Tango Enables Subscriber Interaction in Africa

Tango Telecom announced a "major upgrade and expansion deal with a leading African operator for its Subscriber Interaction and Self-Care solution. This deployment will increase the operator’s capacity to handle the significant uptake of mobile services by its rapidly growing subscriber base. 

The Tango Telecom Subscriber Interaction and Self-care solution, a key use-case of the Tango Telecom Data Retail Engine (Tango DRE™), enables subscribers to manage and personalise their mobile experience right from their devices without the need for costly customer service intervention. 

Tango Telecom’s solution enables the operator to offer its subscribers a personalised and interactive on-device experience via Smartphone App, USSD, SMS, Web portal, etc. by providing a proven self-care alternative to costly IVR platforms and call centres. 

It allows subscribers to access and manage all aspects of their accounts including balance queries, voucher recharges, credit transfers and subscription management for voice, data and messaging services via easy to use and highly-interactive USSD-based self-care menus. The solution monetises the operator’s self-care traffic by enabling subscribers to discover and subscribe to key revenue-generating content services such as music, news and mBanking". 

See "Enabling the rapid monetisation of mobile services in Africa" - here.

Comverse Acquires Acision for $210M

After selling a major portion of its activity, Comverse is now buying.

The company announced that it has "entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Acision, a privately-held leader in secure mobile messaging and engagement services, based in Reading, United Kingdom. Comverse will acquire Acision for a purchase price consisting of approximately $135 million in cash, 3.13 million shares of Comverse’s common stock [$75M], and potential earnout payments of up to $35 million .. the new company will be led by a team comprised of executives from both organizations under the leadership of Comverse CEO Philippe Tartavull and the company will remain headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, USA.

In addition to offering market-leading Cloud Multi-VAS and IP messaging solutions, the combined company will provide Service Providers, Over the Top (OTT), and Enterprise customers with a wide array of fast-growing mobile monetization, enterprise messaging and digital services in high growth segments .. The combined company’s expanded portfolio will extend into new digital application areas including data analytics, secure enterprise application-toperson (A2P) messaging, credit orchestration, two-factor authentication, and Machineto-Machine (M2M) communication as well as Rich Communication Services (RCS), WebRTC, and APIs for rapid service creation.

See "Comverse Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Acision; Combined Company to Extend Global Leadership in Next-Generation Digital Service Solutions" - here.

Avvasi - Oracle's PCRF Partnership Offers Monetized Video Services

Avvasi announced its "partnership with Oracle and its industry-leading Communications Policy Controller (PCRF). 

The Avvasi Oracle joint solution enables service providers to deliver monetized video services.

Avvasi’s real-time Xperium™ QoE management solution, Q-SRV, will be orchestrated by Oracle’s Communications Policy Controller. The integrated solution will help service providers monetize the explosion in data usage in order to deliver the highest quality customer experience".

See "Avvasi Partners with Oracle to Deliver Video Services" - here.

Qosmos CEO: "We own 70% of the market and Deployed in 6 out of 10 Tier1s"

Steve Saunders, LightReading, CEO and Founder, interviews Thibaut Bechetoille [pictured], CEO, Qosmos on DPI (which Qosmos calls now "Network Intelligence", a better name, as Steve comments).

Some quotes:

• Thibaut sees 3 use-cases for DPI - security, traffic management and analytics with its monetization potential. 

• Service chaining (here) is an important shift in the industry, where telcos will be able to do per-user, per application, service enablement,

• We have 6 out of 10 tier1 customers (through TEM OEM) .. we work closer to the telcos .. we have a team of 15 people (out of 100 employees) dedicated to direct touch with the telcos.

The competitors are Procera (based on the Vineyard Networks acquisition), ipoque .. We own 70% of the market.  we adjust our pricing proposal to the different  cases of our partners.

[According to Procera's 2014 annual reports [here], "NAVL revenue contributed $3.6 million in product revenue and $0.8 million in support revenue for the year ended December 31, 2014 compared to $1.7 million in product revenue and $0.9 million in support revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013"] 

Thibaut indicates 2 areas of new development:

• SDN/NFV/ Service chaining such as the Classifier (see "Qosmos Launches a Standards-based Service Classifier (2300+ Protocols and Metadata) - here)
   
• Going to adjacent markets to DPI, URL filtering  

See "Qosmos CEO: The Changing Face of DPI" - here.

