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 [324]: Telefonica [UK] Deployed Cellwize

Cellwize announced that its "elastic-SON™, the Centralized Self Organizing Network solution (C-SON) has been commercially deployed by Telefónica UK to enhance mobile network performance and Quality of Service for UK subscribers. elastic-SON from Cellwize was selected following a rigorous evaluation process carried out by the Telefónica Global CTO Team and Telefónica UK.

Telefónica UK is the first to implement the C-SON solution in the Telefónica Group globally and effectively the first company in the UK to implement a SON solution across all three technologies (2G, 3G and 4G)".

Adrian Di Meo [pictured], CTO,  Telefonica UK said: “We chose Cellwize due to its ability to work with all Telefónica UK incumbent RAN vendors and technologie.. Our team is working closely with Cellwize to support additional business needs for special events which require enhanced coverage and capacity. Recently the Cellwize elastic-SON platform was supporting Notting Hill Carnival and the Ryder Cup 2014 event”

See "Cellwize SON Boosts Telefónica UK Network Modernization Rollout" - 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.

Cellwize Launches NFV Based, "pay-as-you-grow", SON

Cellwize announced that it is the ".. first to offer a Network Functions Virtualized (NFV)-ready SON solution, that’s multi-technology and fully multi-vendor compliant ..Cellwize achieved the first step towards NFV by virtualizing its SON and application servers, delivering its optimization through virtual machines in NFV environments. As a result, elastic-SON™ can be fully automated with other network functions in the cloud.

..elastic-SON is also flexible and based on the demand and size of the network, can efficiently increase or reduce its performance capabilities. This allows mobile operators to adopt a “pay-as-you-grow” roll out so they can tailor the optimization and performance to fit the network’s requirements. elastic-SON™ also makes the healing of under performing networks seamless for cloud managers. They can now increase the number of virtual machines within a matter of a few clicks to strengthen performance".

See "Cellwize Offers First NFV-Enabled SON Solution" - here.