Accolade Launches Low Cost 100 GE NIC for DPI

Accolade Technology announced the "ANIC-100K, an intelligent, low-cost single port 100 GigE NIC for host offload and Deep Packet Inspection. 

The ANIC-100K captures network traffic at full line rate (100 Gbps) and performs advanced acceleration functions such as deduplication, flow classification, de-tunneling, load balancing and more.

The ANIC-100K features a unique architecture based on a

Airtel wont Surcharge VoIP; TRAI: "not in accordance with net neutrality, it was not illegal."

This time it took just few days for an MNO to drop its intentions to surcharge VoIP.

While Airtel said that "current VoIP model is not sustainable" the public reaction, as well as some government actions convinced it to drop the idea.

Reuters reports that "Bharti Airtel Ltd dropped a plan on Monday to charge clients extra for Internet communication services such as Skype, amid a debate on

"The Interview" Downloads: Sony Vs. Torrent

While "The Interview" had modest distribution and revenues in movie theaters, it gained nice on line traction, mainly in the legitimate (paid) rental and purchase - but also in file sharing:

Liana B. Baker report for Reuters that "Sony Pictures said on Sunday that the "The Interview" had been purchased or rented online more than 2 million times, generating more than $15 million in the first

Sky [UK]: Streaming Viedo Drives Christmas 2014 Peak Traffic to Double

Sky Broadband announced that " Britain’s “connected Christmas” continued in 2014 after it analysed usage on its network, which reaches over 5 million homes across the country. The amount of data crossing Sky’s network peaked at 2Tbps – equivalent to about 1 million families streaming Disney’s Frozen in HD at the same time – and 100% up on last year. 




On Christmas Day over half of Internet

Airtel: "current VoIP model is not sustainable"

The story of Airtel (and other Indian MNOs) plan to surcharge VoIP services (see "Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic" - here) develops in two directions, as reported by FirstPost: 

As happened in other countries after such intention had been stated (Singapore, Netherlands), the Indian regulator "will look into Airtel’s plan to charge separately for Internet call services (VoIP) offered by

New ZTE Patent: Policy Control Method And System For Converged Network

 
A new patent, by Tong Rui, Xiaoyun Zhou, Xiaoyun Zhou from ZTE was published.

Abstract:

A policy control method for a converged network comprises: in a roaming scenario, after learning that a user equipment (UE) accesses a mobile network through a wireless local area network (WLAN) access, a visited policy and charging rules function (V-PCRF) establishing a subsession serving WLAN Offload

Indian MNOs to Surcharge VoIP Traffic

While Airtel subscribers may enjoy free accesss to Facebook and Google (here and here), the Leading Indian MNO is going to surcharge VoIP services, a common step in the fight against OTT services.

In other countries, such a move led to tight Net Neutrality laws (Singapore, Netherlands).

Telecom Lead reports that "Indian telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has increased VoIP call charges to

[Blog News]: Diameter Router List Updated

The Diameter Router Product list (here) has been updated.

The update includes broken links fixes and the addition of BroadFoward's product, BFX Interface Gateway, which was covered recently [here].

NI Deployments [333]: Aircel [India] Uses Astellia (Multi-$M Deal)

Astellia announced the "..signing of a multi-million dollar agreement with Aircel, one of India's leading innovative mobile services providers with a subscriber base of over 75 million. Astellia has deployed its Nova suite for the optimization of Aircel's 2G and 3G radio access and core network resources. It allows Aircel to detect impediments that may cause network quality degradations and take

[Infonetics]: "Despite the rise of mobile data, blended ARPU continues to fall"

A recent report by Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics, Infonetics Research (the first after being acquired by IHS - here - Congratulations to J'Amy, Shira and the team!) finds that:




"Worldwide mobile service revenue barely budged in the first half of 2014 (1H14), up just 0.5% from the same period a year ago, to $385.5 billion .. For the first

Mobilink Pakistan Get Free Twitter Data

Yet another "sponsored-Data" application for 38M+ subscribers of the Pakistani MNO, Mobilink. 

This time it is Twitter. which according to Alexa's stats is rated as the 15th largest site in Pakistan.

This follows earlier agreements with Nimbuzz [here] and Viber [here], both OTT chat services.


The operators announced that "Mobilink has entered into a partnership with Twitter making Mobilink

Mobile Edge Computing Group Formed

The ETSI organization announced recently that "The first meeting of ETSI’s newly created Mobile-Edge Computing (MEC) Industry Specification Group (ISG) took place on 2-4 December 2014, hosted by Nokia Networks in Munich. 

The group has attracted 24 member and participant  organizations [here], including network operators, vendors, technology suppliers and Content Delivery Network (CDN)

DSC Deployments[332]: Teleena [Netherlands] Uses BroadForward

  
Teleena announced it has "..become the first European MVNE (operates over 20 brands for customers like Vodafone, BT and Liberty Global) to go live with a Next Generation Diameter Signaling Controller (DSC). BroadForward’s BFX Interface Gateway enables multiple use cases for Teleena including Diameter routing, load-balancing, mediation and 3G-4G interworking for LTE roaming ..  It facilitates

SON Deployments [331]: Vodafone Hutchison [Australia] Uses Amdocs

Amdocs announced that "..Vodafone Hutchison Australia has deployed Amdocs Self-Optimizing Networks (SON) solution [see "Amdocs Acquires Celcite for $129M; 2014 Expected Revenues (w/Actix):$68-103M" - here and "Amdocs Positions Actix/Celcite as its SON Solution" - here] to help with the program to improve its 4G coverage and customer experience across Australia. The solution helps Vodafone to

[ABI]: Sandvine, Allot and Citrix Lead the Independent $600M DPI Market

A new report by Joe Hoffman [pictured], Practice Director, ABI Research evaluates the "independent vendors delivering Deep Packet Inspection, Traffic Steering, and Policy Control in the Gi-LAN space, and finds Sandvine as best of breed, followed by Allot and Citrix ByteMobile

... This research covers the leading independent vendors, Allot, Citrix ByteMobile, F5 Networks, Ipoque, Sandvine, and

Procera: Multi $M Order for 100 GE DPI Platforms

Procera PL 20000

The migration to 100 GE links on DPI gear continues, with announcements by the leading vendors (see "Sandvine: $5M Repeated Order for the 100GE Platform by US MSO" - here, "Allot: 2 Orders, $5M" - here and "Multi-Million$ DPI Win for Procera in Europe (w/100G)" - here).


Procera Networks announced more 100GE orders for "Several-million dollars". The vendor has ".. received

ConteXtream Adds OpenDaylight-based, Carrier-Grade SDN Fabric for NFV

ConteXtream announced the launch of "ContexNet 4.0, the first commercially-available OpenDaylight-based, carrier-grade software-defined networking (SDN) fabric for network functions virtualization (NFV).

Taking advantage of OpenDaylight, OpenStack, OpenFlow and other industry standards, ContexNet 4.0 provides unsurpassed scale, supporting millions of subscribers with customized service profiles

[Ovum]: CSPs CapEx for 2014: $364B; Flat in 2015

A new report by Matt Walker [pictured], Principal Analyst, Ovum, finds that "Revenue growth rates for communications service providers (CSPs) remain modest, but CSPs will continue to invest heavily in their networks .. With global CSP capital expenditures (capex) forecasted to total more than US$2tn from 2014–19, the global analyst firm warns CSPs must continue to do less with more, leveraging

Netflix to the FCC: "Open Connect is not a fast lane"

Earlier this month, FCC Commissioner, Ajit Pai [pictured], sent a letter (here) to Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, saying that Netflix "..has been working to effectively secure "fast Lames" for its own content on ISPs' networks at the expense of its competitors".

The claim refers to Netflix' CDN service, Open Connect (see "How does Netflix Manage Video Delivery?" - here) and may have to do with

Cache Deployments [330]: CallPlus Brands [New Zealand] Uses Qwilt

Qwilt, announced it will ".. power the online video traffic delivered by leading New Zealand telcos Slingshot and Orcon. Qwilt’s Video Fabric Controller will be used by Slingshot and Orcon, both owned by New Zealand fixed line, voice, mobile and internet company, CallPlus, to cache and deliver online video traffic from a growing number of content providers, including Amazon, Apple, Hulu, Netflix

Devicescape: Integrated Wi-Fi/Cellular Service Increases Consumption

Devicescape shared ",, new data demonstrating that consumer consumption of cellular data grows significantly for the majority of users following the introduction of an integrated Wi-Fi and cellular service. Figures from commercial deployments of Devicescape’s ABC (Always Best Connected) solution revealed a 17% increase in billable monthly cellular data use from 64% of end users.

Qwilt Launched a Mobile Core and Edge Video Open Cache Solution

Qwilt unveiled the ".. Qwilt Mobile Video Fabric, purpose built to address the unique challenges of over-the-top (OTT) video delivery for mobile service providers. Qwilt Mobile Video Fabric is a new software defined networking (SDN)-based open caching and acceleration suite, allowing mobile operators to improve the performance of their network while maximizing their current infrastructure

Elisa (Finland) and Ooredoo (Qatar) Test Nokia's Centralized RAN for Faster Uploads

Nokia Networks announced the use of its Centralized RAN with two operators. "Centralized RAN reduces interference between neighboring cells and allows up to 10 times faster uploads at the cell edge. Battery life of smart devices last longer as they don’t need to transmit at high power to cut through the interference .. Nokia Centralized RAN technology is built on the company’s Flexi Multiradio

Allot: Security VAS Solutions Sold to 5 Carriers

Allot Communications announced it has "..received five orders for Allot ServiceProtector, a solution that provides protection against massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, prevention of outbound spam, and containment and cleanup of infected botnet hosts .. In response to growing cyber threats, five Tier-1 operators have selected Allot ServiceProtector to deliver and monetize

Germany: Chancellor Merkel Supports Fast Lanes for "New Uses" of the Internet

In the series "World leaders views on Net Neutrality", the next episode comes from Germany's Chancellor, Ms. Angela Merkel,



[See President Obama's position - "What's Next for Net Neutrality?" - here]

Adam Westlake reports to Slashgear that "German leader Angela Merkel made comments earlier in the week on the topic of net neutrality .. Merkel's position is in favor of a two-tier internet,

Allot @Verizon: 26 Locations

Recently I quoted an Infonetics Research survey, which states that "Respondents reported either buying or being likely to buy subscriber intelligence solutions from traditional analytics vendors, though nearly half indicated they were likely to buy from DPI (deep packet inspection) vendors". 

It seems that the survey's results are not just forward looking, but is already a reality, with one of

[Pyramid]: Trends in Mobile Data Services Driving $600B Revenues by 2018

A new report by Ozgur Aytar [pictured], Research Director, Pyramid Research finds that " .. the transformation of the mobile operator business model is evident in data pricing schemes that are innovative and disruptive in an ever-competitive market landscape worldwide:


Competitive pressures call for operators to take a dynamic approach to tariff plans, whereby they constantly revise pricing

[Infonetics Survey]: 50% of Operators will Buy Subscriber Analytics from DPI Vendors

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its 2014 Subscriber Intelligence Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, with the following findings: 

“As [operators] look for ways to better monetize their customer base and differentiate against new competitors, we’re seeing interest in a wider range of

ALU Adds NFV-Based Malware Protection Solution

Alcatel-Lucent announced that "Motive is to introduce the Motive Security Guardian (powered by Motive Security Labs, formerly Kindsight Security Labs), a virtualized security solution to optimize both the delivery of services as well as the customer experience by protecting service provider’s networks, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, and mobile and home devices from malware that can

Sandvine: $5M Repeated Order for the 100GE Platform by US MSO

Sandvine PTS 32000

Sandvine announced that it has ".. received an expansion order for more than $5 million for its Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) 32000 hardware [see "Sandvine Adds a 200Gbps/2RU Appliance w/100GE Interfaces" - here] from a tier-1 North American cable operator. 

