Stop by the Front Porch showcase at the Cable Show 2012 in Boston, May 21-23, to get a hands on view of our proven and effective in-browser subscriber messaging capability.  Come and learn about the variety of use cases recently deployed on many MSO’s across North America.

Follow this link to the story or read the full story here. http://www.screenplaysmag.com/2012/05/14/progress-on-key-issues-offers-hope-for-cable-wi-fi-agenda/

By Fred Dawson

May 11, 2012 – Can the leading cable companies pull of their latest wireless strategy with greater success than previous efforts?

It’s hard to tell at this point, but generally things are going in the right direction. In fact, some participants in cable operators’ ambitious plans to allow their subscribers to roam across all cable partners’ hot spots nationwide say privately that this will be doable by sometime this summer.

Whether or not that turns out to be the case, progress on some key details bodes well for at least the first phase of Wi-Fi roaming strategy, which envisions contiguous Wi-Fi coverage in some MSOs’ service areas and some degree of expanded coverage across other cable footprints. As previously reported (December, p. 1), roaming partnerships tied to this build-out strategy kicked off last year with an agreement covering Cablevision, Time Warner Cable and Comcast service areas in the mid-Atlantic region and southern New England. These plans dovetail in still-vague ways with MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) deals to be forged with Verizon Wireless in conjunction with that carrier’s purchase of AWS cellular spectrum from Comcast, TWC, Cox and Bright House Networks.

All of the top MSOs with the exception of Charter Communications have recently signaled stepped-up Wi-Fi infrastructure agendas. Cablevision, for example, is now testing mobile access to video as the next step in its bid to be the first MSO to provide footprint-saturation coverage that encompasses streamed pay TV as well as broadband connectivity for its subscribers.

Comcast earlier this year told investors it was committed to expanding its footprint in 2012. And sources say Bright House has stayed on course with its previously announced plans for some 2,000 new hot spots in Florida cities.

Cox, while not saying much about its plans in the wake of abandoning its mobile strategy and selling off its AWS spectrum, has offered a clue to its plans in the form of a job solicitation notice posted on its Website. The MSO says it has a position for a “wireless design engineer III,” who will serve as “part of the mobility project team to take the technical lead in the analysis, design, implementation, optimization and enhancement of Wi-Fi wireless networks with a particular focus on adding out-of-home connectivity to…high-speed broadband Internet and video services and potentially voice service.”

TWC, which told investors in early May that it is deploying another 10,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in New York and Los Angeles this year with other cities to come, makes clear its goal is to create a robust carrier-grade wireless network capable of serving its own and partners’ subscribers with mobile broadband connectivity. “Wi-Fi at the carrier level is anything but simple and requires new technologies that go beyond vanilla reference design access points and enterprise-level management,” says Mike Roudi, senior vice president of mobile services at Time Warner Cable. “The problem is finding Wi-Fi technology specifically designed for stringent carrier requirements.”

TWC has turned to Ruckus Wireless as a second source beyond Ericsson’s newly acquired BelAir Networks unit for supply of dual–band strand–mounted Wi-Fi access points that integrate a DOCSIS 3.0 cable modem for backhauling Wi-Fi traffic over TWC’s existing cable plant. TWC is also using the Ruckus 802.11n Smart Wi-Fi platform to extend broadband services to high–traffic environments using specialized, ultra high–capacity Wi-Fi access points designed for stadiums and large public venues. “Our partnership with Ruckus will be important for delivering carrier–class Wi-Fi services that offer best–in–class broadband mobility to our subscribers,” Roudi says.

As Ruckus president and CEO Selina Lo notes, a big advantage for the Wi-Fi mobility strategy is it leverages a device base that doesn’t require MSOs to get into the phone-store business. “The expansion of Wi-Fi into millions of homes, offices and public Wi-Fi hotspots, along with the growth of a vast and mature ecosystem built of thousands of devices, has established Wi-Fi as the most heavily used wireless technology in the world,” Lo says.

Indeed, at the beginning of 2012, Wi-Fi accounted for 63.4 percent of all smartphone-originated data traffic within the United States, according to a new report from Mobidia. Rising smartphone penetration rates and the successful attachment of data plans to those devices will grow the value of small–screen access revenues to operators to more than $230 billion by 2016, according to Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts.

