AT&T Purchased Carrier IQ

Brian Santo reports to Light Reading that "AT&T has purchased the rights to Carrier IQ's network diagnostics software. Carrier IQ apparently no longer exists as a separate entity .. AT&T said, "We've acquired the rights to Carrier IQ's software, and some CIQ employees moved to AT&T. We use CIQ software solely to improve the customer's network and wireless service experience. This is in line with our Privacy Policy and provides a great benefit to users of our network." The company had no further comment".

Carrier IQ gave mobile carriers the ability to gauge the performance of their networks and services; for example, finding out why calls may have been dropped. But as noted, it can be used much more invasively. Exactly what data Carrier IQ's software collected and how it was used was up to the carriers, however, and none of the companies that used it then, or which may still be using it now, have ever revealed how they were using it.

Carrier IQ's diagnostics software resides on mobile handsets, but handset makers typically install it at the behest of carriers who use the data to improve network performance and customer service. Several US carriers relied on Carrier IQ's product, but at least one (Sprint) ceased using it several years ago after its capabilities raised concerns over possible invasions of privacy. Those concerns led to a series of class-action lawsuits filed four years ago that only now appear to be nearing a resolution.

AT&T and T-Mobile are believed to be the last two major US carriers still making use of Carrier IQ's software.

See "AT&T Brings Carrier IQ In-House" - here.

AT&T Uses RaGaPa for Wi-Fi Ad Insertion

Last October I shared a post by Jonathan Mayer [pictured], a computer scientist and lawyer at Stanford, who discovered that " Verizon Injects HTTP Header for Advertising" (here). His discovery made Verizon  to announce that "Customers May Opt-out from Header Insertion" (here).

Now it is AT&T turn.

Jonathan reports that "While traveling through Dulles Airport last week, I noticed an Internet oddity. The nearby AT&T hotspot was fairly fast—that was a pleasant surprise. But the web had sprouted ads. Lots of them, in places they didn’t belong .. I started poking through web source. It took little time to spot the culprit: AT&T’s wifi hotspot was tampering with HTTP traffic.

The ad injection platform appears to be a service from RaGaPa [HotSpot Monetization], a small startup. Their video pitch [see below] features “MONETIZE YOUR NETWORK” over cascading dollar signs. (Seriously.)

Ad Inserted into a federal government site. Source: Web Policy

When an HTML page loads over HTTP, the hotspot makes three edits ... " 

See "AT&T Hotspots: Now with Advertising Injection" - here.

Openet Details 13 Years of Use Cases with AT&T

During the years I write this blog I had a number of posts speculating that certain announcements made by Openet refer to AT&T ("Openet Sees PCC for VoLTE Success (AT&T?)" - here; "[Rumors]: AT&T "Sponsored Data" is Based on Openet's PCC" - here; "Openet - Why AT&T Changed its IPad Service plans?" - here),

However, I could not get a confirmation from Openet (not even off-the-record!) that this was the case. Recently, Openet made it public information, by including AT&T in its customer page and providing the case study (here) - "Openet supplied Evolved Charging, Balance Manager, Mediation, and Policy Manager to this leading operator".

"in 2002 Openet supplied their mediation product to AT&T to collect voice and data calls from AT&T’s 2G network. This was followed up with the supply of Openet’s Policy Manager product and their On-line Charging System product in 2008 and 2009 respectively to cater for the advance in 3G mobile data. As AT&T launched new 4G networks and new services Openet’s products have grown to support the new and innovative use cases that AT&T need to supply to maintain and grow their market position and enhance their reputation as one of the most innovative mobile operators in the world. Sample Use Cases supported by Openet products: 

• Tiered data pricing (e.g. speed and quota) 
• Usage notifications 
• Service passes 
• Mediation for voice, U-verse, SMS and data services 
• Pre-paid Data and Messaging Charging Control 
• Roaming detection 
• LTE Application Policy - Video Calling and VoLTE

AT&T Agreed to Prevent Discrimination Against Online Video Competition

More than a year after Netflix said it will discuss an agreement with AT&T, this seems to be no longer necessary (see "Netflix: First we take Comcast, then we take AT&T and Verizon; How Much it Costs?" - here).