The order was received in Sandvine’s fourth quarter of 2014 and the company anticipates that shipment will begin in

M-LAB Blames Transit Carriers for ISPs Service Performance Degradation

A new report by M-Lab concludes that "we observed sustained performance degradation experienced by customers of Access ISPs AT&T, Comcast, Centurylink, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon when their traffic passed over interconnections with Transit ISPs Cogent Communications, Level 3 Communications, and XO Communications. In a large number of cases we observed similar patterns of performance

Aterlo's CEO: "The idea is to charge a monthly subscription fee"

Following my post on Aterlo Networks  ("Ex-Sandvine Team NightShifts Netflix for Satellite Subscribers" - here) earlier this week, I had a short Q&A session with Gerrit Nagelhout, Atelo's CEO [pictured]. The first thing I learned is that Gerrit spent several years at Sandvine's R&D center in Israel (here), but more-importantly - much more on Aterlo's plans.



Gerrit started with the

[Analysys Mason]: S/W Professional Services Boosted due to OSS/BSS Transformations

A new report by Shanthi Ravindran, Senior Analyst, Glen Ragoonanan, Principal Analyst, and Gorkem Yigit, Research Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The worldwide market for telecoms software professional services (TSPS) was USD53.75 billion in 2013. 


The top-six suppliers (unchanged since 2011) accounted for 36.5% of the USD53.75 billion market in 2013  
Many communications service providers

Global Pressure on Net Neutrality

The endless delays in making the Net Neutrality laws in different, generated a new coalition - the "Global Net Neutrality Coalition". With 37 organizations from 19 countries, the coalition defines that "Net neutrality requires that the Internet be maintained as an open platform, on which network providers treat all content, applications and services equally, without discrimination". 
"This

Artesyn Enables Vantrix' Video Optimization; "Single Server Replaces 40"

Artesyn Embedded Technologies announced it is "demonstrating a new video transcoding and media processing platform developed in collaboration with Vantrix to enable broadcast and communications service providers to deliver significantly more multiscreen content to users at a fraction of the cost.


  

The integrated Artesyn SharpStreamer™ hardware [see "Artesyn Announced High-density Video

[Infonetics]: Reaffirms DPI Market CAGR: 22% ('13'-'18); Driven by LTE

Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research, published additional excerpts from its latest DPI report (see April's release - "[Infonetics]: "net neutrality is now less of an issue in the U.S" for the DPI Market" - here):

The path that network functions virtualization (NFV) will take remains a bit uncertain as standards crystallize and

[Blog News]: PCRF-DPI Matrix Updated

The PCRF-DPI matrix (here) has been updated. The update includes:


CSG International  PCRF product is now the former Volubill product (see "CSG Acquires Volubill's Assets" - here) 
Sandvine has recently re-branded its PCRF product (here) and published more information on the product (see figure below and "Sandvine Will Compete on PCRF Projects" - here) 
Removal of several vendors that no longer

T-Mobile US: Speed Tests Look too Good ?

It turns our that T-Mobile spent some efforts in service management facilities to detect when a customer accesses speed tests sites, so a speed limit (for customers exceeding their data plan cap) could be temporary removed, and "non-accurate" performance information would be shown!

The Federal Communications Commission announced that T-Mobile US has ".. agreed to take steps to ensure that

Huawei Enables SkyFire's Optimizer as a Cloud Service

Opera Software's Skyfire today announced a ".. strategic partnership with Huawei in which Skyfire’s Rocket Optimizer platform will be made available to mobile operators in Huawei’s Cloud Edge Virtual Multi-Service Engine (vMSE - see "Huawei Unveils Cloud Edge Solution for Breakthrough Services Agility with NFV" - here).
 

.. Over-the-top video and audio optimization represents a significant

Ex-Sandvine Team NightShifts Netflix for Satellite Subscribers

A recent study from Sandvine (here) finds that "Netflix continues to dominate North American networks, accounting for 34.9% of downstream traffic in the peak evening hours" and even "On a fixed network in Australasia, where Netflix isn’t even available yet, approximately 2.5% of subscribers are accessing the service and it comprises as much as 4% of peak downstream traffic".

So everybody loves

Newfield Wireless & Tektronix Deploy a Joint RAN Intelligence and Monitoring

A year after Newfiled Wireless was acquired by Tektronix Communications [here], the two announced a first joint deployment:


".. the combined company has completed its first successful deployment of an integrated radio access solution at a top-tier mobile network operator. The deployed solution combines the valuable benefits of Newfield’s RAN geoanalytics platform, TrueCall®, with Tektronix

Ericsson Forecast: Video will be 55% of Mobile Data in 2020

Ericsson published a new revision of its Mobility Report (here). Among the findings:

Video: largest and fastest growing segment of mobile data traffic - Video continues to dominate mobile networks: in 4G-dominated networks it currently constitutes 45-55 percent of mobile traffic, driven largely by increased usage of video streaming and improvements in the mobile video experience .. In terms of

Norway Regulator Argues Against Zero-Rate Service

The Norwegian regulator, NPT, published its position on Zero Rate services, in view of the Norwegian Net Neutrality guidelines.

Frode Sørensen [pictured], Senior Advisor, analysis is as follows:


"Norway has had guidelines on net neutrality since 2009 [here], and these seem to be working well as a regulatory tool to preserve net neutrality for the citizens .. the goal of net neutrality is not

Optimization Deployments [329]: LG U+[Korea] Tests Nokia's Base Station Cache and Video Optimization

Nokia announced that "LG Uplus has completed a three-month long trial of its Intelligent Network Platform (INP), realizing significant benefits: Up to 35% performance gain in content delivery with reduced latency for big objects of 10-30 MB. This means that mobile users save six seconds download time for a software package that usually takes 20 seconds to download. The trial also showed around

Procera Adds a 120Gbps, 2RU Model

Procera's PL-9420

Procera Networks adds a new family of mid-range DPI devices, the PL9000, series that complements the PL7000  and PL8000 (see "Procera New DPI Platform - 70 Gbps, 3M Subscribers, 20M Flows in 2RU" - here).



The vendor announced the launch of  the ".. PacketLogic 9420  Delivering throughput of 120Gbps and supporting up to three million subscribers on a single platform ..

EE: The Cost of Managing P2P

My friend Jonathon Gordon, Directing Analyst - Telecoms, Expert Market Insight shared his impressions from the Broadband Traffic Management event, held last week at Barcelona.

An interesting observation comes from the presentation of Shan Eisenberg [pictured], Head of Home Propositions and Pricing, EE [UK], While many think that P2P file sharing traffic is no longer a major traffic management

Mahindra Comviva to Use Radisys ATCA Platform for PCEF/PCRF/MIG in Tier1 Project

Radisys
T-40

Radisys Corporation announced that Mahindra Comviva has selected "Radisys’ T-40 Series Ultra Platform to deliver its Mobile Data Platform (MDP), consisting of Policy Control Enforcement Function (PCEF), Policy Charging & Rules Function (PCRF) and Mobile Internet Gateway (MIG), for its customer, a Tier1 Middle Eastern service provider .. Mahindra Comviva will roll out the T-40

UK: 4G vs. 3G QoE Tested

Ofcom published its first research into "..consumers' experience of mobile broadband in the UK since the 4G auction in 2013. The research measured the performance of 4G and 3G services on smartphones from the four main mobile operators - EE, O2, Three and Vodafone - in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Manchester". 




Using smartphones, some 210,000 tests of 4G and 3G mobile broadband

Winners of BBTM Awards 2014: NetCracker (x2), Huawei, Avvasi, Sandvine, Skyfire

The Broadband Traffic Congress 2014 awards, shown with relevant links to recent posts in my blog (see also 2011, 2012 and 2013 awards):

Best Big Data Solution for Improving Customer Experience: NetCracker ‘Big Data solution’
 
Most Innovative Tool for Driving Real-Time Intelligence: Huawei ‘Real Time Decision Center’ - see "Huawei: Over 3B Subscribers Served by Our SDM" - here
 .
Best

Procera Q3: Revenues from US MSO "decreased dramatically"; 37% Customer

I am a bit late with the coverage of Procera's Q3 results (see "Procera Networks Announces Third Quarter 2014 Financial Results" - here and "Procera: Q3 Revenues Decline by 25% Y/Y" - here), but I thought some of the comments made during the earning call and SEC filling (here) still worth a post:

From a high level perspective we’re seeing consolidation activity in the U.S. MSO market altering

[Report] Video and Data Optimization Can Gain $28B for MNO in 5 Years

A new report by ABI Research, commissioned by Opera Software’s Skyfire unit, finds that "Mobile operators globally can benefit from a net gain of at least $28.7 billion over five years by deploying mobile video and data optimization technology in their networks.Key findings, based on a conservative assumption that if just one in three operators deploys video and data optimization technology,

What's Next for Net Neutrality?

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler

It is a mess. While the DPI market waits for the Net Neutrality rules, whatever they would be, (see "Allot: US Sales Waits for Net Neutrality" - here) it seems that the FCC decision will be delayed.

The 2nd generation of the FCC Net Neutrality rules should have provided the clearness for "Fast Lanes" (see "FCC: The New Net Neutrality is 'Hybrid'" - here), making the

Advantech Launches 100GE ATCA Switch Blade

Advantech announced the "ATCA-9223, a 100GbE AdvancedTCA hub blade based on the high capacity Broadcom BCM56852 StrataXGS® Trident II and BCM56150 switches. This scalable feature-rich hub blade switches traffic between two external 100GbE CFP2 ports, up to eighteen external 10GbE SFP+ ports and twelve 40G node slots on an ATCA backplane. The combined switching capacity of the Broadcom devices

Allot: US Sales Waits for Net Neutrality

Last week Allot Communications and Procera Networks published their Q3 results. As Procera's results were known already (see "Procera: Q3 Revenues Decline by 25% Y/Y" - here)  Allot's had very good results (see "Allot Communications Reports Non-GAAP 25% Revenue Growth for Q3 2014" - here), getting very close to Sandvine for the forst 3 quarters of 2014 ($86.6M vs. $89.1M).








During the Q3

Allot: 2 Orders, $5M

Allot Communications announced that it has ".. secured two orders totaling $5M: 



Allot's ServiceGateway Tera


The first order comes from a new customer. This Tier-1 operator ordered the Allot Service Gateway Tera with 100GE interfaces and capacity. The operator will be using Allot Service Gateway Tera’s extreme scalability to handle very high traffic loads and manage growing subscriber

Swiss ISPs Agreed on Self-Regulated Net Neutrality W/Traffic Management

    
Swisscom announced that "Swiss ICT companies act to dispel uncertainties about net neutrality. Swisscom, Sunrise, upc cablecom, Orange and the cable network companies' association Swisscable have formulated a code of conduct on net neutrality. Standing up together for an open Internet, they are also establishing an ombudsman's office which will engage independent experts.





The five

Procera Adds Video Analytics

Procera Networks adds another piece to its line of Network Intelligence solutions (following its RAN analytics solution - here).



The vendor announced the "..launch of Video Perspectives, a video analytics solution for network operators that delivers comprehensive video intelligence and actionable analytics .. With Video Perspectives, broadband operators have a complete view of the video being

PeerApp Doubles Capacity

PeerApp announced a "new software release that doubles the traffic handling capacity, while keeping the same footprint of the award-winning UltraBand® product line. The Company is also introducing new mid-range products, creating the broadest product range in the industry scaling from under 1 Gbps traffic handling capacity through to 150 Gbps in a single system for Tier 1 needs.



