VAS Deployments [213]: Pelephone [Israel] Uses Checkpoint's Cloud-based Security

Haim Raviv reports to The Com (here, Hebrew) that Israeli MNO, Pelephone, will be "..the World's first cellular operator to offer Checkpoint's cloud-based security service to its subscribers. Dubbed 'Pelephone Anti-Virus', the service protects against viruses, spyware and Trojans and offered for ~$3.5/Month".

The service (here, Hebrew) is based on "Checkpoint's ThreatCloud, does not require any update to the subscriber's handset and offered to all smart devices and computers with cellular modem, except Blackberry handsets. Obviously the service is not applicable during Wi-Fi connections".

At the end of Q3, 2012 (here) Pelephone had 2.8M mobile subscribers, a 0.1% decease compared to the same quarter last year. ARPU decreased by 11%, from NIS107 to 95 ($25), mainly due to competition from new operators. VAS revenues were 35.1% of total cellular services. Quarterly churn rate was 6.7%. Other technologies deployed by Pelephone - PCRF (here), Caching (here)

According to Checkpoint ThreatCloud (see spec below) " .. is a collaborative network and cloud-driven knowledge base that delivers real-time dynamic security intelligence to security gateways. That intelligence is used to identify emerging outbreaks and threat trends. Since processing is done in the cloud, millions of signatures and malware protection can be scanned in real time".

NSN: "VoIP Applications Create Huge Signaling Load"

 
Nokia Siemens Networks educates the market and pushes its solution for the mobile signaling problem for long time now, as many operators say it is a major problem both in terms of performance (traffic and long-living sessions) and well as battery draining issue for subscribers. This becomes even more relevant to NSN now, as mobile broadband becomes its main business focus (here).

A new post to the vendors' blog by Gerald Reddig (pictured), Global Marketing Manager, shows how "A European 3G network is benefiting from a 30% signaling traffic reduction, three months after Network Controlled Fast Dormancy (NCFD) was implemented by Nokia Siemens Networks ..  Nokia and Apple decided early on to support NCFD on their smartphones [here], with Blackberry [here] and Android OS device [here] manufacturers like Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson following suit"

",, Standardized in 3GPP Release 8 [see below], Nokia Siemens Networks’ Network Controlled Fast Dormancy or NCFD aids by acting as a more intermediate state: one with less signaling and faster reconnections"

"Nokia Siemens Networks’ Smart Labs [here] tested popular over-the-top (OTT) VoIP applications running on different smartphone operation systems. One of the results was the huge signaling load caused by VoIP applications in non-NCFD enabled smartphones – 600% more signaling traffic"

See "Faster connections, longer-lasting batteries: A fifth of all smartphones now benefit from Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" - here.

See also - "T-Mobile Netherlands Reduces Data Signaling by 30% with NSN Cell_PCH" - here and "SFR Deploys NSN Cell_PCH Optimization Technology" (here)

GSMA: Fast Dormancy Best Practices

NSN Helps Reducing Irrelevant Blackberry Signaling

 

Nice story by Vijay Sankaran (picture) from NSN about the infamous "keep alive"/signaling problem and how NSN's Service Assurance solution and configuring the SGSN while using the Subscriber Data Management solution solved it.

Some background - "NSN: Android and Blackberry Phones Overload Networks with Signaling" - here.

"The operator was puzzled when they started seeing a huge increase in signalling traffic, at a much faster growth rate than had been observed previously.  The growth was so rapid that it very quickly threatened network stability, so something had to be done fast ..  It turns out that, unlike other handsets, BlackBerries are pre-programmed to connect to the network and to look for email updates automatically, whether they have an active data plan provisioned for them or not.  And this makes tons of sense for those people who buy BlackBerries to stay up to date with their mobile email.  But this operator’s “BlackBerry with no data plan” offering had attracted a lot of SMS users who wanted a keyboard but weren’t planning on connecting to the internet."

"How did the operator fix it?  Two steps:  first of all, by creating an attractive, targeted data plan for these recent BlackBerry acquirers and marketing it to these customers directly (we used our Campaign Management solution to do this).  Second, by identifying which users had BlackBerry models and configuring the SGSN (Signalling Gateway) to ignore signalling coming from those handsets if they had no associated data plan (this was done with our Subscriber Data Management solution)."

See post - "Always sell BlackBerry with a data plan!" - here.