Marguerite Reardon (pictured) reports to CNet that "To win regulatory approval for its $49 billion bid to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV, AT&T has agreed to stricter Net neutrality rules and a promise to expand its fiber-optic-based broadband network to more customers.

..Details of the conditions have not been released. But in a statement, Wheeler said that "the conditions will build on the Open Internet Order already in effect." Specifically, AT&T has agreed to prevent discrimination against online video competition by agreeing not to "exclude affiliated video services and content from data caps on its fixed broadband connections." In other words, if AT&T imposes a data cap, it's not allowed to exclude its own content from these caps while other services are counted in the cap.

To ensure that AT&T is not discriminating against other services like Netflix, which offer similar streaming video service over broadband networks, the company has agreed to submit to the FCC all "completed interconnection agreements." These agreements are commercial arrangements between companies that exchange Internet traffic. Netflix has complained publicly that other broadband providers, such as Comcast and Verizon, have forced it to pay fees to deliver its streaming video service to consumers. In the current Net neutrality order, the FCC for the first time said it would examine these deals on a case-by-case basis if complaints are filed"

See "AT&T agrees to stricter Net neutrality rules to get its DirecTV deal approved" - here.

Sprint's Congestion Management "relies on the radio scheduling software provided by Sprint’s hardware vendors"

Back in April '14, Sprint said that "To more fairly allocate network resources in times of congestion, customers falling within the top 5% of data users may be prioritized below other customers" (see "Sprint's Reasonable Network Management Practices - Fairness, Limit top 5%, Video Optimization" - here). 

It turns out that now, with the FCC' New Net Neutrality rules becoming effective, this is no longer necessary! (or fines like AT&T $100M [here] may cause more damage) - and now the Sprint congestion management "relies on Sprint’s hardware vendors".  

Lance Whitney reports to CNET that "Sprint has stopped its data-throttling policy now that new Net neutrality rules are in place, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

.. Sprint acknowledged the halt to its data throttling in a statement sent to CNET:

'For less than a year, Sprint used a network management practice that applied only at the level of individual congested cell sites, and only for as long as congestion existed. At such sites, we temporarily allocated resources away from the top 5 percent of heaviest users and to the 95 percent of users with normal usage, to try to allocate the effects of congestion more fairly. Once congestion at the site passed, the limitation automatically ended. Upon review, and to ensure that our practices are consistent with the FCC's net neutrality rules, we determined that the network management technique was not needed to ensure a quality experience for the majority of customers'".

Sprint's updated "Open Internet Information" page (here) says: "Sprint employs a holistic approach to managing congestion on its data network. Sprint’s first goal is to avoid congestion altogether by directing traffic to the best available spectrum resources and cell sites. Sprint also attempts to avoid congestion by managing tonnage on its network. Finally, when congestion does occur, meaning that the demand on a particular sector temporarily exceeds the ability of that sector to meet the demand, Sprint relies on the radio scheduling software provided by Sprint’s hardware vendors to allocate resources to user" 

See "Sprint stops data throttling in wake of new Net neutrality rules" - here.

AT&T CEO: It is Hard to Explain the SDN Concept; 10X Traffic Growth to 2020

Earlier this month I covered the intention of AT&T to use SDN ("AT&T Will Manage Data Demand w/Software-centric Approach" - here) - and it turns out it is the "most exciting thing happening now" for AT&T's CEO,  Randall Stephenson [pictured].

And it is all about Streaming Video, And Apple, And Netflix.