See "

Optimization Deployments[328]: Etisalat [Egypt] Uses JDSU's ariesoGEO

JDSU announced that "Etisalat Egypt has deployed its ariesoGEO solution to enhance service quality and optimization for postpaid customers. JDSU’s geolocation services will enable Etisalat to focus performance engineering investment and resources on strategic locations for its high value customers".

Related post - "JDSU Acquires Arieso for $85M to Increase Visibility to the RAN" - here.
"

Sandvine: $8M, 20 PTS 32,000, 3 Tier-1 Customers

Sandvine announced that it has "received $8 million in orders from three tier-1 operators. The orders reflect demand for various versions of Sandvine's Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) platform, including more than 20 next generation 100GE PTS 32000s, as well as a variety of software licenses.

Highlighting the global demand for the PTS 32000 platform [see "Sandvine Adds a 200Gbps/2RU appliance" - 

[Infonetics]: What are the Key Use cases for DSC?

A new white paper by Diane Myers [pictured], principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research, "examines the key Diameter use cases operators need to consider when planning for IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)".

“The growth of IMS around voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployments brings new challenges and opportunities related to Diameter and, ultimately, Diameter signaling controllers. When

[ABI]: New Video Delivery Technologies

A new report by Sam Rosen [pictured], Practice Director, ABI Research finds that video delivery technology has to be adapted to be able to meet demand and quality.

"A few trailblazers are working on disruptive innovations. Areas such as the inability of TCP delivery to keep up with high throughput demands, the lack of perceptual tools in modern codecs, as well as the inefficiency of storage

[Guest Post] Standardizing Service Chaining Models for Next-generation Service Provider Architectures

By Nicolas Bouthors*, Distinguished Technologist, Qosmos

With intense competition in the communications industry, service providers are looking for ways to offer new services faster and more cost-effectively. Dynamic service chaining allows you to do just that. With application-aware service chaining, you can quickly and efficiently create and deliver new, composite services by routing network

FTC Sues AT&T for Shaping Unlimited Subscribers

Do you remember this move by AT&T, back in 2011 -  "AT&T to Throttle Top 5% of Unlimited Subscribers" - here?

Here comes the consumer response.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that  it has "..filed a federal court complaint against AT&T Mobility, LLC, charging that the company has misled millions of its smartphone customers by charging them for “unlimited” data plans while

FCC: The New Net Neutrality is "Hybrid"

 
After years of failing to established a consumer oriented Net Neutrality, the FCC has a new scheme, recognizing that an Internet connection has two, non-equal, sides - the consumer and the content provider.



Edward Wtatt reports to the New York Times that "The proposal is part of a hybrid solution that has gained favor among theF.C.C. staff over the last two months. Like other possible

Monday's Guest Post: Dynamic Service Chaining Standardization

A new guest post will be published on Monday - "Standardizing Service Chaining Models for Next-generation Service Provider Architectures" by my 35th guest, Nicolas Bouthors"With intense competition in the communications industry, service providers are looking for ways to offer new services faster and more cost-effectively. Dynamic service chaining allows you to do just that. Three industry

F5 Business Update: 40 DSC Deployments

Some quotes from the recent F5 Q4 F2014 earning call, by Andy Reinland, CFO and John McAdam [pictured], CEO (retiring in a year):


we continue to win large deals in service providers with both our traditional traffic-steering solutions and telco-specific offerings such as Policy Enforcement Manager, CGNAT, and Traffix Diameter products 

We have also made significant progress with our Traffix

DPI Deployments [327]: SpeedConnect [US] Uses Sandvine's Virtual DPI

Sandvine announced that "SpeedConnect, a Michigan-based operator of fixed and mobile wireless Internet access services has purchased solutions from Sandvine’s Virtual Series .. SpeedConnect purchased multiple instances of Sandvine’s Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) Virtual Series, which will be used to manage traffic for an improved subscriber quality of experience"

Related posts:

Sandvine CEO;

DSC Deployments [326]: NTT DOCOMO Uses Oracle Virtualized DSR for LTE Roaming

Oracle announced that NTT DOCOMO has ".. implemented Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router to support roaming for its mobile customers. Oracle Communications Diameter Signaling Router enables NTT DOCOMO to accelerate the launch of new, advanced mobile services that leverage an LTE infrastructure. The CSP can now support roaming on LTE bands to ensure subscribers have access to the same

BroadForward Enables MVNO to Upgrade to LTE with Old Generation HLR

BroadForward announced that Voiceworks [MVNO, Netherlands] has "extended the use of the BFX Interface Gateway to support integration with KPN’s 4G network. Like for Voiceworks and hundreds of other operators and MVNO’s worldwide, it used to be impossible to connect to 4G/LTE networks with existing, older generation HLR’s (pre 3GPP release 8). This limitation is now removed with the latest

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".

Verizon Injects HTTP Header for Advertising

A post by Jonathan Mayer [pictured], a computer scientist and lawyer at Stanford analyzes the recent HTTP header insertion by Verizon (apparently used for behavioral advertising):

"After poring over Verizon’s related patents and marketing materials, here’s my rough understanding of how the header works [see chart below] .. In short, Verizon is packaging and selling subscriber information,

StarHub Trialed Nokia's Liquid Applications at WTA Finals

Nokia announced that StarHub [Singapore] has trialed ".. implementation of Nokia’s Liquid Applications solution at its 4G mobile base stations within the Indoor Stadium at Singapore Sports Hub, bringing ‘live’ sports action closer to spectators. For the trial conducted on 21 October 2014, four ‘live’ video feeds of the Rising Stars Finals played at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented

Ericsson SSR 8000 Contracts Follow-up, Q3 2014

In its Q3 report, Ericsson provides their standard update on the number of SSR 8000 deployments: "The momentum for the multi-application IP router, SSR 8000, continued with 134 contracts signed since the launch in December 2011. During the quarter, 14 new contracts were signed of which 6 were for fixed networks".





See "Third quarter report 2014" - here.

[Juniper Research]: How will MNOs Revenues Recover?

A new report by Dr. Holden Windsor [pictured], Head of Consultancy & Forecasting, Juniper Research, finds that "..voice and messaging traffic lost to OTT (Over The Top) players such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype will cost network operators $14 billion in revenues globally this year, up by 26% on 2013 ..in a number of markets, including Italy, Spain and the UK, operator mobile voice revenues

PCC Deployments [325]: Oi [Brazil] Trialed Renkee Virtualized Solution During 2014 FIFA World Cup

Redknee Solutions announced that Oi has "..successfully trialed Redknee’s suite of virtualized billing, charging and policy management solutions to drive roaming subscriptions and to ensure high quality wireless connectivity for those attending one of the largest sporting events in the world, the 2014 FIFA World Cup. With Redknee’s highly flexible and scalable solution, Oi was able to better

Nokia's Software Cuts Signaling by 80%

 
Nokia Networks announced that it has "..conducted the first live network trial of a software feature that improves smartphone performance on 3G networks. Nokia High Speed Cell FACH* cuts smartphone-generated network signaling by up to 80%, boosts response time by up to 65% and achieves up to 20% faster browsing. Up to 40% power savings, contributing to longer smartphone battery life for

Akamai and Juniper Demo NFV/SDN Based CDN

Akamai Technologies and Juniper Networks demonstrated an "..Elastic Content Delivery Network (CDN) system designed to enable network operators to address network scalability challenges driven by the rapid increase in video traffic. 
The proof-of-concept demonstration will leverage Akamai's virtualized Aura Licensed CDN (LCDN) software and Juniper Networks® Contrail Controller for

[Guest Post]: Net Neutrality and the Role of NFV

By Matt Halligan*, CTO and VP of Engineering. Openwave Mobility




The state of Net Neutrality and the open Internet have been debated at length. While the pro and anti neutrality camps fight it out - “Free Internet” vs. “Fast-Lanes” - many have overlooked what impact Net Neutrality will ultimately have on online services and the end-user experience. With a commercial, multi-speed internet,

SON Deployments [324]: Telefonica [UK] Deployed Cellwize

Cellwize announced that its "elastic-SON™, the Centralized Self Organizing Network solution (C-SON) has been commercially deployed by Telefónica UK to enhance mobile network performance and Quality of Service for UK subscribers. elastic-SON from Cellwize was selected following a rigorous evaluation process carried out by the Telefónica Global CTO Team and Telefónica UK.

Telefónica UK is the

[Israel]: ISP to Compensate Customers for P2P Traffic Shaping

Two years after a class action lawsuit was filed, judge Ester Shtemer, from the Lod District court, ruled against 012 Smile (subsidiary of Partner Israel), one of Israel largest ISPs for its traffic shaping policy (see the full decision below, Hebrew).

The plaintiff claimed that the 012 did not provide an appropriate speed to its subscribers, when P2P file sharing programs were used, and asked

Monday's Guest Post: Net Neutrality and NFV

A new guest post will be published on Monday - "Net Neutrality and the Role of NFV" by my 34th guest, Matt Halligan.
The role of NFV in Net Neutrality? How the two are concocted? "The state of Net Neutrality and the open Internet have been debated at length. While the pro and anti neutrality camps fight it out - “Free Internet” vs. “Fast-Lanes” - many have overlooked what impact Net Neutrality

Cache Deployments [323]: ViewQwest [Singapore] Use Qwilt to Improve QoE on Fiber

Qwilt announced that "ViewQwest, Singapore’s premium fiber broadband operator, has deployed the Qwilt Video Fabric Solution to deliver improved quality of experience (QoE) to ViewQwest’s customers ..  

When fiber broadband was introduced to consumers and businesses in Singapore, ViewQwest took full advantage by launching Fibernet, a superior service for popular online game streaming

Ceragon Partners with Qosmos and Telefonica to Improve QoE

Ceragon Networks announced that " in collaboration with Telefonica .. is demonstrating applications that provide operators with the ability to enhance user experience and enable more capacity and coverage at a lower total cost of ownership. 

One application allows service providers to enhance Quality of Experience (QoE) by rerouting traffic based on intelligence of current network conditions

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

Procera Validates 40 Gbps Performance for its NFV Product

   
The DPI vendors continue to promote their NFV products (see "Allot and Procera Push NFV-based DPI" - here), with Prcera Networks already validating its perfroamce level on standard hardware.

the company announced today that "PacketLogic/V, [see "Procera Goes Virtual" - here] Procera’s Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) software solution, has been benchmarked by the European Advanced

Openwave Supports HEVC for 4K Ultra-HD Video Optimization

Openwave Mobility announced it is the ".. first company to provide comprehensive optimization for 4K Ultra-HD video on mobile networks. It offers carriers up to five times more data savings compared to previous technologies. Openwave Mobility’s DynaMO, is now capable of optimizing High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) [see "ITU New Approved Video Codec will Save 50% Bitrate" - here] to achieve

[Analysys Mason]: Telco S/W Market to Reach $34.2B in 2018

A new report by Analysys Mason finds that (see also "[Anaylsys Mason]: Ericsson and Amdocs Led the Telecom Software Market in 2013" - here]:



The worldwide telecoms software market is forecast to grow from USD25.1 billion in 2013 to USD34.2 billion in 2018, at a CAGR of 6.4%. 

LTE network upgrades worldwide are driving spending in OSS/BSS. Investments in North America (NA) and Western Europe

Allot Transfers its US Video Optimization R&D Center to HQ (Israel)

Bruce V. Bigelow reported to the xconomy that "Israel’s Allot Communications is shutting down its San Diego-based operations, which came with the 2012 acquisition of Ortiva Wireless, a spokeswoman confirmed today. About 20 employees are affected by the shutdown, according to an e-mail from Maya Lustig, director of communications for Allot, which is based near Tel Aviv, in Hod Hasharon. Ortiva,

Will Allot's $5M Order Rebound the DPI Market?

