Mobile Personalization

4gwe Logo
4GWE Launches New Sites: WiMAX | LTE | WIRELESS BACKHAUL | Broadband Stimulus


WiMAX Reports

 

Mobile Personalization - BroadHop's Mobile Policy Technology Targets Eager-to-Please SPs

 

May 25, 2010

By Marisa Torrieri, TMCnet Editor

 

As the move toward next-gen networks quickens, service providers are eager for ways to make their offerings more innovative and competitive -- and create a "stickier" relationship with their customers.

That's why BroadHop (News - Alert) Inc., a company that makes policy management and control solutions for service providers, unveiled a number of solutions for service providers at TM Forum's (News - Alert) Management World tradeshow and conference in Nice, France, May 19-21, to do just that.

BroadHop's new Policy Builder application, which augments BroadHop's recently announced Quantum (News - Alert) Network Suite , delivers policy capability for service providers, so they may, in turn, drive real-time, two-way communication between them and their subscribers -- using policy to better differentiate services, reinforce value and drive a higher quality of customer experience.

Just before launch time, TMCnet got a chance to hash it out with the BroadHop's Dan Geiger.

The full exchange follows.

TMCnet: BroadHop's iPhone and Android (News - Alert) mobile applications help subscribers to control their own bandwidth level. Why would consumers want to do that? 

Dan Geiger: Bandwidth is not readily available in all places and at all times.  Let's say that someone must take part in a mobile Webex call and bandwidth is constrained and creating a poor meeting experience.  Wouldn't it be nice for that person to be able to request their service provider to prioritize their Webex traffic from their own smartphone?  Even if there were an additional charge, it may very well be worth it to get a higher level of service for that application at that time.  

TMCnet: Why did BroadHop decide to create this application? Where did the need come from? 

DG: The need came from providers. Providers have come to us looking for ways to make their services more innovative and competitive-- with the intent to create a "stickier" relationship with their customers. By providing choice and 2-way interaction between the subscriber and the provider, the Quantum Smartphone Application Framework can usher in a tighter relationship between customer and providers.  In the simplest case, today's customers don't know why they may be having a poor mobile experience -- slow service occurs and they have a poor experience. With our smartphone policy capability, the provider could provide updates to their customers to let them know that the network is congested or that the issue could resolve itself in some amount of time. Simply by setting their customer expectations with such statuses, providers would be creating a more predictable experience.  

TMCnet: Would this cost them money? What would be an incentive to change behavior?

DG: Great question. The common view would be that it would cost money (as I have described in the Webex example above), yet additional functionality and choice doesn't necessarily need to be charged back to the customer.  

For instance, let's say a service provider were to want to create a marketing program to build customer loyalty and slow customer churn.  One component of that program could be for the provider to allot some number of loyalty "reward points' for each month that a subscriber was to stay with the provider (similar in concept to airline frequent flyer programs).  

One of the potential benefits that a subscriber could obtain with their points would be a prioritized service when required.  So in the example above, that customer could open their Quantum Smartphone Application and request the service through the smartphone interaction with the Quantum Network Policy Server.  With the application framework (which can be tailored by the provider to offer such a program), it looks like a web page that provides them with their program status, offers, and a method for initiating services.  Without the application running on a handheld, it would otherwise be impossible for the subscriber to review their loyalty program status and initiate actions that would provide them any number of policy-based application service choices.    

TMCnet: Can you speak to the same need for the "policy control" application you're developing for service providers? 

DG: The Quantum Network Policy Builder is a groundbreaking tool that frees service providers to innovate and rapidly deliver new policy-based services and applications. It is a tool that exposes the very flexible service creation and software capabilities built into our Quantum Network platform.  Here's what is new here. Before Quantum Network Suite and Policy Builder, any service innovation would require the policy vendor to add capabilities to their policy core code.  If a service provider were to want to create a new policy-based service offer, they would need to go to their policy vendor to do that development.  This means that the vendor would need to scope the job, write thousands of lines of code (taking many weeks or months), and then that code would need to be rolled into that vendor's next available software release-all before it could be provided back to the operator to test and deploy in network.  This process typically takes 3+ months. This timeframe and effort makes it impossible for service providers to build applications and services that can compete in terms of cost, time to market, and breadth of offerings with applications made by Internet and mobile developers.  No wonder providers are often considered behind the curve in terms of innovation and new service delivery.

Now, the Policy Builder (in conjunction with our Quantum Network Suite policy platform) makes it possible for SP developers to build, test, and deploy their own features without being at the mercy of their policy vendor's timeframe and resource constraints. And, because Policy Builder is (1) able to readily access the Quantum Network's very flexible and modular policy architecture and (2) is an intuitive, Eclipse based, policy specific graphical development environment, services that took 12 weeks to develop in the past, can now be developed by the service provider themselves within a matter of days and be deployed immediately--without having to wait for vendors to develop and roll out new versions of code.  Policy Builder is all about allowing SPs to have feature freedom and to begin to accelerate their innovation cycles, making their development times more closely resemble those of mobile and Internet application developers.       

 TMCnet: Are there any service providers testing this app? Any partnerships?

DG: Many service providers are beginning to use Policy Builder for development.  We have a dozen SPs who are in various stages of Quantum Network roll-outs and trials (all since February 1 when we announced the Quantum Network Suite).  All of them are, or will, be developing applications and services with the Policy Builder.

Regarding partnerships, we are in the early stages of building what we envision to be a broad and varied set of partners that will include vendors of NW infrastructure, OSS vendors, and SIs and partners. We are in discussions with all types of partners and several are actively developing on the Quantum Network Suite with Policy Builder now.      


Marisa Torrieri is a TMCnet Web editor, covering IP hardware and mobility, including IP phones, smartphones, fixed-mobile convergence and satellite technology. She also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet's gadgets and satellite e-Newsletters. To read more of Marisa's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Marisa Torrieri

 

View More Mobile Personalization Channel Stories

 

Free 4GWE eNewsletter






General Info

Technology Marketing Corporation,
2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: 800-243-6002, 203-852-6800
General comments: [email protected]. Comments about this site: [email protected].
Technology Marketing Corp. © 2024 Copyright.
© Technology Marketing Corp. © 2024 Copyright | Privacy Policy | Sitemap | Visit other TMC Interactive sites