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CONTENTS Martin Vilaboy Editor-in-Chief martin@bekabusinessmedia.com Brady Hicks Contributing Editor brady@bekabusinessmedia.com Gerald Baldino Contributing Editor gerald@bekabusinessmedia.com Percy Zamora Art Director percy@bekabusinessmedia.com Jen Vilaboy Ad Production Director jen@bekabusinessmedia.com Berge Kaprelian Group Publisher berge@bekabusinessmedia.com (480) 503-0770 Beka Business Media Berge Kaprelian President and CEO Corporate Headquarters 10115 E Bell Road, Suite 107 – #517 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260 Voice: 480.503.0770 Email: berge@bekabusinessmedia.com ADVERTISER INDEX AireSpring (www.airespring.com) 11 C3 Complete (www.c3cloud.com) 23 CELLSMART (cellsmart.io) 13 Clarus Communications (www.clarusco.com) 2 FaxSIPit (www.faxsipit.com) 22 FirstComm (www.firstcomm.com) 9 Granite Telecommunications (www.granitenet.com) 3 Intermedia (www.intermedia.com) 17 NHC (nhcgrp.com) Back cover Snom (snomamerica.com) 15 Telarus (www.telarus.com) 7 Telesystem (www.telesystem.com) 5 Disclaimer: This index is provided as a free service to our advertisers. Every effort is made for accuracy, but we cannot be held liable for any errors or omissions. THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK 6 Remote is Still the Reality Strategies for maintaining effective mobile workforces By Martin Vilaboy 10 Wireless Broadband Relaunch Promises of the potential of 5G could be materializing By Martin Vilaboy 16 Demystifying Satellite IoT Fulfilling the parts cellular cannot reach By Alastair Macleod 19 5G on Tap RYTHMz delivers reliable, ultra-fast connectivity to MSPs By Gerald Baldino 20 AMOP Brings Automated Mobility Management to the Channel By Gerald Baldino 21 Wireless ICYMI Volume 19: Mobile & Wireless Opportunities © 2024 Beka Business Media, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in any form or medium without express written permission of Beka Business Media is prohibited. ChannelVision and the ChannelVision logo are trademarks of Beka Business Media 4
By Martin Vilaboy Sure, remote work no longer is happening anywhere near the rates experienced during the early days of the pandemic, as many companies have required employees to return to the office (RTO) or comply with hybrid work arrangements. Even so, the size and importance of remote and mobile workforces still vastly exceeds anything we saw prior to the mandate-induced shutdowns of 2020. Despite the desires of many organizations to bring employees back inside the corporate four walls, just more than a third of organizations have returned to “fulltime in office” status, according to the latest findings from Flex Index, which tracks work arrangements and flexibility across 8,000 companies. In fact, the percentage of companies considered full-time in office only has declined since the first quarter of 2023, well after RTO efforts initially ramped up. Meanwhile, a full 65 percent of companies currently offer work location flexibility, a 14-point increase from last year. These continuing realities, and the ongoing need to ensure collaborative and productive workforces both inside and outside the office walls, are partly what is driving the strong market demand for secure enterprise mobility. According to MarketsandMarkets, for example, the global enterprise mobility management market is projected to reach $63.3 billion by 2026, growing at compound annual rate of 25.1 percent during the forecast period of 2020-2026. In other words, supporting a mobile and flexible workforce remains a corporate priority for organizations of all sizes, and it requires solutions uniquely optimized for these environments, as requirements and tasks of Strategies for maintaining effective mobile workforces Remote is Still the Reality 6 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
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mobile employees vary significantly across different organizations. Traditional, monolithic legacy solutions often fall short in providing the necessary flexibility and features to accommodate the full spectrum of user needs, argue executives at remote desktop access platform provider Leostream Corp. “This limitation can lead organizations to adapt their practices to fit the constraints of these tools, rather than leveraging the right technology for their workforce mobility objectives,” they continued. Indeed, the tools used by mobile workforces must enable collaboration with colleagues potentially anywhere and must be able to do it while still ensuring the security of corporate data and resources. And with the shake-up in the market due to the Broadcom acquisition of VMware, Leostream sees it as an appropriate time for organizations to re-examine the systems and processes put in place to support workforce mobility and build a better path forward. To help channel partners lead their customers down a productive path, the company offers these five strategies. Inventory devices & corporate resources – Maintain a definitive list of the device types (e.g., Windows laptops, macOS devices, Android, etc.) in order to design a workforce mobility solution that provides access to every user at any time, by supporting the devices they are most likely to have with them at any moment. Likewise, companies should compile a related list of corporate resources that the mobile workforce requires access to in order to perform their work. The types of applications, running