Flash & Nokia Expand Partnership

A 2nd agreement for Flash Networks with Nokia Networks. 4 months after announcing that "Nokia will Include Flash Network Gateway in its Offering" (here), the two companies signed an MOU for Flash's other business line - monetization

Flash announced that it has "signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nokia Networks to provide Flash Networks’ Layer8 monetization solution to mobile carriers worldwide. Nokia Networks will extend its portfolio with the Layer8 solution in 2015. This mobile monetization solution has already been selected by seven Tier 1 mobile operators around the world  (see "Flash Networks'  Monetization Selected by 7 Operators; Defines "With the Top" Model" - here) and is currently being deployed for 50 million users with a growth potential of reaching up to 200 million subscribers in 2015.

Flash Networks and Nokia Networks will not only act as the technology providers but will also manage the entire lifecycle of Layer8, including the creation of a complete ecosystem. The ecosystem, which already includes over 200 partners, will enable operators to offer use cases such as local content recommendation, coupons, price comparisons, app recommendations, the upsell of data packages, and much more. This enhanced offering adds new value to the user experience in a clientless and non-intrusive way. The cooperation will be underpinned by co-marketing and sales activities, building on and increasing the collaboration that already exists between the two companies in the optimization domain.

See "Flash Networks signs MOU with Nokia Networks for mobile monetization" - here.

Allot Launches Monetization Through Engagement Solution

Allot Communications announced the ".. launch of Allot SmartEngage, a solution designed to help mobile service providers to enhance and better monetize their engagement with their subscribers. 

The first moment a subscriber gets a new smartphone or tablet up and running and browses the Internet is a critical moment for service providers to offer new services and secure registrations. The ability to engage users and secure service opt-ins during this stage of the user lifecycle can result in a significant revenue opportunity for mobile operators looking to deliver and monetize value-added services such as personal security, music streaming, cloud services, content bundles and others" 

The flow of information between Allot Service Gateway and other elements in your network starts with the provisioning of a new SIM, as follows:

1. New SIM is provisioned by PCRF with Onboarding set to ON in customer service plan
    
2. PCRF updates Allot Service Gateway
    
3. Allot Service Gateway detects first-browse activity and redirects to Welcome Page
     
4. Per user’s response, PCRF updates service plan and notifies Allot Service Gateway that first-engagement is over
     
5. Onboarding is turned OFF.

"Allot SmartEngage elevates customer experience management by using advanced traffic awareness capabilities delivered via the Allot Service Gateway to detect specific browsing activity and present the subscriber with offerings that are relevant to their profile, device model, operating system, and browser. 

The solution conducts granular, accurate, and scalable traffic analysis to identify and redirect only the relevant customer traffic stream, while leaving all other applications uninterrupted. Allot SmartEngage enables operators to leverage online engagement with zero impact to customer experience at any time".

See "Allot Launches SmartEngage Enabling Mobile Operators to Increase Subscriber Service Uptake" - here.

Flash Networks' Monetization Selected by 7 Operators; Defines "With the Top" Model

Flash Networks announced that its "Layer8 clientless monetization solution was selected by seven operators in the last six months and is planned to be used by over 200 million subscribers worldwide. The latest customers include operators in Asia and Europe and one large operator group which plans to deploy at several properties.

Layer8 is a clientless monetization solution that reinvents the way operators engage with their subscriber base and enables mobile operators to join forces with over-the-top (OTT) players instead of competing with them".

Liam Galin [pictured], President & CEO, Flash Networks said: “What we actually do is allow operators to partner with OTT players by offering them the ability to appear on the mobile browser in the right context and at the right time in a clientless way without the need for any download. 

Using this approach, we are creating an entirely new market segment – with-the-top (WTT) – where operators and OTT players cooperate rather than compete. 

From now on we no longer want operators to think in OTT terms but rather consider themselves part of the WTT ecosystem. As part of this ecosystem, we have already partnered with over 200 content providers across the globe, enabling Layer8 to be used by operators to reach out and offer relevant content directly to their subscribers in an appealing way.”

See "FLASH NETWORKS INNOVATIVE LAYER8 MONETIZATION SOLUTION SELECTED BY SEVEN OPERATORS IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS" - here.

Alcatel-Lucent Partners with Accenture to Improve and Monetize Broadband

Pierre Nanterme CEO, Accenture & 

Michel Combes CEO, Alcatel_Lucent

Accenture and Alcatel-Lucent announced that they have "formed a strategic alliance to help communications service providers (CSPs) and large enterprises implement integrated ultra-broadband solutions to address the challenges of rising costs and increased data consumption caused by high demand from digital customers and applications.

