Cellwize Secures $24.5M to Boost its SON Solutions

   

I covered the Israeli startup, Cellwize, a number of times last year - which is unusual for such young company:

• The product (see "Cellwize Launches NFV Based, "pay-as-you-grow", SON" - here) and,
   
• Impressive deployments by large MNOs (Cellcom, Israel on Sep. '14 and Telefocina, UK on Oct. '14).

It seems that these winnings and the promising market (see "SON Market to Reach $4B (2017)" - here) led to an impressive funding round of $24,5M in equity and credit.

The company announced it has "..raised $14.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Carmel Ventures and Vintage Investment Partners. In addition, Viola Credit (formerly Plenus) granted a $10 million credit facility to Cellwize. The funding will be used to boost Cellwize’s innovative SON customer-centric optimization capabilities and to expand its market presence including a planned significant increase in its workforce.
  
Already in operation for over two years, Cellwize optimization solutions are implemented in some of the world’s leading mobile operators serving over 300 million subscribers".

Ofir Zemer [pictured], CEO of Cellwize, said: “Cellwize has continuously invested in technology innovation and solution leadership, we will now be able to further accelerate our product road map and our market reach to take advantage of new SON opportunities Our recent growth demonstrates even more, that enabling mobile operators to ensure a high quality of service for subscribers while maximizing profitability is essential in today’s highly competitive market space.”

See "Cellwize Secures $24.5M in Funding led by Carmel Ventures" - here.

SON Deployments [320]: Cellcom [Israel] Expands Cellwize Solution to LTE

Cellwize announced that it has "expanded its existing agreement with Cellcom Israel to deploy, through a dedicated innovation center, the unique capabilities of its elastic-SON™ functions .. Cellcom Israel, the nation’s largest operator [3M subscribers as of June 30, 2014], is a long term partner of SON specialist Cellwize 

After the launch of its LTE network [here; see also "LTE Services Enabled in Israel" - here] and in preparation for its 4.5 network supporting LTE-Advanced launch subject to allocation of frequencies and the Israeli Ministry of Communication’s approval, Cellcom has expanded the Cellwize elastic-SON™ solution to ensure improved user experience.

Leveraging their existing agreement, Cellcom Israel and Cellwize embark on a joint Innovation Center which will enable faster and more robust quality of experience for voice, data and M2M/Internet-of-Things services throughout Cellcom Israel’s network evolution. 

Cellwize Next-Generation SON optimizes Cellcom Israel’s network infrastructure, this unique cooperation will implement SON advancements, such as the efficient management of load balancing, to deliver a high quality service experience for its customers".

See also "Cellwize Launches NFV Based, "pay-as-you-grow", SON" - here. 

See "Cellcom Israel deploys Cellwize SON to ensure the highest level of service continuity for LTE users" - here.

Optimization Deployments [314]: Cellcom [US] Improves Performance by 30% with Vasona

Vasona Networks announced its "..work with Cellcom to improve mobile broadband performance. The Wisconsin-based operator has deployed both the Vasona SmartAIR™1000 edge application controller [see "[Vendor Review]: Vasona's Cell Traffic Management" - here] and SmartVISION™ analysis suite [see "Vasona Adds Cell-Level Analytics" - here] to gain real-time visibility of network congestion and improve the overall mobile broadband experience when cells are overloaded. 

During periods of congestion, Cellcom realizes more than 30 percent improved bitrate performance for video and web browsing, and a 35 percent reduction in mobile service latency .. By working with Vasona Networks, Cellcom helps subscribers reduce or avoid the “spinning wheel” waiting experience when accessing media".

See "Cellcom partners with Vasona Networks for better app performance when mobile data traffic overloads cells" - here.

Cellcom Sells its "Kosher" ISP Subsidiary; Values at $200/subscriber

 
Amitai Ziv reports to The Marker (here, Hebrew) that Cellcom, an Israeli MNO and ISP is putting its "kosher" subsidiary, Rimon, for sale.

"Cellcom hopes to get $10M for the ISP, which has 50,000 subscribers  (hence $200 per subscriber), mainly religious consumers, education institutes and business customers to whom it offers several service plans. Industry experts estimate that the ISP operates with low margins, due to the intensive manual work needed for the filtering updates". 

Cellcom, through Rimon, offers 5 plans dubbed protected (black list) to hermetic (white list) with some variations in between.

[Israel]: Why were ISPs Fined for not Promoting Free Parental Control Services?

 
The Israeli Minster of Communications, Gilad Erdan [pictured], announced [here, Hebrew] that two local ISPs - Cellcom (also an MNO) and Bezeq International were fined for not informing their customers properly on the free parental control service they must offer all subscribers.

ISPs must offer free filtering against harmful content, and among other things, send printed (!) flyers and announce it in their web sites. Cellcom was fined $83,000 and Bezeq International (39% of the ISP market) $47,000. Maximum fine is $161,000. See the detailed message (Hebrew) here and here.

While the regulation requires ISPs to offer a free and "effective" filtering service, they all offer a value-added service parental control. I am sure you'll be surprised to see that Bezeq's iKeeper (product of PureSight) service ($3/month) is promoted on the web site! Bezeq even has a video (see below) explaining it. If just 1,300 customers chose to use it instead of the free service, the fine was covered in one year.

Partner (MNO, Israel) on OTT: "We are Crying at Night"; Presents Shopping List

 
The CTOs of Cellcom and Partner, two of the leading MNOs in Israel (out of 5 operators, two were established during 2012) participated in a panel during the 4GIsrael (organized by IMA) conference yesterday.

