Zain [Jordan] Adds Procera's Analytics

Procera Networks announced an "..extension of the strategic partnership with Zain in Jordan. The leading provider for mobile services has been a Procera customer since 2012 deploying the company’s PacketLogic™ products to provide better quality of experience (QoE) for its subscribers. The relationship will now expand to include the analytics family of solutions to leverage the granular network analytics captured .. Zain is also deploying Procera’s enforcement solutions with online charging integration (Gy). It enables monetization of over the top services by restricting and enhancing access depending on subscription type".

Related post - "Zain Jordan CTO Lists Technologies Used to Ensure Capacity" - here.

  

Yousef Al-Mutawe, COO at Zain. said: “We have decided to continue our partnership with Procera through upgrading the current platform to the new version and adding on top of the data inspection tool the insights analytics solutions. Insights and its Customer Care tools will enrich the customer experience and engagement and will provide us with a wider view about our user’s behavior and deeper view about applications and user’s preferences.”

 

At the end of Q3, 2015 Zain Jordan had 4.1M subscribers (from population of 7.7M), During the first 9 months of 2015, Zain capex expenditures in Jordan were $40M, amounting to 12% of the revenues. 

See "Procera and Zain Deepen Innovation Partnership to Add Analytics and Enable New Monetization Strategies" - here.

Wi-Fi Deployments [356]: INWI [Morocco] Selected Aptilo and Smartcom

  

Aptilo Networks announced that "INWI, the third largest telecommunications operator in Morocco, has selected Aptilo Networks and Smartcom for a major upgrade to “Wifi7dak,” INWI’s public Wi-Fi service. The upgrade will increase bandwidth, support network expansion and add new payment functionalities.

INWI has deployed the Aptilo Service Management Platform™ (SMP) .. Mobile users can logon to the service using an app developed by Smartcom and available in the INWI online marketplace. The app offers the same functionality as a branded web portal (also available) while also providing INWI with valuable analytics and more granular control over the Wi-Fi service.

Alepo's Service Management Platform 

INWI is part of Zain Group, a leading mobile and data services operator with a commercial footprint in the Middle East and Africa"

INWI is also using Openet's PCRF (see "INWI [Morocco] Uses Openet for Monetization" - here)

See "INWI Taps Aptilo Networks and Smartcom for Carrier Wi-Fi" - here.

NI Deployments [344]: Zain [Saudi Arabia] to Use Astellia for Subscriber Intelligence

Astellia announced that "Zain KSA announced [here] the signing of a three years agreement with Astellia .. As part of the agreement, Astellia will support Zain launch a network based customer experience analysis program, aiming to strengthen customers’ satisfaction. The agreement comes as a new step in the transformation plan Zain KSA is undergoing since early 2014.

It’s worth mentioning that Zain KSA signed a network expansion and upgrade agreement worth 4.5 billion SAR (US $1.2 billion) with five leading global technology companies, as part of its transformation plan implemented by the executive management since early last year".

See "Zain KSA partners with Astellia to boost network performance" - here.

TM Deployments [309]: Zain [Saudi Arabia] Trials Nokia's Liquid Applications

Nokia announced that "Liquid Applications, a Nokia solution which enables innovative services and revolutionizes the mobile broadband customer experience, was successfully demonstrated by Zain KSA and Nokia in Saudi Arabia last week. The demonstration was first of its kind in the Middle East and Africa, and was carried out in Zain’s live network, powered by Nokia’s radio and core network elements. The demonstration showed improved throughput and more efficient transmission between the base station and core network".

"Liquid Applications, an industry first solution, brings superior services to mobile broadband customers. This is achieved by bringing applications, services and content into the base station to allow local storage, along with access to real-time radio and network information. This turns base stations into hubs for local service creation and delivery".

See also 'Rumors: NSN's Liquid Applications Uses Saguna's Technology" - here.

At the end of Q1, 2014, KSA had 8.4M active subscribers, the 3rd largest MNO in Saudi Arabia (17% market share). 94% werepre-paid customers and data revenues rose by 52% compared to the same quarters in 2013.

KSA has close to 6,000 network sites.

See "Zain KSA, Nokia run Liquid Applications on live network, a first for Middle East & Africa" - here.

