BT to Offer Riverbed as Service to Accelerate Cloud Applications

BT announced that "..as part of its Cloud of Clouds vision it will deploy virtual Riverbed SteelHead application acceleration technology in the core of its global network, providing superior application performance for customers accessing BT’s own cloud services as well as other leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. 

It is the first time Riverbed technology has been deployed into the core of a global telecoms network"
  
Related link "Gartner's WAN Optimization Report", positioning Riverbed as a leader in WAN Optimization - here.

"BT and Riverbed are embedding their services at global business hubs in Europe, North America and Asia in locations where BT has direct links to leading cloud providers and high-capacity internet breakout. 

The service will be available globally from early 2016 and accessible through BT’s IP Connect VPN from 198 countries and territories. A series of pilots of the new capability showed substantial network performance improvements for SaaS applications such as the Microsoft Office 365 productivity suite.

In addition to application acceleration and network bandwidth optimization, customers using the new service also gain increased control over their applications, better end-to-end visibility into performance, and significantly improved reliability and security compared to delivering applications over the internet". 

See "Customers to benefit from improved performance when connecting to applications in the cloud" - here.

Before Procera Disappears from the Public Eye

With the public tender for Procera Networks stock (see "Procera to be Acquired for $11.50/Share (Current Price $9.51)" - here and here), Q1 is probably the last quarter in which we get the financial results of the 3 leading pure-play DPI vendors.

So, let's enjoy it while we can ..

Q1 2015 market share is very similar to full 2014. Sandvine leads, and Allot Communications shows a small decline.

Procera filling to the SEC for Q1 (here), disclosed that "For the three months ended March 31, 2015, revenue from Itochu Techno-Solutions Corp. represented 14% of net revenue, British Telecommunications plc represented 13% of net revenue, and revenue from Shaw Communications, Inc. and one other customer each represented 11% of net revenue with no other single customer accounting for more than 10% of net revenue. For the three months ended March 31, 2014, no customer accounted for more than 10% of net revenue".

[UK]:"Unlike some countries", All ISPs Voluntary Signed for the Net Neutrality Code

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) announced that "all of the UK’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have now signed up to a voluntary Code of  Practice in support of the Open Internet.

The Open Internet Code [here] was launched in 2012, building on previous work on the transparency of traffic management. EE, Virgin Media and Vodafone have recently signed up to the Open Internet Code, meaning that all major ISPs, operating across both fixed and mobile networks, are now signatories.

Matthew Evans [pictured], CEO of the BSG which facilitated the code, said: “Unlike some countries where net neutrality has become a controversial topic for discussion, the UK benefits from a fiercely competitive market and high levels of transparency – which together offer the best assurance of an Open Internet. The Code now provides an even stronger and more effective foundation, whilst also allowing for an environment where new business models for internetbased services which benefit consumer choice can thrive.”

The signatories of the code are: BT, BSkyB, EE, KCOM, giffgaff, O2, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Tesco Mobile, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone. 

By agreeing to the code, they confirm that they will:

1. Ensure that full and open internet access products, with no blocked services, will be the norm within their portfolio of products.
    
2. Provide greater transparency in instances where certain classes of legal content,applications and/or services are unavailable on a product. These products will not be marketed as “internet access” and signatories will be obliged to ensure that any restrictions are clearly communicated to consumers.
    
3. Not target and degrade the content or applications of specific providers.Content providers are able to raise potential cases of targeted and negative discrimination with ISPs. If they are not satisfactorily resolved, these issues will be lodged with the BSG  who will share them with Ofcom and government. This initiative, which the BSG was asked to undertake on behalf of the Government, builds on the transparency code of practice published in 2011 which ensures that clear, understandable and comparable information on traffic management practices is available to consumers.

See "Remaining ISPs commit to the UK’s Open Internet Code" - here.

[UK]: Cable Service is Faster than Fiber!

