Apps Take Center Stage at CTIA

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

CTIA opens today in New Orleans, for the first time in seven years.  In that time, both the show and the city have changed dramatically.  From Wireless Week magazine:

Whereas seven years ago the themes of the CTIA show were driven by wireless service providers and handset manufacturers, that’s not the case these days. This year’s keynotes include a panel with wireless operator executives, but other keynotes feature Mozilla, Pandora, Spotify, Visa, Electronic Arts and MasterCard. Attendee demographics also have expanded to encompass more retailers, dealers, distributors and resellers.

Apps are changing the industry as carriers and handset manufacturers, both, are seeking partnerships with app and content providers to differentiate their products and services.

For the network, this can only mean more signaling and bandwidth challenges, on top of the unsolved problems of today.

The 4G/LTE network roll out is expected to help with added bandwidth, but it may lead users to use more data neutralizing that benefit.  For signaling, though, 4G/LTE won’t be a fix for a number of reasons including the flat network design and the fact that the only devices on a 4G network are smartphones (more on this in a future blog post).

On the positive note, our Open Channel traffic optimization software is making great progress in carrier trials with real world results that are meeting, or exceeding, our lab results.  Open Channel addresses the bandwidth and signaling challenges from end to end by eliminating unnecessary network requests, and reducing the overall amount of chattiness created by apps on the network.

With a mass migration from a wired world to everything mobile at the forefront of the industry and the network, traffic optimization is going to be a critical part of keeping network performance and user satisfaction very high.

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Users and Networks Drowning in the Data Deluge

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

As mobile devices get increasingly sophisticated and users’ taste for access to information and entertainment grows, so does the amount of data consumed, having tripled in 2011 alone! Although users are increasingly aware of the costs associated with data and roaming,  many are unfamiliar with how much data is used by specific mobile services, applications or games and how high the costs are, having thrown away nearly $8 Billion last year from being ‘unaware’ of data use and being on the wrong data plan.

Many users don’t know that some of their favorite apps are gobbling up their data plans even when they aren’t using them. In a recent survey by Carphone Warehouse, nearly 81% of respondents didn’t know that apps like Twitter and Skype consume data even when not in use. These apps run updates and network requests in the background, causing signaling  and congestion for operators and high costs to users often resulting in ‘’bill shock’’, a sudden and unexpected increase in monthly cell bills affecting more than 30 million Americans in 2010. Although pressures from the FCC have forced operators to disclose high data and roaming charges big data bills are still being delivered, some reaching more than $10,000!

Users aren’t the only ones suffering from the onslaught of mobile data. Operators struggle to maintain network connectivity and superior user experience all while maintaining their rapidly shrinking margins. Median smartphone data usage at AT&T Wireless was up 888%, and 551% at Verizon last year.  They’re looking for new ways to manage the data and signaling from chatty apps that run in the background, consume valuable network resources and understand that in the long run scaling their infrastructure to handle the data tsunami goes beyond capping users’ data plans and buying more spectrum.

A comprehensive solution that addresses the entire ecosystem: from end users and applications to mobile devices and the network is required. This is where SEVEN has a viable solution. Open Channel is mobile traffic optimization solution that addresses the signaling traffic clogging operator networks from chatty mobile apps. It’s transparent to end-users, applications, the network and devices so it doesn’t interfere with the user experience and can work across 3G, 4G, LTE and GSM Networks.

Open Channel has been shown to reduce the amount of smartphone-generated signaling by as much as 40%, and bandwidth by up to 70%. Want to learn more about it, check out our whitepaper on signaling and the mobile data challenges facing operators and end users. Let us know what you think!

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Storm Watch 2012: Devastating Signaling Front Ahead

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

There’s a potentially devastating signaling storm brewing and SEVEN Networks is on the frontlines with a new infographic depicting the breadth of the problem that plagues wireless networks across the globe.

What’s the culprit? Application chattiness! Did you know that an instant messaging application can ping the network for updates 240 times per hour or that your favorite social messaging app might request network access up to 125 times per hour? Now, if the device happens to be sleeping when these requests are made, it takes up to 30 signaling events for the device radio to wake up and get from an idle to a fully connected state where application data can be exchanged between the cloud and the application. Incredibly unruly apps can create upwards of 2,400 signaling events per hour and that’s just for a single device.