In an interview by Jonathan Vanian, to Fortune, Mr. Randel says:

• "You’re going to find this horribly boring, but it’s this concept called software-defined networking. You’re managing a massive global network the way you’d manage a cloud-based data center. It’s a little geekish, and only the white-socks guys and knuckle-draggers in the industry appreciate it, but it’s actually going to change how businesses operate. It’s hard to help the general businessman understand this concept.
   
• I’ll give you an example. This year’s Masters Golf Tournament came at an interesting moment in time. Over that weekend Apple released an iOS update to all of its users, the Masters was streaming over the Internet, and there was the debut of Game of Thrones. All of this was coming across the same peering point [where Internet networks connect] in our various networks, and the end customer had a miserable experience. In a software-defined network, we could have redistributed and managed that capacity in real time
   
• If you look at our core network, since 2007 the volume that we’re hauling by virtue of smartphones and video is up 100,000%. And we’re looking out to 2020, and engineering and designing to accommodate another 10X growth in volume across the network. You’re seeing this kind of mismatch playing out that has tormented us. Capacity and performance are scaling according to Moore’s law, but networks around the globe are not
   
• Without software-defined networking I don’t think the industry keeps up with these kinds of volumes. Without software-defined networking Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is going to continue to scream about how slow peering points are. You have to have this technology to accommodate video traversing these kinds of networks"

See "AT&T CEO: 'Half of our mobile network traffic is video'"- here.

AT&T Will Manage Data Demand w/Software-centric Approach

Sean Buckley reports to FierceTelecom on Andre Fuetsch [pictured], senior VP of architecture and design for AT&T presentation at the TIA 2015 Network of the Future event, about how the carrier deals with the demand for data, and growth of video streaming traffic:

• When we were predominantly a voice service provider, the capacity engineer only worried about one day out of the year, which was Mother's Day ,, it was pretty predictable ..now, traffic capacity planning for AT&T and other large telcos is all about planning for the unexpected traffic bursts caused by users viewing the latest celebrity videos online
   
• The traffic capacity engineer has to worry about the latest Kardashian streaming video, who has been watching House of Cards [see "Procera: Netflix' House of Cards Stats; Need 27GB to See it All" - here].. the biggest event we worry about is when Apple releases their next big iOS upgrade [see "Apple IOS8 Update - DDoS Attack? Can Cache Help?" - here]
   
• To stay on pace with these unpredictable demands, the current hardware-based network approach won't suffice. A software-centric approach will help AT&T deal with these network spikes
   
• Unlike the telcos, web-based companies did not have the money or time to build a bottom-up network architecture. AT&T wants to adopt a similar strategy where it will build a network, applications and services in a software-centric approach
   
• One of the first implementations that will be using this AT&T integrated cloud is our Network on Demand function, ,.. This is basically the first SDN-based service that we now recently opened up in more than 100 U.S. cities that gives enterprise customers the ability to dynamically control the bandwidth they need between their sites ..  AT&T has set possibly the most ambitious software-centric goals for its network: virtualize software control to 75 percent of network by the year 2020.

See "AT&T's Fuetsch: Apple's iOS software updates 'biggest event we worry about' on network" - here.

AT&T: Net Neutrality Rules "are subject to modification"

So, the FCC's "Separating Fact from Fiction" statement saying that "The Order doesn't reduce broadband investment"  (see FCC's Net Neutrality: No Price Regulation; Won’t Reduce Investments - here) was correct, at least for AT&T - but probably because of other reasons.

Matthew J. Belvedere reports to CNBC that "AT&T chief Randall Stephenson [pictured] said Monday the new FCC net-neutrality rules will be changed by the courts or Congress. Under this operating principle, he said the company is moving forward with $18 billion of broadband investments.

"We have seen the way the rules came out, ... and as we read those rules we do believe they are subject to modification by the courts" or by Congress, Stephenson said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" 

Related posts:

• ISPs Sue FCC Against New Net Neutrality - here
• FCC: "No blocking, no throttling, no paid prioritization"  - here

"So we've said we're going to invest around $18 billion this year. That will allow us to deploy a wireless broadband solution to 13 million homes around the U.S.," he said. "That compares to about $22 billion last year."

