Orange Teams w/ConteXtream to Introduce NFV-Based Subscriber-Aware Services

ConteXtream announced that "Orange Silicon Valley (OSV), a subsidiary of Orange has teamed up with ConteXtream in using and testing Contextream’s ContexNet carrier-grade SDN fabric. 

ContexNet is part of OSV’s NFV/SDN testbed for creating a solution that virtualizes Gi-LAN services and provides network interconnectivity and visibility with subscriber-level granularity".

Christos Kolias [pictured], senior research scientist and principal of the Netsquared Studio at OSV said: “ConteXtream could be a great partner as they have a history of helping carriers seamlessly transition to virtualized network. By leveraging ContexNet, we can create a programmable network and work with best-of-breed vendors for various network functions to quickly introduce new services while easily managing the network. 

This is part of our innovative E2E, integrated NFV/SDN testbed with the goal to enable us, our partners and customers to showcase solutions and potentially for third-parties to test theirs.”

See "Orange Silicon Valley Partners with ConteXtream to Evaluate its Subscriber-Aware SDN Fabric" - here.

NI Deployments [345]: Orange [Slovakia] to Use Astellia to Ensure E2E QoE

Astellia confirmed the "..signature of a 4G network contract with Orange Slovensko, the largest mobile operator in Slovakia .. Astellia’s Nova solution provides Orange Slovensko with the ability to proactively monitor, analyze and manage in real-time the subscriber experience of every user, hereby ensuring true end-to-end QoE. The solution allows for instance the identification of subscribers receiving a poor data experience and ensuring speedy detection of root contributors to the experience degradation".

At the end of 2014, Orange Slovakia had 2,85 mobile customers,

See "Astellia boosting 4G performance for Orange Slovensko" - here.

How Do 3, KPN, Swisscom, T-Mobile, A1, EE, TeliaSonera and Orange Pack LTE?

A new presentation by Openet reviews the how leading MNOs are "leverage the speed that LTE brings to create value for customers and generate more revenue".

Allot & MRV Partner to Offer Orange NFV/SDN Application-Aware Traffic Management CPE

More NFV news, this time with the twin brother, SDN. Allot Communications and MRV Communications announced  ".. collaboration to demonstrate an SDN-enabled virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE) solution for bringing application awareness to service providers access networks. Initiated and validated in Orange Labs.

..Allot and MRV have partnered to respond to Orange needs by introducing an innovative solution for delivering application awareness at the access network that combines a centralized traffic detection function (TDF - see also "Allot and Procera Push NFV-based DPI" - here), programmable business customer premises equipment (CPE) and an OpenDayLight SDN controller to enable stringent SLAs by setting per-application priority and dedicated bandwidth, and enforcing them starting at the customer premises and throughout the network"

Allot network functions virtualization is compliant with the ETSI blueprint

See "Orange, Allot and MRV to Demonstrate SDN-enabled Application Aware Virtual CPE @ SDN & OpenFlow World Congress" - here.

PCC Deployments [288]: Orange [Slovakia] Deploys Openet for Segmented Data Offers

Openet announced that ".. Orange Slovakia deployed Openet’s Policy and Charging Control (PCC) infrastructure to enable a major rollout of advanced shared data bundles. The deployment makes it possible for Orange Slovakia to quickly define segmented data offers, with associated balances, notifications and policy rules.

The Openet solution supports Orange Slovakia’s innovative new data plans offered to its 2.8 million subscribers".

See "Orange Slovakia Launches Shared Data Plans Based on an Integrated Openet Policy and Charging Solution" - here.

{Core Analysis}: Video Optimization Market Reaffirms its Maturity; Citrix ByteMobile Leads

A new report of the video optimization market, by Patrick Lopez [pictured], Founder and CEO at {Core Analysis} finds that "The market trend for the segment reaffirms its maturity. Like last year, the summer has been quiet in term of activity while spring and the fall remain the high RFx quarters. We have recently seen two large groups select their vendor in the space (Telenor and Orange), more or less wrapping up the tier one group selection process for this cycle in mature markets. Growth in this segment now comes from Latin America and South East Asia, where many groups (Singtel, America Movil, ...) have yet to formulate / finalize a strategy in the space".

• Citrix ByteMobile remains market leader, both in deployments and revenue. The deployment relative market share is decreasing slightly to 29%, while revenue market share is increasing.
  See also "Is the Optimization Market Declining?" with Citrix Bytemobile revenues, here.
   
