CommProve Adds LTE Support

CommProve launched its "Mobile Broadband (MBB) Insight application for LTE. Expanding on the existing CommProve Insight application suite, the LTE application provides operators with invaluable network-wide information including handset usage trends, subscriber location and customer profile information. MBB Insight enables operators to improve both the quality of service (QoS) on the network but also subscriber quality of experience (QoE) .. CommProve’s MBB Insight application has been widely deployed to date with customers all over the world including Telecom Italia as well as Telecom Personal in Argentina and Wataniya Maldives. The application is available immediately for deployment.

Source: Commprove

Source: Commprove

CommProve’s NetLedge 4G monitoring platform provides the MBB Insight application with correlated user and control plane information so operators know where a subscriber is, and what device/application they’re using. This network subscriber view enables operators to truly understand network congestion and how this is impacting subscriber experience so that they can proactively trouble shoot network issues even when subscribers are on the move".

See "CommProve Launches Mobile Broadband Insight for LTE" -here.

NI Deployments [250]: TIM [Brazil] Uses Commprove to Control LTE Performance

CommProve announced an ".. LTE network monitoring expansion contract in South America with TIM Brasil worth $1.2million .. TIM Brasil is deploying CommProve’s performance management platform, CommProve GSP, in its network. GSP captures statistical counters from across the monitored network and will then provide TIM with the aggregated information in a powerful data set for network management and optimization".

At the end of 2012, TIM Brasil had over 261M mobile subscribers. LTE service was launched in April 2013, and will be available in 2014 in all the 12 cities hosting the FIFA World Cup 2014 (see "TIM Brasil selects Nokia Siemens Networks to build 4G LTE network" - here). 

Source: TIM

FIFA 2014 Cities

Carlo Filangieri (pictured), CTO, TIM Brasil said: “We want to be able to provide to our customers a very good data service both on 4G and HSDPA+ so that they don’t need to worry about technology layers and commercial offers as our 4G service is at the same price as our 3G service. Not only for professional but for every kind of usage, the quality of the mobile data connection is a key factor for people that are demanding the same kind of experience they have as with fixed broadband. We need to strictly control the performance of our service; this is why we are extending CommProve’s monitoring technology to our new 4G network”

See "TIM Brasil Awards CommProve $1.2M LTE Network Monitoring Expansion Contract" - here.

NI Deployments [224]:Telecom Personal [Argentina, 19M Subs] Uses CommProve for Network Optimization

 
CommProve announced that Telecom Personal (owned by Telecom Argentina), MNO, Argentina, has selected "CommProve’s next generation network monitoring solution, CommProve NetLedge. NetLedge is being deployed to not only optimize Telecom Personal’s network and to better utilize available capacity, but also to improve customer satisfaction .. CommProve NetLedge will provide network monitoring as well as performance management support to ensure the measurement of network performance KPI’s. The solution will also perform advanced troubleshooting to track customer experience".

At the end of 2012, Personal - the largest mobile operators in Argentina, had close to 19M mobile subscribers, a 4.3% increase compared to 2011.
 
"In addition to deploying CommProve NetLedge, Telecom Personal will also integrate CommProve’s performance management platform, CommProve GSP, in certain parts of its network. GSP captures statistical counters from across the monitored network and then will provide Telecom with the aggregated information in a powerful data set for network management and optimization"

See "CommProve Announces New Customer Win with Telecom Personal in Argentina" - here.

NI Deployments [222]: Safaricom Uses CommProve to Improve QoE

With 30% increase in the number of active data subscribers in just one year (see chart below), Safaricom needs the tools to control its service quality. After deploying Mobixell's optimization solution (here), the MNO adds a network intelligence solution.

CommProive announced that it will ".. deploy its next generation network monitoring solution, CommProve NetLedge across Safaricom’s network. The deployment is scheduled for completion by the first half of this year".

Thibaud Rerolle, Technical & IT Director, at Safaricom said: “We needed to work with a company that has a platform that is able to enable network monitoring across multiple network interfaces including LTE and WiMAX to support our existing network as well as our future plans”

See "CommProve announces Safaricom new customer win" - here.

