core, including PCRF to offer tiered fair access policy plans, Policy-based free units, parental controls and enterprise plans along with customer-centric loyalty and promotions such as location-based, device-based add-on promos and targeted promotions based on subscriber ARPU. Its enhanced Web Self-care and POS portals enable customers have services/bundle plans of their choice with easy interface management of Franchisee/ Resellers and Partners".

See "Elitecore Announces LTE-ready, Integrated BSS Platform" - here.

Elitecore Helps Operators Monetize Wi-Fi (w/Location, Analytics and Revenue Generator)

Elitecore Technologies announced the launch of "Wi-Fi monetization framework comprising: Smart Connectivity ..  simplifies user’s connectivity to Wi-Fi through efficient network discovery, selection and user authentication for both data offload and walk-in users ; Location-specific services -  identify and categorize user locations based on multiple methods to improve operator service capability ; Subscriber Analytics and Revenue Generator – Operators can launch new revenue models through personalized push notification for Wi-Fi using flash advertisements, freebies discount coupons, on-demand events, clicks-on-portal, roaming (iPass, Boingo) and 3G+Wi-Fi plans". 

 

See "Elitecore Introduces “Wi-Fi Monetization Framework” for Telecom Operators" - here.

Elitecore Virtualizes Diameter Signaling Controller

   

Elitecore Technologies announces that its "Diameter Signaling Controller, EliteDSC, now comes with new features including a unique software-based approach along with Virtualization technology .. As compared to legacy hardware based solution , a software-based approach to Diameter signaling ensures flexibility in integration through simple GUI-based configuration, enabling operators to introduce software-level changes to create new features, applications and use cases.

Virtualization in EliteDSC maximizes hardware performance, improves manageability of newer resources and adds scalability to operator's networks while creating new services based on evolving subscriber needs. The virtualized Diameter engine does away with server sprawl, reduces hardware & deployment costs, ensures disaster recovery & faster provisioning which drastically saves on power consumption and prevents lock-in with hardware vendors".

See "Elitecore Brings Diameter Signaling Controller With Powerful New Features" - here.

Elitecore New Platform Integrates Session Management Products

Elitecore Technologies announced "EliteCSM, a core session management platform for next-generation networks with preintegrated products including AAA, Map Gateway, PCRF, Diameter Signaling and Charging Gateway. The platform serves as a one-stop solution to increase revenues from existing and emerging services without having to go for a major overhaul each time there is an innovation thus, helping them adapt quickly to unpredictable changes in business environment"

EliteCSM Architecture

By using a common Diameter and RADIUS stack across all products which enable easy integration processes for seamless connectivity. EliteCSM drastically reduces development costs and project timelines . It also solves complex integration issues with multi-vendor network elements like GGSN, PGW, HSS, PCRF and OCS vendors, allowing operators to reuse their network for future services with negligible customization".

See "Elitecore brings Core Session Management platform for CSP’s Next-Generation Services" - here.

EliteCore's Diameter Signaling Controller Deployed in Asia

Elitecore Technologies announced ".. deployment of its Diameter Signaling Controller, EliteDSC, with a leading SE Asian operator to address its 3G expansion and WiFi offload strategy.

Dhaval Vora (pictured), VP, Product Management, Elitecore Technologies said: “EliteDSC gives an edge over other Diameter and load balancing products in the market through its extensive platform capability and a common framework for all its diameter solutions. It accommodates multiple offerings like WiFi Offload, DSC, PCRF and Charging, thereby ensuring platform reuse to increase operator ROI”.

EliteDSC (added to the Diameter Roeuitng Product page - here) ".. manages Diameter signaling traffic and optimizes their 3G/ 4G networks. It serves as a centralized point for all diameter-based signaling in 3G and LTE networks for connecting, translating and interoperating diameter traffic, performs use cases such as PCRF binding and HSS address resolution, addresses integration issues in 3G-WiFi Offload along with roaming support and third party content delivery"

See "Elitecore announces successful deployment of Diameter signaling controller for 3G expansion and WiFi offload" - here.

Diameter Signaling Router Product Page Updated

The Diameter Router Product page [here] was updated. Two vendors added to the table: 

• Elitecore Technologies with its ELITEDSC product
   
• Tango Telecom with the Diameter Signaling Controller product

 

Elitecore Makes Offloading Easier

      

Elitecore announced "the “Easy Connect” feature in its Mobile Data Offload (MDO) offering with a mobile app client for Android/iOS, WiFi Offload Location Awareness Module and an enhanced Captive Portal. Designed to attract large numbers of 2G-3G users to WiFi services, Easy Connect will enable operators to overcome last mile hurdles in offering fast and seamless WiFi connectivity, along with improved reach/awareness of the solution". 

"The Mobile app solution supports intuitive features such as one-touch connectivity, automatic connection to available WiFi, zero configuration for end customer and WiFi status check at the time of connectivity .. Elitecore has also introduced WiFi Offload Location Awareness Module which will enable operators to assure WiFi availability to walk-in users at events, hotspots, university etc. for a specific period of time. As soon as the users come within WiFi range, they are alerted about available WiFi zone via SMS".

Dhaval Vora (pictured), VP, Product Management, Elitecore, said: “Operators lose huge chunks of potential WiFi revenues because some phones do not support EAP-SIM authentication, leading to a complex and cumbersome authentication. Elitecore’s mobile app caters to non EAP-SIM use cases as well as EAP SIM phones such as iOS, the user now has to only download the app from the marketplace and install it on his device for seamless connectivity to WiFi services”.