on different operating systems and manipulating different data sets, have a profound impact on the design of a workforce mobility solution and the technologies used to optimize it. Solutions, such as VMware Horizon, lack support for connecting users to macOS resources, for example. Define a cloud strategy – Look for ways to optimize the workforce mobility environment by leveraging the cloud. Taking a hybrid cloud approach to workforce mobility brings benefits both to user performance and cost optimization. The public cloud provides global computing resources that can improve the end-user experience for a mobile workforce by lowering the latency of their connection. Public clouds also provide redundancy and capacity on-demand, making them more efficient and cost-effective ways to build disaster recovery and business continuity solutions in support of workforce mobility. Consider application performance – Ensure adequate application performance by considering the system on which the application runs (for example, what instance type will be leveraged in a public cloud), the technology used to connect the user to that application (the display protocol incorporated into the environment), and the solution users leverage for remote access. Look for security gateways that replace legacy VPN solutions in order to optimize performance. Encourage collaboration – Support collaboration for a mobile workforce by leveraging a display protocol that includes session shadowing capabilities and a remote access tool that simplifies the process of connecting to collaborative sessions. Features such as these allow teams that are spread across the globe to interact as if they were in the same room. Find a tool that simplifies IT – Simplify IT tasks related to managing a mobile workforce, often by an IT staff that may be mobile itself. Look for a mobile workforce or remote access solution that can manage all of the client devices, remote resources and on-premises and cloud technologies from a single paneof-glass, and that provides features that simplify Day 2 IT tasks. “As we navigate the evolving landscape of workforce mobility, it’s crucial that organizations choose solutions that not only support but also enhance the productivity and collaboration of their remote teams,” said Karen Gondoly, CEO of Leostream. “We recognize that traditional, one-size-fitsall approaches are no longer sufficient. Our focus is on delivering flexible, secure and efficient solutions tailored to equip businesses with the right tools for their remote operations.” o Source: Flex Index Companies Offering Work Location Flexibility Over Time 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Q1 ’23 Q2 ’23 Q3 ’23 Q4 ’23 Q1 ’24 51% 58% 61% 62% 65% 35% 38% 39% 42% 49% Offer Work Location Flexibility % of US Companies Full Time In Office 8 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
By Martin Vilaboy There’s simply no way around it; this is going to sound like a broken record. But we could actually be on the brink of finally realizing some of the hype we’ve long heard concerning 5G and the cellular data super-highway. Certainly, up until this point, services on the ground generally have not lived up to the early promises, particularly in terms of providing businessclass gigabit speeds. “We’re excited about 5G; we’re using 5G,” said Don Douglas, president and CEO of Liquid Networx, a trusted advisor of strategic IT and cybersecurity services based in San Antonio, Texas. “But we do find that it’s still at a place where it can feel a little bit like a broken record.” Indeed, outside of “NFL cities” and larger urban areas – and even within densely populated areas – wireless speeds and environments can vary. Networks are overextended; and deployments require more than the 5G predictions of “simply shipping a box” over to the customer premises. “No deployments are the same, and there’s a lot of nuances where you’d expect them, because you could have a phenomenal experience in one location, and then you have a very disappointing experience 30 miles away in a still-very-populated area,” said Douglas, speaking during a panel session on the wireless opportunity at the recent CVxEXPO in Scottsdale, Ariz. On the other hand, most of the disenchantment around 5G is not the fault of the technology or due to Promises of the potential of 5G could be materializing Wireless Broadband Relaunch 10 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
''AireSpring goes above and beyond to make things work'' Comtura Networks '' AireSpring's focus on global solutions blows the cap off geographic limitations. It allows me to offer enterprise grade solutions in every region, on a network purpose-built to deliver high performance with security. Leadership at every level encourages critical thinking and dialog to improve the partner, and most importantly the client experience and outcomes.,, To learn more about AireSpring or to become an AireSpring Partner call us today at 888-389-2899 or email us at sales@airespring.com