But this means operators will have to equip their networks with capabilities that go well beyond the early iterations of Wi-Fi where laptops were the primary targeted devices. Today’s Wi-Fi enabled smartphones have very different characteristics from one brand to the next in terms of power, antennas, support for IP–based streaming video and the constantly changing angle of these devices. The simple variation of a device’s orientation can account for up to a 5x performance degradation among Wi-Fi products unable to adapt to such changes, Lo notes.

In February The Wall Street Journal reported testing TWC and Cablevision hot spots in the New York area with decidedly mixed results. “Simple Google searches took several minutes to load at both operators’ hot spots, while YouTube videos and live streams from the WatchESPN iPhone app failed to load after more than 10 minutes of buffering at various Cablevision outdoor Wi-Fi access points in Brooklyn,” the report said.

These are the kinds of issues a state-of-the-art carrier Wi-Fi platform like TWC is deploying with Ruckus is meant to solve. Lo says. Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi focuses and constantly steers Wi-Fi signals over the fastest signal paths using patented adaptive antenna technology, he says, adding that the platform uses specialized technology that accounts for changing device orientation.

Now that operators are investing heavily in Wi-Fi infrastructure it stands to reason they would want their subscribers to know this enhancement to their broadband services is provided by their cable operator. It turns out this is harder than it seems, which has prompted one of the top MSOs in this space to deploy a customer messaging solution supplied by Front Porch, Inc.

Results of this unnamed MSO’s efforts bode well for the industry’s ability not only to enhance subscriber awareness of the operator’s role in providing the Wi-Fi service but also to drive greater usage of applications the operator is providing through that broadband connection, and the legacy fixed connection as well, says Front Porch founder and CEO Zach Britton. “Operators need to speak directly to subscribers over the Internet,” Britton says. “It’s a non-trivial problem.”

In the case of the MSO now using the Front Porch system for Wi-Fi messaging, one of the major conveniences associated with the service, namely, automatic sign in, left consumers in the dark as to where the service was coming from. Notwithstanding extensive marketing touting all the conveniences associated with the new broadband anywhere service, focus group studies showed consumers thought they were getting the automatic Wi-Fi connection from their mobile service provider, Britton says.

Now, with a brief, unobtrusive message from the Front Porch network-based browser solution, which does not require client-side software, all users know where the service is coming from. Moreover, they’re now getting messages asking them if they would like to download a Mobile TV app to enable programming on the iOS phones and tablets.

This, too, has had a significant impact on consumers in comparison to the usage generated by local TV advertising, print ads, emails and app store listings. “Our customer has seen an increase in take rates on the Wi-Fi TV Everywhere app of over 20 percent,” Britton says. The message prompting activation of the app is very simple. “FREE Live TV App” with the MSO’s logo is all it takes to get people engaged, he adds.

With such messaging capabilities MSOs have an opportunity to deliver app prompts that could greatly increase perceived value as well as open the path to new revenues, Britton notes. For example, Front Porch customer have long leveraged its messaging system over fixed broadband networks to deliver promotions, provide subscribers access to account and billing information and allow them to open chat sessions with service reps.

All these capabilities can be extended to devices using the Wi-Fi network, Britton says. Also in the works for the unnamed MSO’s Wi-Fi service are messages promoting apps tied to finding goods and services from local retailers, linking users to home security services and prompting users to access their home voice service over the Wi-Fi connection.

Another barrier to building a compelling Wi-Fi experience for cable subscribers has been the absence of seamless connectivity across hot spots and other roaming-related ease-of-use issues.
But there has been considerable progress in this area, suggesting a new level of experience that will obviate re-registration as users traverse multiple hot spots both within their cable operator’s service area and partner service areas is in the offing.

One important development along these lines is the CableLabs Wi-Fi Roaming Architecture and Interfaces Specification, issued in 2010, which provides a common approach to authentication of partners’ subscribers as they enter cable Wi-Fi footprints outside their home cities. Here the idea is to support subscriber access via a Web portal sign-in with username and password, allowing the visited network to “proxie” credentials to the home network for subscriber authentication and device authorization.