According to a new research by the UK regulator, Ofcom, the "average broadband speed delivered by cable services is now faster than that of fibre - In the six months to May 2014, the average speed delivered by cable broadband reached 43.3Mbit/s, overtaking the average speed for fibre connections for the first time (42.0Mbit/s)"

Average broadband speeds for fixed broadband connections,
all connections including ‘up to’ 2Mbit/s and less, by technology
Source: Ofcom

Key findings from Ofcom's research show that between November 2013 and May 2014:

• the average actual UK broadband speed increased by 5% (0.9Mbit/s) to 18.7Mbit/s;

Average UK broadband speed:
May 2014 Source: Ofcom

• take-up of superfast services (those with a headline speed of 30Mbit/s and above) increased from 24% to 28% of connections, while average superfast speeds remained stable at 47Mbit/s;
   
• the extent to which speeds were maintained during peak evening times varied significantly between broadband packages, ranging from 76% to 96% of maximum speeds"

Finding regarding providers:

• "Virgin Media's ‘up to' 152Mbit/s cable service, which launched in February 2014, achieved the fastest download speed over a 24 hour period, averaging 141.9Mbit/s
   
• This was followed by BT's ‘up to' 76Mbit/s fibre package, which delivered an average download speed of 62.0Mbit/s
   
• EE's ‘up to' 38Mbit/s package experienced the greatest degradation in speeds during peak times. The average speed for this type of connection between 8pm and 10pm was 27.2Mbit/s - 76% of the maximum speed (35.8Mbit/s). Five per cent of consumers on this package received average peak-time speeds that exceeded 90% of their maximum speed
   
• In comparison, customers on Sky's 'up to' 38Mbit/s package saw the least degradation in average speeds. Speeds achieved during evening peak-time (34.5Mbit/s) were 96% of the average maximum speed (35.9Mbit/s)"

See "Average cable broadband speed overtakes fibre" - here.

UK: How do ISPs Implement Network Based Parental Control Service?

Ofcom has "published a report for Government outlining measures the UK's largest internet service providers have put in place to help parents protect children from harmful content online. This follows an agreement between the Government and BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, the four largest fixed line internet service providers (ISPs), announced in July 2013 [see "UK to Enforce Opt Out Network Based Web Filtering on All ISPs" - here]. Each ISP committed to offer new customers 'family-friendly network-level filtering' by the end of December 2013 [see "UK ISPs for Safer Internet" - here]" 

"The report finds that the four ISPs now have a network level family friendly filtering service .. There are a number of filtering categories common to all four ISPs. Suicide and self-harm, pornography, file sharing, crime, drugs, violence and hate are covered by each provider's classification systems .. All of the ISPs offer some additional services alongside the network family-friendly filters, some including internet security services aimed at protecting the subscriber from issues like viruses or malware. All offer device level filtering or security software for installation on individual computers

All of the ISPs have commissioned third parties to perform the categorisation of 

internet content and services: 

• BT and Virgin employ Nominum
• Sky uses Symantec 
• TalkTalk uses Huawei [see "Huawei's SIG: Policy Enforcement and URL Filtering" - here], although Symantec was also initially involved.

The filtering solutions rely on two basic technologies:

• Filtering by Uniform Resource Locator (URL) blocking: the filtering of sites or services based on their web address – either addresses covering whole websites (http://www.example.com) or individual sections or pages on those sites (http://www.example.com/adultpictures). This involves the ISP checking some or all of the URLs which an opted-in subscriber requests against the list of sites or pages to be blocked. If there is a match, the subscriber request is not fulfilled – typically a page with the message “this site is blocked because it is classified as…” may be delivered instead.

• Filtering by Domain Name System (DNS) alteration: the DNS translates domain names (“www.example.com” into IP addresses “192.0.32.10”), to allow a subscriber’s content request to be correctly directed – this is the first stage in requesting a website or service. When used for filtering, the ISP’s DNS server will not provide the IP address for domains on the list; it may instead direct the subscriber request to an information page with “this site is blocked because it is classified as…”.

Each of Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk has adopted a slightly different version of URL blocking; Sky’s filtering system is exclusively based on its DNS servers. The use of URL blocking allows a more granular classification of online content and services: Sky’s system will always block whole domains, while BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk can target specific parts of a domain.

See "Ofcom publishes report on internet safety measures" - here.

