––Over 150 of the world's leading communications service providers have turned to Plume for secure hyperconnectivity and personalized smart home services––
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Personalized Smart Home Services pioneer Plume®, today announced record growth and adoption of its portfolio of advanced Smart Home Services and Communication Service Provider (CSP) applications, which now power more than 20 million active households around the world. Through 2020, Plume has been scaling rapidly and is currently averaging approximately 1 million new home activations each month, at an accelerating rate. This comes at a time when industry commentators are predicting a sharp increase in Smart Home Services sector growth, fueled by the work-from-home movement coupled with consumers' insatiable appetite for hyperconnectivity and personalization.
"We're forecasting exponential growth in the smart home market with yearly revenues from connected devices and associated services reaching nearly $263 billion by 2025," said Anirudh Bhaskaran, Senior Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "We believe that service providers are best placed to capitalize on this market opportunity and evolve beyond providing connectivity alone, to build compelling offerings inside the home to increase ARPU and retain customers."
Today, more than 150 CSPs rely on Plume's cloud-based Consumer Experience Management (CEM) Platform to elevate subscribers' smart home experiences, increase ARPU, reduce OpEx, and cut churn. Plume's rapid growth has been fueled by the independent CSP sector, where the company has added over 100 new customers in 2020 alone, across North America, Europe, and Japan.
Plume's global expansion is visualized here.
Strong channel partnerships and distribution chain
This rapid growth is attributable, in part, to establishing a strong network of industry-leading channel partners including NCTC (who has over 700 members), Consumer Premises Equipment (CPE) and networking solutions providers including ADTRAN, Sagemcom, Sercomm, and Technicolor, and distributors such as Advanced Media Technologies (AMT). Plume's business model uniquely enables OEM partners to license its iconic "pod" hardware designs to produce and sell directly to CSPs and distributors.
"Plume is enabling NCTC to deliver personalized smart home experiences that include speed, security, and control to our Members," said Rich Fickle, President of NCTC. "Since partnering with Plume, many of our service providers have already seized on the opportunity to hyper-serve their subscribers and create new revenue opportunities with the growth in smart home."
As a result of this model, Plume's turnkey solution can be deployed and scaled rapidly, enabling CSPs to launch new services in less than 60 days, while contactless, self-install kits enable even faster time to market and lower overhead costs.
"Plume has enabled us to expand our distribution channel and offer Plume-designed products directly to the independent sector allowing the ISPs to move fast and minimize costs," said Ken Mosca, President/CEO AMT. "Traditionally, the independent sector has been the last to benefit from technical advancement. However, through the powerful combination of Plume's SuperPods and its Consumer Experience Management Platform, all Providers, whether big, medium or small have access to the same, groundbreaking technology."
Fast time to market and scale with an open-source approach leveraging OpenSync
OpenSync™––the fastest growing and the most modern open-source framework for the smart home––has been a key component to Plume's success. OpenSync's flexible and cloud-agnostic architecture enables rapid service curation, delivery, scale, management, and support of Smart Home Services, and has already been adopted as a standard by major industry players including the Facebook-sponsored Telecom Infra Project (TIP), coupled with RDK-B, and natively by many of Plume's CSP customers such as Charter Communications. Today, 25 million OpenSync-integrated access points have been deployed. A comprehensive silicon-to-cloud framework––that is embedded in and supported by major silicon providers––OpenSync ensures that CSPs can increase service scope and velocity, and offer data-driven, proactive support and service.
"Our long collaboration with Plume has added tremendous value to customers of our cutting-edge networking platforms, and has helped service providers deploy differentiated capabilities for the smart home," said Nick Kucharewski, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Infrastructure and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Our work related to OpenSync has provided our customers a framework to rapidly deploy services from the cloud."
Channel partner and OEM advocacy
"With a number of customer wins already secured––including Franklin Telephone and Summit Broadband––the ADTRAN and Plume partnership is enabling service providers to drive significant customer satisfaction and OpEx gains, by delivering unprecedented quality of experience through advanced network insight and data analytics," said Robert Conger, SVP of Technology and Strategy, ADTRAN.