• Mobixell Networks remains number 2 in deployments with 23%, once again growing its market share over the period
   
• Flash Networks remains a strong third with 17%, growing as well faster than the market

See "Video optimization mid-term update" - here.

EU Checks DT, Orange and Telefonica Use of DPI for Traffic Discrimination

It's action time for the EU!

While its stand on Net Neutrality is not clear (see "EU: Traffic Management, Pay for QoS - are all fine!" - here Vs. "What does the EU Want to Know about Traffic Management?" - here) it decided not to wait any more and look for the use of DPI by leading carriers as a mean to discriminate services.
 
Jennifer Baker reports to Computerworld that the "The European Union's top antitrust watchdog has carried out unannounced raids on Telefonica, Deutsche Telecom and Orange. The European Commission is concerned that the three companies may have violated E.U. competition rules prohibiting the abuse of a dominant market position, it said Thursday .. The Commission is understood to be looking into network operators' use of deep packet inspection, a technique that allows them to identify the type of content that runs through their networks and allows them to throttle traffic from particularly demanding applications such as video streaming or VoIP calls".

An EU memo explains that "The European Commission can confirm that on 9 July 2013 Commission officials initiated unannounced inspections at the premises of a number of telecommunications companies active in the provision of Internet connectivity in several Member States" (here).

See "EU competition watchdog raids Telefonica, Deutsche Telecom and Orange" - here.

Oracle Next Acquisition: DPI? Optimization? SDN?

Ronald Gruia [pictured], Director at Frost & Sullivan, covering emerging telecoms, analyzes in an article to The Street who is next on Oracle's acquisition list, following Acme Packet and Tekelec - "Oracle management hinted at financial services and retail as other verticals the company would delve deeper into via innovation or acquisition. However, I believe that the company will further bolster its telecom stack. Here are a few possibilities:

• DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) - this is an important capability that can enhance the Oracle charging solution set. Players such as Allot Communications  (which maintained a relationship with Tekelec to enhance the latter's PCRF product in accounts such as Orange, Verizon and Vodafone) and Procera Networks (which partnered with Tekelec in some accounts such as Comcast) can be distinct possibilities.  
  
  [Should I remind Sandvine to a Canadian]
  
  
• Video optimization current standalone vendors include Flash Networks and Vantrix
   
• SDN (Software Defined Networking) vendor [one must follow the trend, I guess]"

The DPI market is at least 5 times bigger that the video optimization market, that seems to be declining (see "Is the Optimization Market Declining?" - here). It is also big enough (over $500M, with expected growth of 20-30%) to generate interest by large vendors such as Oracle.

Shira Levin of Infonetics Research bets on DPI. 

Great piece from @rgruia on #Oracle's next steps. For the record, my bet is an acquisition of a #DPI vendor. thestreet.com/story/11941664…
— Shira Levine (@shiralevine) June 5, 2013

See "Oracle Not Done with Its Telecom Foray" - here.

NI Deployments [237]: Orange [20+ Subsidiaries] Use Astellia for QoE Optimization

   

Astellia announced that the Orange Group confirmed it as a ".. strategic partner during the presentation of their white paper ‘Supplier relationships of France Telecom-Orange in France’. Over the last 10 years, Astellia’s solution has been used in more than 20 subsidiaries of Orange to optimize the performance of their 2G, 3G and 4G networks and to guarantee the best user experience to their subscribers".

See "Astellia recognized by the Orange Group as strategic partner for network monitoring" - here.

DPI Deployments [229]: Orange [Switzerland] Selected Procera

Procera Networks announced an "initial multi-year contract from Orange Switzerland. The initial order is to provide Procera’s leading edge Intelligent Policy Enforcement solutions, specifically the PL8820, PacketLogic™ Intelligence Center (PIC) and the PacketLogic Subscriber Manager (PSM), for deployment throughout Orange’s network as a replacement for an existing solution. Procera’s solutions will be used to allow Orange to offer high value subscriber services. Procera expects to recognize most of the revenue related to this order in the first half of 2013.

Johan Andsjo, CEO, Orange Switzerland said: ".. The solution that we are deploying today will enable us to deliver new services to our subscribers, increase our competitiveness through innovation and exceed our growth plans for bandwidth with a scalable platform".

