Zain Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) has deployed an NFV-based mobile data traffic management solution from Openwave Mobility to improve quality of services to its wireless subscribers.

Openwave Mobility will assist Zain KSA to manage and monetize encrypted data including streaming videos and delivers outstanding subscriber Quality of Experience (QoE) with the virtualized solution targeted for telecom operators.

Encrypted data from OTTs is preventing mobile network operators from gaining insight on network traffic to manage QoE.
Zain KSA has experienced an increase in encrypted traffic travelling on its mobile network in Saudi Arabia. In some parts of the world, over 60 percent of data is encrypted and this could reach 80 percent before the end of 2017.

“We have seen a sharp rise in HTTPS and QUIC traffic over the past few months and we took steps to find solutions that could ease congestion and deliver superb QoE. Openwave Mobility demonstrated their expertise and backed it up with excellent levels of service,” said Khalid Charaa, core planning senior manager for Zain KSA.

“Over 50 percent of data travelling on mobile networks is video and this is straining networks. This, along with encrypted data, adversely impacts QoE. Our research has shown that subscribers will only tolerate 6 seconds of buffering before they abandon their video,” said Indranil Chatterjee, SVP of Product and Sales at Openwave Mobility.