We wrote here a few weeks ago about a 70-year-old Palo Alto (News - Alert), California-based HP’s bid to guide service providers who must meet two diverging demands in this slower economy: offering next-generation voicemail and text-messaging, as well as video sharing, conferencing and interactive voice response systems – and doing that across IP multimedia subsystem, NGN, 2G and 3G networks.
Now consider the challenges facing mobile and converged broadband operators. Mobile broadband use is on the rise, and operators’ infrastructure must evolve in order to accommodate consumer demand for media-rich services, moving from 3G to 4G, HSPA and LTA networks.
Today, HP is joining Allot Communications Ltd. – a traffic management specialist focusing on subscriber and traffic control, Internet access, and WAN optimization – to offer an integrated solution for mobile operators to deploy so-called “Policy Control and Charging.”
Specifically, the solution combines Allot’s Service Gateway (News - Alert) for policy enforcement with HP’s “Internet Usage Manager.”
Scott Poretsky (News - Alert), director of solutions architecture at Allot, told TMCnet in an interview that the solution is designed to meet burgeoning challenges facing mobile operators who need to find a way to make money from IP mobile data services.
“The first thing is the regular subscribers. We’re used to using Internet connections at home and at work,” Poretsky said. “Now we have all of these 3G-ready devices, and we’re using the networks as if we have that same connection on our devices, which in fact we do not. Mobile operators are seeing a tremendous rise in IP traffic and that’s still with just 10 percent of market going 3G, so 90 pct of mobile users aren’t even 3G yet. So now the operators are being deluged with all this bandwidth.”
The new solution from HP and Allot (News - Alert) – whose U.S. headquarters are in Eden Prairie, Minnesota – is designed to help mobile and converged broadband operators make money through what’s called “application-awareness,” which is used to identify services such as video streaming, VoIP, file sharing and P2P.
Allot has extensive experience in solutions for mobile broadband providers. The company’s mobile broadband optimization and monitoring solutions are based on deep packet inspection technology, bringing operators visibility and network intelligence on subscriber and aggregate broadband usage.
Here’s how the company diagrams its mobile service solutions:
Tomas Kovar, a product manager at HP, said that with the new solution, mobile network operators will be able to monetize services and make more money.
“This complete solution for policy and charging control is designed to support the delivery of those high-revenue IP services that are most desired by mobile subscribers,” Kovar said.
Certainly, now is the right time for this type of solution. Despite everything, consumers are using more mobile devices – thanks in large part to the ground-breaking iPhone from Apple Inc., whose online App Store business model is being copied throughout the industry – the devices themselves are more robust, they process more data, and the networks that support them are expanding.
As Poretsky told TMCnet in our interview, the new Allot-HP solution is in high demand for deployment this year.
“We’re seeing a very high interest level around the world, including in the United States, because bandwidth needs to be managed and applications must be treated correctly to generate revenue from mobile services,” Poretsky said. “Unlimited, all-you-can-eat doesn’t work from the mobile side.”
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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Michael Dinan