UK: ISPs will Alert Subscribers on Copyright Infringement

The UK has a new plan for reducing copyright infringement, as probably the older plans did not work - UK Culture Minister Vaizey:'SPs have their role to play to help consumers find legitimate content'"- here and "[UK]: Major ISPs Asked to Build 'Downloaders Database'" - here:

 "Representatives from the UK's creative industries and major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have come together with the support of government to launch Creative Content UK, a ground-breaking new partnership that will boost consumer awareness of the wide array of legitimate online content services and help reduce online copyright infringement.

Creative Content UK will comprise two key components. 

• The first, which will launch before Spring 2015, will be a major multi-media education awareness campaign, led by content creators and part-funded by government, that aims to create wider appreciation of the value and benefits of entertainment content and copyright. 

• The second component is a subscriber alerts programme that will be co-managed and co-funded by ISPs and content creators and due to begin at a later date. Participating ISPs will alert and advise subscribers when their accounts are believed to have been used to infringe copyright. Account holders will receive an alert from their ISP, advising them unlawful filesharing may have taken place on their connection and offering advice on where to find legitimate sources of entertainment content.

.. Creative Content UK founding partners include the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry), and the four main internet service providers: BT, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, with the prospect of other ISPs joining at a later stage .. The campaign will aim to inform and encourage consumers - ranging from the next generation of digital users to 'silver-surfers' – about the huge range of entertainment content that is available from legal and licensed sources; giving them greater confidence when buying and using content online and providing additional guidance about internet safety.

John Petter [pictured], CEO, BT Consumer, said: “BT is very pleased to be able to support this important announcement today. The UK has a world-leading creative sector which plays a vital role in promoting the nation’s economic prosperity. BT is committed to supporting the creative industries by helping to tackle the problem of online piracy while ensuring the best possible experience for its customers. That’s why we’ve worked very hard with rights-holders and other leading ISPs to develop a voluntary programme based on consumer education and awareness which promotes the use of legal online content.”

See "UK Creative Industries and ISPs Partner in Major New Initiative to Promote Legal Online Entertainment" - here.

UK ISPs for Safer Internet

TalkTalk announced recently that "Mother and daughter, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Janet Ellis today (13th May) launched Internet Matters, a world-leading child internet safety organisation founded by the UK’s four major broadband providers; BT [see "BT Launches DNS-based Parental Control; Does it Log Traffic?" - here], Sky, TalkTalk [see "TalkTalk Launches Free, Opt-in, Parental Control/Malware Detection Service" - here] and Virgin. 

The not-for-profit organisation sees the ‘big four’ put aside competition and join forces for the first time, to help parents safely navigate the internet with their children. The move will cement the UK’s position as a world-leader on child internet safety, advising parents to ‘learn about it, talk about it, deal with it’".

Related posts - "UK Government: No Need ("appetite") for Network Based Parental Control" - here and then "UK to Enforce Opt Out Network Based Web Filtering on All ISPs" - here.

The site's parental control page explains that "Broadband providers offer the ability to set network level parental controls on your home broadband network. They restrict access to particular programmes or sites, limit access times, and importantly filter out inappropriate content like pornography. They work on every device that is connected to your broadband network". 

See "Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Janet Ellis launch Internet Matters child internetsafety portal" - here.

DSC Deployments [300]: BT Selected GENBAND

GENBAND announced that BT has "selected the GENBAND QUANTiX™ Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC) to expand its existing Global IP Exchange (GIPX) solution with LTE signaling and data roaming exchange capabilities for its mobile network operator (MNO) customers. The GENBAND QUANTiX DSC enables rich interworking between LTE networks to ensure that roaming subscribers can easily connect when on the road with service transparency and resiliency.

The software, delivered on a common hardware platform, provides context-aware intelligent routing, scalable handling of SIP and Diameter traffic, and secure, seamless connectivity to any IMS/LTE network resulting in a simple, cost-effective deployment of rich LTE voice and data services".

My Diameter Router product list was updated with the GENBAND product.

See "BT Selects GENBAND Diameter Signaling Solution to Enable Cost-Effective Roaming Across Global Network of Mobile Operators" - here.

