Mobile Personalization

Bridgewater Systems today announced that four Tier 1 operators in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific are offloading 3G data traffic to WiFi (News - Alert) hotspots and femtocells using Bridgewater’s new mobile data offload products.

 

The mobile personalization services provider – which made its announcement on the official first day of the Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona, held Feb. 15-18 – said its mobile data offload “solutions” address the capacity challenges faced by mobile operators, as subscribers up their adoption rates of WiFi-fueled smartphones and laptop data cards.

 

“Bridgewater’s new data offload solutions are hitting the mark with mobile operators who want to alleviate network traffic congestion and optimize services across their different access networks – whether it is 3G, 4G, WiFi, or femtocells,” said David Sharpley, senior vice president, Bridgewater Systems (News - Alert). “By combining subscriber, service and policy controls with a multi-access approach, we are uniquely positioned to help operators reduce costs and deliver a seamless customer experience, regardless of network type.”

 

The mobile data offload solutions that address these challenges and include the Bridgewater Service Controller anchored by Bridgewater’s Subscriber Data Broker and the Bridgewater Policy Controller.

 

The Service Controller securely and transparently re-authenticates and re-authorizes subscribers and performs critical accounting functions as they move from a congested 3G network to a WiFi hotspot, indoor femtocell, or 4G network. Meanwhile, the Bridgewater Policy Controller applies real-time network, application and subscriber policies to manage mobile data growth. It allows for “selective” offload by applying policies to move traffic based on network conditions or a subscriber’s profile, usage behavior, or location.

 

The new solutions are designed to have extensive interoperability with leading WiFi and femtocell, security gateway and HLR equipment providers, according to Bridgewater. By using them, operators can alleviate 3G network congestion and reduce costs by offloading mobile data traffic to a WiFi hotspot or femtocell without the need to provision these services in the Home Location Register.

 

Operators deploying a multi-access offload strategy can expect savings in the range of 20 to 25 percent per year, according to Bridgewater.

 

Additionally, they ensure secure and transparent access as subscribers move to a WiFi hotspot or femtocell and back to a 3G network again without service interruptions or the need for subscribers to sign in again.

 

“Shifting data traffic off a congested mobile network and onto a Wi-Fi hotspot or femtocell fundamentally changes the economics of delivering that data,” said Ari Banerjee, vice president of Yankee Group (News - Alert), a consulting group that follows the telecommunications space. “Considering that more than 50 percent of mobile data sessions originate indoors, Bridgewater’s innovative multi-access approach to mobile data offload can provide significant cost benefits to operators as well as delivering a better mobile experience to subscribers.”

 

Visit Bridgewater Systems and see the Data Offload and Policy Control Demonstrations at Mobile World Congress, Hall 1, Stand 1F47, February 15-18, 2010, Barcelona, Spain. Join Bridgewater's Russ Freen, Chief Technology Officer, at the “Network Breaking Point? session to discuss solutions for managing mobile data growth on Feb. 17 at 2 p.m.