"Fast time to market is one of the major benefits that is helping Broadband Networks to deliver new smart home services to independent service providers in Switzerland. By reducing deployment times to as little as 60 days, Plume has enabled our customers to go-to-market in a fraction of the time it would usually take," said Ivo Scheiwiller, President & CEO, Broadband Networks.
"Plume's pioneering business model is beneficial to all stakeholders as it enables ISPs to buy their licensed SuperPods directly from us. Working with Plume's talented and highly efficient engineering team, we've been able to incorporate a vast amount of cutting-edge technology into the new SuperPod, and achieve industry-defining performance," said Haibo Zhao, CTO, CIG.
"As the main integrated partner of Plume since its creation, we're delighted to market our WiFi extenders and broadband gateways together with Plume's Consumer Experience Management Platform. Many of our customers rely on the scalability and speed-to-market advantages that the OpenSync platform has delivered, to bring in a new wave of services, all built on open-source and controlled from the cloud," said Ahmed Selmani, Deputy CEO, Sagemcom.
"As a leading supplier of telecom equipment, Sercomm is committed to delivering solutions with the latest technology. Our customers consistently demand access to the most performant CPE devices in the market. We are delighted to be able to manufacture Plume's ground-breaking pod family of WiFi access points that have been proven, time and time again, to deliver quite simply the best WiFi performance on the market," said James Wang, CEO, Sercomm.
"The generation of CPE that is currently being deployed to homes around the world represents a new opportunity to redefine the relationships that network operators have with their subscribers. Open gateways from leading manufacturers like Technicolor have led to new revenue-generating services –– including cloud-gaming, smart-home management, security and much more. By integrating Plume's Customer Experience Management Platform built on OpenSync, network service providers will be able to optimize the delivery of innovative services from many different providers by managing complexity and tailoring value propositions to the specific needs of subscribers...rapidly and at massive scale," said Girish Naganathan, Chief Technology Officer, Technicolor.
Plume's CEM Platform
By partnering with Plume, CSPs and their subscribers have access to the world's most advanced CEM Platform for the smart home. Powered by cloud and AI, it combines benefits of a back-end data prediction and analytics suite––Haystack™––and highly personalized front-end consumer services suite––HomePass™––to enhance the subscriber's smart home experience, while significantly reducing the CSP's operational costs. Plume has received multiple product and best-practices awards in recognition for its transformative impact on customer experience, including most recently from Wi-Fi NOW, Light Reading, Broadband World Forum, and Frost and Sullivan.
Strong endorsement by global Tier 1 CSPs
Plume partners with many of the world's largest CSPs; Plume's CEM Platform allows them to evolve their smart home offerings to deliver high-value consumer services at high cadence across diverse hardware landscapes with ease.
"Bell is leading the way in Smart Home solutions in Canada, backed by our direct fibre network connections that deliver the fastest consumer Internet speeds with Plume pods extending smart WiFi to every room in the home," said Rizwan Jamal, EVP, President Residential and Small Business Services, Bell Canada. "We look forward to our continued partnership with Plume to build on the innovative cloud services that will further enhance connectivity for our residential customers."
"Advanced In-Home WiFi provides Spectrum Internet and WiFi customers with the ability to optimize their home networks, offering both detailed insights and providing greater control of their connected devices to deliver an unmatched home WiFi experience. Integrating our core advanced technology, and leading WiFi router, with the OpenSync cloud platform and software stack allows us to nimbly deliver best-of-breed features and services. Nearly 400 million devices are connected to our vast network, and we take seriously our responsibility to deliver fast, reliable service, while protecting and securing our customers' online private information," said Carl Leuschner, SVP of Internet and Voice Products, Charter Communications.