The recent announcements from Procera Networks (See "Procera: Q3 Revenues Decline by 25% Y/Y" - here), and other TEMs (Juniper), resulted in a free-fall for the pure-players DPI shares.



Allot, Procera and Sandvine Stock Performance, 5 Days

The announcement made by Allot Communications on Friday (during the holiday season and weekend in Israel) tries to regain some confidence in the market,

Sandvine: IBM is a 10% Reseller with an "active pipeline of opportunities"

Sandvine published its Q3 results (see "Sandvine Reports Q3 2014 Results" - here). Revenues were $27.9M, within the range estimated by the company at the beginning of Q4 (see "Sandvine Receives $5M Expansion Order (CALA)" - here).







During the earning call, Sandvine's CEO, Dave Caputo, explained that "When we provided our Q3 revenue estimate, we had explained that a couple of significant

Allot and Procera Push NFV-based DPI

Allot Communications and Procera Networks take the NFV concept one step forward and demoed some capabilities, during SDN & NFV USA 2014 in Dallas, TX., that took place earlier this week, and in SDN & OpenFlow World Congress, Germany next month. 



Allot, participating in both events, announced the ".. demonstration of a virtual Traffic Detection Function (vTDF) as part of a virtualized

Procera: Q3 Revenues Decline by 25% Y/Y

Sandvine is not the only DPI vendor seeing a slowdown in the standalone DPI market (see "Sandvine Receives $5M Expansion Order (CALA) "- here). Sandvine blames the long process of closing large deals and acceptance by some customers for delaying orders and revenue recognition.

Procera Networks also announced its preliminary results for Q3. The company says that "Revenue for the third quarter of

Telenet [Belgium] Replaces DPI; Upgrades PCRF

  
FTS announced that ".. Telenet, a long-standing FTS customer, has carried out a major upgrade to its Leap™ Policy Control software solution. Telenet, a member of the Liberty Global Group, uses Leap Policy Control for bandwidth quota and policy management. FTS’ solution serves as an integrated policy control and charging (PCC) solution within Telenet’s network and BSS environment. It provides

Nokia will Include Flash Network Gateway in its Offering

    
Nokia Networks announced it ".. has signed a partnership agreement with Flash Networks to include Flash Networks’ Harmony™ Gateway [see chart below] as part of its mobile broadband core network offering. The market leading solution [see "Flash Networks (40%) and Citrix (30%) Lead the Mobile Optimization Market" - here] enables operators to optimize video and web traffic for an improved user

Verizon Wont Optimize LTE Congestion by Temporary Throttling

Back in July Verizon announced that it will ".. expand its existing Network Optimization to include unlimited data customers who use 4G LTE devices .. when an unlimited data customer meets specific criteria and hops onto a cell site that is experiencing high demand. This is only a temporary reduction, not a billing cycle throttle. Once that customer leaves the cell site under stress, their

[UK]: Cable Service is Faster than Fiber!

According to a new research by the UK regulator, Ofcom, the "average broadband speed delivered by cable services is now faster than that of fibre - In the six months to May 2014, the average speed delivered by cable broadband reached 43.3Mbit/s, overtaking the average speed for fibre connections for the first time (42.0Mbit/s)"





Average broadband speeds for fixed broadband connections,

The FCC Fines Marriott for Disabling Guests' Private Wi-Fi Networks

Marriott Gaylord Opryland Resort
& Convention Center


Marriott hotels tend to get in trouble with its traffic management practices. Back in 2012, they used their Wi-Fi service to insert ads into guests sessions (see "Marriott Uses DPI to Insert Ads to its Guests" - here and "Marriott (on DPI Ad Insertion): ".. we didn't know .. everybody does it.. it is disabled now"" - here).

Now,

[Dell’Oro Group]: Why will Telecom Carrier Capex Decline in 2015?

 
A new research by Stefan Pongratz [pictured], Carrier Economics analyst, Dell’Oro Group, finds that "telecom operators around the world invested heavily in their fiber and LTE networks in 1H14 as the transformation from voice-centric to data-centric drivers continued. Dell’Oro Group estimates worldwide Capex advanced at a mid-single digit rate in 1H14. Double-digit growth in mobile network

du [UAE] Upgraded its CDN for IOS8 Updates

du (UAE] announced that "Following proactive steps taken by du to ensure a seamless upgrade experience to iOS 8 for Apple customers, du has noted that Apple traffic has, for the first time on its network, reached a new high – topped only by customers’ consumption of online video. Compared to a regular day, iOS 8 upgrades caused an increase of 15 times in App traffic upgrades since its release at

[Blog News]: DPI Products Page Updated!

With the recent addition of the SCE-10000 to Cisco's standalone DPI product line (see "Cisco Expands SCE Line with a 60Gbps and Virtual Models" - here), I updated the DPI Products page (here).

Please do not hesitate to inform me if any of the details are not correct!



Cisco SCE-10000

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

Sandvine: 2 NA MSO Orders, $7M, 1 Competitor Displaced

Sandvine announced that it has "..received approximately $7 million in orders from two tier-1 cable operators in North America – one existing customer and one new customer, through a competitive displacement.

One of the orders, which was originally expected to close in Sandvine’s third quarter, relates to an operator who has been a Sandvine customer since 2007. The order represents an initial

Sandvine Enables CSPs to Interact Directly w/Subscribers; How does it Work?

Sandvine announced the "latest version of Sandvine OutReach, a subscriber communications and interaction product. Communications service providers (CSPs) have long sought ways to communicate directly with subscribers without negatively impacting their online experience. 

Sandvine OutReach provides operators with a powerful set of subscriber-friendly, device-agnostic tools to interact with

DigitalRoute Enhances MediationZone

DigitalRoute announced the release of its "..MediationZone 7.0 software, which delivers an easy-to-integrate, high-performing, and functionally advanced platform that gives CSPs unrivalled control over their usage and performance data in a flexible, cost-effective and robust manner 


Key aspects of the updated solution include:


Significant improvements to data availability achieved via

Cisco Expands SCE Line with a 60Gbps and Virtual Models

Cisco has added recently two new models to its standalone Service Control Engine (SCE) product family - a new, 60Gbps hardware and a virtual version.

Originally, the SCE product line came to Cisco with the acquisition of P-Cube, 10 years ago (here). The product is no longer developed in Israel (home for P-Cube R&D center), and since the acquisition till now, Cisco has not added new h/w models,

[ABI]: VoLTE (w/IMS) is the Next Big Thing; $30B Market to 2019

   
A new report by Sabir Rafiq [pictured], research analyst, ABI Research finds that ".. as the first wave of LTE deployments achieve coverage, VoLTE is the next big thing. VoLTE runs on IMS, and the market will total over $US30 billion through 2019 as it becomes widespread. 




Leading infrastructure vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia are fully committed to VoLTE and IMS space and equip

Orange Business Services Offers Application-aware Business VPN Internet

 
Orange Business Services announced it is "extending its core Business VPN service with Business VPN Internet. 




It is designed to meet the growing demand from multinational corporations (MNCs) for high-performance, secure access to Internet-based cloud and Web services ..  It provides secure business-class Internet, which improves performance for the entire network by eliminating congestion

GSA: 116 MNOs Offer HD Voice - Even on 2G Networks!

GSA reports that ".. 116 mobile operators in 75 countries have commercially launched HD voice services .. more than 30% higher than a year ago. Mobile HD voice uses Adaptive Multi Rate Wideband (W-AMR) technology, enabling high-quality voice calls in supporting mobile networks and an improved user experience for calls between mobile phones supporting the feature"







"The majority of operators

DSC Deployments [322]: BASE Company [Belgium] Selected F5

F5 Networks announced that ".. BASE Company [formally KPN Belgium] —best known for its consumer-orientated mobile services brand, BASE, and one of Belgium’s largest telecom providers—has selected the F5® Traffix® Signaling Delivery Controller™ (SDC™) to meet subscribers' increasing demand for data. 

Last year, BASE Company became the second operator in Belgium to launch 4G for its customers,

Radisys Introduces New COTS-based Platform with NFV-based Flow Classification

Radisys introduced an ".. innovative family of T-100 Series (T-100) Platforms with new FlowEngine™ data plane software technology. The T-100 Platforms, based on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) silicon technology, are designed and optimized to support high performance Software Defined Networking (SDN) and data plane Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) processing requirements. Integrated with

Apple IOS8 Update - DDoS Attack? Can Cache Help?

Some traffic management aspects of the recent iOS8 release:


Procera Networks' blog explains that ".. the latest IOS 8 update has hit some networks pretty hard. Several of our customers had such severe traffic spikes that they initially thought that they were under a DDOS attack ..  because the DDOS protection mechanisms implemented in the Procera solution kicked in, and customers were

Artesyn Announced High-density Video Acceleration PCI Cards

 


SharpStreamer™ PCIE-7207

Artesyn Embedded Technologies announced the "SharpStreamer™ add-on acceleration card that enables content owners, broadcasters and service provider networks to speed the deployment of high density video transcoding and multiscreen delivery.

..Artesyn is targeting the highest H.264/AVC and H.265/HEVC transcoding density in the smallest footprint. An Artesyn

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 ‘

Teclo Migrates its Mobile Acceleration Technology to Enterprise Networks

Teclo Networks announced the "launch of the B-Series, a simple to deploy solution that speeds up business networks. Based on its mobile data acceleration technology and expertise [see "Free [France] Uses Teclo's TCP/IP Optimization" - here] - delivering lightning-fast Internet for wireless operators- Teclo Networks now brings outstanding network performance and reliability to the enterprise.

Allot:3 Orders from Data Centers/Cloud Providers

Allot Communications announced "orders from three separate major data center and cloud providers around the globe:


..an order from a U.S.-based, multinational cloud provider. The Allot solution will be used to monitor and guarantee service level agreements (SLAs) for its cloud-based services to enterprises across the customer’s multiple data centers worldwide. 

One of Latin America’s largest

Happy September for Redknee: 2 Weeks, 3 Deals, $20M

In just two weeks, Redknee [see "[Vendor Review]: Redknee Policy Management Strategy" - here] announced 4 multi-million deals:

[Sep. 17] "a leading communications service provider (CSP) in the Americas region, has signed orders worth more than $8 million dollars. These new service agreements will enable the CSP to launch innovative data services and increase its competitive position in the

[ABI]: 123M Fixed LTE Connections by 2019

Yet again analysts are expecting mobile access technology to be an alternative to residential broadband access and replace cable or DSL.

Already 4 years ago, 8.5% of UK households said they are using mobile service at home, as their only access service (here). Other expected it to fail - see "Analysys Mason: Mobile Broadband will Fail as an Alternative to Fixed Broadband" - here) but shortly

MediaTek LTE SoC will Embed Opera's Optimization S/W

Opera Software announced that "Opera Max, a data-savings app for Android phones, will be embedded into MediaTek’s LTE System on a Chip (SoC). The first two MediaTek SoCs to be shipped with Opera Max are the high-performing 64-bit LTE SoCs MT6752 and MT6732 chips. Opera Max will enable smartphones with these chips to consume half as much the data within the same monthly plan at no extra cost"

Procera: "lower than anticipated total addressable market" for NAVL

In its filling to the SEC (here), Procera Networks states:

"On September 15, 2014, Procera Networks, Inc. (“Procera” or the “Company”) concluded that it will be required to record an impairment charge to write-down the carrying value of its goodwill and intangible assets recorded as part of the Company’s 2013 acquisition of Vineyard Networks, Inc. (“Vineyard”)"

See "DPI Merge: Procera

Vedicis and 6WIND Launched Virtual PCEF and TDF

Vedicis and 6WIND announced they have launched  "virtual Policy Control Enforcement (vPCEF) and virtual Traffic Detection Function (vTDF) appliances to support mobile operators in their move towards Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) architecture. 