Cell-C Expands CommProve's Deployment by S1.5M

Last month CommProve announced that Cell C (South Africa) deployed CommProve Netledge and CommProve Insight (see "Cell C [South Africa] Uses CommProve to Measure KPIs" - here).

It appears like Cell C is happy with its decision, as CommProve announced that it has ".. won an expansion agreement for $1.5M with a leading African operator [Cell C]. The expansion is part of the operator’s infrastructure update across its network and is focused on updating the network monitoring capabilities of the network .. The network expansion will be completed by the first half of next year".

In October, Cell C announced it will "switch on a 4G network based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology before the end of 2012". According to a recent article at BusinessTech, the MNO has 9.4M subscribers (here).

See "CommProve wins $1.5m network monitoring expansion with leading African operator" - here.

NI Deployments [206]: Cell C [South Africa] Uses CommProve to Measure KPIs

  

CommProve announced that Cell C is deploying their solution to "..measure network performance (KPIs) and to control customer satisfaction. The CommProve solution will be deployed across Cell C’s network by the end of the first half of next year .. As part of the agreement, CommProve will deploy its real-time data acquisition and mediation platform, CommProve Netledge as well as CommProve Insight, its software application suite .. The CommProve solution will enable Cell C to trouble shoot specific areas across both the radio access and the core layer of its network (2G-3G), providing protocol analysis as well as KPI reporting"

CommProve Protocol Analyzer

See "CommProve expands presence in Africa with Cell C win" - here.

Winners of the Broadband Traffic Management Congress Awards

The Broadband Traffic Management Congress, now on its 4th year, announced the winners awards (see the short list - here - link below lead to relevant posts):

1. Best Signaling Solution for Traffic Management: Tekelec 
2. Best Use of Traffic Management for Improving Customer Experience: Huawei
3. Best Content Optimization Tool for Managing Video Traffic on Mobile Networks: Flash Networks
4. Best Mobile Offload Solution for Enhancing Customer Experience: Aptilo 
5. Most Innovative Tool for Driving Real-Time Intelligence: Avvasi
6. Best Real Time Charging Platforms for Customers: Comverse 
7. Most Effective Solution for Integrating RAN-Awareness into Policy Management: Commprove
8. Best Integration of Traffic Management into OSS/BSS Architectures: Comverse 
9. Most Innovative New Service Launch Enabled By Traffic Management: Procera Networks

CommProve: The Business Model Behind Cell Awareness

  

CommProve published some numbers, "that have been pulled together based on CommProve real-life deployments", arguing that "..real-time cell-awareness is the key to mobile network operators simultaneously increasing ARPU whilst preventing OTT revenue erosion. Combined with policy management, real-time cell awareness provides mobile operators with the opportunity to customize subscriber quality of experience with – for example – speed boosts and priority network use on a per subscriber or application basis".

See "CommProve Adds Cell, Location and Mobility Intelligence to Policy Management" - here.

"Real-time cell awareness enables real-time customization of the subscriber experience. For the first time effective policy control can be implemented and managed minute-by-minute at the subscriber level .. By including real-time cell awareness operators can: Make CapEx savings and Avoid revenue leakage from subscribers not being able to access resources"

Example Use Case:	(Euro)
Monthly revenue from 1 BTS with congestion	€55,500
Monthly revenue from 1 BTS without congestion	€57,200
Number of BTSs full coverage	120,000
Estimated number of congested BTSs	8,400
Estimated number of congested hours (in a month)	75
Revenue loss saving per month	€1,487,500

See "Real-time cell awareness key to sweating mobile network assets" - here.

[Analysys Mason]: Network Monitoring is an Effective Strategy to Move Away from Flat Rates

A new report by Patrick Kelly, Research Director, Analysys Mason (sponsored by CommProve) predicts ".. decoupling of revenue and network costs as operators become increasingly data dependent .. Mobile operators will abandon network cost-based pricing to focus on premium services, as they look to reduce churn and maintain revenues .. Operators are increasingly employing end-to-end network monitoring solutions to eliminate these silos and create real-time, end-to-end monitoring ".