If you think about the 300 million Android devices worldwide, each averaging 35 apps per user – signaling on wireless networks could amount to 25.2 trillion events per hour worldwide!

Here are some real-life examples of how this signaling storm has affected carriers:
• More than 2.5 Million KDDI subscribers in Tokyo Japan were unable to make voice or data calls for more than 4 hours due to signaling and data congestion!
• KT recently suffered network outage where one third-party app took the voice-call success rate down to 10% because the signaling traffic generated by the app overloaded its network
• Angry birds for Android (ad-based) can generate up to 2,422 signaling events in just one hour

For those of you that have followed the SEVEN Networks blog for a while, you know that the issue of network congestion is regularly discussed here. However, we understand that signaling, in its hidden and fairly insidious nature, can be a difficult issue to understand. Our hope is that the infographic will help better explain the problem and hopefully educate the industry about the devastating effects that the signaling storm will have on the quality of service carrier networks if something is not done soon.

Data for sharing the infographic and let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Signaling Talk Heats Up – First Quarter Round Up

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

As Q1 ended, the discussion around wireless signaling is hotter than ever and continues to eclipse headlines throughout the mobile industry. Here’s a quick recap now that more emphasis has been placed on the signaling challenge over the past three months than during the entire 2011 year.

In January Light Reading Mobile reported on a major network outage at NTT Docomo Inc. in Tokyo that left 2.5 million subscribers unable to make voice or data calls for about four and a half hours. The culprit? A network upgrade attempt gone awry, as the network operator was trying to address the surge in signaling traffic on its network. Following the incident, NTT Docomo shared its hopes to work with other operators through the GSM Association to deal with smartphone signaling.

In February, Jon Fredrik Baksaas, CEO of Telenor, shared during the carrier’s Q4 2011 call that signaling volumes need to be taken seriously and that the carrier is moving over to a full IP network because of the signaling demands on its network.

In March, analyst Chetan Sharma predicted that mobile data will double again in 2012 with signaling traffic expected to grow in even faster. He also shared that signaling management solutions are gaining traction as ways to help alleviate the problem. Also in March, the iPad 3 began its presales and publications like Communications Technology reported on the expected volume of network signaling on LTE networks by these new tablets.

Industry trade shows, conferences and associations are also adding sessions and workshops about network signaling in their agenda bringing the issue to the forefront of the discussion on network congestion.

LTE World Summit dedicates one day to Handling the Surge in Signaling Traffic April 2012
Mobile industry analysts now systematically include in network congestion coverage – Chetan Sharma, Andrew Seybold Spring 2012
GSMA reports dramatic increase in  signaling loads, open contest for better behaved apps MWC 2012 in Barcelona
Telecom Italia CEO argues that OTT services overload networks with unnecessary signaling MWC 2012 in Barcelona
NTT Docomo highlights signaling as a serious issue behind the adoption of VoIP, Chat, and other mobile apps NTT Docomo Quarterly Earnings
Telenor voices concerns about the signaling volume created by smartphones on its networks Telenor Quarterly Earnings 
Smartphone traffic projection caught DoCoMo off guard January 2012

We’re keeping a close focus on all of this signaling talk and are eager to share the latest on how our Open Channel™ traffic optimization solution can provide relief from the signaling storm. Stay tuned for more on that shortly!

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Mobile Internet in Need of Content Delivery Management!

Posted on April 13, 2012 by

Consumers are increasingly turning to smartphones and tablets to access online services whether it’s streaming videos or “over-the-top” Internet services and this is driving demand for mobile data through the roof.  Now, the mobile Internet needs a content delivery management mechanism – like Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for wireline Internet – that optimizes mobile data traffic and content delivery for the constraints of wireless networks.

Until last year, the prevailing model for users to access content and internet services was from a personal computer through a fast speed fixed line. The mass migration to everything mobile along with the adoption of cloud-based technology is rapidly changing the access model. More content is stored in the cloud and more users are leveraging increasingly sophisticated mobile devices to access content on the go, anywhere, anytime. A recent study from the Pew Research Center shows that 27% of Americans are now reading news from a mobile device.