The agreement calls for the two companies to form the Accenture Alcatel-Lucent Business Group. 

 Its initial offerings will include solutions where the companies team to design, build and run scalable, cost effective customer care operations for all-IP networks that will to

The companies will dedicate sales and delivery resources to jointly provide solutions and services for customer care for mobile devices based on Alcatel-Lucent’s Motive line of products and explore small cell wireless network solutions with a focus on integrating cellular technology and WiFi between service providers and large enterprises". 

See "Accenture and Alcatel-Lucent collaborate to help clients monetize ultra-broadband opportunities" - here.

PCC Deployments [321]: INWI [Morocco] Uses Openet for Monetization

Openet announced that "INWI, a leading Moroccan operator, has deployed Openet’s Policy Manager to successfully provide convergent policy control and advanced allowance management .. INWI has integrated Openet’s Policy Manager with its advanced Balance Manager and Offer Catalog solution to monetize and shorten time-to-market for innovative new use cases. 

These will include: 

• the offer of ‘one day’ mobile data service passes 
• real-time data upsell notifications to its 13 million subscribers

These new innovative services will ensure new levels of offer transparency and Balance Management to maximize customer quality of experience, control local and roaming traffic and reduce bill shock".

INWI has ~28% of the local market.

See "Openet Enables INWI to accelerate data innovation and optimize the customer experience through real-time visibility and account control" - here

ipoque Enables Monetization with Enhanced Reporting Tool

ipoque announced the "release of its enhanced Net Reporter, a comprehensive and feature-rich traffic and subscriber analytics solution for operators with near-100% detection of all network traffic. 

Net Reporter delivers information such as application usage, device, location, ARPU and QoE/QoS statistics that are valuable to various departments within network operator, for example, Customer Service to pre-emptively avoid subscriber churn, Network Planning to predict and mitigate against congestion, and Marketing to identify specific subscribers to offer additional revenue generating services". 

Dirk Czepluch [pictured], CTO, ipoque said: “With our enhanced Net Reporter traffic and subscriber analytics solution we enable mobile and fixed network operators to monetize the pipe they provide by helping them get detailed knowledge about their customer’s usage behavior. The insight gained is extremely valuable for customized Marketing campaigns and made to measure service offers, for example guaranteed QoE for business critical applications or content partnerships with preferred streaming platforms”.

See "ipoque’s enhanced subscriber analytics engine enables operators to monetize the pipe" - here.

[Calcalist]: Flash Networks Fires 25 Employees

Asaf Gilad reports to Calcalist [here, Hebrew] that "Following the acquisition of Mobixell [for $15M, see "No Longer a Rumor: Flash Networks Acquires Mobixell" - here], Flash Networks initiated a process of letting 25 of its Israeli employees go.. the employees are from both companies and all ranks .. in order to reduce redundancies. Flash Networks has 200 employees in Israel and another 100 internationally".   

Flash commented that "Flash Networks acquired its competitor, Mobixell, in the beginning of 2014, and doubled its size dramatically turning it to the biggest vendor of mobile networks' optimization and monetization with over 40% market share [see "Flash Networks (40%) and Citrix (30%) Lead the Mobile Optimization Market" - here]. 

We are sorry that some employees have to leave .. it is part of the merger process .. the company is going to expand in the coming years into new markets".

source:{Core Analysis} 2014 Market report

Hitachi: Big Data Analytics Enables QoE, QoS and Monetization

Hitachi Data Systems announced it that  ".. Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) and several telecommunications partners [Brocade, JDSU, SeaChange] will demonstrate the ability of big data applications in telecom to lower network and operations costs, reduce customer churn protecting existing business revenues, and create new revenue streams. World-class quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) is possible only through the integration of a streaming data platform technology for real-time data, and the use of Hadoop and database technologies for batch and online data.

Demos:

• Fine-Grain Analytics for Video Premium Services (With JDSU)

• Carrier-Hosted Analytics – Backhaul Services (With JDSU)
• Virtual Network Platform
• Multiscreen Video Delivery (With SeaChange)

• Brocade Deterministic Networks with Hitachi Unified Compute Platform (UCP) for Media (With Brocade)

• Hitachi Content Platform and Hitachi Cloud Services
• The Internet of Things and Network Function Virtualization
• RAN-Aware Video Traffic Optimization
• Advanced M2M Network Solution 

See "Hitachi Data Systems to Showcase Leading Network Analytics Technology at Mobile World Congress 2014" - here.

