Telecom Italia Deployed Qwilt to Improve OTT Streaming Video QoE

Qwilt announced that "Telecom Italia has deployed Qwilt's award-winning open caching solution to boost network capacity and improve quality of over-the-top (OTT) streaming video for its more than 30 million customers. Telecom Italia implemented Qwilt's solution to provide enhanced quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers using online video and live streaming services from OTT content providers in Italy.

 .. The operator deployed the Qwilt open cache solution over a year ago to create a scalable architecture for its network and has experienced improved performance that meets the needs of its customers.

Qwilt's solution is delivered as a fully managed service to speed deployment and streamline ongoing operation. The broader operator organization -- including network planning, engineering and operations teams -- benefits from comprehensive media analytics, which offer insights into growth trends, content sources and consumer preferences.

By relying on open caching for online video delivery at the network edge, operators can substantially reduce network capital and operational costs -- a typical open cache deployment yields a return on investment (ROI) in less than 12 months.

The open caching deployment at Telecom Italia was supported by local systems integrator Proxy.

See "Telecom Italia Deploys Qwilt to Optimize Over-the-Top Video Content for Improved Customer Quality of Experience" - here.

TIM [Italy] Promises "Best Streaming Quality Experience" for Netflix

Yet another Net Neutrality problem coming up? it depends on what Telecom Italia will be doing to keep-up its promise for "best streaming quality experience" to the upcoming Netflix service in Italy (here).

Related post: "The EU 'Enshrines Net Neutrality’s no Blocking or Throttling Rules'" - here.

Telecom Italia group and Netflix announced an "..agreement to deliver easy access to Netflix to TIM's customers directly on the TIMvision set-top box ..  TIM customers will have easy, on demand access to Netflix, the world’s leading Internet TV network .. Netflix programming will be available in HD quality, directly on the TV via the TIMvision set-top box, on TIM’s fixed ADSL and UBB networks, the most broadly available networks in Italy. 

TIM and Netflix will work together to provide TIM’s customers an easy way to access the Netflix app and enable best streaming quality experience". 

See "Telecom Italia to bring Netflix to TIMvision" - here.

NI Deployments [354]: Telecom Italia Uses Sandvine for Customer Experience Management

Sandvine announced that Telecom Italia is a customer since 2012. TI was one of the first incumbent fixed carriers to use DPI for traffic shaping, initially with Cisco gear (see "Telecom Italia DPI Policies - Limiting only P2P Traffic" - here), This is the first time that Sandvine publicly names TI as a customer. 

 

The company declined to comment whether they had displaced Cisco 3 years ago for the traffic shaping tasks as the current announcement is about the network intelligence aspects of DPI: 

"Telecom Italia is using Sandvine solutions as a key part of its service operations center (SOC) and customer experience management (CEM) platform .. using data generated by Sandvine’s Business Intelligence and Usage Management products to generate key performance indicators (KPIs) for their fixed and mobile networks in Italy. The data is fed by Sandvine’s Record Generator directly to big data and SOC/CEM systems used by Telecom Italia’s internal operations, planning and marketing teams". 

"Ensuring a high quality web-browsing and video experience are essential for helping Telecom Italia provide the best possible service to their subscribers. Sandvine provides Telecom Italia with numerous attributes used to measure both web and video quality, so that Telecom Italia can proactively diagnose network issues and identify quality-related network trends before they impact their subscribers".

See "Sandvine Helps Telecom Italia Elevate Customer Experience Management" - here.

SVA Published Open Cache Guiding Principles

    

The Streaming Video Alliance (SVA) published "..guiding principles and system attributes from its Open Caching Working Group. The SVA was established to create an open architecture, standards and best practices to support the future of online video"

SVA member list includes vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco and Qwilt [see "Qwilt: "Open Transparent Caching" vs. Content Providers' "Black Boxes""- hereas well as CSP such as Comcast, KT, Telecom Italia and Telstra. However,major OTT VIdeo providers such as Netflix are not there.