"Fast, reliable connections that extend throughout the home have never been more important, and our partnership with Plume has played a valuable role in helping our customers achieve that. Two times faster than the first generation, the cloud-managed network capacity provided by our new second-generation xFi Pod provides our customers with a powerful tool for getting the most out of their home connections," said Tony Werner, President of Technology, Product, Xperience, Comcast Cable. "As an early investor in Plume, and their first major customer in the United States, we applaud them for reaching this impressive milestone."
"For the past year, J:COM subscribers have been experiencing the benefits of Plume's services, which create personalized, fast, and secure WiFi throughout the home. We've recently expanded our relationship to distribute Plume's Consumer Experience Management Platform to cable operators throughout Japan, who are now empowered with the tools and technology they need to remain competitive and provide high-value services to their subscribers," said Mr. Yusuke Ujimoto, Managing Corporate Officer and GM, Business Innovation Unit at J:COM.
"Liberty Global's gigabit network capabilities benefit from Plume's Consumer Experience Management Platform by creating a more insightful and intelligent smart home. Bringing together OpenSync and our next-generation broadband, we have a time to market advantage, sophisticated network diagnostics tools, and insights to ensure our customers have the best experience possible," said Enrique Rodriguez, Executive Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Liberty Global.
"In the past few months, with customers locked down in their homes, WiFi has become the most relevant service to connect Portuguese homes to their extensive network of families, friends and coworkers. To face this demand, NOS has found in Plume the right partner to provide its customers with an innovative WiFi service that combines coverage and stability throughout the home, including optional parental control as well as advanced security services. Plume's solution allows a free trial period and provides NOS' customers with a flexible subscription model available in different options according to the size of the household. The new offer that launched in August '20 has been a success both in NPS and sales, continuously achieving unprecedented levels of WiFi subscriptions in the Portuguese market," said Luis Nascimento, CMO and Executive Board Member, NOS Comunicações.
"Vodafone Fiber broadband customers enjoy a reliable and robust WiFi experience in every corner of the home. Adaptive WiFi by Plume is part of our Vodafone Super WiFi service, which continuously learns from WiFi use and performs self-optimization, ensuring people, and devices stay connected. Through Plume cloud services, we're able to proactively and reactively diagnose potential network issues and easily support customers when necessary. This level of insight makes the difference," said Blanca Echániz, Head of Product and Services, Vodafone Spain.
Rapid growth within the Independent CSP sector
Plume's CSP partners see operational and consumer benefits across several vital areas: speed to market, product innovation, and consumer experience.
Speed to market - for independent service providers, the ability to quickly integrate back-office systems, such as billing, inventory, and fulfillment, is critical in reducing OpEx during the initial deployment and beyond. Plume offers all CSPs valuable consumer insights, digital marketing content, and ongoing co-marketing support in addition to the operational benefits.
"Plume's cloud-managed smart home services can be deployed rapidly and at massive scale. Best of all, these new and exciting features can uncover insights and analytics that drastically improve the connected home experience," said Dennis Soule, President/CEO, Community Cable & Broadband.
"We evaluated a number of solutions and found Plume to be the best fit for us. We were amazed at how easy it was to set up, even for non-technical staff. Pair that with the ease of use for the end customer, and best-in-class analytics, and we knew that we had a winner. Since rollout, we have been impressed with Plume's support platform and their regular communication on cloud and firmware updates. The value that Plume has brought us in terms of both new revenue opportunities and reduced truck rolls was recognized almost immediately. But most importantly, our customers love it!" said Steve Frey, General Manager, Stratford Mutual Telephone Company.
"Delivering Plume to our customers could not be simpler, more efficient or cost effective. Our subscribers can effortlessly install Plume at home with a high success rate, and updates are rolled out automatically as soon as the software is ready," said Mark Walter, Senior Vice President, Service Electric Cablevision.
"We were thrilled when the NCTC introduced the Plume product to its members. We were searching for a managed WiFi system to improve the user experience for our customers. The Plume product has been successful at improving customer satisfaction and retention at StratusIQ. Now that we have a managed WiFi solution that scales to the size of the customer's home, we feel much more comfortable deploying IPTV solutions," said Ben Kley, President and GM, StratusIQ.