Source: Analysys Mason

See also "CommProve Adds Cell, Location and Mobility Intelligence to Policy Management" - here. 

The report estimates that "the volume of wireless data traffic worldwide will grow at an annual rate of 67% between 2010 and 2015. During the same period, data revenue per gigabyte is projected to fall from USD23.21 to USD4.27"

Kelly recommends MNOs - “ The use of advanced network monitoring systems is an effective strategy that mobile operators can adopt to move away from flat-rate tariffs and encourage new business usage-based plans "

   

See "Data-dependent operators to implement tiered services to maintain revenue and combat rising costs" - here

NI Announcements: CommProve Adds Cell, Location and Mobility Intelligence to Policy Management

   

CommProve announced ".. the launch of its BCN RAN Insight, [application that] collects and processes in real-time measurements from different interfaces of the radio access network (RAN) .. Depending on the network deployment and the desired accuracy different interfaces can be probed: typically Iub/Iups are monitored. DPI measurements provide information concerning application and network level delays, re-transmissions, peak and average throughput, application type breakdown, both at the user-level and at the cell-level .. user mobility is tracked and the actual cells serving the user are saved in a call detail record (CDR), along with all relevant signaling information"

".. This way BCN RAN effectively closes the Policy Control loop in as much as it brings into the picture real-time QoE and location information (including information about which other subscribers are sharing the same network resources) and consequently enables Policy Control solutions to manage QoS and QoE in real-time, per subscriber, perform real-time and service differentiated charging, offer location based services as well as to effectively increase available network resources, again in real-time, through subscriber differentiated control mechanisms"

"BCN RAN Insight is deployed together with partner PCRF and DPI solutions" - see "BroadHop and CommProve Offer Integrated RAN Congestion Management Solution" - here and "CommProve and Qosmos Offer Layer 7 Visibility into Mobile Traffic"- here.

See "CommProve Launches BCN RAN Insight for Real-Time RAN Congestion Management" - here.

Vendors Form Connexus - OTT Video Monetization Architecture for ISPs

 
My colleague, Dean Bubley, tweeted last night (here) on the subject of OTT video monetization by MNOs:  "Increasingly convinced that idea of MNOs "monetising OTT apps" is a complete chimaera. Wishful thinking. More likely money-flow is other way". Dean also linked a 3GPP work program that "deprioritised the key standard & put it "on hold" (here).
 

Obviously vendors in this space think differently. 4 of them - Avvasi, BroadHop, Commprove (see "BroadHop and CommProve Offer Integrated RAN Congestion Management Solution" - here) and Spirent (here) have just formed Connexus.

"Service providers who want to monetize OTT video have an opportunity to create enormous value and therefore lucrative new revenue streams, however market fragmentation and lack of collaboration in the OTT value chain is preventing a pragmatic path to this opportunity. CONNEXUS is a disruptive architecture that enables a unique way of collaboration between vendors, service providers, content providers and advertisers to accomplish the shared goal of maximizing subscriber quality of experience, and delivering new video services and therefore new revenue streams for the entire ecosystem".

 

Connexus Architecture

Connexus is an "architecture seeks to address this issue holistically by bringing together vendors committed to an open ecosystem for OTT and multi-screen video service delivery, to enable service providers to build QoE-differentiated  video subscription services which sets the stage for content monetization and ad revenue".

The CONNEXUS architecture will focus on three primary goals:

1. Promoting the notion that service providers need to monetize OTT video and deliver a high quality of experience in order to fund the infrastructure capacity that will meet subscriber demand
    
2. Leveraging existing standards and associations to define how OTT video is delivered and monetized, and facilitate interoperability within the ecosystem
    
3. Accelerating the availability of integrated best of breed solutions across the OTT video ecosystem

See the press release - "CONNEXUS Ecosystem Unveils Architecture that Highlights New Possibilities for Monetizing OTT Video Traffic" - here.