some unanticipated but recently realized limits to the outcomes it can deliver. Rather – and as is often the case with new, groundbreaking technologies – the blame for not meeting any hype goes to the marketers who created premature expectations by pushing something before it was ready. In a rush to be firstmovers or counter first movers in the consumer space, the major wireless carriers, quite simply, got ahead of their skis. And too often, what was pitched as 5G wasn’t actually 5G, or it was a purely consumer-grade service. “The marketers, kind of, let us down again by pushing 5G when it really wasn’t 5G,” said Neil Farquharson, sales engineering and marketing director at ConectUS Wireless, a Verizon reseller. “So when we start talking to customer about the prospects around 5G, they’ve already switched off; they assume it’s more vaporware.” At the risk of eyes rolling to the back of heads, things are different now. Some seven years since the first U.S. 5G business trial, real-world cellular networks – as opposed to test in a lab – are rapidly approaching gigabit speeds, while enterprise wireless internet services are forming and SLAs are being drafted. What’s more, large chunks of 5G bandwidth are coming on board. In other words, we are about to experience the long-anticipated disruption of true broadband wireless for business. Some are even equating things to the early days of business internet and the massive rush to deliver T1, DSL, cable modem services, and the like. For the sake of clarity, wireless in this discussion is limited to cellular, towerconnected services such as 3G, 4G, LTE and 5G, as opposed to point-to-point service, Wi-Fi, wireless private networks, satellite or any other service under the umbrella of “wireless access.” And it’s important to keep in mind the massive investments the major carriers have made to build their super-fast 5G/LTE networks. “AT&T and Verizon have bet the farm,” said Glen Nelson, partner, vice president of marketing and business development at NHC, also speaking on the CVx panel. “If they fail to recapture that investment, it will be the case our children and grandchildren study as an example of a huge technological failure.” And getting adequate returns on the almost-unprecedented levels of investment in fiber, infrastructure, spectrum and licenses to build out 5G and beyond, many industry participants and observers argue, will require more than what can be gained from consumer or prosumer services alone. Already, we are hearing rumors of “enterprise products” on the horizon, with guaranteed levels of bandwidth and performance. Certainly, speeds and performance are approaching and surpassing adequate levels, at least in terms of download speeds. According to extensive tests of live cellular networks taken across Europe and North America during a six-month period in 2022, 5G services were approaching gigabit speeds nearly two years ago, with latency as low as 10 milliseconds. The test results from CELLSMART, which provides cellular intelligence in real-world situations, found that the top download speeds exceeded 780 Mbps in outdoor tests, while the global average outdoor download speed for 5G was 210.05 Mbps. That includes an average North America download speed of 172.02 Mbps. T-Mobile, for its part, was among the top carriers worldwide with an average download speed of 351.69 Mbps. The CELLSMART survey collected data from 21,456 network speed tests conducted in 67 countries and 1,350 locations between March 25, 2022, and October 31, 2022. 5G is still providing “hyper-asymmetrical” test results, said CELLSMART, with an average outdoor upload speed of 26.78 Mbps. Even so, “The survey results demonstrate that 5G is maturing and beginning to deliver on its promise 5G Maximum Download Speeds: Outdoor (Mbps) Spain 993.00 United States 966.00 Austria 921.10 France 803.96 Norway 789.00 5G Maximum download speeds: Indoor (Mbps) Norway 994.00 France 898.00 Spain 753.00 United States 735.00 Germany 619.00 Source: CELLSMART SMB Internet Access Levels, 2022 Less than 1 Mbps 1% 1 to 5 Mbps 2% 6 to 10 Mbps 8% 11-20 Mbps 10% 21-50 Mbps 14% 51 to 100 Mbps 22% More than 100 Mbps but < 1 Gbps 32% 1 Gbps or more 11% Source: IDC 12 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
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of 1 Gbps download speeds,” said Toby Forman, CEO at SmartCIC, the parent company of CELLSMART. “On some 5G networks, consumers can download an entire high-definition TV episode in eight seconds while businesses can benefit from lightning-fast application performance.” Looking at the wired internet speeds being delivered to businesses in 2022, the download speeds experienced by CELLSMART appear adequate to serve the needs of most small and mid-sized businesses. While SMBs require robust and reliable internet service, they may not need gigabit speeds or unlimited data to support key business use cases, said researchers at IDC. Only 11 percent of SMBs surveyed by IDC in 2022 were utilizing a circuit of 1 Gbps or more. Nearly six in 10 responding SMBs were being serviced by a broadband connection of 100 Mbps or less. And for many SMBs, the speed of the service could be less a factor than the flexibility and speed of deployments provided by a wireless broadband alternative. While we are well past the peak of remote working, the majority of desk-based employees still are working under some type of flexible arrangement. According to the latest findings from Flex Index, which tracks work arrangements and flexibility across 8,000 companies, just more than a third of organizations have returned to “full-time in office” status. In fact, the percentage of companies considered full-time in office has declined since the first quarter of 2023, well after the ramp up of return-to-office efforts. Meanwhile, a full 65 percent of companies currently offer work location flexibility, a 14-point increase from last year. For that