Product innovation - because of Plume's cloud-based architecture, new services are developed and launched globally at an accelerated rate. Network operations, support, and consumer services are developed using SaaS methodologies, allowing CSPs to scale rapidly.
"Plume is an advanced solution that continuously learns about your Internet needs and performs advanced self-optimizations. This cloud-coordinated system gives customers stable and consistent WiFi coverage and speed in any room/area of their business or home," said Gino Villarini, Founder and President, AeroNet.
"Plume's SuperPods along with the Plume platform offers a cutting-edge solution for our customer base. Since launching the product, the overall feedback has been extremely positive. Our customers are experiencing stable WiFi connections and complete home coverage with an average of 2.5 SuperPods per home in our demographic. Additionally, our Help Desk and IT teams are benefiting from having visibility into the customers network for remote troubleshooting purposes. It is quicker and easier for us to identify the root causes of troubles which translates into faster resolutions for our customers. Yes, we can make the argument that the Plume platform has given us the ability to provide better customer service. Plume has been a game changer for our company, and we are very excited about the Plume for Small Business solution once it becomes available," said Robert Parisien, President, D&P Communications.
"Plume's app based product is more consumer friendly than products we have used in the past so it provides wireless service customers with an experience they can benefit from. Plume just works. The product has reduced support calls and churn when compared to our old WiFi solution. It is refreshing to work with a vendor that provides an innovative product that makes a positive difference," said Dave Hoffer, COO, MCTV.
"WightFibre leverages the unprecedented insight Plume's sophisticated customer support tools and data dashboards provide into each and every home. This in turn allows problems to be solved immediately without an engineer call-out––again this is really appreciated by the customer. The metrics speak for themselves: our customer satisfaction Net Promoter Score is now consistently in the high 50s. The average time taken to resolve a customer case has reduced from 1.47 to 0.45 days as problem resolution now rarely requires an engineer visit. The number of cases has also reduced by 25% year on year," said John Irvine, CEO, WightFibre.
Consumer experience - born in the cloud, Plume's consumer service, HomePass, provides subscribers with intelligent, self-optimizing WiFi, control of internet access and content filtering, and security features that ensure devices and people stay protected against malicious activity.
"As leaders in broadband technology, we know that the modern smart home requires a personalized approach tailored to each person, home and device. Plume does just that," said Matt Weller, President of All West Communications.
"Zoom, featuring HomePass by Plume, creates the ultimate user experience by putting WiFi where the customer needs it most. As a result, our customers experience fewer coverage and performance issues, which generate less need for assistance and higher levels of satisfaction. We couldn't be happier with our decision to use Plume as the technology partner for our Enhanced WiFi product," said Jeff Ross, President of Armstrong.
"Today's home WiFi experience has become a point of frustration with subscribers, but Plume eliminates the challenge entirely. While we know that Plume self-optimizes daily—with real-time data usage in order to prioritize bandwidth when and where it's needed—all our customers know is that an easy self-installation leads to a robust wall-to-wall WiFi experience," said Matthew L. Dosch, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Comporium.
"Access to fast, reliable internet has never been more important as consumers need remote access to work-from-home, students are doing distance learning from home, and families are watching more streaming video content than ever before. Smart WiFi gives consumers more bandwidth on demand in any room of the home thanks to Plume Adapt––the best part about this service is that homeowners can control everything from one easy-to-use app," said Ashley Phillips, General Manager of C Spire Home.
"Our Whole Home WiFi service, Powered by Plume HomePass, delivers fast and consistent internet throughout the home, it keeps families safe from potential security threats and gives them better control over their digital health. We thank Plume for making this possible," said Rod Boss, President and CEO, Docomo Pacific.
"Plume's easy-to-use platform has allowed our customers to work untethered throughout their homes, so they can do business and attend school remotely with confidence in their wireless connection. The intuitive Plume app gives users the ability to manage and monitor all wireless devices in their network, allowing them to see what's consuming bandwidth and control devices from their phone or tablet. It is a timely product for today's market and helps us to stay competitive as we strive to meet the ever-changing and increasing needs of our customers," said Todd Foje, CEO, Great Plains Communications.