The Vedicis solution runs on a standard Intel server and includes:


Red Hat OS with KVM hypervisor
Open vSwitch
6WINDGate NFV Infrastructure (

[Analysys Mason]: Analytics S/W Market for CSPs to Reach $3.8B in 2018

A new report by Justin van der Lande [pictured], Principal Analyst, and Atul Arora, Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The worldwide analytics software market for telecoms service providers is forecast to grow from USD2.1 billion in 2013 to USD3.8 billion in 2018, at a 12.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). 

Communications service providers (CSPs) need to increase average revenue per user (

PeerApp: 450 Deployments; 50 New Customers in 2014; New Tier1 Deal

A blog post by Gadi Tamari, [pictured] the recently appointed PeerApp CEO (here) describes the company as " .. market leaders, with 450 deployments globally managing an aggregate of 3 Terabits capacity .. We’ve also gained a lot new customers in 2014 – 50 to be exact. It is great to see global Tier One operators embracing PeerApp solutions to help turn challenges into the opportunity of

[ABI]: Multi-tier, Multi-device Shared Plans Allow Price Increase

A new report by Lian Jye Su, Research Associate, and Jake Saunders [pictured], VP and Practice Director for Forecasting, ABI Research, finds that "The aggressive deployment of LTE networks has encouraged higher data consumption .. countries that have a monthly data quota in the range of 8 to 10 GB have increased from 21% in 1Q 2014 to 83% of the total in 2Q 2014.

Facing a downward trend in ARPU

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

Hitachi Develops its TMS Concept - will Resell Comptel's PCRF

Comptel announced that they have entered into a Reseller Agreement with Hitachi Ltd " .. for Hitachi to resell Comptel Policy Control Solution (PCRF) to Hitachi’s customers worldwide. This strategic partnership with Hitachi enables Comptel to enter the Japanese market and boost its presence in the US.

Going forward, Comptel Policy Control Solution will play an important role as a part of

Openwave Mobility Deploys Cloud-based Mobile Video Optimization

Openwave Mobility announced it has "successfully implemented the industry’s first public cloud-based mobile data optimization solution for a prominent North American service provider. 


.. Operators utilizing optimization via a public cloud can in some cases dramatically simplify their infrastructure planning and utilize economies of scale and “pay per use” on-demand elasticity. The public cloud

SON Deployments [320]: Cellcom [Israel] Expands Cellwize Solution to LTE

Cellwize announced that it has "expanded its existing agreement with Cellcom Israel to deploy, through a dedicated innovation center, the unique capabilities of its elastic-SON™ functions .. Cellcom Israel, the nation’s largest operator [3M subscribers as of June 30, 2014], is a long term partner of SON specialist Cellwize 

After the launch of its LTE network [here; see also "LTE Services

Sandvine Receives $5M Expansion Order (CALA)

After Allot's overwhelming $15M order (here) there were good and bad news from Sandvine.


The company announced that it "expects revenue for its third quarter to be between $27.5 and $28.0 million ... Our results this quarter highlight the challenges related to the timing of closing larger opportunities. There were a couple opportunities that we expected to close in the quarter that did not

PeerApp and Sandvine Demo NFV-based Content Caching (w/Sandvine Steering)

PeerApp announced it will "demonstrate the industry's first virtualized content caching solution in cooperation with intelligent broadband solutions provider Sandvine and Dell at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) .. PeerApp and Sandvine's solutions are already integrated at dozens of operators globally using traditional deployment models [see "Sandvine: 40 Joint Deployments with PeerApp, Mobixell

Allot Receives a $15M Expansion Order, W/Analytics and DDoS Protection

Allot ServcieGateway
 Tera

Allot Communications announced it has "..received an expansion order of $15 Million from a major tier-1 operator for the Allot Service Gateway Tera .. Allot received this order during the third quarter of 2014. 

Leveraging Allot's intelligent traffic steering and load balancing capabilities, the solution will provide various value-added services. Among the services

[Strategy Analytics]: 3G Service Revenues Decline

A new report by Phil Kendall [pictured], Executive Director, Wireless Operator Strategies, Strategy Analytics finds that:

Global mobile service revenue growth will accelerate in 2014, though after passing the $1 trillion mark in 2015, will struggle to grow any further 
Europe remains a drag on global mobile service revenue growth, with 2014 revenue forecast at 17% below its 2008 peak. The jump

Study: What are the Barriers for Watching Video on Mobile?

Ericsson's reports that its ConsumerLab found (based on interviews with over 23,000 people in 23 different countries) that:

streaming video is now almost level with traditional TV watching, 75 percent of consumers watching streamed content several times a week, compared to 77 percent who watch scheduled broadcast TV programming several times a week






Almost one in five viewers (19 percent)

New Consortium Wishes to Replace TCP/IP

A new consortium, led by the Lixia Zhang, Jonathan B. Postel Chair in Computer Science, and Van Jacobson, a UCLA adjunct professor and member of the Internet Hall of Fame from UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, was launched "to promote the development and adoption of Named Data Networking. NDN [technical report - here] is an emerging Internet architecture that

Nokia Adds BroadPeak's CDN to its Base Station Applications

Nokia announced a number of new features, including 3rd party application extending its Liquid Applications:




Video Orchestration provides a new multimedia experience at special events, including race tracks, football stadiums, and fairs. This enables new video services, for example, streaming a live feed from inside a racing car, in real time, to fans at the trackside.


Real-time Analytics

Allot Enables Music Streaming Revenues for Tier1 MNO

  
Allot Communications announced a "follow-on order with a Tier-1 global telecommunications group. This follow-on order to an existing contract will enable the operator to deliver streaming music services to over 30 million subscribers in multiple markets globally. Using Allot’s intelligent charging capabilities, the augmented solution powered by the Allot Service Gateway, will allow the Tier-1

Citrix: LTE Video Data is 5X Compared to 3G

A new report by Citrix (Bytemobile) finds that:


Mobile network traffic volume associated with video has increased worldwide over 2013 and now represents 52% of worldwide mobile network traffic volume, as compared to 45% in Q2 2013 








On a daily basis, social networking is the most popular mobile application, with 40% of mobile subscribers engaged, followed closely by news & information

Nokia's Big Data Analytics Optimizes QoE

Nokia Networks announced it is "unveiling research that combines newly developed telco-scale big data analytics, artificial intelligence and full process automation to make experience management dynamic. 




The Nokia Networks FutureWorks innovation is the world’s first technique to instantly optimize the individual application sessions of subscribers to deliver high Quality of Experience (

Akamai Expands CDN to the RAN with Saguna

     
Saguna Networks expands its base-station caching technology, CODS, with CDN-Extend allowing it to participate in a CDN network.

According to the company, "It is a big step forward towards achieving our goal of creating an Open-RAN platform enabling any server-side application to run inside the RAN. CDN-Extend enables 3rd party CDNs to operate inside the mobile base station".

Saguna

[Anaylsys Mason]: Ericsson and Amdocs Led the Telecom Software Market in 2013

A recent report by Glen Ragoonann and Justin Van Der Lande, Principle Analysts, Dean Ramsay, Analyst, and Mark H. Mortensen [pictured], Practice Head, BSS, Analysys Mason finds that "The value of the worldwide telecoms software market grew by 7.0% (or USD1.6 billion) between 2012 and 2013, from USD23.1 billion to USD24.8 billion. The overall market is still highly fragmented: the top-six

Opera Adds Audio to Rocket Optimizer

Opera Software announced that its "Skyfire unit [see "Opera Buys Skyfire for (up to) $155M" - here] has added streaming audio optimization as a new feature to Rocket Optimizer, its NFV-ready video and data optimization platform for mobile operators .. Rocket Optimizer manages streaming audio traffic in the same way that it optimizes mobile video traffic. 

It uses its built-in Experience

GSA: 16 MNOs Deploying or Trialing LTE Broadcast

According to a new report by GSA ",,confirms that at least 16 mobile network operators, working together with LTE systems providers and broadcast content owners, are currently deploying or trialling LTE Broadcast technology in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, UAE, UK and the USA".




Related post: "Vodafone LTE Status:

Elitecore Offers Integrated PCC @ $500K/100K Subscribers

Elitecore Technologies announced ".. Pre-integrated LTE RCM an end to end platform comprising; OCS, PCRF, Convergent Billing, Customer Management, Provisioning, Business Analytics and Selfcare Portals for LTE operators at USD 500K for 100,000 subscribers. 

..The platform comes with Integrated Policy and Charging solution enabling launch of innovative plans & services on day one. A centralized

Procera - $5M Order by European MSO; Replaces Existing Vendor

 
Procera Networks announced "$5 million in initial orders from a Tier 1 European MSO that represents the second largest initial customer orders in company history. Procera was selected primarily due to its Subscriber Experience solutions that enable the multi-system operator (MSO) to deliver high quality broadband services even during times of heavy congestion. 




The Service Plan Assurance

Active Broadband Launches SDN/NFV Gateway

   
Active Broadband Networks announced the ".. industry's first Software-Defined Broadband Network Gateway (SD-BNG), a platform that implements software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies to dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of broadband service delivery. 

The SD-BNG unlocks the benefits of SDN and NFV for service providers to streamline

cPacket New Product Monitors and Correlates Links, Virtual Tunnels, and Applications

cPacket Networks announced "cClear technology for performance monitoring and optimization across physical and virtual realms of modern networks .. Existing network performance monitoring tools only provide limited information of average link utilization, which masks reliability issues like bottlenecks, spikes, microbursts, jitter, and inconsistent user experience.




cClear is the first

Israel: Will ISPs have to Send Detailed Surfing Records to Subscribers?

Gilad Erdan,Minister
of Communications 

Earlier this month, Israel's Ministry of Communications (the local regulator) published 2 calls for hearing about new parental control services to be provided by broadband ISPs (here) and MNOs (here, both in Hebrew).

According to the documents, only a small number of the subscribers have signed for the filtering services of harmful sites. These

[TechNavio]: Transparent Cache Market to Grow at 31% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio finds that ".. Transparent caching is a solution that enables the service provider to offload a significant amount of content traffic by storing a cached copy of the popular content close to the edge of the network, which is delivered to the user directly from the edge of the network rather than from the source. It is invisible to both the content originator and the

[ABI]: Mobile Internet Services to Generate 45% of MNOs Service Revenues by '19

A new report by Marina Lu [pictured], research analyst, ABI Research finds that "In 1Q 2014, the worldwide mobile service revenue increased 0.58% year-on-year (YoY) to US$264 billion .. the aggregate service revenue for 2014 will grow 2.9% YoY to US$1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market. 




Proliferating mobile data subscriptions and enhanced network

[TechNavio]: The DPI Market will Grow at 36% CAGR

A new report by TechNavio forecasts that ".. the Global DPI market will grow at a CAGR of 36.45 percent over the period 2013-2018 .. Although at present the EMEA region is a major contributor to the market, the APAC region is expected to emerge as a strong contributor to this market. ISPs and government organizations are the biggest adopters of DPI technology in the market .. with the increase

PCC Deployments [319]: Vodafone [Australia] to Deploy (Virtualized) Ericsson

Ericsson announced that "Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) has chosen Ericsson as a sole supplier to replace and upgrade the complete core network for their national network. With the latest core technology, including Ericsson's solutions for Evolved Packet Core and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), policy control and circuit-switched core, VHA will further enhance network robustness, performance

[Dell’Oro Group]: CSP Equipment Market - Grow at 2% CAGR to 2018

   
A new report by Dell’Oro Group finds that ".. the combined service provider telecom equipment market comprising the Access, Carrier IP Telephony, Microwave, Mobile RAN, Optical, SP Routers, SP WiFi, and Wireless Packet Core markets, are set to improve between 2013 and 2018—by approximately $30 billion. 










