[India]: TRAI Stops Free Facebook

Another step in India's Net Neutrality regulation process (see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here).

Even before its public consultation over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ [here] the telecom regulator, TRAI, has taken an action on the partnership between Reliance Communications and Facebook.

[Related post - "FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating)" - here and "Aircel [India] Offers Facebook Aware Service" - here]

The BBC reported that "Facebook's effort to provide Indians with free access to a limited number of internet services has run into trouble.India's telecoms regulator has asked the mobile network that partnered with the US firm to put their Free Basics offer on hold.

A spokesman for Reliance Communications - the mobile network that had supported the scheme - confirmed it would comply with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's demand. "As directed by TRAI, the commercial launch of Free Basics has been kept in abeyance, until they consider all details and convey a specific approval," a spokesman told the BBC.

Facebook said that it would continue to lobby for its scheme. "We are committed to Free Basics and to working with Reliance and the relevant authorities to help people in India get connected," a spokeswoman said".

See "India puts brakes on Facebook's Free Basics scheme" - here.

India - 600,000 Comments so far on Differential Pricing Regulation

BGR reports that India's "Telecom regulator TRAI has received around six lakh [i.e. 600,0000] comments on its consultation paper over ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ [here]— one of the important issues under net neutrality principles.

“Till Thursday, Trai received about 540,000 comments. These comments have suddenly come and mostly around Facebook’s Free Basics service [see "FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating" - here]. Today comments would have crossed six lakh,” an official source told PTI. The last date for comments on the consultation paper is December 30 and for counter comments is January 7."

TRAI's questions to the public are: 

1. Should the TSPs be allowed to have differential pricing for data usage for accessing different websites, applications or platforms?
    
2. If differential pricing for data usage is permitted, what measures should be adopted to ensure that the principles of nondiscrimination, transparency, affordable internet access, competition and market entry and innovation are addressed?
    
3. Are there alternative methods/technologies/business models, other than differentiated tariff plans, available to achieve the objective of providing free internet access to the consumers? If yes, please suggest/describe these methods/technologies/business models. Also, describe the potential benefits and disadvantages associated with such methods/technologies/business models?
    
4. Is there any other issue that should be considered in the present consultation on differential pricing for data services?

See "TRAI receives 6 lakh comments on second net neutrality paper so far" - here.

Verizon to Test Sponsored Data (w/Allot?);"The capabilities we've built allow us to break down any byte"

Ina Fried, Senior Editor Mobile, reports to Re/code that "Verizon plans in the next few days to start testing so-called sponsored data, the equivalent of toll-free calling for the Internet age .. Verizon is working with just a few partners in the testing phase, but said next year this feature will be available to all comers at an affordable rate" 

Marni Walden [pictured], Executive VP and president of Product Innovation and New Businesses, Verizon said: "The capabilities we've built allow us to break down any byte that is carried across our network and have all or a portion of that sponsored .. We’ll be out in a larger commercial way in the first quarter of 2016".

A year ago I published an unconfirmed rumor that "Allot's DPI product SigmaE-14 was installed in 26 Verizon Wireless (VzW) sites for Passive Network Subscriber Analytics" (here). See also "Allot's US Tier1 MNO $9M Order: "not a classical DPI"" - here.

See also a guest post "1-800 Apps Concept: Superficially Appealing but Unworkable" - by Dean Bubley*, Founder, Disruptive Analysis - here.

See "Verizon to Start Testing ‘Toll-Free’ Data in Coming Days" - here.

Bakcell [Azerbaijan] Deploys Sandvine for Zero-Rated Apps and Family Plans

  

Sandvine announced that "Bakcell, the first and leading mobile Internet provider in Azerbaijan, with the assistance of Bestcomp Group, has deployed Sandvine’s PCRF, the Service Delivery Engine (SDE), and PCEF, the Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) Virtual Series to power innovative data offers on their LTE-Advanced and 3G networks ..Bakcell has deployed both the Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) 24700 and the PTS Virtual Series running on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware

Bakcell became a Sandvine customer in May of 2015. 

• One of the first offers to be made available will be content and application-based plans that allow customers to bundle unlimited usage of certain mobile applications (i.e. WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and many others).
   