If you don't see the video below, try here

See "Why net rules no longer an investment barrier: AT&T" - here.

ISPs Sue FCC Against New Net Neutrality

Brendan Sasso [pictured] reports to the NationalJournal that "Telecom companies filed a pair of lawsuits Monday in an attempt to reverse the Federal Communications Commission's new net neutrality rules. The suits are expected to be the opening shots in a long legal war against the controversial regulations .. The suits claim the rules are outside the FCC's authority, violate administrative law, and infringe on the companies' constitutional rights:

• USTelecom, which represents AT&T, Verizon, and other companies, filed its lawsuit [see below] in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
  See also: "USTelecom Files Protective Petition for Review" - here - "USTelecom strongly supports open Internet rules, but disagrees with the Federal Communications Commission’s decision to reclassify broadband Internet providers as common carriers in the order adopted March 12".
   
• Alamo Broadband, a small Texas-based wireless Internet provider, filed its suit in the U.S. appeals court based in New Orleans.

See "Internet Providers Sue to Kill Net Neutrality" - here.

AT&T: The FCC is to Decide if our Network Management Program is “unfair”

Last November I reported that the "FTC Sues AT&T for Shaping Unlimited Subscribers" (here).

Jon Brodkin reports to ARS Techica on AT&T's response: "The Federal Trade Commission cannot prevent AT&T from throttling unlimited data customers because of AT&T’s status as a common carrier, the company claimed in a motion to dismiss [see below] an FTC lawsuit this week"

In addition, AT&T says that the FCC is already checking the same issue:

"The FTC seeks to litigate the very same issues in an inappropriate parallel proceeding. It asserts in this lawsuit that AT&T’s imposition of MBR was unfair and that its disclosures were inadequate. But whether AT&T’s network management program is “unfair” and whether its disclosures were “inadequate” are issues for the FCC to decide, and in fact the FCC is in the process of so deciding, just as Congress intended".

See "AT&T defends unlimited data throttling, says the FTC can’t stop it" - here.

M-LAB Blames Transit Carriers for ISPs Service Performance Degradation

A new report by M-Lab concludes that "we observed sustained performance degradation experienced by customers of Access ISPs AT&T, Comcast, Centurylink, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon when their traffic passed over interconnections with Transit ISPs Cogent Communications, Level 3 Communications, and XO Communications.

In a large number of cases we observed similar patterns of performance degradation whenever and wherever specific pairs of Access/Transit ISPs interconnected. From this we conclude that ISP interconnection has a substantial impact on consumer internet performance -- sometimes a severely negative impact -- and that business relationships between ISPs, and not major technical problems, are at the root of the problems we observed.

Observed performance degradation was nearly always diurnal, such that performance for access ISP customers was significantly worse during peak use hours, defined by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the hours between 7pm and 11pm local time. This allows us to conclude that congestion and under-provisioning were causal factors in the observed degradation symptoms. 

It is important to note that while we can infer that performance degradation is interconnection-related, we do not have the contractual details and histories of individual interconnection agreements. As such, we cannot conclude whether parties apart from the two we identify are also involved (e.g. in the case that an Access ISP shares an interconnection point with another, etc.). We leave this non-technical question open for further study by others and focus here on the impact of what we can observe on consumer performance through measurement".

See "ISP Interconnection and its Impact on Consumer Internet Performance" - here.

FTC Sues AT&T for Shaping Unlimited Subscribers

Do you remember this move by AT&T, back in 2011 -  "AT&T to Throttle Top 5% of Unlimited Subscribers" - here?

Here comes the consumer response.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that  it has "..filed a federal court complaint against AT&T Mobility, LLC, charging that the company has misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while reducing their data speeds, in some cases by nearly 90 percent.

