du [UAE] Upgraded its CDN for IOS8 Updates

du (UAE] announced that "Following proactive steps taken by du to ensure a seamless upgrade experience to iOS 8 for Apple customers, du has noted that Apple traffic has, for the first time on its network, reached a new high – topped only by customers’ consumption of online video. Compared to a regular day, iOS 8 upgrades caused an increase of 15 times in App traffic upgrades since its release at 9pm on 17 September 2014.

In anticipation of the increased traffic iOS 8 upgrades would cause, du upgraded its Internet Content Delivery Network to avoid network congestion, and provide customers with the best possible experience.

[related post: "DPI Deployments: du [UAE] Selected Procera" - here] 

On du’s Fixed network, its Burj Khalifa PoP (Point of Presence), which services the area around the Burj, handled the highest volume of update downloads. However, many users chose to update using du’s Mobile network, enabling their devices as a Personal Hotspot/Tether, given the WiFi requirements of the iOS 8 upgrade.

Saleem AlBalooshi [pictured], Executive Vice President - Network Development & Operations in du, said: “iPhone users comprise a significant portion of our customer base, and we were able to predict this high volume of traffic in advance, given the popularity of Apple’s smartphones. As ever, our focus was on ensuring that our customers enjoyed a seamless experience in updating their devices, and so we undertook measures to bolster our network and provide a smooth, hassle-free iOS 8 download for our customers across the UAE.”

At the end of Q2, 2014 du had 7.1M subscribers, a 45% market share.

See "Apple traffic on du network reaches new high after seamless iOS 8 upgrade experience" - here.

DPI Deployments [297]: du [UAE] Selected Procera

Procera Networks announced a "strategic partnership with Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (du) .. du has purchased Procera Networks' award-winning PacketLogic™ 10000 series of products, which will enable the company to provide an enhanced customer experience and network optimisation.

in 2010-11, Openwave announced that du will be using its PCRF (here) and DPI (here) products. 

See "du Partners With Procera Networks to Deliver Enhanced Customer Experience and Network Optimisation" - here.

Pan-Arab Carriers' Platform will Challenge OTTs

Matt Smith reports to Reuters that "Middle East telecommunications firms are discussing the idea of creating a pan-Arab online platform that would earn them more revenue from their networks by challenging Facebook and other Internet behemoths of the West .. Behind the proposal is a frustration shared by telecommunications firms globally: as they spend heavily to build networks, data traffic on the networks is increasing rapidly, but the firms essentially only make money from charging for access to their networks - a low-margin business".

Osman Sultan (pictured), CEO of du says: "OTT players...we can't share their gain and they won't share our pain .. Network traffic doubles every eight to nine months, but revenue is heading to a plateau, so we need to claim part of the new revenues alongside OTT players",

".. common language and culture shared by the world's more than 350 million Arabic speakers, plus the webs of affiliated companies which Gulf operators own across the Middle East and North Africa, could make the project viable".

Pedro Oliveira (pictured), partner at global management consultants Oliver Wyman says "In the Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have multiple telecommunications firms providing Internet access, and some of them may be the most vulnerable to becoming "dumb pipes". Such companies might cut access fees to their networks in an effort to win market share .. If one operator takes this approach, then others in the same market may be forced to follow as they lose revenue and market share and struggle to keep on investing in their network .. It's a race to the bottom."

See "Middle East telcos mull alliance in Facebook fight" - here.

Ovum & Heavy Reading Analysts Summarize the Broadband Traffic Management Congress

 

Steven Hartley (pictured)  Practice Leader, Telco Strategy Ovum and Graham Finnie, Chief Analyst, Heavy Reading, published their impressions from the recent Broadband Traffic Management Congress (here) held recently in London.  

Steven found it was "refreshing to see examples of how operators are approaching the commercial aspects of managing traffic" rather than a vendor solution show, as in previous years. The main trends were:

• plans tiered by quality of service (QoS) were no longer being touted. The burden of proof required to justify spending on these approaches has always concerned us particularly in the consumer market .. Operators are instead opting for a “gold, silver, and bronze” approach aligned with applications, meaning that the benefits of QoS are aimed at the content provider, which pays for an optimal end-user experience
   
• Deutsche Telekom, Pakistani WiMAX operator PTCL, Du, Orange Group, and Turkcell extolled the virtues of customer segmentation for creating tailored packages
   
• There was a consensus among vendors (with a clear vested interest in promoting their tools’ sophistication) that the future will see operators offering highly tailored packages to end users and content providers. However, this view was somewhat tempered by the operators at the event, which spoke of simplicity and clarity as the key means to win customers (Belgacom, Orange)

Graham Finnie (pictured) also saw "It wasn’t just theoretical speculation—speaker after speaker set out real, deployed examples" and the focus on applications - "Top of the list for now is the use of DPI and related mechanisms to identify social networking apps—especially Facebook—and give them special treatment such as zero-rating or a lower price point (Turkcell, Du).

Other trends:

• top-ups, apps-oriented turbo boosts, and short-term upgrades are all increasingly popular
   
• a strong desire to gain a better understanding of the behaviour of subscribers and applications (Bell Canada) - 2012 looks like being a good year for analytics (see here).

See "Traffic management gets less technical" [Ovum, here] - here and "Broadband Traffic Management: It’s All About The Package" [Heavy Reading, published by Allot, here]

PCRF Deployments (69): du Selects Openwave for Quota Control

Openwave announced that ".. du, the integrated telecom service provider in the United Arab Emirates, has selected Openwave® Smart Policy (part of Openwave® Passport) .. Smart Policy will allow du’s mobile broadband customers to directly and proactively manage their mobile broadband experience. Customers will have immediate access to their usage history [see below du's mobile Internet service plans] and will be provided with the opportunity to supplement their real broadband experience with a number of value-focused data and messaging bundles".

See "du Selects Openwave's Smart Policy Solution to Provide Customers With Real-Time Data Plan Options" - here. 

du, the 2nd largest operator in UAE, has 4.5 million active users at the end of March 2011. Last year Openwave announced that du will use its optimization and mediation products (see "Du [UAE] Uses Openwave to Optimize its Mobile Service" - here). The operator has a non-equity strategic partnership with Vodafone.

[1 AED is $0.27]

DPI Deployments (18): Du [UAE] Uses Openwave to Optimize its Mobile Service

   

Openw ave announced today that "du, the integrated telecom service provider in the United Arab Emirates, has selected several products to help du better manage and monetize their mobile network traffic through the optimization of web and video content delivery to a wide range of mobile devices"

See "du Selects Openwave's Context Aware Mediation Platform to Enhance Its Growing IP Mobile Traffic" - here.

du, operating in the UAE, has 3.7M mobile subscribers (March 31, 2010) of which 4% are post-paid, and 77K fixed broadband lines. The company has an exclusive non-equity strategic partnership with the Vodafone Group.

"We wanted the most efficient way to manage our growing network traffic so that we could improve our users' experiences, while at the same time create new services," said Hatem Bamatraf, Senior Vice President - Network Development, du. "We believe the quality of Openwave's Context-Aware Mediation solutions will provide us with the advanced technology needed to deal with all types of traffic, especially online video through Openwave Media Optimizer. These targeted solutions are expected to also help us provide customers with the products and services they really want when they want them, and all at affordable prices

du selected Openwave's products focused on traffic optimization: Media Optimizer, Web Optimizer, Integra,  Web Adapter, and Media Adapter.