Tatara Systems launches Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, May 26, 2003

Tatara Systems has unveiled its Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform, which will allow service providers to achieve the one critical aspect still missing from public wireless LAN (Wi-Fi) networks: profitability.

Tatara's platform enables service providers such as mobile operators, wireline carriers, aggregators, ISPs and cable operators to improve the value and security of public Wi-Fi services offered to end users--while simultaneously improving the economics of their own businesses through roaming, wholesaling or becoming "virtual providers" of Wi-Fi services.

Put simply, the Tatara Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform enables operators to separate Wi-Fi network ownership from customer ownership without sacrificing control, manageability or advanced service capabilities. This allows retail service providers--providers who manage end user relationships and who may or may not operate any Wi-Fi networks--to extend coverage through roaming partnerships with wholesale network operators--providers who own Wi-Fi networks and may or may not have direct relationships with end users. The Tatara platform accomplishes this separation while delivering unparalleled, secure visibility into both subscribers and critical Wi-Fi service data such as usage and performance information--including data collected while customers are roaming on partners' networks.

"The most critical aspect to achieving profitability with public Wi-Fi is centered on one business issue; enabling scale of economies. Today public Wi-Fi is a collection of immature and isolated access islands. The crucial technical challenge facing the operators is how to make infrastructure investments that allow them to seamlessly expand network availability while lowering total operational costs without sacrificing security, and customer ease of use. Service providers can drive additional Wi-Fi network usage in two key ways: by establishing seamless roaming for their subscribers--which caused the number of cellular subscribers and usage to skyrocket years ago--and by allowing others to resell their network services," says Bob Egan, president of Mobile Competency. "It is critical for service providers to accelerate the path to Wi-Fi profitability by easily supporting roaming, wholesaling and virtual operator agreements--without ever losing control of the customer."

Using Tatara's carrier-class platform, retail service providers can work with an evolving landscape of partners to quickly secure cost-effective and broad Wi-Fi coverage while maintaining ownership of the end customer relationship.

"Tatara enables service providers to cash in on the Wi-Fi revolution by maximizing partnership opportunities, not just by building out networks," said Steve Nicolle, president and CEO of Tatara Systems. "Retail service providers can do this without sacrificing control of their brand or losing the direct relationships they have established with their subscribers, and network operators can allow this to happen without losing the ability to provide location-specific content and services."

Most importantly, end users benefit when service providers deploy the Tatara solution. They get the broadest possible coverage across numerous network providers. They get a simple and consistent experience across multiple network technologies such as Wi-Fi, GPRS and CDMA. And they get piece of mind knowing that their credentials and application content are highly secure--which is a big concern for enterprise CIOs. In addition, they get access to an increasingly broad range of value added applications--while still paying only one bill and contacting only one company for customer care.

The Tatara Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform product family consists of three components. Two of these components, the Tatara Subscriber Gateway and Tatara Service Manager, support retail service providers. The Subscriber Gateway is a carrier-class platform deployed in a service provider's central facility. It communicates securely with the Service Manager--a small footprint client application optionally deployed on the end customer's Wi-Fi enabled laptop or PDA--to deliver robust authentication, authorization, billing, audit and advanced service capabilities. The third component, the Tatara Partner Gateway, supports wholesale providers. The centrally deployed, carrier-class platform is compatible with virtually any Wi-Fi network hardware and does not require any specific client software to be deployed on the user's terminal.

Both platforms share a 99.999 percent reliable, scalable infrastructure, are fully compliant with all relevant standards and are designed to integrate with existing devices and applications. Both are unique in that they do not require equipment or proprietary software to be installed in a partner's Wi-Fi network or hotspots--allowing, for instance, a retail provider that has deployed the platform to easily roam with network operators who have not and vice versa. Tatara's Wi-Fi Service Delivery Platform is also ideal because it does not require retail providers to deploy their own expensive backhaul networks--which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars per month or more per hotspot. Instead, the platform securely routes only the necessary control and application information to the retail service provider.