The emergence of the IoT has sped the development of server and gateway software, built on the technical specification TR-069. Today, the original purpose of TR-069 has been met and greatly exceeded. Now the collaboration of Comtrend and Fine Point allows Service Providers to mitigate or prevent truck rolls, gather valuable analytical data and address the changing demands of broadband service in homes and businesses. The number of connected devices is growing exponentially, including wireless connectivity issues. Comtrend’s gateways, paired with Fine Point’s ACS, not only allow automated provisioning and remote upgrades, but provide unique tools to gain insight into the usage patterns and network configurations within increasingly connected homes.  Fine Point’s ACS delivers analytical data, creates visibility into the home network and enables “virtual truck rolls.” These help to reduce costs, increase customer satisfaction, and upsell premium services.

Kuma Lin, the Vice President of Technology at Comtrend North America comments, “Service Providers need to earn loyal customers and attract new customers. Our solution with Fine Point gives Service Providers a set of new tools that will greatly enhance their customer service and market reputation. Customers simply do not want to schedule and wait for an on-site technician to come to them, not when it could be resolved over the phone.  This has been our goal- and this partnership with Fine Point is making it happen today. Here are some popular examples that can be addressed now:  ‘What is the real Internet speed to my gateway’, ‘Can you help me set up my WiFi guest network?’, and ‘Why is my tablet Internet connection so slow?’ and we are just getting started.”

The Comtrend/Fine Point ACS solution offers five major tools to help service provider’s lower operational costs and increase subscriber satisfaction:

Speed Test: Accurately measure customers’ actual delivered bandwidth. Complaints related to slow speed are often the result of bottlenecks within the local network. Being able to remotely identify where network issues reside enable CSRs to transform such complaints into upselling opportunities.

Signal Strength Tool: Determine if slow WiFi is an overall issue with the gateway or just a specific device. Signal strength is displayed in both –dBm as well as a percentage of full strength to assist customer service in problem-solving weak WiFi performance.

Interference Tool: Identify possible interference suspects or locations that can decrease WiFi broadband and change the WiFi channel to alleviate and thus improve the customer’s experience.  It is even possible to configure devices to “self-heal” in the event problems occur.

Statistics and Performance Monitoring Tool: Performance reports can be easily generated for use in identifying customers who qualify for higher bandwidth services (i.e. a high number of LANs). Proactively monitor line statistics such as SNR and attenuation.

LAN Side Per-Device Data Consumption: View how much data is used both downstream and upstream of each individual LAN side device for better analysis of usage trends and statistics

Scott Rockafellow, Fine Point Technologies Chief Operations Officer, states, “Fine Point has focused on the Internet of Things and realizes that solid residential gateway partners are vital to success. We partnered with Comtrend to implement our ACS based on our longstanding, mutual commitment to Service Providers. Their residential gateways are ideal for supporting our comprehensive features.  Together we have created a scalable, best-in-class ACS solution for all Service Providers, regardless of size. Now that Comtrend is integrating our advanced features into all new models, Service Providers can effortlessly access the best of FinePoint’s ACS. Good decisions require accurate information, and that’s what we give our customers.”

With local and hosted options, Fine Point’s ACS allows Service Providers to deploy at their own speed, and in some cases, can simply upgrade certain Comtrend gateway models already in the field.

Service Providers have a new ACS solution that can create a new, competitive edge with their customers. Comtrend and Fine Point, together, deliver more information, analysis, and problem-solving controls than ever before.

Availability

Fine Point’s ACS is now available. Please contact Comtrend or visit www.comtrend.com for any further information.

About Comtrend

Comtrend, with more than 25 years of experience, has become one of the leading global providers of advanced networking solutions. Comtrend designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of networking and surveillance equipment and software. Service providers, businesses, and consumers look to Comtrend for broadband gateways, as well as the latest WiFi, surveillance, Powerline, and coax technologies. Comtrend also remains committed to industry standards, like G.hn for home networking, as well as interoperability and market-leading performance.  People in businesses and homes around the world trust Comtrend to make their technology easier and more dependable. For more information, including Comtrend’s full lineup of home networking solutions, please visit www.comtrend.com.

About Fine Point Technologies, Inc.

Fine Point Technologies, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 1997 with over 100 customers around the globe. It fostered the broadband era with WinPoET and MacPoET selling over 16 million copies of software globally, which enabled the transition from dial-up service to DSL. Today, Fine Point solutions manage both wire-line and wireless platforms from a single server and integrate all solutions into a single GUI. This enables network operators to better manage their brand and their business. Fine Point’s headquarters is in Herndon, Virginia with Software Development in Denver, Colorado.  Fine Point also maintains field sales and support offices in North America, Europe, Asia and sales partners throughout Latin America.