Digicel: DPI is a Catalyst for VAS Revenues Increase

The Digicel Group (operating communication services in 31 countries to 13.6 million subscribers) has filed for an IPO recently with the SEC (here). The group is a Sandvine customer ("How does DigiCel Use Sandvine?" here and here) and explains in the F-1 form the benefits of DPI:

"Mobile Data and VAS

..VAS is an increasingly important portion of Digicel’s revenue, rising from 23.0% of its total mobile service revenue in the year ended March 31, 2013 to 31.2% in the year ended March 31, 2015 and 33.9% in the three months ended June 30, 2015. The increase in VAS has tracked an increase in availability of affordable smartphones, including Digicel-branded Android devices

.. An important catalyst for the increase in VAS has been Digicel’s innovative product and service offerings which include:

• Service-based packages: Digicel’s data offers have evolved from volume based pricing to charging by service. Digicel’s deep packet inspection platform allows it to price plans based on the specific service that subscribers are consuming as opposed to volume-based pricing.
  
  Digicel is able to offer subscribers data plans that provide access only to one particular site, such as Facebook or Instagram. This capability has allowed Digicel to launch new plans across markets with a range of data allowances along with access to particular websites.
  
  This makes Digicel’s plans more attractive to subscribers because they can more easily understand what they are getting, and it allows Digicel to differentiate its plans from competitors.
   
• Free access to Wikipedia [here]: Digicel allows all Digicel subscribers free access to this widely-known source of information on the Internet. Every time a subscriber accesses Wikipedia on the Digicel network, there is a small banner at the top of the page that tells the subscriber that access to the page is provided free of charge courtesy of Digicel.
  
  Digicel believes this is a strong marketing tool and it also benefits Digicel’s subscribers in terms of free access to this information. This represents an opportunity to illustrate to Digicel’s subscribers the value of the Internet by showcasing the type of services that subscribers can access with an Internet subscription and is designed to encourage Internet penetration.

Openwave: How Could MNOs Optimize Traffic in the Encryption Era?

According to Openwave Mobility "encrypted traffic travelling on many mobile networks has risen fivefold in just one year and has now reached 60% of all data. 

Based on current trends, encrypted traffic levels will exceed 80% within 12 months in several regions. This is now one of the biggest areas of concern for mobile network operators as sites such as Google, Facebook and Wikipedia use HTTPS encrypted protocols. 

The findings are based on observing and analyzing traffic trends at a number of mobile operator customers around the globe". 

Related post: "[ABI] Encryption Drives Mobile Optimization to a $40B Over 5 Year Market" - here.
 
"As networks go “dark”, carriers are unable to gain insight into the encrypted data travelling on their networks. Operators can struggle to optimize the traffic and this can seriously impact users’ Quality of Experience (QoE). Moreover, some operators are unable to apply filters to block content such as adult material or to identify video streams that could even be used for extreme purposes such as to radicalize vulnerable individuals"

John Giere [pictured], CEO, Openwave Mobility advice to MNOs: “Operators need to consider solutions that optimize the TCP/IP layer of their networks and apply smart heuristics to achieve optimization in the application layer too. There are solutions that can identify bandwidth-hungry objects, even when encrypted, and achieve 50% data savings on HD video, audio and apps. Best of all, they do not compromise subscriber privacy.” (see "Openwave Mobility: Federated SDM; Encrypted Traffic Optimization" - here)

See "Over 80% of Traffic on Mobile Networks will be Encrypted in 12 months" - here.

[Chile]: No Compromise on Net Neutrality

While the Net Neutrality on the US goes towards "Fast Lanes", Chile, the first countries to adopt a Net Neutrality law (see "Chile: First Country to Legislate Net Neutrality" - here) does not compromise on any aspect of Neutrality.

Leo Mirani reports to QUARTZ that "A surprising decision in Chile shows what happens when policies of neutrality are applied without nuance. This week, Santiago put an end to the practice, widespread in developing countries, of big companies “zero-rating” access to their services. As Quartz has reported, companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter and Wikipedia strike up deals with mobile operators around the world to offer a bare-bones version of their service without charging customers for the data"

Some examples of Zero rate programs:

• Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs - here
• Vodafone India Offers Free Twitter Access - here
• VimpelCom - Free Access to Wikipedia - here 

Back to Chile's choice - ".. But Chile’s Subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones has decided (Spanish) that such promotions violate net neutrality laws and must end in two days, on June 1.According to the law (Spanish), internet service providers must “not arbitrarily distinguish content, applications or services, based on the source or ownership thereof”.

See "When net neutrality backfires: Chile just killed free access to Wikipedia and Facebook" - here.

VimpelCom - Free Access to Wikipedia

Here is another use for Procera's DPI equipment at VimpelCom (here), which could (or should) be using the recently announced Content Intelligence solution (here) for deeper DPI on HTTP (here).

The group and the Wikimedia Foundation announced a "partnership to deliver free Wikipedia access to VimpelCom customers. Through Wikipedia Zero, VimpelCom’s mobile customers will have free access to the mobile version of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, along with a light-weight, text-only fast version of the site. Locally-relevant articles in local language versions of Wikipedia will be available along with the English version ..Wikipedia Zero will be rolled out in VimpelCom operations across the globe starting this year, with focus on emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa".

VimpelCom uses Procera's DPI equipment (here).

Mikhail Gerchuk (pictired), VimpelCom’s Group Chief Commercial and Strategy Officer, said: "The world’s sixth largest telecommunications company and fifth largest website globally are coming together to offer our customers a better mobile experience and greater access to free knowledge, particularly in emerging markets. This is a win-win partnership that helps us to promote the mobile internet to our customers while contributing to Wikipedia’s mission to bring free access to the entire world's knowledge”.

See "VimpelCom partners with Wikimedia Foundation to offer free mobile Wikipedia access through Wikipedia Zero" - here.