majority of remote, hybrid workers (plus the tens of millions of deskless workers that rely daily on technology and connectivity) a hardline to a desktop has become less and less relevant. Even for fully remote workers, the laptop is quickly becoming the work computer of choice, PC and laptop sales suggest. For IT departments supporting flexible work arrangements, a business-class, SOHO wireless broadband connection that can be centrally managed and invoiced and relatively easy to deploy could be quite appealing. In most cases, access to flexible workers is about reaching cellphones and Wi-Fi routers, and often wireless connectivity can reach those devices much easier and quicker than wireline connectivity. It’s not uncommon, for instance, for wireless broadband connections to be turned on in weeks where it would have taken months to light a landline circuit. For SmartCIC’s Forman, that speed to service also represents speed to monetization. “For our partners selling overlay services, they can’t monetize those overlay services until they get the underlay in,” said Forman, while sitting on the CVxEXPO wireless panel. Perhaps more important than any of the above, we also are on the cusp of seeing a wave of 5G bandwidth hitting the market. This comes by way of the large chunks of C-Band spectrum that were recently gobbled up by AT&T, Verizon and, to a lesser degree, T-Mobile. Last August, the carriers were finally granted full access to the 5G C-Band spectrum they acquired in 2021. The spectrum became available as satellite operators cleared it for use by mobile operators. Back in 2021, Verizon spent $45.5 billion on 5G C-Band spectrum during the auction, while AT&T spent $23.4 billion. With the spectrum clearance last summer, Verizon said it gained access to a minimum of 140 megahertz of total spectrum in the contiguous U.S. and an average of 161 megahertz nationwide, with the bandwidth available to all 406 of its markets. That includes up to 200 megahertz in 158 mostly rural markets covering nearly 40 million people. AT&T, which so far has rolled out its licensed C-Band spectrum at an average of 80MHz in each market, now has access to a minimum of 100MHz of mid-band spectrum in the contiguous U.S. and an average of 120MHz nationwide. C-band recently made headlines when the Federal Aviation Administration claimed 5G moving in the spectrum would interfere with in-flight communications. With that case settled and the satellite providers largely having exited the space, AT&T and Verizon are expected to move forward aggressively with the introduction of consumer, SOHO and business wireless broadband offerings. If it’s anything similar to the early days of wired broadband, the channel will play a big part in bringing those services to market. The coming wave of true 5G services, Forman rightly pointed out, will have a ripple effect on over-saturated and overextended 4G networks, as well. As subscribers are moved off of 4G networks onto 5G services, 4G LTE networks are freed up to deliver the outcomes more appropriate to their performance and speed levels, rather than false 5G services. This is all not to suggest we are suddenly about to realize the initial promises of a 5G world in which gigabit services are delivered through zero provisioning and plug-and-play CPE. As our CVx panelist of wireless experts repeated, wireless broadband is not a silver bullet. Delivering true business-class services that your customers can rely upon requires expertise, install assessments and an understanding of the radio frequency (RF) environment, as well as a complete grasp of the use case. The size of the opportunity will make it worth these efforts. o Number of Days Required in Office (% U.S. Companies) O Days 33% 1 Day 3% 2 Days 11% 3 Days 16% 4 Days 2% 5 Days 35% Source: Flex Index, 2023 14 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
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Cellular IoT is one of the most common forms of IoT connectivity for a number of reasons. It has vast coverage, works pretty much out of the box, supports low- and high-bandwidth applications and is a relatively cheap investment. But what about those remote or tough to reach locations, where critical data for a raft of industries from utilities and renewables through to forestry and wildlife tracking are not covered by cellular coverage? One of the biggest challenges cellular IoT specialists face when implementing satellite IoT connectivity is learning to throttle back on data requirements. It’s too expensive and too power hungry to try to use satellites in the same way that you would use a terrestrial network. But if you know what to expect, you can plan accordingly, and save yourself time and money in the long run. Here are four key considerations to set you on the right path. Data Optimization When 90 percent of IoT sites have been connected with cellular, but the final 10 percent are out of cellular coverage, you may be left with satellite as your only option. This is common, and the first hurdle is the volume of data you’re expecting to push through a satellite connection. As more and more IoT devices use up more and more bandwidth, even in cellular IoT, developers are being encouraged to be more circumspect with how much bandwidth they truly need. This is an acutely important consideration in satellite IoT. Satellite network operators (SNOs), similar to mobile network operators (MNOs), have a limited amount of licensed spectrum. In addition, they have satellite masts that are really far away, and they consequently charge a relatively high premium for utilizing limited capacity. Cost, therefore, is a major incentive for systems integrators and developers to start thinking about how the amount of data sent over Fulfilling the Parts Cellular Cannot Reach Demystifying Satellite IoT By Alastair Macleod MOBILE & WIRELESS 16 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
