Bridgewater riding high on surge in mobile data traffic

Bridgewater Systems Corp.’s focus on mobile data management is paying off with the company announcing two major deals at the CTIA wireless convention in Las Vegas. Ottawa-based Bridgewater inked deals with Iusacell in Mexico and another with US-based mobile service provider Cricket Communications. “Demand in their area is pretty strong,” David Vorhaus, an analyst with Yankee Group, tells Report on Wireless. “They have shifted almost exclusively to address the needs of mobile providers – they see that as the next step for demand in policy management.” At the conference, Bridgewater announced that Iusacell, Mexico’s third largest mobile service provider, has deployed the company’s Service Controller and Subscriber Data Broker products, and that Cricket has deployed Bridgewater’s WideSpan 5000 system to predict and manage the growth in the company’s flat-rate, unlimited wireless services. “iPhone users use more data than people on other devices,” says Joanne Steinberg, Bridgewater’s marketing director. “And laptop data cards with USB dongles can deliver high speed internet services off of a cellular network.” Last June Bridgewater announced a three-year contract with Verizon Wireless with an initial value of $30 million, and this recent deal with Cricket fits in well with demand generated by the ever-popular flat-rate model. “Flat-rate, unlimited wireless plans bring a lot of traffic onto the network,” says Steinberg. “There can be big traffic surges – our system helps providers rapidly scale, predict, and manage.” Steinberg references Cisco System’s Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, released January 29, which predicts global mobile data traffic will double every year through 2013, increasing 66 times between 2008 and 2013. This is a global phenomenon, with Latin America representing high growth rates in mobile data traffic. “In Mexico, Iusacell is delivering personalized mobile services to over 1.2 million mobile data subscribers,” says Steinberg. “They were using our Service Controller for their 2G network, and now have it on their 3G network.” The Service Controller is Bridgewater’s core product for “triple A” service management: authentication, authorization, and accounting. “It can capture information on subscribers,” says Steinberg. “This way a carrier can know roaming stats and subscriber preferences. It can then be used to deliver personalized services to subscribers.” At CTIA, the company discussed how to manage wireless data growth using what it calls Smart Caps, a trademarked approach for managing bandwidth and optimizing mobile data network investments. “I agree with Bridgewater,” says Vorhaus. “Mobile providers will need better bandwidth allocation and better services, and that means bandwidth caps.” If this sounds like a familiar business, it is: the market is being attacked from numerous angles, including independent vendors Sandvine Inc., Camiant Inc., and Amdocs Inc. as well as heavy hitters on the network equipment side such as Cisco, Juniper Networks, and Alcatel Lucent. “The future challenge for Bridgewater is for its policy management solution to successfully integrate with a software vendor like Amdocs,” says Vorhaus. “But right now they are in a good position to partner with one of the big equipment makers to marry subscriber data with policy management.” Meanwhile, with the market heating up and equipment makers hoping to fill out their portfolios, a takeover is a very real possibility. “I would not be surprised to see them bought,” says Vorhaus. “Operax was bought , and we have been talking to Cisco about that – they are open to partnerships and acquisitions, but nothing is on the table for policy management to date. We believe it would make sense for an equipment maker or billing provider to buy a Bridgewater or a Camiant.” Vorhaus notes that subscribers want to do more with their mobile devices while also paying less, so the onus is on the operator to bring usage in line with billing plans, and to make sure that the policies and subscribers match up. And all of this has to happen on the fly. “We are just not seeing the slowdown,” says Steinberg, “There is still a lot of growth in this area. In many regions of the world mobile devices are key for accessing the internet,” she says, adding that 4G Wi-Max is being used by a lot of operators in Latin America for delivering broadband and VoIP to rural areas.

Bridgewater riding high on surge in mobile data traffic

News | 04/03/2009 2:27 pm EDT

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