See "Procera Networks Selected by Orange Switzerland for Deployment" - here.

Bill Shock Prevention: Promises and Reality

I has a number of posts about mobile operators, regulators and industry organizations announcing their plans to implement bill shock prevention tools (see "24 Operator Groups (4B Subscribers) to Adopt Bill Shock Prevention Measures This Year (2012)" - here; "Latam MNOs to Implement Bill Shock Prevention by H1 2013" - here, "Australia - Bill Shock Prevention Self-Regulation is Coming" - here; "Bill Shock Prevention is Coming to the US Mobile Service" - here and "EU Helps Preventing Mobile Bill Shock" - here.

And the reality?

A survey conducted by MACH (see "MACH Launches a Cloud-based Bill Shock Prevention Solution" - here) shows that the ".. majority of mobile operators (62%) have not yet implemented any form of bill-shock prevention to protect their customers against unexpectedly high data roaming bills. Furthermore, only 24% of mobile operators worldwide have a solution that can monitor subscriber data usage habits in real-time, thus complying with the GSMA Data Roaming Transparency Initiative launched last year. Such solutions, that consider the subscribers’ data roaming experience first and foremost, boost uptake of data roaming services, leading to more revenue for operators and increased customer satisfaction".

Nevertheless, I also covered several deployments of bill shock prevention by Telefonica, Zain Jordan, Orange Africa, Belgacom and Telekom Austria.

See "Mobile Operators Slow To Protect Consumers From Bill-Shock, Says MACH" - here.

CDN Deployments [204]: Orange Selects Akamai as its CDN Solution

  

Orange and Akamai Technologies announced that ".. Orange has agreed to use technology from Akamai's Aura Network Solutions to provide CDN services to business customers .. The partnership between the two companies is intended to provide enterprises with access to Akamai's optimization and acceleration technologies through Orange Business Services. By combining Akamai's expertise in improving Internet performance for end users across multiple devices with Orange's network, both companies look to address the growing market demand for content delivery".

See "Orange and Akamai form Content Delivery Strategic Alliance" - here.

[Wireless Intelligence]: Top 20 Global Operator Groups

    

Wireless Intelligence published its ‘Scoreboard’ operator ranking.for Q2, 2012. "The new ‘Scoreboard’ tracks the top 20 global operator groups by connections based on majority-owned assets in Q2 2012. Minority holdings (less than 50 percent plus one share) are excluded from the analysis".

Compared to the Q2 2011 scoreboard (see "World's Top20 Mobile Groups" - here) - Bharti Airtel (now #4) and Telefonica (#5) switched places.

  

"China’s three mobile operators all recorded double-digit subscriber growth over the last year .. France Telecom (#12) returned to the top 20 after dropping out of the list a year ago".

Source:Wireless Intelligence

See "Analysis: The top 20 global operator groups by mobile connections (Q2 2012)" - here.

ARCEP Sees Decrease in Use of TM in Mobile; Plans to Monitor QoS on Fixed Networks

   

ARCEP, the French regulator, published an update on its work on Net Neutrality for France. Following are several  quotes from its press release on the new report:

"Through the Law of 22 March 2011, Parliament has asked ARCEP to provide an update on the status of net neutrality. ARCEP submitted today its report to Parliament and the Government on this issue.

In September 2010, ARCEP published 10 proposals [here] that aimed at defining a sustainable, neutral and high-quality equilibrium for the functioning of the Internet, combined with tools to ensure this equilibrium is maintained and to guarantee it if needed ..  However, competition and transparency alone are not always enough Therefore ARCEP has engaged further efforts to ensure the ecosystem runs smoothly and stakeholders comply with the principles laid out in 2010.

• .. to track the quality of Internet access services, ARCEP will adopt a decision before the end of this year that specifies the quality of service indicators for fixed networks, which will be measured and made public, in complement of those already measured for mobile networks   

• ..  ARCEP has undertaken an inventory of traffic management practices implemented by operators - e.g. throttling, blocking or priority queues.-. Thanks in particular to competition, ARCEP has noticed a decrease in the use of these practices especially on mobile networks. Certain practices are nevertheless contrary to the framework set in 2010 which consists of five assessment criteria. ARCEP is therefore calling, among others, for the steady elimination of service blocking (VoIP, P2P) on mobile networks. If the market fails to make sufficient progress on its own, the current legislation gives the Authority the powers needed to intervene.