After recording a CAGR of -1% between 2008 and 2013, Dell’Oro Group forecasts

[Infonetics]: VoLTE Slows down the IMS Market (led By Huawei)

A new report by Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research finds that deployments of VoLTE services slows down the IMS equipment market - "The global service provider VoIP and IMS market totaled $878 million in 2Q14, down 6% from 2Q13, and down 12% sequentially .. Huawei and Metaswitch are the standout IMS/VoIP vendors in 2Q14, bucking the down quarter"

"To date,

Telefonica O2 Shines in Spirent's UK QoE Study

A new "Independent Review of Mobile Voice and Data Services Commissioned by Telefonica O2" by Spirent finds that ... Telefonica provides the best QoE for data services in the UK in almost every aspect of the test! 






Spirent's Datum QoEAnalytics Application

"The study included over 47,000 calls and 170,000 data tests over a three month period from May to July [using Spirent's User

[Research]: VoLTE is Better than OTT VoIP

Mobile networks vendors continue to claim that their built-in VoIP (VoLTE) beats OTT's VoIP in all aspects - efficiency,performance and quality.

We saw internal research from Nokia - see "NSN: VoLTE Beats OTT VoIP 4:0 !" - here and "Nokia: VoLTE is Doing Better than OTT's VoIP Under Load" - here.




Alcatel-Lucent joins the trend and announces "the results of an independent research study [

[Analysys Mason]: NMS Market to Reach $5.6B by 2018; Driven by LTE

A new report by Shanthi Ravindran [pictured], Senior Analyst, Gorkem Yigit, Research Analyst and Glen Ragoonanan, Principal Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The worldwide network management systems (NMS) market is forecast to grow from USD4.6 billion in revenue in 2013 to USD5.6 billion in 2018, at a 3.9% CAGR, starting to recover from the 4% decline in 2012 and 2% growth in 2013". 

These

T-Mobile to Shape Misusage Over LTE

  
Years after P2P identification and shaping was almost the only business for DPI products in the fixed market (starting with music files going to video), it is back again - to LTE networks.


Cam Bunton reports to TmoNews that In an "..internal memo to staff, it’s been revealed that T-Mobile is going to clamp down on users taking advantage of their unlimited 4G/LTE plans for peer-to-peer file

[Infonetics]: Ericsson Scores as Best SDP Vendor

A new vendor scorecard report by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research (new logo on the right) "ranks the 5 largest global vendors of service delivery platform (SDP) software: Ericsson, HP, Huawei, OpenCloud, and Oracle"

The report finds that “Based on completely quantitative metrics, including financial information, product

$17M PCC Deal for RedKnee w/EMEA Group

Redknee Solutions announced that a ".. leading group operator in EMEA has signed multiple software and services orders totaling more than $17 million with Redknee ..Utilizing Redknee Unified, Redknee’s real-time monetization and subscriber management software solution, the CSP can launch innovative data services and personalized offers and generate new revenue streams". 

Lucas Skoczkowski [

SoftBank Uses Ericsson's Mobility-based Policy to Relief Congestion

Ericsson and SoftBank Mobile announced that they are ".. working together to further improve the user experience in even the most congested network environments with new Mobility-based Policy .. Ericsson's new software feature, the Mobility-based Policy creates a direct connection between Ericsson SGSN-MME and Ericsson Service-Aware Policy Controller. 




This connection enables mobility

FCC Expands Traffic Management Policies Questioning to all MNOs

Alina Selyukh and Marina Lopes report to Reuters that "The top U.S. communications regulator on Friday said he is asking all large U.S. wireless carriers to explain how they decide when to slow download speeds for some customers, after questioning Verizon Wireless about such a plan"

This follows the letter sent earlier to Verizon (See "The FCC "Deeply Troubled" by Verizon's LTE Optimization" -

Openet Launches Virtual, Partners Enabled, BSS Infrastructure

Openet announced that it has "..virtualized its real-time charging system. This builds on the existing virtualization of Openet’s policy and mediation systems, its secure API gateway technology and its Fusionworks platform .. By fully virtualizing its BSS infrastructure, Openet will enable mobile operators to more rapidly monetise new capabilities including VoLTE QoS management, shared data plans

Netflix Prevents DPI-based Rating Measurements

Peter Kafka [pictured] reports to re/code that "Netflix doesn't want anyone to know how many people watch its original shows, like “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black .. But until a few months ago, at least one company had a pretty good idea — and shared it publicly. Now Netflix has plugged that leak.

Procera Networks .. says it was able [see "Procera: Netflix' House of Cards Stats;

Cache Deployments [318]: kbro [Taiwan] Selected Qwilt

Qwilt announced that :it has been "chosen by kbro, the largest cable operator in Taiwan, to provide a solution for the staggering growth of over-the-top (OTT) video on demand (VOD) and live video traffic, including Twitch, the largest live video site in Taiwan

kbro serves over 400,000 customers—who expect high performance—and Qwilt’s solution allows kbro subscribers to view high quality content

Procera Sees Increased Interest in US Mobile (3 Trials)

Procera Networks published its Q2 results (revenues of $20.6M, here), and provided some additional information during the earning call - mostly by James Brear [pictured], CEO shown below, with some quotes from Procera's SEC filing (here).Similarly to Allot Communications (see "Allot: Expects US Growth" - here), Procera is positive on the US mobile market.

About the recently announced RAN

Allot: Expects US Growth; VAS Could Reach 50% of Revenues

Allot Communications published its Q2 results (revenues on $28.2M, here). During the earning call, the new President and CEO, Andrei Elefant [pictured], who assumed the CEO position on July 1st, provided some observations on the DPI business:

Revenue from EMEA where 62% and bookings from this territory during the quarter indicates a continuous pull up from the 2012 flows. APAC and Americas were

Israel: Wi-Fi Offload Allowed!

A year ago the Israeli Ministry of Communications decided that MNOs will not be allowed to offer Wi-Fi offloading in public areas (see "Israel: MNOs won’t Offload to Wi-Fi" - here).

This has changed today, and the Ministry announced (here, Hebrew) that any organization may offer such services, in any location (private or public). Some municipalities, such as Tel Aviv, are offering free Wi-Fi

[MarketsandMarkets]: CDN Market to Grow at 27% CAGR

 
A recent report by MarketsandMarkets finds that "CDN adoption is increasing due to its increasing implementation globally specially in North America (NA) and Asia Pacific (APAC) regions. 

The media and entertainment vertical has the highest share in the overall content delivery networks (CDN) market. Other than the media and entertainment vertical, CDN has a wide portfolio in advertising,

More on Procera's Device-based Solution

I had a short Q&A session with Cam Cullen [pictured], Procera Networks' VP of Global Marketing following their recent announcement (see "Procera Revolutionizes Location-based Mobile Traffic Management" - here).

Q: I understand that this is a device-based solution (App ?). Which platforms are supported?
A: This is a SIM-based application, so device and OS independent

Q: What does the

Procera Revolutionizes Location-based Mobile Traffic Management

Current congestion management and analytics solutions for mobile networks are usually based on core network located products, and are only partially aware to the real time location and congestion status of each user and base station. 



Some DPI and PCRF vendors announced solutions and partnership to overcome the lack of real-time  information, usually with the help of probes deployed in the

Apple's CDN Goes Live; Increases Capacity 10x

 
Dan Rayburn [pictured] reports to Streaming Media that "Recently, Apple’s CDN has gone live in the U.S. and Europe and the company is now delivering some of their own content, directly to consumers. In addition, Apple has interconnect deals in place with multiple ISPs, including Comcast and others, and has paid to get direct access to their networks .. From ISPs I have spoken with, they tell me

Courtesy of Facebook: Zero-Rated Apps for Airtel Zambia

Facebook launched its first "Internet.org" service, based on the acquired Onavo technology [see "Facebook Acquires Onavo for $100M" - here] in Zambia.

Internet.org defines "Efficiency" as one of the solution they look for: "Transmitting data—even a text message or a simple web page—requires bandwidth, something that’s scarce in many parts of the world. Partners will invest in tools and

Qwilt: 400% Y/Y Increase in NA Cable Customers

Qwilt announced "over 400 percent growth in new North American customers over the past 12 months. New customers include regional and national Cable System Operators who are deploying Qwilt’s Open Caching Architecture in their networks across North America to solve the problem of insatiable demand for live and on-demand streaming video into the home". 









Customers in the release are Clear

The FCC "Deeply Troubled" by Verizon's LTE Optimization

Few days after Verizon published its plan to optimize traffic at congested cells [see "Verizon Expands "Optimization" to LTE Subs to Fight Cell Congestion" - here], the FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, sent them a number of questions, expressing he is  "deeply troubled" by the move, and questioning if this should the right policy for "reasonable netwrok management*" or it is actually done to  "enhance

GSA: 318 Operators Launched LTE Networks; 69 LTE-A; 66 Launched VoLTE

GSA reports that "318 operators have commercially launched LTE networks and service in 111 countries .. Israel [by Orange Israel - see "LTE Services Enabled in Israel - See my Speedtest Results" - here], Madagascar and the Northern Mariana Islands are amongst the latest nations to access commercial LTE mobile broadband service for the first time. 51 LTE networks have launched so far in 2014. The

Procera's Response to Allot's SG-Tera: PL20000 with 600 Gbps/480M Flows

Procera PL20000

3 months after Allot Communications introduced the SG-Tera with 500 Gbps throughout in a single ATCA chassis (see "Allot Launched the New Service Gateway; Orders from 4 Operators (over $9M)" - here), Procera Networks responds with even higher performance, in most KPIs, to be "available for trials in the third quarter of 2014 and generally available in the fourth quarter of

Danish and US Researchers Use Math to Expedite the Internet (5-10X)

A new study by  Frank Fitzek [pictured], Professor in the Department of Electronic Systems from Aalborg University finds that "Mathematical equations can make Internet communication via computer, mobile phone or satellite many times faster and more secure than today. Results with software developed by researchers from Aalborg University in collaboration with the US universities the

Survey: Operators Satisfaction from OSS/BSS Vendors

Jason Marcheck [pictured], Research Director, Current Analysis, published a summary of a "OSS/BSS purchase drivers and vendor satisfaction from large operators around the globe representing approximately half of the global telecom CapEx spend".

The main conclusion is - "The companies that topped the list in questions related to vendor satisfaction seem to be better known as large SI players

[Study]: Lack of Image Optimization Slows down top Retail Web Sites

A new report by Radware finds that "of the top 100 retail websites, the median page has grown 67% in just one year and many are failing to leverage advanced techniques to help accelerate their pages .. use of images is one of the single performance drains, as most site owners are not taking advantage of image optimization techniques that can dramatically improve both real and perceived load

Verizon Expands "Optimization" to LTE Subs to Fight Cell Congestion

3 years after Verizon established its optimization policy to reduce cell congestion, [see "Verizon Explains its "Network Optimization" Policy" - here] it is now expanded to LTE.

Kellex reports to DroidLife that "On October 1, Verizon will expand its existing Network Optimization policy to include unlimited data customers who use 4G LTE devices and “have fulfilled their minimum contract term.”