The FTC’s complaint alleges that the company failed to adequately disclose to its customers on unlimited data plans that, if they reach a certain amount of data use in a given billing cycle, AT&T reduces – or “throttles” – their data speeds to the point that many common mobile phone applications – like web browsing, GPS navigation and watching streaming video – become difficult or nearly impossible to use.

..The FTC alleges that AT&T, despite its unequivocal promises of unlimited data, began throttling data speeds in 2011 for its unlimited data plan customers after they used as little as 2 gigabytes of data in a billing period. According to the complaint, the throttling program has been severe, often resulting in speed reductions of 80 to 90 percent for affected users. Thus far, according to the FTC, AT&T has throttled at least 3.5 million unique customers a total of more than 25 million times".

Related post - "AT&T: 1M Subscribers Switched from Unlimited to UBB in Q1" - here.

See "FTC Says AT&T Has Misled Millions of Consumers with ‘Unlimited’ Data Promises" - here.

[ABI]: Mobile Internet Services to Generate 45% of MNOs Service Revenues by '19

A new report by Marina Lu [pictured], research analyst, ABI Research finds that "In 1Q 2014, the worldwide mobile service revenue increased 0.58% year-on-year (YoY) to US$264 billion .. the aggregate service revenue for 2014 will grow 2.9% YoY to US$1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market. 

Proliferating mobile data subscriptions and enhanced network capacity will drive global mobile Internet service revenue to US$456.7 billion by 2019—44.7% of total mobile service revenue. Despite global service revenue growth, the Western European market is declining: 1Q 2014 service revenue declined 5.2% YoY".

"In ABI Research’s profitability analysis, Verizon Wireless beat China Mobile for the first time, carrying the top position for most profitable mobile carrier in aggregate for 1Q 2014, followed by China Mobile and AT&T respectively. Strong growth in retail postpaid subscribers, increased smartphone customer base, enhanced 4G LTE smartphone line-up, and attractive pricing plans have contributed to Verizon’s profitability. In addition, Verizon also moved up one position to second in the ranking for quarterly gross profit per subscriber, at US$77.1".

See "Mobile Internet Will Continue to Drive Mobile Revenues, Contributing to 31% of Global Service Revenue in 1Q 2014" - here.

FCC Expands Traffic Management Policies Questioning to all MNOs

Alina Selyukh and Marina Lopes report to Reuters that "The top U.S. communications regulator on Friday said he is asking all large U.S. wireless carriers to explain how they decide when to slow download speeds for some customers, after questioning Verizon Wireless about such a plan"

This follows the letter sent earlier to Verizon (See "The FCC "Deeply Troubled" by Verizon's LTE Optimization" - here) following the MNO's decision to expand its "optimization" policy to LTE and limit unlimited users in congested locations (see "Verizon Expands "Optimization" to LTE Subs to Fight Cell Congestion" - here).

Verizon's response to FCC worries was (here, by TheRegister) that it is the right thing to do and everybody does that (try to claim that in a trial):  "The Commission Has Recognized the Reasonableness of this Form of Network Management .. Such Practices Are Widely Used Throughout the Industry and Have Been Widely Accepted [we are] Managing our 4G LTE to Ensure the Best Wireless Experience [and] With network optimization, our customers continue to be free to go where they want on the Internet and to use the applications, services and devices of their choice"

So ... if everybody does it, need to ask them as well.

Back to Reuters report - "AT&T Inc representatives did not immediately comment. A Sprint Corp spokeswoman said her company "goes to great lengths to be transparent about its network management practices," and will respond to Wheeler's letter as appropriate. "Our network practices are consistent with the Commission’s rules on the open Internet, are innovative and are good for consumers and competition," a T-Mobile US spokeswoman said." 

 

See "After Verizon, U.S. FCC quizzing other carriers on data management" - 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.

Openet Sees PCC for VoLTE Success (AT&T?)