More recently, TWC has made known details of a technical solution that supports seamless roaming from one hot spot to another both within a given MSO’s Wi-Fi network and within a partner’s network when a subscriber is authenticated to use the partner’s system. In a patent entitled “System and Method for Wi-Fi Roaming” filed in February, TWC engineers describe a process by which roaming subscriber devices can sustain access across multiple hot spots through a complex system of “virtual access point” instantiations tied to remotely stored Service Set Identifiers (SSIDs) that associate the device with an authenticated home access point gateway.

The system requires that the Wi-Fi network be equipped with AP roaming modules with software processing capabilities that match the MAC (media access control) address of roaming devices with SSIDs of authenticated subscribers that are stored in a roaming datastore. Once match is made the roaming module initiates a “virtual AP” which allows the device to communicate as if it were connected to its home AP. The patent also describes an alternative means of maintaining continuous connectivity whereby the roaming device can be connected via IP tunneling directly through the network back to its home AP.

And the patent application covers a means by which a session initiated by an authorized subscriber on a cellular or Wi-Fi network can be handed off to another network and then returned to the network on which the session was initiated as the user traverses the different connection points. This makes it possible to sustain continuous connection as the subscriber moves from a cellular network to a Wi-Fi network and back to cellular or vice versa, which would be a significant benefit for subscribers of MSOs who partner with an MVNO provider like Verizon Wireless.

As noted with the Front Porch customer, along with using Wi-Fi to deliver the broadband experience and TV Everywhere services beyond the home, MSOs are looking at these networks as a way to extend the reach of their digital voice services. Already, as reported elsewhere, Caribbean MSO Columbus Communications is demonstrating how this can be done over any Wi-Fi connection to a hot spot anywhere in the world using the integration platform supplied by UXP Systems. These new seamless roaming capabilities would allow operators to support an all-IP mobile triple-play service at a fraction of the costs of building an LTE (Long-Term Evolution) 4G mobile infrastructure.

Additionally, acting as end users as part of the World IPv6 Day, Front Porch is validating connectivity from its headquarters to various IPv6-enabled Web sites.

The goal of World IPv6 Day is to motivate organizations across the industry—from hardware manufacturers and ISPs to Web site operators—to prepare services for IPv6 and help ensure a smooth transition from IPv4. As a result, the Internet Society (ISOC) is encouraging network operators to enable IPv6 connectivity to end users on World IPv6 Day. Web site owners are requested to run IPv6 and IPv4 (dual stack) on their sites.

Entire Article:

Active Broadband Networks technology is based upon the open standards of IPDR, which has been broadly embraced by CableLabs® and its members. DOCSIS® 3.0 is being deployed by Cable Operators to provide new and higher speed services to their subscribers. The additional IPDR functionality in DOCSIS® 3.0 significantly improves network and service management where high reliability and large volumes of information are required. The Active Resource Manager is an IPDR collection, storage and processing system designed to meet the needs of Cable Operators. Active Broadband Networks technology uses the IPDR standards to measure bandwidth consumption at a granular level, accurately and cost-effectively.

Front Porch’s direct-to-browser Subscriber Messaging platform supports Service Providers in 40 countries, enabling Providers to deliver engaging, cost-effective messages that provides a better customer communication experience. Our bandwidth consumption messaging solution communications an accurate real-time measurement of customer bandwidth usage direct to the customers’ browser. Effective customer communication of bandwidth usage is vital to the implementation of bandwidth usage caps.

“Active Broadband Networks is a natural partner for Front Porch. They clearly have an emerging technology to help MSOs with the complex issues of resource management. Our customers realize that accuracy, clarity and communication are key components to the successful deployment of solutions to manage the use of bandwidth and Active Broadband Networks delivers the technology to meet this need,” said Derek Maxson, President and Chief Technology Officer of Front Porch.

Adam Dunstan, President of Active Broadband Networks remarked, “We are excited to partner with Front Porch to help our customers effectively communicate to users their current consumption of network resources. Front Porch Subscriber Messaging is a powerful addition to our technology, allowing MSOs to complete the offering and bridge the gap to the consumer.”