[Analysis Mason]: Telco Big Data Analytics Market to Reach $2.3B in 2014

A new report by Justin van der Lande [pictured], Principal Analyst, Analysis Mason covers the big data analytics market for telcos - "Big data analytics (BDA) is not just a passing trend; it is becoming an increasingly important part of every aspect of a communications service provider’s (CSP) operations. The drive for efficiency gains, coupled with the need to personalize customers’ experiences

The FCC Reminds ISPs: Transparency Rule is in Full Force

The recent debate around the delivery of Netflix traffic in the US [see "Verizon vs. Netflix on Congestion - It is NOT Us!" - here and "Netflix - Speed to Comcast Customers Continue to Surge" - here], creating confusing among consumers, probably led the FCC to remind ISPs that the Open Internet (Net Neutrality) rules (or some of them) are still in effect.

The FCC issues a public notice, with

Allot Wins EMEA MNO for Zero-Rate Video Streaming and Social Media Services

Allot Communications announced today that it "received an order from a Tier-1 mobile operator in EMEA for the Allot Policy Control and Charging solution. The operator is leveraging Allot’s policy control and charging solution to provide 4 million subscribers with application-centric plans that fit their digital lifestyle.

The solution will allow the Tier-1 mobile operator to conduct in-depth

UK: How do ISPs Implement Network Based Parental Control Service?

Ofcom has "published a report for Government outlining measures the UK's largest internet service providers have put in place to help parents protect children from harmful content online. This follows an agreement between the Government and BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media, the four largest fixed line internet service providers (ISPs), announced in July 2013 [see "UK to Enforce Opt Out Network

UK: ISPs will Alert Subscribers on Copyright Infringement

The UK has a new plan for reducing copyright infringement, as probably the older plans did not work - UK Culture Minister Vaizey:'SPs have their role to play to help consumers find legitimate content'"- here and "[UK]: Major ISPs Asked to Build 'Downloaders Database'" - here:



 "Representatives from the UK's creative industries and major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have come together

[Study]: 85% of Operators are Leveraging OTT Apps to Attract Customers

A new study by Allot Communications (surveyed the data plans and charging trends of 175 mobile operators worldwide) finds that "85% of operators are leveraging apps to attract customers and increase ARPU .. Facebook is mobile operators’ top choice for zero-rated apps and Unlimited data plans are in decline".


Some examples of Zero rate programs:

Facebook Offers Free Messaging Through 18 MNOs 

[Analysys Mason]: Oracle and Amdocs Lead the $3.6B Customer Care Market

A new report by Mark H. Mortensen [pictured], Practice Head, BSS, and Atul Arora, Research Analyst, Analysys Mason finds that "The customer care market generated USD3.58 billion in revenue in 2013, an increase of 9.1% from 2012. The market was driven by communications service providers (CSPs) increasingly offering packaged service bundles, consumer demand for self-service and control over their

Ericsson SSR 8000 Contracts Follow-up

Ericsson reported its Q2 2014 results (here). The detailed report (here) states that "Mobile broadband demand, VoLTE and growing interest in LTE broadcast [related post: "Vodafone LTE Status: Traffic, Video, Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE, Video Broadcast" - here] drives performance initiatives including carrier aggregation and  network densification. Small cells and the use of new frequency bands

Leading Internet Companies Against Fast Lanes; Disapprove DPI

The Internet Association (see members) announced that it "submitted its comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) urging Commissioners to take strong and decisive action to guarantee an open Internet for the future. 

The Internet Association’s comments mark the first time that more than two dozen of the world’s most-recognizable and successful Internet companies have spoken with a

Afternoon Experience: Rockets Over my Head

I thought I'd shared with my readers the recent events in Israel.

I took the picture below half an hour ago, during my Friday afternoon walk in Tel-Aviv. These are rockets, fired from Gaza by the Hamas terrorist organization, against civilian targets in Israel. This happens 2-3 times a day in Tel-Aviv, and much more in areas closer to Gaza (and there, they get an early warning of 15 seconds to

Concurrent Enters the Fast Growing (30%+ CAGR) Transparent Cache Market

Concurrent unveiled a ".. new software-based video solution that enables fixed-line and mobile broadband operators to boost the performance of over-the-top (OTT) video services, while also creating new revenue opportunities and reducing operational costs .. Concurrent’s next-generation transparent caching solution optimizes the online video traffic being delivered over service providers' high

Sandvine to the FCC: Internet Fast Lanes are not Needed

Rick Wadsworth [pictured], Director Corporate Communications, Sandvine summarizes on the vendor's blog Sandvine's submission (here) to the FCC's latest Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Open Internet (See  "FCC: New Net Neutrality? Just be 'Commercially Reasonable'" - here and "People Care about Net Neutrality" - here).



"Sandvine has over 250 customers around the world. Despite the

LTE Services Enabled in Israel - See my Speedtest Results

Earlier this week, Israel's Ministry of Communications allowed all existing MNOs to enable 4G/LTE services (here, Hebrew). 



The MNOs cannot charge subscribers for using LTE, nor they can't discriminate MVNOs or roamers using their networks.  



Partner Israel (using the Orange brand) announced that "As of  July 15, 2014, the Company will enable its customers that own handsets which support

PCC Deployments [317]: Blu [Ghana] To Use Alepo for LTE

IT News Africa reports that "Alepo has unveiled that it will provide policy and charging control for a new 4G LTE network at Blu Telecommunications in Ghana. Blu plans to launch LTE services including: data, voice, IPTV and Wi-Fi hotspots for residential and commercial customers. The services are planned to be launched in the second half of 2014.


As part of the network launch, Blu will

Sandvine: $5M Orders from EMEA

Sandvine announced that it has ".. received more than $5 million of follow-on orders from two tier 1 service providers in its European Middle East and Africa sales region. Sandvine received the orders in its third quarter of 2014.The $5 million in expansion orders represents growth to the operators’ deployments of Traffic Management and Network Analytics.

One of the operators belongs to a

Verizon vs. Netflix on Congestion - It is NOT Us!

So, who is responsible for a smooth video experience ? The ISP? the content provider? the transit network between the two?

According to Verizon, it is not them (at least in the case of Netflix streaming).

David Young report to the carrier's Public policy Blog:




Netflix ISP Ranking for Verizon FiOS, Feb-Jun 2014

"A few weeks ago, Verizon received an email from a customer in Los Angeles

[Infonetics]: Centralized Signaling and Routing Control Market Expands to Relieve Congestion

A new report by Diane Myers [pictured], principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS, Infonetics Research finds that "The centralized signaling and routing control (CSRC) market is not new, but the platforms are expanding as operators look to scale networks more efficiently with the rise in mobile broadband traffic. CSRC platforms are a class of solutions designed to help operators relieve congestion

Syntonic Builds a Sponsored Content Store for AT&T

Will Sandvine's prediction that "sponsored data will create billions of dollars of revenue for service providers" (here) come through? AT&T's sponsored data (see "[Rumors]: AT&T "Sponsored Data" is Based on Openet's PCC " here) takes another step forward.




Syntonic Wireless, an AT&T sponsored data provider, announced the introduction of the "Syntonic Sponsored Content Store for eligible AT

F5 Partners with Siemens Convergence Creators' PCRF

F5 Networks and Siemens Convergence Creators announced that they have "successfully completed comprehensive interoperability tests of F5’s BIG-IP® Policy Enforcement Manager™ (PEM™), and Siemens Convergence Creators’ policy and charging rules function (PCRF) product, Siemens Policy Manager (SPM) .. Combining F5 and Siemens technology gives operators the ability to monetize networks by enabling

Yahoo Acquires RayV for "best-in-class quality and content video delivery"

    

Rumors spread two months (see "Yahoo to Buy RayV?" - here) ago are now a reality.
   

RayV (see "RayV Exposes Turn Key Video Streaming to MNOs and ISPs" -  here) site announces that "We are excited to announce we are joining Yahoo's Cloud Platforms and Services Team! Our team began the RayV journey with the goal of building a revolutionary video distribution platform that would provide a

Sandvine's Q2 - Existing Customers Generated 90% of Revenues; $Bs in Sponsored Data

Some quotes from Sandvine's earning call for Q2 2014 (revenues of $29.7M - here):

Our 10% plus customers in the quarter contributed less than 30% of revenue, which is lower than any recent period
 
I am pretty pleased with our ability in Q2, to sell more to our existing customers. Generally, that ratio is .. 80% existing, 20% new. I'd say that number was closer to 90/10 in Q2, and without any

Success for Application-Based Service Plans in Zimbabwe

According to Dan Deeth, Sandvine, post to the vendor's blog, Econet Wireless' offering of WhatsApp and Facebook bundles [see "Econet Wireless [Zimbabwe] Uses Sandvine for Application-based Charging" - here] is "continuing to out-maneuver and out-innovate competitors. These unlimited bundles allow subscribers to purchase unlimited usage of their favorite service for a day, week, or monthly for a

Optimization Deployments [316]: Free [France] Uses Teclo's TCP/IP Optimization

Teclo Networks announced that "Free Mobile, has deployed Sambal from Teclo Networks to deliver lightning fast mobile internet to subscribers across the network .. Sambal manages and optimizes data transferred through TCP/IP without caching. Put simply, Sambal brings the consistency of fixed line Internet to mobile networks. Sambal also has optional compression features. It can work in two modes

[ABI]: Mobile DPI/PCRF/Optimization Market - $3B (!!) in '14; Optimization Market Changes

A new forecast by Joe Hoffman [pictured], practice director of mobile networks, ABI Research estimates that ".. the mobile portion of the 3GPP PCRF, DPI, and web/video optimization market as a collective whole will nudge US$ 3 Billion in 2014 and comfortably exceed US$ 25 Billion through 2019. Of this, roughly 80% of the market is DPI and policy related, as video optimization revenues remain

Nokia: VoLTE is Doing Better than OTT's VoIP Under Load

Gerald Reddig [pictured], continues its story on Nokia's testing of VoLTE vs. OTT VoIP [see "NSN: VoLTE Beats OTT VoIP 4:0!" - here].

The first report showed clear advantages to VoLTE in battery, bandwidth and signaling consumption.




However ... "These tests, however, were conducted under ideal radio conditions with no network load. The Smart Labs team was curious what the results would be

[ABI]: Telcos Should Add APIs for OTT

A new report by Sabir Rafiq [pictured], analyst, ABI Research finds that "The subscriber traffic for mobile broadband services will grow at 36% CAGR for the near future. This is good news for Telecom operators and OTT application providers which are continuously looking to keep subscribers happy and provide a better user performance in spite of network congestion. All of which has the potential

Bouygues Telecom Adds QoS Optimization

Astellia announced today that it is ".. deepening its relationship with Bouygues Telecom. Bouygues Telecom [see "Bouygues Telecom [France] Monitors LTE with Astellia" - here] has selected Astellia’s Nova suite to complete its network quality of service monitoring system, go further in optimizing quality of service for its customers and perfect its knowledge of customer usage".




See "Bouygues

[Ovum] The Need for Intelligent Optimization Tools

   
A new study by Mahindra Comviva and Ovum Consulting, finds that "With the growth in mobile data, the complexity of managing traffic has also intensified driven by greater use of bandwidth hungry applications and heightened customer expectations for an ever-higher Quality of Experience (QoE). According to Ovum Research’s recent forecasts, global mobile broadband connections will cross 4.5

3 Wins for Elitecore PCC in Cable

 
Elitecore Technologies announced ".. three Cable MSOs (Multi-System Operators) wins for Pay TV and Broadband services; setting up a strong footprint in Asia Pacific Cable market. 