Source: ARCEP Report, September 2012

• .. the interconnection business model, namely the relationships between Internet players, is evolving gradually and can give rise to conflicts: it needs to be better understood. In light of its analysis of the current state of the market, ARCEP considers that there is no need to strengthen the regulatory framework at this stage. The regular collection of information introduced by the Authority's decision of 29 March 2012 has produced its first results this summer 2012 and allows ARCEP to keep track of these trends, to analyse them and take action accordingly.
      [See related news about a recent decision given in the case of Orange-Cogent dispute over their peering agreement - "France Télécom may ask to be remunerated for opening additional capacity but it must clarify the commercial and billing relationship between its Internet access and Internet transit businesses" - here; Similar to the Comcast-Level3 case from two years ago (here). 

 ... It is now for Parliament and the Government to determine the follow-up to be given to this report.

See "Net Neutrality" - here.

PCRF Deployments [179]: Orange [Reunion + 15 African Locations] Implemented Volubill's PCRF

 
Volubill announced that Orange Reunion has ".. implemented Volubill’s solution for pre and post-paid data charging, including policy for new features such as anti-bill shock ..  Orange has implemented Volubill’s Business System (VBS) [here] designed to manage user experience and interactivity with access and data services in real-time"

"The implementation at Orange Reunion is just one of many in which Orange Group have utilized the expertise of Volubill .. policy and charging installations at 15 other locations including, Senegal, Central Africa, Cameroon [here], Tunisia [here], Botswana and the Ivory Coast".

 

Orange Group African Business

See "Orange Reunion Chooses Volubill for Policy and Charging" - here.

Latam MNOs to Implement Bill Shock Prevention by H1 2013

Following the voluntary agreements or regulation in the EU, US, Australia and Globally, Bill Shock Prevention and transparency comes to Latin America.

The GSMA announced that "..more than 40 Latin American mobile network operators (MNOs) have launched a data roaming transparency scheme in the region that will provide consumers with greater visibility of their roaming charges and usage of mobile data services when travelling within the region and abroad. The initiative is supported by operator groups including America Movil, Antel, Entel Chile, Millicom, Oi, Orange, Telecom Italia and Telefonica .. All national Latin American operations of the above listed MNO groups have agreed to implement these data roaming transparency measures starting now, with full completion by end of the first half of 2013".

See also "[iPass] 43% of Mobile Workers Experienced Bill Shock; Prefer Wi-Fi Over 3G" - here.

See "GSMA Latin America Launch Data Roaming Transparency Scheme" - here.

How do Polish MNOs Fight OTT?

   
There are many ways for MNOs to reduce the threat from OTT services (mainly in VoIP and messaging) and/or try to monetize from delivering it. One popular way is to charge for its use, other is to block it.

The leading MNOs in Poland came up with a third way.

James Middleton reports to telecoms.com that "Polish carriers Orange, T-Mobile and Polkomtel have banded together with local developers and academic institutions to create an ecosystem designed to address the growing competition posed by Over The Top (OTT) providers. The operators have deployed an open service layer within their core networks to accelerate deployment of innovative and low cost communication services with a healthy balance between cooperation and competition .. Telecoms software firm OpenCloud delivered the open standards-based service layer to the carriers and claims the model has given those involved a sharper competitive edge to attract developers".

".. Using OpenCloud’s Rhino platform, mobile operator Polkomtel / Plus has been able to take advantage of an extended community of developers to create and implement more than 25 services. These include Office Zone, Home Zone, VPN, Freephone, Split Charge, Premium Rate, Who Called/Notify ME, Voicemail in Roaming optimization....from multiple developers including IMPAQ and ATTR"

Jeff Gordon, CEO of OpenCloud, said "To counter the threat from OTT players, and boost their revenues, operators need innovation within the network and not just in device apps. However, delivering innovation in the core network has, historically, been an expensive and slow process” (case study available here).

Source: OpenCloud

See "Polish operators open core to combat OTT threat" - here.

Tekelec: Vodafone Netherlands/Spain Prioritize Some Business Subscribers Data

Tekelec's CTO, Doug Suriano (pictured), was interviewed to European Communications about the recent pricing models and plans used by operators.

