Devicescape Personal Curator Connects Missing 30 Percent of Smartphone Users to Home Wi-Fi

SAN BRUNO, Calif., May 16, 2013—Devicescape today announced Personal Curator, a solution that helps mobile operators maximize use of home Wi-Fi networks while simplifying network connectivity for their customers.  Personal Curator utilizes the company’s intelligent network selection software to simplify initial connectivity to home Wi-Fi and maintain efficient connectivity on an ongoing basis.  By improving home Wi-Fi utilization, Personal Curator improves the service experience for mobile users, while reducing costs and the support burden for mobile operators.

“Despite the benefits of home Wi-Fi, nearly 30 percent of smartphone subscribers fail to take advantage of it,” said Dave Fraser, CEO of Devicescape. “It is usually because of either the initial complexity in getting connected or users have failed to turn their Wi-Fi radio back on. The implications for mobile operators are significant and Personal Curator helps in these cases by prompting users to identify their home network and then facilitating automatic connection.”

Home Wi-Fi already carries the bulk of mobile device data given its speed and cost advantages.  Personal Curator can reach smartphone users that have either never connected to the home Wi-Fi network or have inadvertently opted out by turning off their Wi-Fi radio; it enables a better service experience while dramatically reducing cellular data consumption.  Viewing the potential impact to the mobile network, operators could expect to see network data traffic reduced by 50 percent for this target market. This could lead to $3.15 billion in savings for an operator with five million such smartphone users or $631* per user over the customer lifetime.

Personal Curator is underpinned by key Devicescape technologies, including:

• Curator Wi-Fi Radio Management – Personal Curator has the ability to switch the Wi-Fi radio on and off based on parameters set by the mobile operator around network conditions and usage behavior to ensure the best Quality of Experience (QoE) and conserve battery life. In particular, the radio is intelligently enabled where home Wi-Fi has been detected and used in the past.
• Curator Home Network Detection – Using a machine learning algorithm to detect the customer’s home Wi-Fi network, Personal Curator prompts and leads the customer through the process of identifying their home network and establishing a connection that is then “remembered” by the device.
• Curator Wi-Fi Usage Analytics – Devicescape’s solution provides operators an in-depth trend analysis of subscriber usage, including cellular, private and public Wi-Fi data consumption. 

Personal Curator Availability

Personal Curator will be available in the coming months and in commercial operation later this year. Operators who wish to leverage the full Curator Service, which includes access to Devicescape’s Curated Virtual Network (CVN) of over 12 million public Wi-Fi hotspots globally, can easily upgrade from Personal Curator based on a simple policy configuration. Devicescape’s Curator Service allows mobile operators to integrate amenity Wi-Fi and a diverse set of wireless networks into a strategy for automatically connecting subscribers to the best network available wherever they are.

Devicescape will be exhibiting at CTIA 2013 in Las Vegas May 21-23 at Booth 2729A in the Innovation Showcase area of the exhibit floor. For CTIA attendees, Devicescape is providing “MagniFi CTIA,” a free app available in the Google Play store that will provide users an automatic connection to public Wi-Fi throughout Las Vegas. To schedule a briefing or view a demo of Devicescape’s Curator Service at CTIA, please contact Devicescape@engagpr.com.

*The estimate of $631 in savings is based on a calculation projecting 50% offload from cellular to Wi-Fi and then reflecting that reduction to the total lifetime cost of a user ($1,262). To view average lifetime user costs for typical operator networks, see the Signal Research Group paper entitled “Devicescape Curator Service – Financial Benefit Study February 2013.”

 

About Devicescape

Devicescape moves beyond Wi-Fi Offload and uniquely combines intelligent network selection with the world’s largest curated virtual network of high-quality Wi-Fi hotspots. This enables mobile operators to magnify their capacity-reach and elevate the “always best connected” experience. Headquartered in San Bruno, California, Devicescape is privately held by leading venture capital companies including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, August Capital, Jafco Ventures, and Enterprise Partners. For more information visit www.devicescape.com.

Media Inquiries
Americas:

Caitlin Mattias
Engage PR for Devicescape
+1 510-748-8200 x203
Devicescape@engagepr.com

Europe:

Ash Plaskett
Babel PR for Devicescape
+44 (0)20 7434 5554 
Devicescape@babelpr.com

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