Singapore Telcos Plans for Data Monetization: Tiered Services, Music and Gaming

How will operators increase their revenues in 2014? Joyce Hooi, The Business Times, interviewed the 3 telcos in Singapore:

• Kevin Lim [pictured], Chief Commercial Officer, StarHub: "We are primed for data monetisation next year as we expect more customers to adopt tiered data plans".
  
  See "PCRF Deployments: Starhub Selected NSN" - here and "StarHub  Selected Neuralitic for Usage Profiling and Monetization" - here.

• Chua Sock Koong [pictured], CEO, Singtel : "In Singapore and Australia, we are actively promoting data usage, including the use of innovative plans that help customers' avoid bill shocks like Optus My Plan .. In the emerging markets that our regional mobile associates operate in, we are rolling out 3G networks to accelerate data usage"
  
  See "Singtel: 10% of Subscribers Consume 64% of Data; Implements Tiered Services" - here and "Optus Uses Cisco and BroadHop" - here.
   
• M1 - "The telco will bank on mobile games, music and video content to drive data usage, said Chua Hian Hou, its assistant general manager for corporate communications".

See "Data monetisation: Telcos' holy grail in 2014" - here.

[F&S] Transparent Caching Market to Reach $516M by 2017; Will Merge with CDN

A new report by Dan Rayburn [pictured], Principal Analyst, Frost & Sullivan Information and Communication Technologies finds that the "Global Transparent Caching Market ..earned $138.0 million in 2012, which will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.2 percent to reach $516.3 million in 2017 .. For now, however, the size of transparent caching technology deployments remains low as operators are yet to fully embrace the technology, owing to a lack of awareness ..Over the next few years, product lines will integrate to offer transparent caching solutions and content delivery network offerings on the same platform .. Once considered a cost-saving initiative, transparent caching is now viewed as an investment with demonstrable returns as it allows service providers to better monetize their video services.

Transparent caching also gained acceptance due to its ability to reduce infrastructure and bandwidth costs, and enhance performance by eliminating any potential delays associated with the Internet or content origin .. All leading vendors in this market grew through strategic acquisitions. As the landscape remains fragmented and technical evolution continues at a rapid pace, mergers and acquisitions will be the key to market leadership.

See "Increasing Internet Traffic Heightens Global Demand for Transparent Caching Solutions" - here.

Elitecore Helps Operators Monetize Wi-Fi (w/Location, Analytics and Revenue Generator)

Elitecore Technologies announced the launch of "Wi-Fi monetization framework comprising: Smart Connectivity ..  simplifies user’s connectivity to Wi-Fi through efficient network discovery, selection and user authentication for both data offload and walk-in users ; Location-specific services -  identify and categorize user locations based on multiple methods to improve operator service capability ; Subscriber Analytics and Revenue Generator – Operators can launch new revenue models through personalized push notification for Wi-Fi using flash advertisements, freebies discount coupons, on-demand events, clicks-on-portal, roaming (iPass, Boingo) and 3G+Wi-Fi plans". 

 

See "Elitecore Introduces “Wi-Fi Monetization Framework” for Telecom Operators" - here.

[Vendor Review] Qwilt: "We can Save US Operators Hundreds of $Millions in Few Years"

Two weeks ago I posted several quotes from a Forbes interview with Qwilt's CEO (see "Qwilt Expects to Win AT&T and Comcast; Praised by Japan's IT Frontier" - here).

Several readers made comments to the post, questioning the opportunity for caching in the US Tier1 market and wondering about disclosing prospects. In order to better understand the company's strategy and target markets, I spoke with Mark Fisher [pictured], VP Marketing and BD.

Mark is confident that the growth in internet traffic, and in particular video, justifies the use of transparent caching even by the largest operators. Qwilt, that in its early days addressed the cable market, is now targeting all fixed and mobile operators - and almost entirely for video caching. "Every operator is considering this approach to solve the growth in traffic", says Mark "Operators are cautious on bringing 3rd party provides into their networks, therefore look for their own solution and control".

As for the names mentioned in the Forbes interview (Comcast and AT&T) - these names were not mentioned by the CEO, nor disclosed by the reporter. They were given as example to the size of operators with which Qwilt is working. "We are working with US operators that can save hundreds of millions of dollars with our solution" says Mark.