• Additionally, Bakcell will enhance family plans to allow pools of data for sharing across multiple individuals or devices. 

For both solutions, Sandvine OutReach will play a key role in allowing Bakcell’s customers to monitor their data usage and manage their data subscriptions" 

See "Bakcell Deploys Sandvine’s PCRF And PTS Virtual Series To Power Innovative Data Offers For Subscribers" - here.

FB CEO: We Support Net Neutrality (w/ Zero Rating)

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg expressed his views on the Net Neutrality debate in India (see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality" - here). Facebook is promoting its  intewrnet.org initiative to allow affordable access to developing countries around the world (see "Update to Internet.org Free Basic Services - here).

Press Trust of India reports that ".. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg [pictured] on Wednesday said his company is committed to net neutrality but supported zero-rating plans which have been criticised by many as violative of the principles of free Internet

When asked if Facebook supports net neutrality, Zuckerberg said: "Absolutely. Net neutrality is important principle. We do a lot to support both in terms of regulation and in our own work building an open platform that any developer can build something for regardless of who they are if they follow the basic rules ..  Internet.org and Facebook are 100 per cent supportive of net neutrality, we lobby for it across the world, we build an open platform with no filtering but at the same time we also need to make sure that we continue to push for access," Zuckerberg said

He said providing free Internet to everyone in the world is expensive and telecom operators spend billions each year bringing Internet to users. "What we are really trying to do is to use Free Basics (previously known as Internet.org) so that any developer who can give low bandwidth services for free can be zero-rated

On zero-rating plans of telecom firms like Bharti Airtel [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Zuckerberg said: "But to those who advocate against zero- rating I say look at a student who wants free access to the Internet for her studies

See "Zuckerberg affirms net neutrality but backs zero-rating plans" - here.

PCC Deployments [364]: QBoCel [Mexico] Uses FTS for Application-based Plans

FTS announced that "QBoCel, a Mexican MVNO that operates on Telefonica's Movistar Mexico network, has selected FTS' MVNO billing and policy control solution to offer innovative services to its customers. The multi-year, multi-million dollar project marks a significant expansion for FTS in the Latin America region.

Using Leap Billing's policy control and charging capabilities, QBoCel plans to offer application-based plans such as video, Facebook and VoIP packages, to enhance the customer experience and meet user demands for personalized pricing tiers and flexible data plans. 

In addition, QboCel intends to offer zero-rated data with free access to specific content as well as sponsored data plans, where data is paid by the over the top (OTT) content partner and not by the user.

See "Mexican MVNO QBoCel Selects FTS’ MVNO Billing & Policy Control Solution" - here.

Google India: "strong protest" Against Including Zero Rating in Net Neutrality

Google, like other content providers, is traditionally in favor on Net Neutrality laws - see the US example - "FCC Expected to Adopt Net Neutrality this Quarter; Google Supports Neutrality" (here).

However, since the Indian regulator, TRAI is considering Zero-rating as "against the principles of Net Neutrality [see "India Planned Net Neutrality Laws" - here and "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], Google (and Facebook) seem to change sides.

Nikhil Pahwa reports to MEDIANAMA that "Google joined hands with Facebook to try and prevent the Internet and Mobile Association of India, which represents some of the largest Internet companies in India, from taking a stand that counters Zero Rating. 

According to emails exchanged between IAMAI’s Government Relations committee members, of which MediaNama has copies, Vineeta Dixit [pictured], a member of Google’s Public Policy and and Government Relations team, strongly pushed for the removal of any mention of Zero Rating from the IAMAI’s submission, as a response to the Department of Telecom’s report on Net Neutrality. Please note that Google hasn’t responded to our queries, despite multiple reminders.

..Dixit’s email to the IAMAI government relations committee, while reasoning that there is no consensus on Zero Rating, asked for its removal from the submission, saying: “We would like to register strong protest against this formulation and would request you to remove this (Zero Rating) from the submission.” Another email in that list indicates that only Facebook in the IAMAI has taken a stand supporting Zero Rating, and, funnily enough, STAR has taken positions both supporting and being non-committal on Zero Rating. This is a bizarre shift in STAR’s position, given that it had written to the TRAI saying that instead of telcos being paid for allowing Internet content (via Zero Rating), it should be telecom operators that pay content providers"/


See "Google joins Facebook in trying to prevent IAMAI from taking strong anti-Zero Rating stand" - here.