"..  the Streaming Video Alliance has commissioned the Open Caching Working Group to develop proposed standards, best practices and policy to support a new layer of content caching within the ISP network, close to consumers. 

The Open Caching Working Group, commissioned earlier this year, has already developed a guiding principles document which will serve as the basis for a proposed Open Caching specification. This new Open Caching layer will perform a network function, optimizing network capacity utilization and quality of experience. Moreover, the Open Caching Layer will be open and universal, able to optimize any HTTP, HTTPS or other delivery protocols from any provider.

The attributes of Open Caching system include:

• Open - Components of the system can be implemented by anyone
• Universal - The system can serve any content provider stream, including HTTP, HTTPS or other delivery protocols
• Shared Resource - The system optimizes the use of storage and compute resources for many content providers
• Fairness - Content is treated objectively and in real time
• Network Function - The system creates alternate network capacity and reduces congestion within the ISP network as well as reduces server capacity requirements for the content provider
• Software-based - Components of the system can run as a software solution
• Quality of Experience (QoE) - The QoE for end users being served by the Open Cache will meet or exceed the current QoE without the Open Cache in place.

See "Streaming Video Alliance Publishes Open Caching Guiding Principles and Attributes" - here.

Latam MNOs to Implement Bill Shock Prevention by H1 2013

Following the voluntary agreements or regulation in the EU, US, Australia and Globally, Bill Shock Prevention and transparency comes to Latin America.

The GSMA announced that "..more than 40 Latin American mobile network operators (MNOs) have launched a data roaming transparency scheme in the region that will provide consumers with greater visibility of their roaming charges and usage of mobile data services when travelling within the region and abroad. The initiative is supported by operator groups including America Movil, Antel, Entel Chile, Millicom, Oi, Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefonica .. All national Latin American operations of the above listed MNO groups have agreed to implement these data roaming transparency measures starting now, with full completion by end of the first half of 2013".

See also "[iPass] 43% of Mobile Workers Experienced Bill Shock; Prefer Wi-Fi Over 3G" - here.

See "GSMA Latin America Launch Data Roaming Transparency Scheme" - here.

European Telcos do not Like Regulation and OTT!

Surprised by the title of this post? You shouldn't be. We have seen this many times, and in this year's MWC was no exception (besides, maybe, the language used by the Mr. Bernabe):

• Telecom Italia: Mike Dano reports to Fierce Wireless: "The CEO of Telecom Italia, Franco Bernabe (pictured), used his keynote appearance here at the Mobile World Congress trade show to rally against over-the-top players, arguing that OTT vendors are sucking resources away from wireless operators .. OTT players hinder competition by relying on non-standardized technologies ..  such players also don't understand mobile, and therefore cause unintended problems like overloading mobile networks with unnecessary signaling .. This imposes a big burden on mobile operators .. average revenues per user in Europe have decreased from 26 euros in 2006 to 20 euros in 2011--at a time when operators are investing heavily in their networks to deal with traffic generated in part by OTT services".
  
  See " Telecom Italia CEO highlights 'burdens' created by OTT players" - here.

• Deutsche Telekom - Jeff Barak report to Amdocs Blog that "Deutsche Telekom’s Obermann (pictured) pointed out that in this new cloud era, ”best effort” connectivity won’t be enough – for example, medical cloud services can’t be allowed to fail – and operators will play an important role in providing end-to-end quality of service. The regulator, Obermann insisted, has to accept that non-discriminating traffic management is essential for delivering real quality of service".
  
  See "Who’s going to get left behind? (Live from MWC 2012)" - here. 

• TeliaSonera - Michelle Donegan reports to Light Reading "TeliaSonera said it will charge an extra fee for using free over-the-top VoIP services on its network and throttle bandwidth for users who try to use these services without paying. In an interview with Light Reading TV, Tommy Ljunggren (pictured), TeliaSonera's VP of system development, explained the operator's new strategy and pricing policy for OTT VoIP services. TeliaSonera's message is clear: If you want to use those services on our network, you have to pay; if you don't, those services won't work".
   See "TeliaSonera Chokes Free VoIP Services" - here; This follows TeliaSonera's subsidiary in Spain, Yoigo, recent action - see " Procera's DPI Enables Yoigo VoIP's Monetization" - here.