Qwilt's differentiation according to Mark: "We offer a s/w solution, running over off-the-shelf platforms; we have strong video classification resulting in a much better cost/performance solution [Qwilt's roots are in P-Cube, the DPI vendor that was acquired by Cisco - Azi]; out-of-band solution that does not impact network availability and embedded Monetization". These advantages were tested and proofed in labs and trials, Mark adds.

[Analysys Mason]: Once Again, Shared Data Plans are Good for MNOs!

A recent survey by Ronan De Renesse, Principal Analyst, Eva Weidinger, Research Analyst and Martin Scott, Principal Analyst Analysys Mason (among 6610 individuals from  France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK and the USA) finds that ".. multi-device tariffs offer mobile operators a golden opportunity to more effectively monetise mobile data... Owners of more than one mobile device and those who use their smartphone for 'tethering' use more data than smartphone-only owners, but do not go for higher data allowances, indicating the difficulties of mobile data monetisation".

• 47% of shared or family data plan users have between 1GB and 10GB of data per month, compared to 36% of respondents on other smartphone contracts.

• Similarly, users on high-level tariff tiers, who have more than 10GB of data per month, are more likely to be on a shared data or family plan. 16% of shared or family data plan users reported a monthly allowance of more than 10GB.
   
• In the USA, shared and family data plans are well established. AT&T [see "AT&T: 13M Subscribers on Shared Data Plans; Demand for Bigger Buckets"- here and chart below] and Verizon Wireless have offered shared data plans for residential subscribers since the third quarter of 2012. Both operators increased ARPU in 2012 through the launch of shared data plans, despite the emergence of competing flat-rate ‘unlimited’ plans from Sprint and T-Mobile.

See "The connected consumer survey 2013: smartphones, mobile data access and monetisation" - here.

Oracle Enhances Services Gatekeeper w/Analytics, OTT Monetization

Oracle introduced recently "Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper 5.1, which enables communications service providers (CSPs) to consolidate and expose network capabilities to accelerate service development and monetize partner and over-the-top network usage. The new release provides comprehensive analytics and partner management portals and introduces pre-integrated solutions to enable CSPs to rapidly deploy Network as a Service offerings, opening the door to a multi-sided business model .. In addition, Oracle Communications Services Gatekeeper is a highly extensible, future-proof system. The solution runs on commercial-off-the-shelf platforms, and offers built-in integration to Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF -see "Oracle Launches PCRF" - here), online charging systems and network call control.

See "Oracle Introduces Solution to Help Communications Service Providers Monetize Next-Generation Network Services" - here.

Monday's Guest Post: Video Ads Monetization

A new guest post will be published on Monday. In his article, "Video adverts – glass half empty or half full for mobile operators?" my 27th guest, Chris Koopmans, will discuss video ads - The impact that streamed video ads will have on the mobile networks and on users’ quality of experience, how operators can understand subscriber behavior and act on it to lessen the deleterious impact of high levels of video traffic and use this understanding to monetize customer experience.

"We may not need to wait long for video traffic to accelerate its growth. Facebook looks set to begin moving forward with video adverts, a step that may be setting off alarm bells at networks operators" says Chris.

Stay tuned!

Sandvine and Openwave Offer Joint VAS Steering Solution

Openwave Mobility announced a joint solution with Sandvine to
"enable mobile operators, to deliver advanced monetization capabilities by empowering them to rapidly introduce new Layer 7 services including targeted video optimization, innovative pricing models, and subscriber self-care"

This follows a previous announcement by Sandvine of similar solutions with other partners: "Sandvine: 40 Joint Deployments with PeerApp, Mobixell and Netsweeper" - here.

"Sandvine’s Policy Traffic Switch .. combined with Openwave Mobility’s Integra4 .. offers operators a solution whereby data traffic can be classified at line-rate and appropriate Layer 7 application traffic can be steered to Integra4 to apply services. These services can include video optimization, parental controls or even dynamic content insertion for engaging users with inline promotions. These promotions typically include new Application-based Price Plans which are easy for subscribers to adopt and are known to lead to significant incremental ARPU increase .. the Sandvine-Openwave Mobility solution has been successfully trialed with live traffic by a North American operator".

See "Openwave Mobility and Sandvine Collaborate to Empower Operators to Pursue Large-Scale Monetization Opportunities" - here.