India Planned Net Neutrality Laws

 
Following the US and EU (here), India is also about to get its version of Net Neutrality. 

Mohul Ghosh [pictured] reports to Trak.in that "The 6 member standing committee, which was formed by the Government to look into the raging Net Neutrality issue may finally announce their consensus soon. As per reports, they have received recommendations from Department of Telecom, and they are in the final stages now."

• One of the biggest positive developments to have come out from this standing committee is that, DoT has finally realized that Zero Rating plans initiated by Airtel [see "Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral" - here], and Internet.org project by Facebook, are against the principles of net neutrality.
   
• Content and application providers cannot be permitted to act as gatekeepers and use network operations to extract value, even if it is for an ostensible public purpose. Collaborations between TSPs (telecom service providers) and content providers that enable such gate keeping role to be played by any entity should be actively discouraged.
   
• The committee, it seems, agrees with the suggestions of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that local voice based services by OTTs need regulation, so that they are in par with those telecom companies which are operating in India. [see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here].
  
  As per another report by Economic Times: “The committee favors regulatory oversight on the communication service providers. The committee believes that for (other) OTT application services (including those offering messaging and international voice calls), there is no case for prescribing regulatory oversight similar to communication services.”

See "Net Neutrality In India: DoT Opposes Zero Rating Plans But Suggests Regulation of Local Voice Call Service By OTTs" - here.

Airtel: The Internet, with Our Airtel Zero, is Neutral

Last week Bharti Airtel announced the "launch of ‘Airtel Zero’ – an open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges. Akin to the established concept of toll-free voice calling, ‘Airtel Zero’ will allow everyone from big marketers to small-time application developers to make parts or their entire mobile app free for customers – thus reviving interest of dormant customers, attracting new potential users and increasing retention. 

The platform will be a big win for customers as it will allow them to access their favourite mobile applications at no data charges, and also encourage them to try out new applications .. We invite all application developers to register their interest in ‘Airtel Zero’ and see the compelling reach it can deliver to Airtel’s 200 million plus customers across India".

The new service raised Net Neutrality concerns in India. The Hindu reports (see "Net neutrality: Airtel defends data pricing" - here) that Bharti Airtel chief for strategy Shyam Mardikar [pictured] said that "an operator has a right to maximise its revenue from customers .. stating that the Internet is neutral and will continue to be so ..we are confusing here is the concept of service neutrality to net neutrality"

"How will ‘Airtel Zero’ work?

1. Mobile app makers register with ‘Airtel Zero’ to give customers toll-free access to their apps
2. Airtel informs customers about these toll-free apps
3. Customers download and access these apps at zero data charges – and enjoy their favorite online tasks (e.g. entertainment, shopping) for free – even at zero mobile balance"

See "Airtel launches ‘Airtel Zero’: A win-win platform for customers and marketers" - here.

iiNet [Australia] Offers Zero Rated Netflix

While Net Neutrality is reborn in the US, and Zero-rated service plans gain traction in developing countries, iiNet has news to his customers in Australia: "Get Netflix quota-free on an iiNet Fixed Line Broadband or NBN Fibre plan" (here).

"Following confirmation from Netflix that it will launch locally on 24 March, iiNet’s broadband, Naked DSL, NBN and iiNet TV with Fetch customers (excludes all Satellite, NBN Wireless, Mobile Voice, Mobile Broadband and all Business customers) will have access to as much Netflix content as they like, without it counting against their monthly quota".
iiNet offers 100 GB to 1 TB DSL service plans for their "own netwrok" customers; "Both uploads and downloads count towards your monthly included data. There are no automatic excess usage charges on ADSL2+. Instead, traffic beyond the included data will be slowed to 256kbps/256kbps. You may purchase a Data Pack at an additional cost for a data top-up, if required". 

See "iiNet to flick on quota-free Netflix" - here.

Opera Enables Zero-Rated App Access; Piloted by Telenor Asia

Opera software announced that "Mobile operators can now offer their subscribers free-of-charge access to selected apps for a set period of time, with sponsored and paid passes to apps coming shortly. This has been made possible by App Pass, an innovative new feature for Opera Max, the mobile data-savings and management app from Opera Software.
 