  

Openet announced that "Openet’s policy and charging control (PCC) solution for voice over LTE (VoLTE) services has been successfully deployed on multiple operator networks worldwide. The standards compliant PCC solution enables operators to configure policies and develop new charging and billing models for VoLTE service rollouts .. Demand for VoLTE services means virtualization will play a key role to ensure ease of configuration and speed of VoLTE deployments. Openet has extensive experience with virtualized PCC deployments, working with a tier one North American operator who is using Openet’s PCC solutions in a virtualized environment".

According to people familiar with the market, one of those MNOs, it AT&T - a long time customer of Openet (see "AT&T Tests Openet & Cisco for LTE" - here). AT&T has launched some VoLTE services last month (see "AT&T Introduces High-Definition Voice in Initial Markets " - here).

See "Openet Announces Standards Compliant Policy and Charging Solution for VoLTE" - here.

[Infonetics]: VoIP & IMS Market Grows by 37%, Due to VoLTE; ALU Leads

A new report by Diane Myers [pictured], principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research finds that "Worldwide service provider VoIP and IMS equipment revenue totaled $992 million in 1Q14, an increase of 37% from 1Q13, but a sequential decline of 9% .. the standout vendor in 1Q14 is Alcatel-Lucent, rising to the top due to strong growth of core IMS and voice application server revenue, particularly in North America"

“Voice over LTE (VoLTE) continues to positively impact the service provider VoIP and IMS equipment market, though we look for the market to slow this year as operators commercially launch services and draw down capacity built over the past year .. Already this year we have seen AT&T, PCCW/HKT, and other operators launch VoLTE services, and NTT DoCoMo is set to do so in June"

See "VoLTE fuels 37% year-over-year growth in Q1 carrier VoIP and IMS market; Alcatel-Lucent rises to top" - here.

[Sandvine] NA Cord-Cutters Stream 3 Hours of Video a Day

Sandvine's recent “Global Internet Phenomena Report 1H2014” (based on data from a selection of Sandvine’s 250-plus communications service provider (CSP) customers spanning North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Caribbean and Latin America and Asia-Pacific) finds that:

• Just over two years after its launch, Netflix has become the second largest driver of traffic on fixed access networks in the UK and Ireland .. Netflix is now the second largest source of traffic during the peak evening hours, accounting for over 17.8% of downstream fixed access traffic
   
• North American subscribers who exhibit “cord cutting” behavior (top 15th percentile of video users) are dominating network usage:
• Consuming on average 212GB a month, more than seven times the 29GB of a typical subscriber; [see "Comcast: 'we have no plans to announce a new data usage policy"- here]
• Viewing the equivalent of 100 hours of video each month
• Accounting for the majority (54%) of total monthly network traffic

"Recently AT&T made some pretty big waves at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by announcing their intention to offer sponsored data to their subscribers [see "[Rumors]: AT&T "Sponsored Data" is Based on Openet's PCC " - here] . At Sandvine, we’ve been talking about ways operators could often innovative service plan for a number of years, in fact we first talked about it in our 1H 2012 Global Internet Phenomena Report.

As we predicted, it now looks like the near future is here, and 2014 will see the beginning of sponsored connectivity roll-out globally. This new model represents a complete new revenue stream for operators and great potential benefit for subscribers as well". 

See "Sandvine Report: Netflix’s British Invasion" - here.

AT&T: 1M Subscribers Switched from Unlimited to UBB in Q1

Some slides from AT&T's Q1 2014 earnings:

See "Quarterly Earnings — 1Q 2014" - here.

VAS/Security Deployments [302]: AT&T Uses Bluecoat for Network based Protection

  

AT&T announced ".. the launch of AT&T Cloud Web Security for businesses of any size. The new offering will provide real-time protection against viruses, malware, and compromised web sites --- all without the need for on-site equipment ..  built on Blue Coat Systems’ Security Policy and Enforcement Center. It enables customers to enforce consistent global security policies across wired, roaming, and mobile environments".

See "AT&T Continues Drive to Strengthen Security for Businesses" - here.