MWC – Bridgewater Systems, a specialist in intelligent broadband controls, today announced that Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), the largest provider of mobile broadband in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has selected and rapidly implemented the Bridgewater Policy Controller for data traffic (PCRF) to manage mobile data communication growth and deliver innovative services on Mobily’s nationwide 3G/HSPA+ network.
Mobily, one of the fastest growing mobile operators in the world with over 18 million subscribers and more than 2.3 million customers subscribed to its high-volume mobile broadband bundles, has implemented the Bridgewater Policy Controller/PCRF solution for its nationwide 3G/HSPA+ based mobile broadband network.
With this new implementation, Bridgewater provides the entire convergent, intelligent control plane for Mobily’s Wi-Fi, 3G, and WiMAX Wave 2 networks. Already deployed in Mobily’s WiMAX Wave 2 network today, Bridgewater’s multi-access control plane footprint – Service Controller, Policy Controller and Subscriber Data Broker – is being extended to support the 3G/HSPA+ network and is LTE-ready with dynamic policy control.
The Bridgewater PCRF, integrated with the Cisco Service Control Engine enforcement solution, will allow Mobily to:
– Innovate service offerings with flexible, metered 3G/HSPA+ services including differentiated service tiers and dynamic upsell promotions to their subscribers.
– Optimize its data network through simple configuration of fair usage policies.
– Centralize control and policies for service bundling and portability across Wi-Fi, 3G/HSPA+, WiMAX Wave 2 networks, and future LTE networks.
– The Bridgewater Policy Controller is a market-leading policy engine which supports 3GPP PCRF Release 7, 8 and 9 standards and multiple access networks from a common platform. Policy Controller provides real-time network, application, and subscriber policies to manage mobile data growth and deliver personalized services across a broad set of multi-vendor network enforcement points.
– Bridgewater’s Subscriber Data Broker, already deployed on the WiMAX Wave 2 network, provides a common subscriber data management platform that delivers Mobily a centralized multi-access view of subscriber entitlements and services.
Walid Thabet, Director, Data & Solutions Services, Mobily:
“We selected and implemented Bridgewater’s PCRF due to its market-leading functionality, multi-vendor support and rapid time-to-implement. We look forward to further extending our deployment of Bridgewater to enable differentiated services, and for a common control plane across all of our fixed and mobile networks.”
David Sharpley, Senior Vice President, Bridgewater Systems added:
“Increasingly, innovative operators such as Mobily want to leverage a common set of control plane solutions to serve multiple access networks. This, coupled with our vendor-neutral pedigree, provides Mobily with flexibility and a future-proof advantage as they transform their networks and introduce innovative new services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”