Telecom Italia: QoE and OTT Partnership Needed for Mobile Revenue Growth

    

A year ago Telecom Italia's CEO said (referring to OTT content providers) -  "The mismatch between investments and revenue is set to compromise the economic sustainability of the current business model for telecom companies" (here).
 

Back then, this approach was not unique to TI - we heard similar things from DT (here) and FT (here). However, consulting and research firms (e.g. - Analysys Mason - here; ABI - here; Yankee - here) recommended the "if you can't beat then, so join them" approach, and indeed we heard different statements and actions -DT (here) and FT (here) changed their position, and now, TI also presents a different view.

  

Mobile World L!ive reports from Huawei Global  Mobile Broadband Forum 2011 - on Michele Gamberini (pictured), director of Wireless Networks at Telecom Italia presentation:

"..there is demand for reliable, speedy and excellent quality services from smartphone and mobile broadband users .. we in Telecom Italia believe that quality of experience will play a key role in getting more out of mobile broadband .. Delivering a high-quality service to customers will also be one of the key tools in enabling operators to generate revenue when offering content from over-the-top providers (such as YouTube), an issue which has previously been widely discussed by operators .. we have to recognise the traction they create in the market.. [the solution is to] combine our innovation with their services .. We have to provide the whole quality of experience"

   

See "TI sees network quality as crucial to mobile broadband success" - here.

Telecom Italia DPI Policies - Limiting only P2P Traffic

    

The following article "Novità ADSL Telecom Italia in vigore da oggi: le risposte su P2P e VoIP da Telecom Italia" - (here, Italian) provides a formal explanation from Telecom Italia on their traffic management policies, following questions raised by Stefano Quintarelli, entrepreneur and expert in telecommunications.

According to Salvo Mizzi (picture) head of Internet, Media & Digital Communication at Telecom Italy, "VoIP applications will not be subject to limitation. The mechanisms for bandwidth management and traffic shaping announced by Telecom Italy will be applied only to the P2P software that use the BitTorrent protocol to programs such as eMule and, if you are not misunderstood, initiated by the download of content such as RapidShare and Megaupload cyberlocker".

[based on computerized translation].

Looks like old news in today's focus on the mobile data "Tsunami", but deployment of DPI and traffic shaping by large DSL carriers is not common, and even less exposed. Rumors are that Telecom Italia is using the Cisco SCE DPI devices.

Telefonica CEO: "Google and Yahoo! use networks for free, which is good news for them and a tragedy for us"

 

A story in Bloomberg by Matthew Campbell and Jonathan Browning describes how the fight between the largest European carriers and content providers escalates.

See "Apple, Google Asked to Pay Up as Mobile Operators Face Data Flood" - here and previous quotes from DT,  Vodafone, Telefonica, Swisscom, Kabel Deutschland .

• France Telecom CEO Stephane Richard (picture): “Service providers are flooding networks with no incentive to cut costs.. the explosion of data is good news .. it is, however, a challenge for carriers like us .. raises the question of the business model of mobile data .. We are progressively going to switch from the unlimited approach that has been the trademark of our industry to something which is more sophisticated”
   
• Telefonica SA CEO Cesar Alierta: "Companies such as Google and Yahoo! Inc. “use Telefonica’s networks for free, which is good news for them and a tragedy for us"

• Telecom Italia CEO Franco Bernabe: (picture)"The mismatch between investments and revenue is set to compromise the economic sustainability of the current business model for telecom companies”
   

And from the other side: “Currently about 40 percent of our expenses go to networks anyway -- servers, peering, our content delivery network, and other resources,” said Giuseppe de Martino, the legal and regulatory director of Paris-based online-video provider Dailymotion SA. “If telecom operators want us to share in their expenses, perhaps we should talk about sharing subscription revenues as well.”