satellite can be reduced. The other incentive is power consumption: sending a lot of data tends to mean larger antennae which can’t operate without utility power. And as we’re talking exclusively about IoT here, we’re assuming the 10 percent of sites you’re unable to connect with cellular are also fairly unlikely to have utility power, as well. In these scenarios, the most practical solution is edge computing. There are lots of ways in which you can utilize some intelligence at the edge to restrict how much data is sent over satellite. You can reduce the frequency of your transmissions, batching them to make better use of an IP connection; you can report by exception, and you can define and tag your data priority. Doing this will allow certain types of data to pass through more frequently than other, less critical, types of data. Interoperability You may have had to navigate situations where there have been multiple communication protocols to contend with – such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or Zigbee – particularly in legacy infrastructure. If so, you’ll already appreciate the benefit of planning ahead and considering the future development of your customer’s network. If it’s at all possible, satellite IoT will factor in, knowing the application protocols in most common use will help. There are basically three options for IoT communication over satellite: 1. Use an IP service such as Iridium Certus 100 or Inmarsat BGAN M2M. This plug-and-play option is the easiest means of sending data over satellite but not the most efficient or cost-effective way. However, there’s plenty you can do to optimize data to make it work better for you if you’re not in a position to change an application. 2. Use a distributed MQTT broker solution. If using MQTT, Ground Control’s IoT Gateway effectively places an MQTT broker at either side of a satellite transmission, re-formatting the data and managing the connection, message queuing, retries etc. automatically. Ground Control uses Iridium Messaging Transport to move data, which is message-based. Messaging is the most cost-effective way to transmit data over satellite, and this is an easy way to leverage those efficiencies. 3. Re-engineer your solution to use messaging. This low-level integration will allow you to use one of the proprietary messaging services offered by SNOs such as Iridium Short Burst Data, or Inmarsat’s IsatData Pro, both extremely cost-effective means of sending data via satellite. However, it does usually require development work to make data compatible with a messaging service. Coverage Lack of cellular coverage is most likely what brought you to satellite in the first place but not all satellite network constellations are created equal. Firstly, you need to ensure that the satellite network, or networks, you’re considering have orbiting satellites that can “see” your devices’ locations. Only one satellite IoT network – Iridium – is truly global, although others, including Inmarsat/Viasat, come close. Then you need to consider satellite density and architecture. Newer satellite networks may have just one or two satellites in orbit, which means you’ll get your data very slowly. On the plus side, they charge relatively little for airtime. Like many things, you get what you pay for: pay little, and you’ll get data once or twice a day with no delivery guarantees. Pay more, and you’ll get virtually realtime data from a network heavyweight trusted by the military and critical national infrastructure. Further, you need to look at the precise location of the asset/application you’re extracting data from. If it’s surrounded by trees, mountains, buildings etc., then there’s a good chance it will have difficulty “seeing” the satellite. There are workarounds in these scenarios, and your satellite IoT partner will help you here. Power Consumption If a device is so far removed from civilization that there’s no cellular coverage, there’s a reasonable chance there’s a limited power supply, too. Larger VSAT dishes such as the types required to provide Starlink and OneWeb broadband internet services need utility or generator power to operate, but satellite IoT-specific terminals can be, and often are, battery powered. You can preserve battery power in a number of ways we’ve already touched on, such as sending data less frequently and simply sending less data. In addition, battery power can be preserved using a message-based connection instead of an IP-based connection or by making sure your antenna has a clear view of the satellite network, so no power is wasted in failed connection efforts. These aren’t all exclusively satelliteIoT considerations either; if your device application disregards the characteristics for which LPWA networks were designed, you’ll drain batteries faster, congest networks unnecessarily and degrade the service quality. If you assume data constraints from the outset, it’ll benefit your application across all communication technologies. Satellite IoT delivers reliable connectivity in remote and hard to reach locations but comes with operational challenges due to increased power consumption and non-terrestrial connectivity expenses. If you consider data constraints from the earliest part of your planning, you will find these challenges far easier to overcome should they occur in your future network development. Even the cellular spectrum has limits, and scarcity drives innovation. o Alastair Macleod is CEO of connectivity provider Ground Control. 18 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