Wireless networks are simply not designed and are not ready to handle the resulting traffic load. In addition, mobile apps, whether they are web-based or installed on the device, still rely on technologies and protocols designed for a “wireline” Internet and generate an unprecedented level of chattiness and signaling overload when used over wireless networks.

CDNs have been very successfully applied to the “wireline” Internet to speed up content traffic.  While the technical model is different in the wireless world, the concept can be leveraged on carrier networks to reduce traffic all the way up to network nodes close to the cell tower.  However, what is not addressed by traditional CDNs is what can be referred to as the “last mile problem,” which is translated in the mobile world to the wireless link between the mobile user and the cell tower she/he is attached to.

Optimizing traffic for the wireless last mile requires an end-to-end solution that covers the entire mobile ecosystem from the device to the content that is being accessed in the cloud.

Open Channel, SEVEN’s traffic optimization solution, rethinks scaling mobile for the Internet by truly reshaping and coordinating the interaction between the device and the network in an effective way: optimizing all application traffic rather than addressing the challenge one application at a time or one type of content at a time.

Early tests with of the solution show that by eliminating the unnecessary requests it can reduce the time the device is on the network by 40 percent without impacting the user experience. This translates into a data traffic reduction of up to 70 percent and an increase in battery life by up to 25 percent without application or network changes.

Just as CDNs improved the way that consumers share and receive data on wireline networks, traffic optimization is helping wireless operators to manage content to provide a better overall mobile experience. Stay tuned for more on Open Channel in the coming months.

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What Personal Clouds Mean For Mobile Networks

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

What used to be called the “post-PC” era now has a new name: “the personal cloud” era.  In fact, Gartner has predicted that personal clouds will replace the personal computer as the center of users’ digital lives by 2014.  That’s only two years away, so we better get started.

What replaces – or augments – PCs in this brave new world are mobile devices including smartphones and tablets.  The assumption is that you will have both (and probably a laptop) and that they will all need access to the data stored in your cloud.  That’s how the first couple of popular personal cloud services (iCloud from Apple and SkyDrive from Microsoft) were designed.

The bright future of personal clouds masks the fact that they will be adding significant data and signaling traffic to a wireless network that is already overwhelmed by today’s usage levels.

In its report, Gartner identifies five megatrends that are driving the personal cloud phenomenon.  Two of these will have an extreme impact on the wireless network:

“App-ification” — From Applications to Apps
… They (apps) also raise the prospect of greater cross-platform portability as small user experience (UX) apps are used to adjust a server- or cloud-resident application to the unique characteristics of a specific device or scenario. One application can now be exposed in multiple ways and used in varying situations by the user.

The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices…

Taken together, these trends mean that apps will be pinging the network from multiple devices, doubling or tripling the amount of signaling and bandwidth consumed.

All of this points to the need for traffic optimization that can help keep this new wave of network usage from overwhelming the infrastructure.  Our Open Channel®, now in carrier trials, tackles the problem holistically to minimize traffic from all apps without needing a rewrite.

The personal cloud is coming soon. Let’s hope your network is up for it.

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Carriers Doomed by Revenue-Sucking OTT Messaging? Not with Ping!

Posted on April 6, 2012 by

Last month, cellular-news contemplated ‘the end of SMS’ and the booming rise of Over-the-Top (OTT) messaging services. The article cited a Portio Research forecast that OTT messaging traffic will reach 20.3 trillion messages by the end of 2016. However, the research firm also noted that OTT services are not ‘instant SMS killers.’

Still, carriers are certainly feeling the financial impact of the SMS to OTT messaging transition. Ovum reported in February that carriers saw a decline in messaging revenue by $13.9bn in 2011, or 9% of total messaging revenues. Though that number seems insignificant when you consider the $153bn carriers earned from SMS in 2011, it is still enough for carriers to start considering their options as this alternative market continues to grow.

SEVEN’s answer is to give carriers an app for their users that makes all messaging more useful, fun and easy and incorporates chat. In addition to giving consumers one app for checking messages from major social media sites and email and voicemail, our Ping app also incorporates chat capabilities that allow operators to offer their own branded messaging services. And carriers can monetize the chat service through advertising.