For operators, App Pass is a way to present offers to users when they open any app on their phones. With two clicks, users can gain free access to the data that app consumes via Opera Max: they can then return to the app knowing that any data consumed while using it will be zero-rated for the duration of the App Pass" 

Related posts - Zero rates services in Colombia, Pakistan and Zambia - vs, "Canada: Operators Directed to Stop Zero-Rate Video" - here.

"Telenor will be the first operator to partner with Opera and launch Opera Max with App Pass, testing it out in some of the company’s Asian markets. In the pilot phase Telenor is testing a number of short-term passes for different apps and offers that help its users gain a first-hand, low-risk understanding of the internet. These users can also see and then manage their own personal internet consumption patterns from within Opera Max"

Rolv-Erik Spilling [pictured], Head of Telenor Digital, said: “We’re eager to see how this service is received in our markets. App Pass is designed to give customers easy control over costs related to data usage. The challenge of so-called “bill shock” is high on our agenda, and these kinds of initiatives from Opera play an important part in addressing the issue”.

See "Consumers in emerging markets gain affordable access to apps" - here.

Canada: Operators Directed to Stop Zero-Rate Video

While zero-rated data gains popularity in some markets (Colombia, Pakistan, Zambia), the Canadian regulator, CRTC, directed two MNOs, Bell Mobility and Videotron to eliminate this "unlawful practice", which they categorize as "application-specific economic Internet Traffic Management Practice (ITMP)".

CRTC announced that "As Canadians turn more and more to the Internet for viewing content, it is important to make sure that these new platforms are made available to Canadians in a fair and open manner. In this regard, the CRTC issued a decision today that reinforces its commitment to an open Internet. 

The CRTC has directed Bell Mobility and Vidéotron to stop giving their mobile television services, Bell Mobile TV and illico.tv, an unfair advantage in the marketplace, to the disadvantage of other Internet content. These companies exempted their own mobile television services from their standard monthly data charges. Content from other websites or apps, on the other hand, counted against the customer’s data cap.

• Bell Mobility must eliminate this unlawful practice by April 29, 2015.
   
• For its part, Vidéotron indicated that it planned to withdraw its illico.tv app for BlackBerry and Android devices by the end 2014. Vidéotron must confirm by March 31, 2015 that this app has been withdrawn and ensure that any new mobile TV service it offers does not give it an unfair preference or advantage over similar services.

See "CRTC continues to set the course for the future of television with Let's Talk TV decisions" - here and a detailed discussion "Broadcasting and Telecom Decision CRTC 2015-26" - here.  

Facebook Enables Free Data to Tigo Colombia Subscribers

Facebook's Internet.org continue to expand (see Airtel, Zambia), this time to Tigo subscribers in Colombia.

Related post - "[Allot]: tigo Internet Use Case: Application Based Charging" - here.

"At an event in Bogotá, Colombia, Mark Zuckerberg and President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón announced the availability of Facebook‘s Internet.org app for Tigo customers in Colombia. Through the app, Tigo customers in Colombia will have free access to government services including: Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación, an education assessment service and Agronet, a service that provides information on agriculture and rural development.

[Tigo's Fineprint - here]

This is the first time the Internet.org app is available in Latin America, and it’s also the first to include government services as part of the other free basic services in the areas of education, health, communication, jobs, finance, and local information.

The full list of free services includes: 1doc3, 24 Symbols, AccuWeather, Agronet, BabyCenter & MAMA, Facebook, Girl Effect, Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación, Messenger, Mitula, Para la Vida, Su Dinero, Tambero.com, UNICEF, Wikipedia, YoAprendo".

See "Internet.org App Launches in Colombia" - here.

Mobilink Pakistan Get Free Twitter Data

Yet another "sponsored-Data" application for 38M+ subscribers of the Pakistani MNO, Mobilink. 

This time it is Twitter. which according to Alexa's stats is rated as the 15th largest site in Pakistan.

This follows earlier agreements with Nimbuzz [here] and Viber [here], both OTT chat services.