See "Elitecore Iintroduces “easy connect” feature in WiFi offload solution" - here.

Elitecore Enhances PCRF with Enterprise Self Provisioning, Analytics, Parental Control and more

Elitecore Technologies announced it has added several new features to its PCRF product, NetVertex (here, here and here) including "Enterprise Policy, Policy Analytics and RADIUS support for Wi-Fi Offload".

Dhaval Vora (pictured), VP, Product Management explains:

• Enterprise Policy enables operators to address growing enterprise demand for Data Services Control within or outside the organization. It includes a service selection portal allowing Enterprises to self-manage their employees’ data consumption for usage, time & access controls, consistent QoS, Bandwidth-on-Demand, hierarchy-based personalization and more, effectively transferring controls from operators to enterprises

• Policy Analytics will help design and launch subscriber-specific promotions & plans (such as include Social media-only services, Device specific plans, city-wise usage, access network usage, students or Government sector plans) based on various inputs of revenue, usage and traffic feeds reports to PCRF
   
• RADIUS support for Wi-Fi Offload provides native support for Wi-Fi Offload through a single PCRF deployment. Operators no longer need to procure a separate Diameter Translation Agent to talk to PCRF for Wi-Fi offload.

Other new features include Parental Controls and a Device management module which maintains information on different devices available in the market, enabling operators to easily launch device-specific plans easily without having to configure device details everytime.

See "Elitecore releases latest PCRF with powerful new features" - here.

[Update 50: EliteCore/NetVertex - Sandvine Integration] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

 

Dhaval Vora (pictured), AVP Presales and Product Management, EliteCore, informed me that "We recently have finished interoperability of NetVertex with Sandvine DPI for Gx & Gy interfaces"

The PCRF-DPI matrix (here), was updated accordingly (small celebration - its the 50^th update!).

[Update 49: EliteCore/NetVertex - Cisco Integrated Projects] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

 
Dhaval Vora (pictured), AVP Presales and Product Management, EliteCore, updated me that on their PCRF product,  NetVertex, interoperability with DPI:

"We have two live deployments where NetVertex is integrated with CISCO SCE 8000 DPI. One deployment is in Indonesia and another one is in Kuwait. Integration is done over Gx & Gy interface with CISCO SCE 8000".

The PCRF-DPI matrix has been updated accordingly. 

Why Global MNOs Deploy Policy Management?

 
Elitecore published a whitepaper describing the current state of policy management. The document describes in detail the use cases enabled by its PCRF product, NetVertex, (covered here) as well as some general market information.

An interesting part is the research done (see table below) on the use cases are already adopted by global MNOs related, or could be supported by, policy management:

See "A handbook of Emerging Policy Management Use cases" - here or here (registration required)

PCRF Wins: Elitecore Wins 2 New Customers

 

Elitecore announced lately "2 news contracts in India for its Policy Management Product line Netvertex".

See "Elitecore Scores wins on Policy Management" - here.

"In the wins Elitecore has enabled the service providers to provide its Broadband Subscribers with New Service plans that include Bandwidth On Demand features, Tiered Price Plans, Fair Access & application (P2P, FTP, HTTP, SMTP) based Quota Management and Charging Policies",

This does not mean that these anonymous providers (lately, we started to see press releases with names!) are/will be using all these features.

More on Elitecore's PCRF - here.

[Update16 - Elitecore NetVertex] PCRF - DPI Compatibility Matrix

  

I am adding Elitecore's NetVertex (here) to the list of PCRF vendors.

"NetVertex provides policy orchestration functions that allow providers to define policies based on network and usage attributes, subscriber attributes and service attributes. NetVertex Policy manager is compliant to 3GPP Release 8 (PCRF), WiMAX PCC and ETSI TISPAN standards with redundant and failover deployment architecture. With integration with leading DPI vendors NetVertex is highly flexible solution that can be deployed standalone. "

There is no list of the supported DPI platforms.

PCRF Vendor	PCRF Product	Allot	Arbor	Cisco	Procera	Sandvine
Alcatel-Lucent	5780 Dynamic Services Controller (DSC)
Aradial Technologies	Aradial Mobile/APC	●		●
BandWD	BwDRC - Dynamic Resource Control	●		●		●
Bridgewater Systems	Policy Controller/PCRF	●	●	●		●
Broadhop	Quantum Policy Server		●	●
Comability	ComAbility neXus			●
Comptel	Comptel Policy Control™			●	●
Cisco (Starent)	Policy and Charging Control
Digital Route	MediationZone Policy Control
EliteCore	Netvertex (PCRF)
Ericsson	Service-Aware Policy Controller (SAPC)
Flash Networks	POLICY MANAGER
FTS	Leap™ Policy Control	●		●		●
HP	HP Policy and Charging(IUM)	●
Huawei	Open Control & Charging Gateway	●
Kabira (Tibco software)	Policy Server			●
Mobixell (724)	X-treme Framework Platform (XF)	●		●
Nokia Siemens Networks	PCS 5000	●
Openet	FusionWorks™ Policy Manager			●		●
Orga Systems	Next Generation Control Point
Redknee	Policy Manager (PCRF)			●		●
Tekelec (Camiant)	Multimedia Policy Engine	●	●	●	●	●
Telcordia	Telcordia Bandwidth Manager
Volubill	CONTROL-IT Policy Manager
ZTE	ZXUN RCP	●