5G adoption is on the rise, with companies using it to enhance cloud computing, provide innovative customer experiences and improve operational efficiency. According to the June Ericsson Mobility Report, 5G adoption increased considerably in 2023 with roughly 260 million subscriptions. Looking ahead, Ericsson predicts that 5G will become the dominant mobile access technology by subscription before the end of 2029, accounting for 90 percent of all mobile subscriptions. 5G is also growing in the enterprise segment, due to rising mobility and companies investing in wireless WAN to branch office locations. As 5G continues to become more prevalent, businesses will expect MSPs to offer faster and more reliable services. RYTHMz, a premier network support partner, helps MSPs meet this need by providing flexible, scalable and secure 5G connectivity. RYTHMz offers bonded 5G models to boost reliability and modems suitable for any location, including rugged 5G models for harsh environments. MSPs can white label RYTHMz WiFi, improving speed and connectivity for customers while increasing revenue by providing optimized WiFi as a subscription. As the story goes, RYTHMz was born after the WAN went out that was serving a party for NEFT Vodka – taking down the bar POS and registration systems. NEFT’s CEO, Jeff Mahony, turned to Steve Copeland and challenged him to find a solution so that would never happen again, sparking the idea for a company that could help prevent unexpected network outages. The resulting company boasts more than four decades of combined experience in networking and IT services, including seasoned professionals who possess deep expertise in designing and implementing complex infrastructures and deploying stateof-the-art solutions. “At RYTHMz, we combine the best 5G technologies, redundant carriers and bonded connections with cutting-edge networking hardware and software-defined networking (SDN) principles,” explained CEO and founder Copeland. “As a result, RYTHMz is able to provide fast, enterprise-grade connectivity anytime and anywhere.” By using SDN, RYTHMz can deliver intelligent routing with optimized traffic flows. In addition, the company uses multi-access edge computing (MEC) to reduce latency and improve user experience as well as dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) to enable seamless transition between wireless networks with higher capacity. In addition to 5G connectivity, RYTHMz offers network as a service (NaaS), NOC monitoring and cybersecurity, as well as turnkey services such as network design and monitoring. The company also specializes in establishing 5G connectivity for events and supporting first responders and disaster relief teams with 5G mobile base stations, which can be easily deployed during a crisis to enhance communication and restore stability. RYTHMz also has a reputation as a partner-first organization and a company that’s highly committed to helping MSPs grow and succeed. “At RYTHMz, we take great pride in prioritizing our partners and doing whatever we can to make them successful through high-quality service and support, simple terms, no long-term commitments and no fees or ‘gotchas,’” Copeland said. “The bottom line is, we want to see our MSP partners thrive. In addition to equipping them with tools to better sell to new or existing customers, we also regularly connect them with customers and opportunities when we are able. We are happy to share referrals and help drive optimal business outcomes.” All RYTHMz partners receive direct access to Hive Connect, which is the company’s portal for managing RYTHMz devices from a single pane of glass. “We have been receiving a lot of great feedback from partners who are using our platform,” Copeland said. “This user-friendly console saves time and improves visibility for partners. The platform is also continuously improving, and we are excited to be introducing new security tools and options for network management beyond just RYTHMz devices.” o RYTHMz is currently offering a free two-week POC for MSPs who sign up as partners. To learn more, email support@rythmz.com or call 1-877-479-8469. 5G on Tap RYTHMz CEO & founder Steve Copeland RYTHMz delivers reliable, ultra-fast connectivity to MSPs By Gerald Baldino 19 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