The carrier-version of Ping is currently in trials, but a free version is available now for download on Google Play. Stay tuned for more on how this app can help carriers compete in the hot chat market without sacrificing their sales!

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Network Signaling Takes Center Stage

Posted on March 29, 2012 by

The past 24 months have been dubbed the ‘data capacity crisis,’ ‘mobile data tsunami,’ or the ‘spectrum crunch’. You name it, if it pertains to the impact of smartphones on wireless networks, it’s been at the forefront of anything mobile. In 2011 alone, smartphone usage tripled and mobile data grew more than 2-fold (doubling for the eighth year in a row!). The massive surge in always-on smartphones and chatty apps has introduced new challenges to the mobile ecosystem: from users, to content providers, device manufacturers and mobile operators.

The challenges associated with the mass adoption of smartphones and their network-hungry always-on apps have shifted from serving the demand for bandwidth to understanding some of the hidden traffic issues. As we become more familiar with the complexities associated with chatty apps and super-powered smartphones, we learn that solutions need to go beyond simply optimizing and compressing data, or adding bandwidth. There is a new culprit that brings a new set of obstacles: network signaling. To be clear, bandwidth is still critical component in the optimization of mobile data and video traffic, but to ignore chatty apps and the resulting signaling would be to only address half the problem. In fact, analyst Chetan Sharma predicts mobile data will double again in 2012 with signaling traffic expected to grow in even faster.

Just over 487 million smartphones shipped in 2011 to data hungry owners worldwide. Just one smartphone has an average of 35 apps that are constantly signaling the network for updates (some up to 2,500 times per hour!) The frequent requests consume valuable network resources, drain the device battery, and ultimately result in a degraded user experience. Each time an app opens a channel to request updates from the network, it occupies a port on the remote radio controller. Think of it like an Occupy movement of epic proportions, billions of application protestors occupying the network. The result? Interference with performance, the inability to make calls, upload/download, or connect.

As smartphone adoption continues to rise, along with the always-on chatty apps that go with them, operators will continue to see an increase in network signaling. On top of smartphones, new devices such as the latest iPad are expected to create even more of a signaling storm for carriers. Open Channel is a traffic optimization solution designed to reduce this unnecessary signaling by only connecting to the network if content updates are available. The solution has been shown to reduce the amount of smartphone-generated signaling by as much as 40%, and bandwidth by up to 70%.

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Mobile Apps Get Ice Cream Sandwich Update

Posted on March 26, 2012 by

This is starting to read like a food blog with all the Ice Cream Sandwich posts!

On the heels of the update of our Hotmail app for Android to support Android 4.0 (also known as Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS), we have more news that involves frozen handheld treats: our complete suite of Android mobile apps now supports ICS.

SEVEN mobile apps deliver true push-based email, IM, calendar and contact syncing.  However, this news is aimed at mobile carriers around the world, as many of them base their email services on SEVEN software.  In fact, the first ICS-based mobile apps will soon be available to smartphone users in Spain and the U.S. thanks to carriers who are in the process of rolling out the updated software.

Are any of our readers currently on ICS? Let us know in the comments below and stay tuned for more exciting announcements from SEVEN!

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Open Channel as the NEXT B!G IDEA!

Posted on March 23, 2012 by

SEVEN Open Channel is in the running for this year’s CTIA B!G Idea Contest and now is your chance to vote! To be considered for the contest, companies had to display innovative ideas for products, apps or services that “embody the true transformative power of wireless and can change the way we live, work or play.” Open Channel has revolutionized the way smartphones and chatty apps connect to the network, reducing mobile data usage by up to 70%, providing better service for users and immediate capacity and financial relief to carriers.

Always on smartphones and the chatty apps that users love are constantly signaling the network, some up to 2,500 times per hour! These requests eat-up network resources and suck the device battery. Our B!G IDEA optimizes all requests and efficiently connects devices to the network, eliminating the risk of network congestion. We simply make it possible for every mobile user to have a great experience with mobile data services!

Open Channel transforms the entire mobile ecosystem: from end-user and device to mobile apps and wireless networks. Now is your chance to help the mobile internet become a reality for everybody by voting for Open Channel as the Next B!G Idea! The winner is based solely on the number of votes so every vote counts! Cast your vote now!

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