Procera Exposes BT Revenues for 2013

Last year Procera Networks reported on a "mega-carrier" deal (see "CEO: "Procera is the only company that delivers Internet intelligence"; Who is the $20M Mega-Carrier?" - here). Procera's CEO said then that "In Q3, we expect to begin to recognize revenue from a large deal with a mega-carrier .. we've characterized the size of this kind of opportunity in the $20-plus million over a 3-year period .. hardware and software only". The quarterly report for Q3 (here) mentions an anonymous 33% customer "revenue from two customers represented 33% and 11% of net revenue" or $7M.

The following day I reported that the mega-carrier is rumored to be BT (here).

It is official now. Procera's 10-K filling for 2013 (here) exposes BT as a major customer for 2013: "For the year ended December 31, 2013, revenue from three customers, Shaw Communications, Inc., British Telecommunications plc, and Itochu Techno-Solutions Corp. represented 13%, 12%, and 10% of net revenues, respectively".

With revenues of $74.6M for 2013, it brings the revenues from BT to approximately $9M - i.e. $2M for the 4th quarter.

BT WAN Optimization Service Saves 30% Using Ipanema

   

Ipanema Technologies announced that "Solvay, a global chemical company headquartered in Belgium with employees in 55 countries around the world, has been able, after a global WAN RFP in 2011, to reduce its telecom costs by 30% by dynamically controlling application performance over a hybrid network thanks to BT Connect Optimization, a BT managed service based on Ipanema Technologies’ solutions"

Following the sale of Solvay’s pharmaceutical division in 2009, employees and sites were reduced by 30%. In 2011 however, Solvay acquired Rhodia, which resulted in their employee base doubling from 15,000 to 30,000. 

The IT department was subsequently tasked with optimizing the Quality of Service (QoS) delivered for business applications while reducing telecom costs by 30%. 

They reached this goal by:

• Using both the MPLS network and Internet resources as a single unified network to increase the Quality of Service delivered to end-users;
• Moving business applications including Gmail, Google apps and SalesForce.com to the cloud with confidence that performance would not be affected;
• Moving the telepresence dedicated network into a new multimedia network with confidence that performance would not be affected;
• Increasingly using the Internet as a business network while keeping the MPLS network for bandwidth hungry applications such as SAP, VoIP and video only.

See "Solvay reduces costs with a hybrid network from BT and Ipanema Technologies" - here and the case study here.

BT Launches DNS-based Parental Control; Does it Log Traffic?

Following the UK Government decision to enforce opt our parental control on all ISPs (here), BT  announced recently a new, network-based, Parental control service.

Tim Guest, BT's Homepage and marketing manager, explains: "We’ve offered free parental controls to customers for years, but the protection focused on desktop computers and laptops – now the new controls cover any internet-enabled device using home broadband, from PCs, laptops and games consoles to tablets and smartphones. The filter will still be free to all customers. Anyone joining BT can choose whether or not to activate the parental controls when setting up their internet connection for the first time. We’ll also contact all of current customers during 2014 so they can choose whether or not to set up the controls.

See also - "[The Register]: All Major UK ISPs to Implement Network-based Parental Control" - here.

There will be three set filter levels – strict, moderate and light - which can be customised to suit each family’s needs. Additional websites can be added to the list to be permitted or blocked. The filter can be turned off at specific times, and can also be set to an additional level – ‘homework time’ – for extra peace of mind when children are studying.

The Open Rights Group asked BT a number of questions on the new service (see "BT answers our questions about parental controls", by Peter Bradwell, here). BT says that:

• "BT Parental Controls is a network based solution which means that all devices connected to your BT Broadband will have the same level of protection applied.
• Our Filtering solution is based on Domain name resolution and can apply to any protocol used for a blocked domain
• we do not anticipate that BT Parental Controls will have any impact on user’s speeds however we will continue to monitor this
• BT Parental Controls utilises a trusted specialist 3rd party to categorise content
• The BT Parental Controls solution does not inspect or log traffic for customers who do NOT opt in to the service"; [q] if so, is it logged in a way that links the traffic to a subscriber? What logging will there be of blocking events? How does this work? - an answer was not available.." 