Wireless connectivity management, once a major blind spot for companies that manage and consume data, or hope to resell mobility solutions, is now a rising opportunity in the channel. Companies are becoming increasingly dependent on embedded SIM devices, with Juniper Research predicting 3.4 billion global installations by 2025 — up from 1.2 billion in 2021. At the same time, it’s becoming essential for carriers and resellers to capture and charge for monthly wireless data usage. One company that’s making waves in this space is AMOP (Advanced Management Operations Platform). AMOP launched in 2020 out of the growing need for dedicated mobility management. AMOP’s groundbreaking, cloud-based SaaS service provides resellers and MSPs with a single pane of glass to oversee their entire SIM portfolio and customer data usage, along with powerful automation features to streamline backend workflows. The company provides activation, deactivation, data usage, inventory and visibility. Plus, AMOP provides revenue assurance tools that guarantee all data usage is captured and billed. As AMOP president and chief revenue officer Keith Singler explained, AMOP centralizes the entire wireless management experience for resellers, offering a simpler way to provision, control and profit from connectivity. The platform allows companies to approach wireless with greater confidence and precision. “There are many folks in the channel that are still not offering IoT and wireless connectivity and missing out on valuable revenue streams,” Singler pointed out. “This is something we are changing here at AMOP. Looking ahead, we see massive growth potential in the wireless space, making it a key growth vector.” When selling wireless connectivity, there’s a negative connotation associated with data usage risk versus other traditional telecom services. Carrier platforms lack visibility into end clients and the ability to set automation rules based on data usage and allotments. This limitation results in a poor user experience for clients and manual processes for resellers. Wireless data management becomes even more difficult when working with multiple carriers and device types, to ensure consistent and reliable coverage. AMOP provides a turnkey solution allowing customers and resellers to make automated changes to rate plans, send notifications, manage inventory, build custom rate plans for specific use cases or users, and allocate costs for all carriers in one single pane of glass. “At the end of the day, carrier platforms weren’t built with resellers in mind,” added Singler. “For example, if you want to throttle an AT&T connection, you need to manually apply a SOC code through their platform. Then at the end of their billing cycle, you need to go back in and create another order to remove that code or your customer will continue to be throttled. The process lacks the critical automation that partners need to quickly provision and oversee services.” Besides boosting visibility and lowering risk for resellers, AMOP’s multi-tenanted SIM management platform provides greater flexibility. Clients can buy directly from a carrier and set custom rate plans for specific client use cases or purchase directly from AMOP. “This is a game-changer because if you’re competing with Tier 1 carriers, they have the advantage of millions of data devices and usage that allows them to control rates,” Singler said. “With AMOP you have the power to offer the client a customized rate plan that fits their use case perfectly. This allows you to create breakage, increase your overall margins, and win more business.” Companies have the option to purchase SIM card connections and run them through AMOP. Companies with existing carrier connections or agreements can manage SIMs and data via APIs in the AMOP platform. AMOP also offers carrier rate plan consulting and audits of current connections. The company helps providers navigate the mobility space and purchase cost-effective services. AMOP uses a proprietary algorithm that organizes data across all SIM cards and provides lease cost purchasing and analysis. This year AMOP will continue its core mission of supporting resellers and helping them maximize business growth. AMOP will continue working with enterprise clients to optimize wireless connectivity and launch device management. Device management brings clients the ability to provision, activate and assign services based on the vendor of choice to create efficiencies that will reduce operational tasks. In addition, AMOP is operating under the guidance of a new leadership team. In September, AMOP appointed Singler as president and CRO. Lydia Walker was named chief operations officer with an impressive 17 years at the company. And in December, Brett Elder joined AMOP as vice president of sales. Elder brings more than 20 years of experience in the mobility industry to the table. o For more information about AMOP, please contact Keith Singler at ksingler@amop.services or call (470)- 571-0599. You can reach Brett Elder at belder@amop.services or by phone at (470)-705-2170. By Gerald Baldino AMOP president and chief revenue officer Keith Singler AMOP Brings Automated Mobility Management to the Channel 20 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
Recent research from SNS Telecom & IT indicated that annual spending on private 5G network equipment will reach nearly $3.5 billion globally by the end of 2027. While private LTE networks are a well-established market and have been around for more than a decade, said SNS, private networks based on 3GPP-defined 5G specifications are just beginning to move beyond proof-of-concept trials and small-scale deployments to production-grade implementations of standalone 5G networks, which are laying the foundation for Industry 4.0 and advanced application scenarios. Compared to LTE technology, private 5G networks can address far more demanding performance requirements in terms of throughput, latency, reliability, availability and connection density, say proponents. “In particular, 5G’s URLLC and mMTC capabilities, along with a future-proof transition path to 6G networks in the 2030s, have