"Our partnership with Plume has made reliable connectivity a standard for all of our WiFi customers. We've experienced triple-digit growth on our internet product each month since launching Plume, and trouble tickets have dramatically decreased. Customers love our WiFi solution and we love Plume!" said Vice President and General Manager, Mike Oblizalo, Hood Canal Cablevision.
"We only offer our customers premier broadband services and technology. i3 Smart WiFi, Powered by Plume HomePass provides another way for our customers to have a world-class internet experience," said Brian Olson, COO, i3 Broadband.
"Today's home WiFi experience can vary for some customers, however Plume eliminates this entirely by distributing WiFi seamlessly throughout the home. With Plume, JT customers' WiFi networks self-optimise daily with real-time data usage and prioritises bandwidth where and when it is needed the most, providing an unparalleled full-fibre experience on one of the world's fastest networks," said Daragh McDermott, Managing Director, JT Channel Islands.
"Our customers see the Internet and WiFi as one and the same. Plume has helped us elevate our in-home customer experience to the next level with seamless coverage throughout the home. The HomePass app gives the customers the device level insight and control over their Internet they've been asking for…. best of all, it's simple!" said Brent Olson, President and CEO, Long Lines.
"Plume has allowed us to help customers take control of their WiFi home experience and given us the tools to help them if they need assistance. Customer satisfaction has been higher with this technology than any other deployment we have ever launched," said Chad Lawson, CTO, Murray Electric.
"Since deploying Plume, our customer satisfaction has never been higher, and our customer service team has received fewer WiFi related support calls. Our customers now enjoy a WiFi experience that just works perfectly," said Gary Schrimpf, Asst. Superintendent, Communications, Wadsworth CityLink.
Iconic and performance leading hardware designs
Many of the world's leading CSPs use Plume's SuperPod™ WiFi access point (AP) and router technology to deliver next generation Smart Home Services. This includes Comcast, Charter Communications, Liberty Global, Bell, J:COM and over 45 others across North America, Europe and Asia. Liberty Global will also deploy Plume's SuperPod technology to European consumers in the first quarter of 2021, having expanded its partnership with Plume in February of this year.
Plume's SuperPod is heralded for its performance in independent third-party product tests. Ars Technica's Jim Salter wrote: "Plume is on top in each of the four test stations, and it's got a lower variance between worst and best station, which means more consistent coverage across the house as well."
"As the creator of the CEM category, we have made it our mission to define modern Smart Home Services and become the world's standard. We are committed to serving every communications service provider around the globe, small and large, and to delivering delightful consumer experiences via engaging front-end services and cloud-data-driven, back-end insights," said Fahri Diner, Co-founder & CEO at Plume. "I'm thankful for all of our partners and their continued trust and support as we reach this significant milestone. And I would like to extend a special recognition to 'the class of 2017' – Bell Canada, Comcast, Liberty Global, Sagemcom and Qualcomm who had the courage and conviction to bet on Plume early, and with whom our partnership has only deepened and expanded as we reinvent the residential service bundles together."
About Plume®Plume is the creator of the world's first Consumer Experience Management (CEM) Platform, powered by OpenSync™, which enables the curation and delivery of new Smart Home Services rapidly and at massive scale. The Plume HomePass™ Smart Home Services Suite which includes Plume Adapt™, Guard™, Control™, and Sense™ is managed by the Plume Cloud, a data- and AI-driven cloud controller currently running the largest software-defined network in the world. Plume leverages OpenSync, an open-source framework which comes pre-integrated and supported on the leading silicon and platform SDKs for coordination by the Plume Cloud.
Visit www.plume.com and www.opensync.io.
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Plume, Powered by Plume HomePass, OpenSync, HomePass, Haystack, SuperPod, Adapt, Guard, Control, and Sense are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Plume Design, Inc. Other company and product names are used for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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