News

Motive's Instant-On Service Activation Simplifies Home Networking for Consumers (21/10/2005)

Latest Solution Empowers Subscribers, Increases Revenue Opportunity for Providers

Mass market demand for home networking services is growing exponentially. According to recent data from market research firm The Diffusion Group, approximately 47 million US households will have a home network by 2010. However, few consumers have the technical savvy to install, configure or maintain these complex systems. Using intelligent automation, Motive's new Home Networking FAST Solution combines provider-based management tools and simple 'plug and play' user interfaces to help broadband providers make home networking services easier to adopt and consume.

Home networks give consumers the ability to connect multiple PCs and gaming devices, share files and printers, and run various online application services. Until recently, providers have been unable to gain complete visibility and control over these environments, hindering their ability to support customers and profitably deliver managed home networking services.

"Service providers are finding it very difficult to manage today's home network environment, especially given the wide variety of devices and applications that the network may support," said Michael Greeson, president and principal analyst with The Diffusion Group. "A certain degree of transparency into the home network ecosystem is critical if operators are to remove the hassle of installing, configuring and maintaining these environments - concerns that continue to inhibit widespread adoption and sophisticated usage models. Motive's Home Networking FAST offering is an excellent example of the types of solutions available to consumers and providers to alleviate the headaches associated with home network deployment and usage."

How Home Networking FAST Works

For consumers, Motive's Instant-On Service Activation allows end users to quickly set up wired and wireless home networks, ensuring important elements such as security are properly configured. Once a home network is installed, Motive's HomeView user interface automatically discovers all connected devices on the network, including PCs, game consoles and media adapters, providing simple tools for sharing resources and configuring online services such as gaming, music and web cams.

Motive's Service Intelligence Models enable providers to describe ideal customer premises equipment (CPE) configurations and apply these settings to multiple home networking services. In addition, Motive's Proactive Management Engine uses rules-based policy automation to detect changes in the home networking environment, identify potential issues and resolve them immediately. In the event that a subscriber contacts the call centre with a problem, Motive's HomeView provides customer service representatives with the same level of visibility as an onsite technician, expediting their ability to identify solutions and deliver fixes to customers.

Home Networking FAST provides built-in support for TR-069, TR-064, SNMP, and vendor-specific protocols, allowing service providers to seamlessly incorporate hardware from multiple vendors without having to change the subscriber experience or operational requirements each time a new piece of home networking equipment is introduced.

"Managed home networking services are a key intermediate step towards delivering VoIP, IPTV and other next-generation services," said Sanjay Castelino, Motive's vice president of industry marketing. "Motive's Home Networking FAST Solution enables providers to bring these services to market faster while reducing the operational risks and improving the uptake of new networked offerings."

Motive's solution is available for on-site deployment or as a hosted managed service.

www.motive.com