The examples Doug used (are they all using Tekelec?):

• Shared data plans - Orange, Verizon
• Speed tiers - Swisscom  
• Time based - Smart, Philippines 
• QoS tiers - "Vodafone Netherlands and Vodafone Spain currently prioritise data traffic for some business subscribers, and we expect that practice to expand in Europe over the next year as well" (see "Vodafone Uses DPI and Policy Management to Improve QoE" - here) 
• Toll Free - where application providers cover some or all of the cost of a subscriber’s data usage for a particular application (see " AT&T CEO: 1-800 Data will "Catch Fire in the Next 12 Months" - here).

"New mobile data tariffs will need to provide more flexibility – that could mean contract length, devices, types of tiers (eg, speed or time instead of data volumes) and partnerships with OTT providers [here]. Essentially, it’s about operators understanding subscribers and developing new personalized tariffs based on their knowledge of users’ preferences and activities. An example is knowing which subscribers watch long-form video on tablets and being able to make an attractive offer tailored for them".

See "Q&A: Tekelec CTO Doug Suriano" - here.

OVUM: Shared Data Plans are "here to stay"; Require Management Tools

 
Nicole McCormick (pictured), Senior Analyst - Telco Strategy, Ovum covers the recent adaption of shared data plans by major MNOs.

"After a significant amount of discussion and hype, “bucket plans” are beginning to gain traction around the world. Bucket plans are a tariff structure where a monthly data allowance is shared between all of a user’s connected devices"

"Telefonica, Canadian operator Rogers Wireless, Hong Kong operator CSL [here], and Norway’s Telenor are just some of the growing number of operators that offer data bucket plans. These plans are typically aimed at the “connected person” who owns a smartphone, laptop, and tablet".

Related posts:

• Verizon Wireless Adds Shared Data Plans (1-10GB) - here
• [Gartner]: "CSPs should adopt these multidevice plans- here 

See also "Shared Mobile Data Plans Savings Opportunities at A Cost" (here) for more examples: Bell Mobility[Canada], Orange Mobistar and Proximus [Belgium], Vodafone and Telstra [Australia],Orange Austria and Vodafone Ireland.

 

Source: CSL/one2free 

Back to Ovum - "Bucket plans provide operators with significant cost savings as they do not have to acquire and manage two separate subscriptions for a single customer. A combined account also makes it far easier for operators to find out what a customer is using their device for and when. This information makes upsell opportunities clearer and easier to implement, and enables the possibility of providing the data to third-party applications and advertisers .. Unified plans increase customer stickiness, which results in lower churn".

 

"Operators will also have to ensure that bucket plan users are provided with adequate data monitoring tools to prevent excess usage charges if big-screen devices unknowingly consume a high proportion of the bucket. These should also provide a mechanism that enables customers to upgrade to a larger plan if required" (see also "Infonetics: Shared Data Plans - an Opportunity with OSS Needs" - here).

  

See "Data buckets arrive to cater for the “connected person” - here.

TM Forum's “Real-Time Charging for High Volume Mobile Data" Architecture to be Exposed

 
MATRIXX Software announces it will 'demonstrate a TM Forum Catalyst project at Management World 2012 to show how mobile broadband data traffic can be cost-effectively monetized .. The project, called “Real-Time Charging for High Volume Mobile Data" will demonstrate how high volumes of data traffic being driven by Smartphones and tablets can be profitably handled by Communications Service Providers (CSPs)"

".. The Catalyst project is championed by France Telecom-Orange and includes participants Capgemini, DigitalRoute and Vedicis .. Demonstrating a new reference architecture for integrated DPI, policy and online charging, the project offers new opportunities for carriers to reduce OPEX, monetize broadband with tiered services, and create interactive customer experiences".

According to the TM Forum project page (here) the project "demonstrates real time user feedback and policy enforcement on user mobile data consumption that integrates innovative solutions covering:

• Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) and Deep Packets Inspection (DPI) for user bandwidth control, usage metering and APPs classification
   
• Active mediation and Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) for portal integration, multi network and policy orchestration
    
• Online Charging System for customer and offer management

With the following Demonstration Scenarios:

• Scenario 1 – User once authenticated on the portal, accesses contents and follow his consumption in real time on the web portal or the Smartphone application.
   
• Scenario 2 – User is notified when his quota is over, he can purchase in real time data package, within the same session.

See "MATRIXX Software demonstrates mobile data Catalyst project at Management World 2012" - here.