See "Free filter boosts online safety for families" - here.

[UK]: Ofcom Consumer Guide for Traffic Management

 

I am following the UK traffic management regulation since the early days of this blog (see "DPI Deployments - Part4: UK - Everybody is Doing it !" - here), as the UK ISPs are more transparent in their disclosure (voluntarily or by regulation - see "[UK]: Self Regulation doesn't Satisfy Ofcom; Publishes Minimum Disclosure Level" - here) compared to ISPs in other countries.

On top of all that, Ofcom published a new consumer guide, explaining consumers what is traffic management and exposing ISPs policies. They used the common comparing Broadband Traffic Management to motorways, serving variety of cars and

"With 46 million people in the UK having access to broadband and many using it for data heavy activities such as streaming and downloading, the internet is becoming increasingly busy.To ensure that networks operate efficiently, ISPs can restrict or ration traffic on their networks, or give priority to some types of traffic over others. This is known as ‘traffic management’.

"Each ISP has its own traffic management policy and so when choosing a provider you should check their policy meets your needs. Below you will find links to policies of the largest providers. If your ISP is not on this list, visit your provider’s website or speak to their customer services department: BT, Karoo, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media (National and Cable), O2 (Home broadband and mobile broadband), EE (Handsets, broadband and mobile,broadband), Three, Vodafone."

See "New consumer guide on internet ‘traffic management’" - here.

[UK]: Major ISPs Asked to Build "Downloaders Database"

I thought that fighting music sharing is no longer an issue, as reasonably priced legal services are very successful - but it turns out that the record industry is still thinking of a new ways to stop downloaders. The recent one is BPI that represents the UK’s recorded music industry.

Dave Neal report to The Inquirer that "Four UK internet service providers (ISPs) have been invited to help create a database of allegedly illegal downloaders for music record labels and film companies. Four firms - BT, Virgin Media, Bskyb and Talktalk - have been asked to provide information on a voluntary basis.

Virgin Media spokesperson Emma Hutchinson said that "what they're currently proposing is unworkable"; BT said that it was open to suggestions that would not harm its users' rights to privacy".

See "Media companies want a downloader database" - here.

[Rumors]: Procera Mega-Carrier is ...

I reported yesterday on Procera Networks' mysterious "Mega-Carrier", a project won by the company in 2012, and expected to generate "$20M over 3 years" (here).

According to what I heard from a number of people familiar with the market, the carrier in BT. While most will not classified BT as a "mega-carrier", it was a big project, and a big disappointment for all other players.

One sign for the good relations between Procera and BT maybe found in their recent press release (here) quoting Paul Veitch, chief network strategist at British Telecom.

In the earlier days of DPI, BT deployed products from Ellacoya, a significant player at that time, for their retail business (here). Ellacoya was later acquired by Arbor Networks and disappeared.

Related post - "BT To Test Bandwidth On Demand, Using Openet's PCC" - here.

Who is Using ALU's PCRF?

A document by Alcatel-Lucent posted to PolicyChargingControl provides some insights into the vendor's deployment list of its 5780 Dynamic Services Controller.

Source: PolicyChargingControl

According to the document, ALU's PCRF and Diameter Router is deployed by the following operators: Antel Uruguay, Big River Broadband, Etisalat Sri-Lanka, Etisalat UAE, Blegacom [here], Fuego Telecom, West Central Wireless, C-Spire, Telesis Tanzania, Sasktel, Regional Telecom [Iraq] and BT.

See "Alcatel-Lucent 5780 Dynamic Services Controller (DSC) Product Highlights" - here.

[The Register]: All Major UK ISPs to Implement Network-based Parental Control

 
More than a year after the leading UK ISPs "Committed for Opt-In Parental Control" (here), it seems that the ISPs are actually going there, with network-based filtering service. 

Could be one of the reasons to the recent excitement among DPI vendors ("$6M Parental Control Win for Allot in EMEA (with Partner)" - here and "Procera Adds High Performance Web Content Categorization & Filtering" - here).