About Active Broadband Networks
Active Broadband Networks is a leading provider of Open Source Subscriber Service and Broadband Network Management systems. We are the developers of the Active Resource Manager; a Subscriber Service Management and Broadband Network Management platform based upon the emerging IPDR protocol standards. The Active Resource Manager provides a subscriber-service-centric view of network resource usage that is unavailable in current network management systems. It further leverages this information to predict future demands, identify top-talkers by service class, implement per-subscriber usage quotas and measure subscriber experience. Designed to meet the needs of Broadband Service Providers, the Active Resource Manager is available in three editions including a distributed system supporting up-to 100 million subscriber devices. The Active Resource Manager is an Open Source platform. This benefits our customers by eliminating complex licensing, easing integration with other Operational Support Systems, and offering choice in on-going support and functionality development. Active Broadband Networks provides commercial support and professional services for the Active Resource Manager.

Front Porch Inc., the worldwide leader in direct-to-the-browser messaging for broadband Internet providers, today announced that a major Asian telco increased traffic to its popular content portal by delivering a customized version of the website using Front Porch’s patented messaging and online advertising solution. The telco improved advertising response rates and generated substantial new revenue by combining Front Porch’s unique solution with existing display and text ads. Advertiser’s click-thru rates soared seven-fold over the previous benchmark.

In addition to increasing portal traffic and revenue, Front Porch expanded its existing deployment by over one million new broadband subscribers. Because Front Porch’s solution deploys out-of-path of Internet traffic, the telco experienced a fast and easy multi-million subscriber ramp up with no network downtime or negative impact to subscribers.

“In today’s tough economy, Internet providers need to increase revenue now more than ever before. Our customers experience increased portal traffic, improved results and higher revenue with no risk to the network or negative impact to subscribers. We’re thrilled about our customers’ success and the increased interest we’re seeing worldwide,” stated Raul Vaughn, Front Porch Vice President of Asia and Emerging Markets.

THE RESPONSE: Bill stuffers are thrown out unread and e-mail messages are deleted. Even messages that load alongside a provider’s homepage have no guarantee of being seen, as more consumers use third-party portals like AOL or Yahoo.

Tackling that challenge, Ohio’s Massillon Cable TV contracted with Front Porch for a messaging system that can’t be avoided. Front Porch’s software “follows” an Internet user wherever they navigate, loading the operator-branded message page into their browser before the information from the requested destination is loaded.

Front Porch CEO Zach Britton said this works better than a pop-up or pop-under, because those methods can cause disputes with Web site owners that want unimpeded viewing for their banner ads.

Massillon president Bob Gessner came up with the idea of using the application to respond to legal demands regarding Web users accused of violating terms of service by downloading music or movies without paying for them.

“We haven’t scratched the surface of all [the software] can do,” Gessner said.

THE RESULT: Consumers have a chance to legalize their behavior rather than getting their service cut off — and the provider doesn’t lose revenue.
Fair Warning for Copyright Holders, by Linda Haugsted — Multichannel News, 1/6/2008

“JiWire is addressing critical needs of both advertisers seeking to maximize their ROI with better targeting and Wi-Fi network operators seeking to offset costs with advertising revenue.”
Advertising displayed in response to a user’s navigating to a particular URL
Advertising displayed at pre-determined timed-based intervals
Continuous advertising displayed throughout a network user’s Internet browsing
The JiWire Advertising Appliance is powered by advanced advertising delivery technology from Front Porch, a leader in Internet advertising delivery solutions. More information about the JiWire Mobile Broadband Advertising Network and the JiWire Advertising Appliance may be found at http://www.jiwire.com/business/ad-platform.htm.

The JiWire Mobile Broadband Advertising Network and the JiWire Advertising Appliance enable advertisers to reach a highly attractive audience with location-driven messaging using cutting-edge advertising formats. For example, a traveler can automatically be presented with offers for services, such as a restaurants or dry cleaning, that are in the immediate vicinity of the hotel or café at which he or she is using a Wi-Fi network. By delivering location-specific advertising and providing sophisticated performance tracking, the Mobile Broadband Advertising Network gives advertisers unprecedented control, maximizes the effectiveness of campaigns, and enables operators to better monetize their networks.