The operators announced that "Mobilink has entered into a partnership with Twitter making Mobilink the first and only operator in Pakistan to have an agreement with Twitter which is one of the world’s largest social media service .The partnership will allow Mobilink customers to use the innovative portfolio of Twitter mobile services on feature and smart phones all for free. Mobilink users will not incur any data charges on Twitter usage through browsing twitter.com on their phone or using twitter applications on their handsets.

Mobilink and Twitter have also launched a co-branded Twitter Pulse Homepage to help non-twitter users experience twitter trends and follow celebrities, communities and brands. To experience twitter pulse, open twitter.com from your feature phone and use twitter pulse without a twitter account".

See "Free Twitter Offer" - here.

Norway Regulator Argues Against Zero-Rate Service

The Norwegian regulator, NPT, published its position on Zero Rate services, in view of the Norwegian Net Neutrality guidelines.

Frode Sørensen [pictured], Senior Advisor, analysis is as follows:

• "Norway has had guidelines on net neutrality since 2009 [here], and these seem to be working well as a regulatory tool to preserve net neutrality for the citizens .. the goal of net neutrality is not that all traffic should be handled identically – which would never be possible in practice. The aim is rather to preserve the Internet as an open platform for communication and avoid discrimination or fragmentation of the Internet.
   
• .. In recent years providers in some countries have launched service offers where specific types of traffic are exempt from the data cap
   
• The Norwegian guidelines on net neutrality state quite clearly that "Internet users are entitled to an Internet connection that is free of discrimination with regard to type of application, service or content or based on sender or receiver address." This means that in the Norwegian market zero-rating would constitute a violation of the guidelines
   
• There are of course arguments in favour of zero-rating that make the method seem quite fair. As consumers, we may find it advantageous that we do not have to pay (extra) for a particular type of traffic. Nevertheless, zero-rating lead to selected traffic from the Internet service provider itself or affiliated providers being favoured above other traffic. And this is exactly the kind of situation net neutrality aims to avoid – allowing the Internet service provider to decide how we use the Internet. Instead, the Internet should remain an open, neutral platform for all types of communication.
   
• Internet service providers should use methods other than discrimination of content and/or applications to differentiate their products. One possibility is differentiation on the basis of speed, in line with the Norwegian guidelines on net neutrality

See "Net neutrality and charging models" - here.

Courtesy of Facebook: Zero-Rated Apps for Airtel Zambia

Facebook launched its first "Internet.org" service, based on the acquired Onavo technology [see "Facebook Acquires Onavo for $100M" - here] in Zambia.

Internet.org defines "Efficiency" as one of the solution they look for: "Transmitting data—even a text message or a simple web page—requires bandwidth, something that’s scarce in many parts of the world. Partners will invest in tools and software to improve data compression capabilities and make data networks and services run more efficiently" - this is where Onavo fits [See "Optimization Announcements: Onavo Offers "3rd Party" Compression Service" - here].

Guy Rosen, Product Management Director, updates about the new service to Airtel subscriber, in Zambia:

"today we are introducing the Internet.org app to make the internet accessible to more people by providing a set of free basic services. With this app, people can browse a set of useful health, employment and local information services without data charges. By providing free basic services via the app, we hope to bring more people online and help them discover valuable services they might not have otherwise.

The Internet.org app will be available first to Airtel subscribers in Zambia [enabling] basic access to: AccuWeather, Airtel, eZeLibrary, Facebook, Facts for Life, Google Search, Go Zambia Jobs, Kokoliko, MAMA (Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action), Messenger, Wikipedia, WRAPP (Women’s Rights App). Zambia uReport
 

See "Introducing the Internet.org App" - here.

Allot Wins EMEA MNO for Zero-Rate Video Streaming and Social Media Services

Allot Communications announced today that it "received an order from a Tier-1 mobile operator in EMEA for the Allot Policy Control and Charging solution. The operator is leveraging Allot’s policy control and charging solution to provide 4 million subscribers with application-centric plans that fit their digital lifestyle.

The solution will allow the Tier-1 mobile operator to conduct in-depth monitoring and usage reporting and launch innovative plans for its subscribers. Among the application-centric plans, this operator will offer zero-rated plans for video streaming services and social media services (such as Facebook). The operator is planning to offer zero-rated plans at specific times during the day".