Elitecore will offer a complete pre-integrated as well as modular stack of Convergent Billing and Subscriber Management, Centralized Product Catalog, PCRF, Online Charging, AAA, Captive Portal, Partner Settlement,

[Dean Bubley]: By end 2019, >1.5B will Use Zero rated Mobile Data

Very interesting analysis of mobile data business models, by Dean Bubley, Disruptive Analysis:

Internet Draft: Re-classification Analysis in Service Function Chaining

A new IETF Internet draft by Xinpeng Wei, Huawei discusses Service Function Chaining. 
Abstract 


Service Function Chaining (SFC) provides the ability to classify and
steer a flow via some network service(s). Some traffic flows require
re-classification to a new service chain. This may be, for example,
the result of further analysis of initial packets, or detection of
multiple types of

Intelligent Merger: EZchip to Acquire Tilera for $130M

EZchip Semiconductor announced that it has "..signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tilera Corporation, a privately-held US-based company that develops high-performance multi-core processors, intelligent network interface cards and white-box appliances for data-center networking equipment .. under the terms of the agreement, EZchip will pay Tilera’s stockholders up to $130 million in cash;

Ruckus/Global Reach Enables Hotspot 2.0 Service in San-Francisco Area

 
Ruckus Wireless announced a "major initiative with the City and County of San Francisco, the City of San José, CA and Global Reach Technology to create the first large-scale municipal Hotspot 2.0 service that allows millions of visitors and residents to automatically and securely connect to and seamlessly roam using San José and San Francisco free Wi-Fi services. The new Hotspot 2.0 service is

PCC Deployments [315]: Play[Poland] Selected Comverse

Comverse announced that "Play (P4) has selected the Comverse ONE Converged Billing & Active Customer Management solution to support expansion of services and functionalities for its advanced 4G/LTE network serving a rapidly growing subscriber base.

.. Upgrading to the new Comverse ONE product line addresses specific key Play requirements, such as: LTE Enablement ..  Virtualization and:

[Grand View Research]: Standalone is 75% of DPI Market; to Reach $4.7B by 2020

A new study by Grand View Research concludes that "The global Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) market is expected to reach USD 4,711.3 million by 2020 ..  In terms of product, standalone DPI dominated the global market and accounted for over 75% of the overall demand in 2013; mainly owing to features such as fair use, caching, video optimization and traffic offered by standalone DPI products"

Akamai Examines Ultra HD Streaming Readiness

In its Q1 2014 "State of the Internet" report (here), Akamai Technologies examines the Internet's 4K video readiness:



"Given the growing interest in the streaming delivery of 4K (“Ultra HD”) video, we thought it would be interesting to begin tracking a “4K readiness” metric in the State of the Internet Report. 




With 4K adaptive bitrate streams generally requiring between 10 – 20 Mbps of

Verizon Digital Media CDN (EdgeCast) Expands Globally

Verizon Digital Media Services announced that "Since its acquisition of EdgeCast Networks [see "Verizon Acquires EdgeCast; Will it Serve DT and TeliaSonera?" - here] .. Verizon Digital Media Services has rapidly expanded the capacity of the Verizon EdgeCast CDN, adding more than 20 new points of presence, or POPs, in major cities around the world since January. These cities include Warsaw,

Mavenir's Gateway Enables Seamless LTE <-> Wi-Fi Handover

Mavenir Systems announced the "availability of its Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG). For subscribers using Wi-Fi, the ePDG provides a secure connection to the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network and enables seamless mobility between LTE and Wi-Fi.

Mavenir’s ePDG allows subscribers to maintain constant access to high-speed data and voice services whether they are in LTE coverage areas or

[ALU]: "signalasis" Undermining Customer Experience and Operator’s Reputation

An article by Josee Loudiadis [pictured], Director of Network Intelligence, Alcatel-Lucent, covers the "signaling spikes that can overwhelm available signaling capacity, undermining the customer experience and the operator’s reputation with it" and analyzes the signaling behavior of several common applications.

"There are three kinds of “signalasis”: microbursts that can be measured in

ipoque Enhances Its DPI Package; Adds Metadata Extraction; VoLTE Performance Measurements

ipoque announced its "..next generation PACE 2.0 software that identifies thousands of applications and services and provides deeper insight on application attributes such as real-time performance metrics, all from a single solution .. providing high-speed application identification in real-time together with QoE metrics on VoLTE traffic at 40Gbps speed.

Dirk Czepluch [pictured], President and

Dali Wireless Unveils High Capacity RF Router

Dali Wireless unveiled ".. High Density System (HDS™) ..  HDS is the only solution on the market that can allocate coverage and capacity dynamically and simultaneously ..  based on the RF Router technology, HDS delivers the high capacity of a macro-cell, the flexible coverage of DAS with the tiny footprint of a pico-cell without traditional interference challenges .. It is technology-, vendor-,

Optimization Deployments [314]: Cellcom [US] Improves Performance by 30% with Vasona

Vasona Networks announced its "..work with Cellcom to improve mobile broadband performance. The Wisconsin-based operator has deployed both the Vasona SmartAIR™1000 edge application controller [see "[Vendor Review]: Vasona's Cell Traffic Management" - here] and SmartVISION™ analysis suite [see "Vasona Adds Cell-Level Analytics" - here] to gain real-time visibility of network congestion and

Zhilabs and Stoke Partner to Offer Intelligent Analysis of LTE

Zhilabs and Stoke have "..signed an agreement to bring to market a joint RAN analytics solution that enables mobile broadband operators to pinpoint trouble spots in 3G/LTE networks with greater speed and accuracy and take more rapid corrective action.


.. The joint solution leverages the inherent data collection capabilities of the Stoke security gateway rather than network probes, which are

Diameter Deployments [313]: Transatel Uses Diametriq

Diametriq announced that "Transatel, a leading MVNE, has deployed their Diameter Interworking Solution™ in its Global MVNE network. Transatel needed their NextGen Diameter-based 4G LTE OCS to interwork with CAMEL based legacy networks. Diametriq’s Diameter Interworking System™ (DIS™) solved this problem by providing interworking between CAMEL and Diameter protocols [see "Diametriq Adds Support

MTS India Deploys Allot with Video and TCP Optimization

In a post to Allot Communications' blog, Matan Trogan, Regional Product Manager for APAC, covers the vendor's recent APAC customer event in Phuket, Thailand.

Among the case studies presented at the event, Matan mentions that a "customer explained that video traffic from their 10M subscribers comprises 40% of downlink traffic and that video stalling and buffering have a negative impact on their

Bell Labs and net mobile Improve In-Car Streaming Video QoE

Alcatel-Lucent announced that "Bell Labs and net mobile AG (net-m) have reduced the probability of poor video streaming quality on the move with a new technology that can deliver a six-fold improvement over today’s streaming levels - without consuming any extra network capacity.

The new technology – Context-Aware Video Streaming - is based on Bell Labs’ Context-Aware Radio Access (CARA)

TM Deployments [312]: Smart [Philippines] Uses Sandvine for Application-Aware Service Plans

Sandvine announced that "Smart Communications is using Sandvine’s Network Policy Control solutions to support PowerApp – the world’s first mobile Internet store – which allows users to purchase “bite-sized”, application-specific, mobile service plans to fit their particular preferences and needs. 

[see the plan's FAQ - here]

PowerApp, developed by Smart Communications’ technology partner,

NI Deployments [311]: AIS [Thailand] Selected Tektronix to Monitor VoIP and More

Tektronix Communications announced that it has been ".. selected as the provider of monitoring & assurance solutions to optimize network performance and quality for Thailand’s market-leading operator, AIS.

.. In Phase 1 of the project, Tektronix Communications will monitor pure voice and VoIP session traffic across all parts of the core network using its Iris Session Analyzer and Iris Packet

Procera's Customer Adds Parental Control as S/W Upgrade

Procera Networks announced it has ".. received a follow-on order for ContentLogic from an existing Tier 1 EMEA Mobile operator customer .. The mobile operator is leveraging the capabilities of ContentLogic to offer Parental Control services to its subscribers without deploying additional hardware in the network, saving both capital and operational costs. This capability can be activated in

How does Netflix Use Big Data to Improve QoE?

Nirmal Govind, Director, Streaming Science & Algorithms, Netflix, explains how "we use big data for deep analysis and predictive algorithms to help provide the best experience for our members ..  the types of problems we're solving [I am quoting 2 of the items]

Understanding the impact of QoE on user behavior

To improve the streaming experience, we look at QoE metrics that are likely to have

Zen Internet: Unlike Other UK ISPs - We do not Shape Traffic

A post to Zen Internet's (UK) blog states that "All ISPs manage the data running across the network – the traffic – to some extent, but some larger ISPs are more intrusive. In some cases they throttle speeds, deliberately slowing down connections when users exceed what the ISP terms acceptable use. In others, they use a technique called Deep Packet Inspection to monitor usage and throttle the

Cisco: The Internet Needs Prioritization

Grant Gross reports to Network World about Cisco's approach to Net Neutrality "All bits running over the Internet are not equal and should not be treated that way by broadband providers, despite net neutrality advocates' calls for traffic neutral regulations, Cisco Systems said". 






Cisco's Recent  Visual Networking Index Predictions


Jeff Campbell, VP government and community relations,

How did Cable ONE Get Google's "YouTube HD Verified" Certification?

Cable ONE announced that "Google recently rated Cable ONE High Speed Internet “YouTube HD Verified” - a certification given only to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who consistently offer a connection stable enough to stream HD (720p) video without interruption or buffering .. Cable ONE offers speeds ranging from 50Mbps to 70Mbps - ideal for streaming multiple movies or videos at the same time,

Allot's DPI Displaced Ericsson at Telkomsel

4 Years ago I covered Ericsson's announcement on deploying its "Dynamic End-to-End Policy Control solution enabling service differentiation" solution by Telkomsel Indonesia (see "DPI/QoS Deployments (14): Telkomsel (Indonesia) Uses Ericsson for Service Differentiation and Traffic Control" - here).

Recently I heard that one of Allot's recent wins is with Telkomsel.

At the end of 2013, Telkomsel

[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 

PCC Deployments [310]: Sprint Selected ItsOn to Enable New Services

ItsOn announced that ".. Sprint will use the ItsOn Smart Services™ Platform to enhance Sprint’s mobile network capabilities and enable new types of mobile services. The multi-year agreement provides Sprint with the ability to design and implement granular service policy control for various data, text and voice services using ItsOn’s SaaS cloud solution.

Sprint will be integrating the ItsOn

[Infonetics]: Convergent Charging Grew by Expansions; To Reach $5.3B by 2018

 
A new report by Shira Levine, directing analyst for service enablement and subscriber intelligence, Infonetics Research finds that "Much of the recent growth in the convergent charging market has been in expansion of existing deals, with operators buying license capacity and related services to support additional subscribers and new lines of business" .. The global convergent charging market

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

[Guest Post]: Brazil 2014 Goes Mobile!

By John Giere*, CEO and President, Openwave Mobility

Mobile devices guarantee that this will be the most watched World Cup ever, but low video quality and data-charge fears will let down a third of Europe’s World Cup fans.

How will you be watching the Brazil World Cup? That’s the question put to over 2200 football fans across three of Europe’s smartphone-savvy, soccer-loving nations: Spain (

Cellwize Launches NFV Based, "pay-as-you-grow", SON

Cellwize announced that it is the ".. first to offer a Network Functions Virtualized (NFV)-ready SON solution, that’s multi-technology and fully multi-vendor compliant ..Cellwize achieved the first step towards NFV by virtualizing its SON and application servers, delivering its optimization through virtual machines in NFV environments. As a result, elastic-SON™ can be fully automated with other

[Disruptive Analysis]: "Fast Lanes" won't be Worth Much

A new study by Dean Bubley [pictured], Founder, Disruptive Analysis finds that "New Non-Neutral Mobile Broadband Business Models will generate $25bn in 2019 - just 6% of total mobile Internet/data access revenue, excluding those plans that just use outright blocking/throttling, and those with just some form of zero-rating of apps/content - the latter will also be important, at >1.5bn users

[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