“We’re pleased that JiWire, a progressive leader in the Wi-Fi advertising arena, has chosen the Front Porch advertising delivery technology for the JiWire Advertising Appliance,” said Zachary Britton, chief executive officer, Front Porch. “JiWire is addressing critical needs of both advertisers seeking to maximize their ROI with better targeting and Wi-Fi network operators seeking to offset costs with advertising revenue.”

“We’re excited to enable WISPs to yield more revenue per session and advertisers to reach an elusive demographic with these cutting-edge advertising formats,” said Kevin McKenzie, founder and CEO, JiWire. “The JiWire Advertising Appliance takes the performance and capability of the JiWire Mobile Broadband Advertising Network to a whole new level.”

About JiWire

JiWire is the largest mobile broadband advertising network, delivering premium, location-driven advertising on Wi-Fi and WiMAX networks. JiWire’s breakthrough advertising medium enables marketers to reach an influential mobile demographic at point-of-connection. JiWire’s portfolio of blue-chip advertisers, combined with its market-proven delivery platform and registry of Wi-Fi and WiMAX locations, enables mobile broadband networks and device manufacturers to leverage advertising as a currency for wireless Internet access.

In short, they want to say howdy, and companies like Front Porch are here to make the howdy happen.

Founded in 1998, the company’s technology offers simplified means of creating and managing communications between Wi-Fi providers and users. Recently, it scored a big win when its product was selected as the technology of choice by free-hotspot.com, Europe’s largest and fastest growing free wireless service network.

“Europe has the least Wi-Fi penetration, but it is growing the fastest,” says Raul Vaughn, Director of Strategic Services at Front Porch. “Everyone we are talking to there is still talking about individual businesses putting up their own hotspots.”

That’s territory Front Porch knows well, having cultivated just such a market in the U.S. since its inception in the late 1990s. In this latest iteration, the company has teamed with Anacapa Holdings, parent company of free-hotspot.com. Anacapa will utilize Front Porch technology to help European Wi-Fi operators build an ad-supported network in a revenue sharing model, Vaughn says. free-hotspot.com works with local, multi-national and national advertisers and agencies to develop online marketing programs and initiatives intended to reach Wi-Fi users.

To make the most of this opportunity, Front Porch executives won’t be relying just on their partners across the pond. The company already has opened a three-person office in London in an effort to have a direct presence in their target market. “We think it’s pretty important to maintain contact with the customer,” Vaughn says. “And when you have someone who speaks with a British accent, they say things so much nicer than we do.”

Analysts say there is good reason for purveyors of hotspot-related technologies to be looking toward the Continent for business opportunities.

In 2005, two of the top three Wi-Fi enabled cities in the world were European: the top three were London, New York and Paris, according to the latest research from hotspot information and service provider JiWire. The trend held among the top three countries: the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

Yet even with its recent European coup, Front Porch is keeping one eye firmly fixed on the United States, where Vaughn says a shifting emphasis in the Wi-Fi market is driving significant growth opportunities. He’s talking about the push toward municipal Wi-Fi, which he predicts will soon reshape the market for Wi-Fi technologies and services.

“In the U.S., the main focus right now is on municipal wireless in places like San Francisco and Philadelphia, with people wanting to [provide high-speed connectivity to] entire cities and provide free or low-cost access to every man, woman and child,” Vaughn says.

Over the past year, numerous cities large and small have put the wheels in motion to deploy citywide networks. They’re looking to wireless to enhance public services, boost economic development and make the Internet more readily available to citizens.

Vaughn says his company may have an early lead in that its core product readily translates from the hotspot model to the municipal realm. “At any time, our existing technology can be applied to municipal wireless,” he says.

Instead of delivering ads, he suggests, the same technology could be used to send emergency alerts across a broad population.

To help spread the word, the company has launched a marketing push. It will sponsor free Wi-Fi access at this spring’s Muni Wi-Fi conference in Atlanta, as well as at the W2i digital cities convention in Houston. The firm also has joined Intel’s “Digital Communities” initiative, an effort to help pilot communities design, develop and deploy new technologies.

Thus, even as Front Porch pursues its new European opportunities, the company is pushing hard to grab a piece of this emerging municipal market. “And we are making some pretty good inroads,” Vaughn says.

By Adam Stone, February 24, 2006, Wifi-Planet