positioned it as a viable alternative to physically wired connections for industrial-grade communications between machines, robots and control systems,” said the research firm. Furthermore, 5G’s wider coverage radius per radio node, scalability, determinism, security features and mobility support have stirred strong interest in its potential as a replacement for interference-prone unlicensed wireless technologies in industrial IoT environments, where the number of connected sensors and other endpoints is expected to increase significantly over the coming years. “As end user organizations in the United States, Germany, France, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries ramp up their digitization and automation initiatives, some private 5G installations have progressed to a stage where practical and tangible benefits – particularly efficiency gains, cost savings and worker safety – are becoming increasingly evident,” said SNS analysts. Private 5G Predicted to Top $3 Billion by 2027 5G FWA services have been on a dramatic growth trajectory in the U.S., absorbing esentially all broadband subscriber growth in the market since mid-2022 and amassing more than 600,000 to 700,000 net adds per quarter, according to analysis by market research firm Opensignal. This is despite the U.S. being a mature broadband market with nearly 97 percent broadband adoption and modest household growth. The two primary FWA players in the U.S. are Verizon and T-Mobile. Verizon introduced 5G Home Internet in 2018 on mmWave, expanded to the rest of its 5G network in 2022 and now has more than 3 million customers. T-Mobile launched 5G Home Internet available to 30 million households in 2021 and has since amassed more than five million subscribers as of Q1 2024. What’s more, the rapid development of 5G FWA networks in the U.S. has intensified the level of competition in the fixed broadband market. Based on Opensignal’s observation of FWA Wi-Fi networks, the percentage of housing units that are passed by two or more high-speed broadband providers (either cable, fiber, or FWA) has increased from 50 percent in Q1 2022 to 78 percent in Q4 2023, translating into an increase of nearly 40 million homes. And while FWA has been positioned historically as a way to close the digital divide in underserved rural areas, the U.S. is proving the business case for urban deployment is just as strong. According to Opensignal, FWA is nearly as popular in urban areas as in rural ones, as FWA providers have so far claimed around 6 percent of the market in urban areas and 7 percent in rural ones. Source: Andreesson Horowitz U.S. residential net adds by ISP type, Q1 2017 - Q1 2024 (thousands) Source: Opensignal 1,500 1,000 500 0 500 1Q17 2Q17 3Q17 4Q17 1Q18 2Q18 3Q18 4Q18 1Q19 2Q19 3Q19 4Q19 1Q20 2Q20 3Q20 4Q20 1Q21 2Q21 3Q21 4Q21 1Q22 2Q22 3Q22 4Q22 1Q23 2Q23 3Q23 4Q23 1Q24 FWA First large-scale 5G FWA deployments Coblecos Telcos 5G FWA Reshaping U.S. Fixed Broadband Market ICYMI 21 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
ICYMI Although the exclusivity looks to only last one year, Starlink and T-Mobile U.S. announced Coverage Above and Beyond, described as “a breakthrough new plan to bring cell phone connectivity everywhere.” The low earth orbit (LEO) satellite service reportedly will be available to the ordinary smartphones of T-Mobile subscribers, with coverage reaching most of the U.S., including many remote areas without mobile penetration. “More than just a groundbreaking alliance, this represents two industry-shaking innovators challenging the old ways of doing things to create something entirely new that will further connect customers and scare competitors,” said Mike Sievert, T-Mobile CEO and president. Currently, the Starlink constellation can only handle text messages and “participating messaging apps”. Phone calls will follow “later.” Starlink chief Elon Musk said the company plans to cut deals with every operator in every country but is starting by giving one in each territory a year’s exclusive coverage. Enterprises are looking to achieve several different types of outcomes when considering private wireless networks, and while the assumption might be that improved coverage or increased reliability would top the list of reasons why companies look to private wireless, increased security ranked as the most important benefit of private wireless, according to a survey by STL Partners. “A private network can be customized to meet specific security environments and limit access to authorized users which reduces the risk of cyberattack by hackers or other malicious parties, giving businesses network control,” said executive at Cox Private Networks. Starlink, T-Mobile Sign Exclusive Deal Why Private Wireless Source: STL Partners What are the main potential benefits that you are seeking to derive from private wireless networks? Please select up to three options 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% Increased security Increased reliability Improved manageability of the network Higher bandwidth Improved coverage/availability Improved configurability of the network Reduced downtime Accelerated speed of service deployment Reduced latency Enhanced SLAs 22 THE CHANNEL MANAGER’S PLAYBOOK
Cloud Services 24x7x365 Managed Services Remote Backup and DR Information Security & Compliance Complex Network Engineering Hosted PBX, UCaaS, CCaaS, & SIP Global Connectivity & SDWAN Services
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