Eran Jacoby, VP head of research, DS Brokerage (left) hosted Eyal Iluz (middle), CTO Partner (goes by "Orange") and Lipa Ogman (right), CTO Cellcom.

The interesting question was about how the two are going to handle OTT traffic, as they serve content providers, invest in network infrastructure but do not enjoy the revenues.

"We are crying at night" said Mr. Iluz.

Due to the strict regulation (after years of non-competition between 3 MNOs of equal size) that opened the market, reduced monthly fees by more than 50% ($25 for unlimited call and 1-3GB of data), the local MNOs are not doing anything that may upset (again) the public opinion and regulators.

"We need to think of something".

Before the panel, the the two CTOs presented their companies:

• Cellcom - "we will need to offload all the time, even with the LTE spectrum (which was not allocated yet!) .. we started LTE testing with Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson in several locations in Israel"

• Partner - "we need solutions to handle capacity .. whoever has solutions for content management - call us!" (see shopping list below)

Cellcom [Israel] to Offer Speed/Volume Pricing Tiers, No Overage Fees Plans

 
Gilad Nass reports to Calcalist  (here, Hebrew) that Cellcom[Israel] will offer soon new data service plans combining different levels of volume and speed, to provide the right answer to the various customers/devices needs.

The operator will offer:

• Unlimited volume, 512Kbps - $7.80/month
• Unlimited volume, 1.4 Mbps - $20.70/month
• 5GB, 2.8Mbps - $25.70/month
• Unlimited, 2.8Mbps - $39/month

According to Yoni Sabag (pictured), VP Marketing, Cellcom ".. once a data cap is reached, Cellcom will reduce the speed with no overage fees"

A year ago Cellcom madea similar announcement- see "Cellcom [Israel] Moves to Speed Tiers with Unlimited Data" - here.

At the end of Q3, 2011 Cellcom had 3.4M subscribers, of which 38% were using 3G services. Due to new regulations in Israel, while total ARPU declined by 28% between Q3 2010 to Q3 2011, data and SMS revenues grew by 2.4% and were 26.6% of revenues - up from 19% (see chart and here).

Competition Leads Partner [Israel] to Offer Reduced Speed Mobile Internet Instead of Overage Fees

 
Until recently, there was almost no competition in the Israeli cellular services market. 3 operators (Partner, Cellcom and Pelephone) of similar size + a smaller one (MIRS) offered similar, high prices to the consumer market.

Recent government regulation changed the market, leading to increased competition that shifts gear this week with the first MVNO operator, Rami Levy (a chain of discount supermarkets, publically traded in the Tel Avis Stock Exchange - RMLI).

Although Rami Levy operates as an MNVO (reselling Pelephone services) it announced a very low pricing strategy (compared to the existing plans) based on actual consumption rather than a commitment to packages of minutes, SMS and data.

The incumbents response is due this week, and Amitai Ziv and Ruty Levi (pictured), The Marker reveal Partner (branded as Orange, although not part of the Orange Group) plans.

In addition for estimated 40% reduction compared to existing plans, Partner will offer customers that exceed their data quota a reduced speed service for the rest on the month, rather than paying overage fees (which were very expansive).

Story here, Hebrew.

Israeli MNOs - Do They Keep the Net Neutrality Law?

  

Amitai Ziv (picture) has a story today in the Israeli news site, TheMarker, on Net Neutrality.

As Israel has a Net Neutrality law for wireless services (see "Net Neutrality [Israel] - Parliament Approved Wireless Neutrality" - here), it is interesting to see the comments he got by the 3 mobile operators:

• Pelephone (here): "we study the subject and will act according to the law"
   
• Cellcom (here): "we act according to the law"
   
• Partner (here): "we keep the net Neutrality principle and operate according to regulation and our license terms. We do not prevent access to any network service. As guided by the regulator, we use systems to optimize network resources and prevent malicious activities by the subscribes"

See - here (in Hebrew). I was also interviewed to the article.

Cellcom [Israel] Moves to Speed Tiers with Unlimited Data

     

Cellcom, the largest cellular operator in Israel, announced a change to its mobile internet service plans. The carrier will offer speed based tiers, all with unlimited volume. 

The first tier will be free (so far there was a mandatory charge for all 3 and 3.5 G phones) but will allow surfing within the carrier walled-garden portal only. Then "up-to" 384Kbps (download speed), 512Kbps, 1Mbps and 2.8Mbps plans will be offered for $6.7, $13.5, $18.9 and $37.8 a month, respectively. No room for overcharges, of course, but these rates may not be used with laptop dongles or tablets.
   

See "AT&T Considers Speed and Volume Tiers in LTE" - here and "Verizon - Speed and Usage Price Tiering" - here.  

Cellcom (NYSE:CEL) had 3.38M subscribers on September 2010. The chart below is taken from the company's 2009 presentation.

Kosher Mobile Internet - Cellcom Israel Offers Web Filtering

 

One of the DPI related value-added services is content filtering. Calcalist reports today (here, Hebrew) that Cellcom (3M subscribers) said today that they are going to offer Web filtering service to its mobile internet subscribers.

 

Cellcom will offer 5 levels of filtering - including a "white list" allowing surfing only to a closed list of selected sites, with a special fit to their religious subscribers. 

 

However, the other levels target the general subscriber community, mainly as a parental control service.  An interesting aspect is relates to charging:  

• There is a different charge for handsets and laptops - this means that the operator has a way to distinguish between the two, which is not easy.
   
• The monthly fee for the handset service is NIS4.9 (~$1.30) and for laptop NIS 14.9 (~$4.00). Very high!  

 

 

 

 

Web-filtering is sometimes a regulation requirement (and then it cannot be charges with extra fees).