Kelly Fiveash (pictured) reports to The Register that all major UK ISPs - BSkyB, Virgin Media and BT will follow the pioneer TalkTalk (here) and offer network based parental control/web filtering service.

"BSkyB confirmed that it had concluded that computer-based parental controls were no longer enough to protect kids who use web-based services on a variety of devices. It will shortly begin filtering content using DNS lookup .. And DNS lookup appears to be the preferred method: it's to be adopted by Virgin Media and BT, too".

 

See "All major UK ISPs prepping network-level porn 'n' violence filters" - here.

BT Discusses Traffic

Several slides from BT's earning call:

BT Broadband to Stop Traffic Management and Data Caps

BT announced that it has "..raised the stakes in the battle for broadband customers by introducing Totally Unlimited Broadband on all but its entry level offerings – and cutting the price. The UK’s most popular broadband now comes without any usage limits and free from traffic management from just £16 a month for 16Mbps copper broadband, £23 for 38Mbps Infinity or £26 for 76Mbps Infinity".

John Petter (pictured), managing director of BT’s Consumer division, said: “.. Customers told us that they wanted to be able to enjoy catch-up TV, streamed films and other bandwidth-eating applications without having to worry about going over their limit or being slowed down by their ISP .. but we wanted to make that really affordable too, without the sort of traffic management Virgin Media, TalkTalk or EE customers may find themselves subject to. Unlike Sky, we’re extremely confident that our network can stand up to the extra bandwidth demands from totally unlimited products everywhere across the UK"

See "BT launches better value totally unlimited broadband" - here.

CEM Deployments [207]: BT Selects ALU to Track Home Device Performance

Alcatel-Lucent announced that it was selected by BT ".. to strengthen its customer service capabilities by using a new set of data collection and management solutions in its broadband and IPTV support departments .. Under a four-year contract extension with Alcatel-Lucent, BT will upgrade its suite of Motive Customer Experience Solutions with latest-version software to support new features, and will deploy the new Motive Data Collection Manager (DCM), which is used to track the performance of the rapidly proliferating number of communication devices in peoples’ homes. The data is then made available to BT’s customer service teams – safely and securely – so they can proactively manage how the network and devices perform, ensuring a better overall experience for BT customers".

ALU's Motive Data Collection Manager

See "Motive Customer Experience Solutions from Alcatel-Lucent selected by BT" - here.

UK: Usability Limits Wi-Fi Offloading, Although Operators have 3,516,000 Hot Spots

 
The recent Ofcom infrastructure report (here) provides some interesting information on Wi-Fi usage by fixed and mobile operators:

"Another way to manage the growing demand for mobile data is to offload the data onto a fixed network. Many mobile devices are also Wi-Fi enabled and can connect to fixed networks using Wi-Fi hotspots. Mobile data use in these devices can be offloaded onto a residential Wi-Fi network or onto public Wi-Fi hot spots".

"For this report, we gathered data from the main fixed and mobile operators, who manage around 16,000 public Wi-Fi hot spots in the UK (excluding BT Fon hotspots). BT claims to have 3.5 million hotspots [here] throughout UK and Ireland (including their Fon hotspots). There are public Wi-Fi hotspots provided by other companies, who are not fixed or mobile operators. These have not been included in our analysis" [See also "London 2012 - 500,000 spectators, 500,000 Wi-Fi HotSpots" - here].

"The data we gathered from our sample of operators on the use of public Wi-Fi hotspots shows that the volume of data through public Wi-Fi is just 3.8% of that going via mobile masts, even though hotspots are available in many areas of high footfall. A possible reason why they are not used more widely is the complexity involved in authenticating to Wi-Fi access points (i.e. the need to log in and the need to reregister with new hotspots when on the move). Lack of interoperability between different operators may also be a contributory factor. However, the majority of smart phone users do use Wi-Fi at home suggesting that customers are willing to use Wi-Fi and are aware of its benefits, which leads us to believe that there is an untapped demand for Wi-Fi hotspots".

Geographical distribution of Wi-Fi hotspots (hotspots per 1000 premises) source: Ofcom