NI Deployments [245]: Zain [Kuwait] Uses Astellia for E2E Performance Management

 
Astellia announced that it will "provide Zain, the leading telecommunications company in Kuwait, with increased network and traffic visibility to increase the quality experienced by their 2 million mobile subscribers. Astellia’s end-to-end monitoring solution will collect signaling and user plane data from the network core to the edge to detect any capacity bottlenecks, determine data usage and enable faster resolution of network and service issues before they impact the customer experience".

Related post - "Zain [Kuwait] Uses Redknee to Deliver Tiered Pricing" (here).

See "Astellia ties up with Zain Kuwait for E2E performance management of their multi technology network" - here.

CEM Deployments [231]: touch [Lebanon] Selected NSN INMS

Nokia Siemens Networks announced that "touch, the leading mobile telecommunications operator in Lebanon .. has selected Nokia Siemens Networks to implement its Integrated Network Management Solution (INMS) and related services. This solution, comprised of a set of solution blocks, will allow touch to cost efficiently improve its service operations to ensure the best service quality".

touch is a subsidiary of Zain. At the end of 2012, it had 2M active subscribers, 6.2% growth compared to the end of 2011.

"Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will implement its INMS including its NetAct network management system to enable consolidated configuration, monitoring and network optimization across the various technologies. The company’s Service Quality Manager (SQM) provides real-time service quality insight for touch. Nokia Siemens Networks will also deliver its consulting and care services for the operator".

See "touch to enhance customer experience with Nokia Siemens Networks" - 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.

Zain Jordan CTO Lists Technologies Used to Ensure Capacity

Zain Jordan is usually open to testify about the technologies it uses. I've covered several already (monitoring /Astellia - here; Bill Shock Prevention/Globitel - here).

  

Zain's CTO, Yousef Abu Mutawe (pictured), provided recently additional insights into the type of solutions they use. In an interview to Broadband MEA 2013 Mr. Abu Mutawe was asked - "In areas of high demand high contention ratios can affect performance. What steps have you put in to ensure that you have enough capacity to deal with this?"

"Using compression tools for data is useful on the access part, while caching engines help save on international bandwidth. We also have policies in place to throttle the connection of customers that might be abusing the service". 

See "CTO, Zain: 'Data growth is the biggest challenge in today’s telecom market'” - here.

NI Deployments [220]: Zain [Jordan] Deployed Astellia

 
Astellia announced today the ".. delivery of its 3G monitoring solution to Zain Jordan .. With Astellia’s high capacity Neptune probing system, Zain Jordan is able to identify the various applications and services being used by its subscribers and perform thorough QoE analysis and reporting. Furthermore, Astellia’s VIP Care solution helps Zain Jordan monitor and deliver the best user experience to their most valuable subscribers in order to reduce churn and grow revenue. It delivers actionable intelligence by correlating information including network, handset, voice and data service usage hereby allowing them to anticipate if an individual user is at risk of encountering any specific problem"

At the end of Q3, 2012, Zain Jordan had 3.3M active subscribers, a 20% increase compares to Q3, 2011 with 38% market share (see more on the chart below).

See "Astellia to increase its footprint within Zain Jordan" - here.

Bill Shock Deployments [186]: Zain [Jordan] Selected Globitel

  

Globitel announced that ".. Zain Jordan launched its Bill Shock Prevention Solution, which will enable Zain subscribers to control data roaming expenses .. With Globitel’s bill shock prevention solution, Zain subscribers receive spending alerts while roaming, and have the option to set usage thresholds to fit their spending targets".

At the end of Q2, 2012 Zain, the largest MNO in Jordan (38% market share), had 3.2M subscribers, 17.8% increase compared to Q2, 2011.

See "Zain Jordan Launches Globitel Bill Shock Prevention Solution" - here. 

Recent Trends in Policy Control [Part 2] (with examples)

 

This part is dedicated to a recent article by Graham Finnie (picture), Chief Analyst, Heavy Reading, covering "new pricing ideas I've been compiling in connection with Heavy Reading's research on policy management".

See "Mobile Data Packaging: A Policy-Driven Revolution?"  - here.

Graham lists the following cases:

• Movistar Colombia has created five mobile data packages, including one that offers only email, one just for IM, one for social networks – all at low price points.
   