According to Allot's recent report (see ""[Study]: 85% of Operators are Leveraging OTT Apps to Attract Customers" - here") - "Comparing the key performance indicators of ARPU and churn rate, it is evident that globally, operators who offer application-centric plans present higher ARPU and lower churn. This finding is especially strong in developing countries"

   

Source:
Allot Communications Allot MobileTrends
 Charging Report H1/2014

See "Allot Communications Receives Order from Tier-1 Mobile Operator in EMEA for Analytics and App-Centric Plans" - here.

[Study]: 85% of Operators are Leveraging OTT Apps to Attract Customers

A new study by Allot Communications (surveyed the data plans and charging trends of 175 mobile operators worldwide) finds that "85% of operators are leveraging apps to attract customers and increase ARPU .. Facebook is mobile operators’ top choice for zero-rated apps and Unlimited data plans are in decline".

Some examples of Zero rate programs:

• Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs - here
• Success for Application-Based Service Plans in Zimbabwe - here
• Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access - here
• VimpelCom - Free Access to Wikipedia - here
• Smart [Philippines] Uses Sandvine for Application-Aware Service Plans - here
• Aircel [India] Offers Facebook Aware Service - here

Source: Allot Communications 

"Shared data plans are on the rise From 2012 to 2014, operators offering unlimited data plans have diminished from 35% to 15% while operators offering shared data plans with shared data caps increased from 29% to 42%"

Source: Allot Communications 

"As the evolution of data plans continues, unlimited data plans are becoming an offering of the past. Operators are moving away from actions that degrade QoE such as throttling Internet speed and when usage exceeds the volume cap; they simply charge the overage and maintain QoE"

Source: Allot Communications 

See "Allot MobileTrends Report Records the Rise of Application-Centric Mobile Operators" - here.

Syntonic Builds a Sponsored Content Store for AT&T

Will Sandvine's prediction that "sponsored data will create billions of dollars of revenue for service providers" (here) come through? AT&T's sponsored data (see "[Rumors]: AT&T "Sponsored Data" is Based on Openet's PCC " here) takes another step forward.

Syntonic Wireless, an AT&T sponsored data provider, announced the introduction of the "Syntonic Sponsored Content Store for eligible AT&T mobile subscribers. Powered by the Syntonic Connected Services Platform -- which couples mobile apps and content with 4G connectivity -- the sponsored content store provides an open marketplace where eligible AT&T wireless customers can access free or premium mobile content without impacting their data plans .. The Sponsored Content Store will be available to eligible AT&T postpaid or session-based subscribers with either an Android or iOS tablet or smartphone"

See "Syntonic Wireless Introduces Sponsored Content Store" - here.

Sandvine's Q2 - Existing Customers Generated 90% of Revenues; $Bs in Sponsored Data

Some quotes from Sandvine's earning call for Q2 2014 (revenues of $29.7M - here):

• Our 10% plus customers in the quarter contributed less than 30% of revenue, which is lower than any recent period
   
• I am pretty pleased with our ability in Q2, to sell more to our existing customers. Generally, that ratio is .. 80% existing, 20% new. I'd say that number was closer to 90/10 in Q2, and without any really big deals moving the needle for us in Q2, I was really glad to see our execution in supporting our installed base and selling more to our install base
  

• I think I would just say generically that, our book-to-bill ratio being below one, I wouldn't -- obviously, one is not a trend, and from a focus perspective, we still have the -- we still and do have the availability to book and bill within a quarter. So I don't necessarily look at our book to bill as being predictive for our next quarter. Obviously, we would always love it to be above one, but the fact that its below one once every seven or eight quarters is not overly alarming to us
   
• Our product is now fully NFVable, network functions virtualization, where it means each of the component parts of our solution, our policy traffic switch, our service delivery engine, and some other parts of our middleware and our analytics are deliverable, as a network functions virtualized mode, which means they run in a virtual machine, on commercial servers that are available out there. And what we are seeing, particularly in the mobile space right now, is people really wanting to move to that architecture
   
• I am pretty excited about sponsored data over time here for sure; because just like the 1800 created billions of dollars in new revenue for the telcos, I think sponsored data will create billions of dollars of revenue for service providers.

See "Sandvine's (SNVNF) Dave Caputo on Q2 2014 Results - Earnings Call Transcript", by SeekingAlpha, here.