  
• Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) has built a "prayer time" offer, enabling subscribers to block access to the Internet, or to specific IP-based applications (video, chat, voice, gaming, etc.) during prayer times.
   
  
• Poland's Play increased bandwidth, removed volume limits and removed restrictions on P2P traffic between midnight and 9 a.m.
   
  
• Russia's MegaFon [See "MegaFon Deployed Cisco ASR-5000 for Service Personalization" - here] offers unlimited access to some URLs, event-based charging and varying speeds based on protocol and usage profile.
   
  
• In Kuwait, Zain Group (see "Zain Kuwait Prepares for Fair Use Policy" -  here) offers two contrasting prepaid data packages -- one for customers on limited budgets with a low connection speed, and one for those who are mainly looking for occasional high-speed access.
   
  
• In Sweden, 3 Group (See "3 Scandinavia Deploys Procera New 30G DPI Appliance" - here) offers a variety of on-the-fly promotions, including QoS uplift for loyalty and periodic free boosts in data speed.
   
  
• Multiple operators now offer unlimited access to Facebook and other social networking sites within volume-delimited services ; Multiple operators waive data volume metering in off-peak periods, e.g. at night ; Some operators offer "shared wallet" services, in which allocations are shared across different devices or family members, for example ; One operator lets customers choose five Internet sites or URLs and get unlimited access to them.

Zain Kuwait Prepares for Fair Use Policy

 

A year ago Zain Kuwait reported "500% Increase in Mobile Data in 6 Months" (here) and now the mobile operators is preparing for fair use and personallized services. According to a press release issued by Nokia Siemens Networks today - "The operator has unified its customer data that was previously distributed across the network into a single database based on Nokia Siemens Networks’ One-NDS platform. The deployment promises better insights into customer preferences, savings in capital and operating costs, and up to a six-month reduction in time to launch new services".

Zain Kuwait has 1.9M active subscribers (September 30, 2010).

Fahad Al-Ali, network director, Zain Kuwait said: “A rapid increase in traffic necessitated a better understanding of customer behavior .. we are equipped to accurately predict usage and capacity requirements, and offer new services such as fair use policy and tailored marketing services”.

See "Zain Kuwait customers to get full impact of individual communications experience" - here.

Policy/QoS Deployments (23): Zain [Kuwait] Uses Redknee to Deliver Tiered Pricing

 

6 months ago we heard that "Zain Kuwait experienced 500% Increase in Mobile Data in 6 Months" (here) and now we see what they decided to do - by  "Leveraging Redknee’s data rating, charging and policy platform, NGRC, Zain Kuwait is launching innovative mobile broadband services whilst effectively managing its broadband resources by tracking customer usage in real-time and delivering tiered pricing packages"

See "Zain Kuwait Launches New Mobile Broadband Services with Redknee" - here.

Zain Kuwait is part of the Zain group, operating in 7 countries in the Middle East and serving over 34.2 million active customers (Q2 2010 report). In Kuwait they have 46% market share, using 1,692 sites. It has ~2.1M subscribers (6% of the group), but generates 26% of the group’s revenues.

Zain Kuwait will be using Redknee's software for its new service: e-GO eeZee (here), offering several pre-paid plans ("Super" and "Standard"), each with a number of time and volume limits options.

Khalid Al Omar, Zain Kuwait’s CEO, commented: “.. By launching new flexible, tiered pricing plans, we are able to bring the benefits of mobile broadband in a manner that is attractive to new markets segments, such as the cost-conscious and light-usage customers, as we continue to concentrate on driving data revenue.”

Zain Kuwait – 500% Increase in Mobile Data in 6 Months

Statements on the growth of mobile data usage continue. After AT&T (“Overall, wireless data traffic on the AT&T network has grown more than 5,000% over the past three years” - here ) we see now it is a world-wide phenomena, this time from Kuwait.

In an interview to ITP.net (here), Zain Kuwait's CEO, Mr. Khalid Al-Hajeri says:

•  “Mobile broadband usage among Zain Kuwait's subscribers rocketed by 500% during the second half of last year“
   
• "Whether they are $10 average revenue per user (ARPU) or $100 ARPU, they all want to have the internet “.