By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
AXON Networks – spun off from Greenwave – may be a relatively new name on the fixed broadband scene but the company’s credentials are indisputable. AXON Networks says its mission is to remedy the low levels of customer satisfaction delivered by many if not most home broadband service providers and introduce operations that are more data driven. The tool to get there is what the company calls ‘end-to-end orchestration’. AXON Networks is featured keynote speaker and partner at this year’s WWC Europe in Stockholm.
The number of ISPs in the US and elsewhere is growing – and in particular fibre-based broadband is experiencing a surge in deployments. Meanwhile many ISPs continue to suffer from low levels of customer satisfaction, a high number of support calls, and high churn rates with all three factors contributing to mounting operational costs. But it doesn’t have to be this way, AXON Networks says.
“Our mission is to empower ISPs to deliver a great service to the consumer – including a great home Wi-Fi service – by managing the service, detecting problems, and responding correctly. This sounds deceptively simple but it does require what we call orchestration – an array of applications and algorithms which together with comprehensive data collection and management system delivers the right end-to-end subscriber experience all the way to the end-user’s Wi-Fi device,” says Tomas Sørensen, CEO Europe and CCO for AXON Networks.
“To put it very simply: We believe we can make your typical interaction with operation tools such as BSS, OSS, ACS etc., more intelligent, and smoother,” Tomas Sørensen says. The ‘AXON Orchestrator’ is modular, and Tomas Sørensen claims that even one module such as the Customer Support Application will instantly reduce the length and number of support calls.
AXON Networks has historically delivered more than 220 million home gateways and is now on a mission to transform home broadband ISPs into true ‘customer-first’ companies. The company’s client base includes household name ISPs – such as CenturyLink and Verizon in the US – as well as CPE vendors such as Icotera and Zyxel. The ‘AXON Orchestrator’ is fully hardware and WAN agnostic, the company says, and also integrates with open source CPE platforms such as Prpl and OpenWRT, the company says.
Cutting support calls and truck rolls by more than 50%
“We can provide CPEs with state-of-the-art Wi-Fi capabilities including mesh via our partners but our real value lies in equipping ISPs to manage customer experience as powered by our software platform. We’ve helped ISPs cut their support calls and truck rolls by more than 50% and churn by more than 20%. This makes an enormous difference on the operator’s bottom line,” Tomas Sørensen says.
He also says that a typical AXON Networks project involves customisation including creating the right customer support dashboards, reporting modules, and customised mobile apps. Mobile apps can run automated ‘support bots’ and self-help as well as self-install functions for CPEs and home Wi-Fi equipment. The solution requires no replacement of existing tools or applications but can simply integrate with what the ISP already has installed.
AXON Networks orchestration platform detects and responds to broadband service anomalies all the way from the Internet itself to the core and access systems, and of course the system monitors and optimises the home Wi-Fi service, Tomas Sørensen says.
“The opportunity for ISPs to deliver true customer satisfaction is real, it’s here today, and it is a great market differentiator. We’re right now experiencing a surge in interest in our solutions reflected also in our revenue results, which are already several multiples higher this year compared to 2021. We look forward to making an even bigger difference in coming years,” says Tomas Sørensen. AXON Networks is privately owned and headquartered in Irvin, California.
For more about AXON Networks meet Tomas Sørensen and team in person at the Wi-Fi World Congress Europe in Stockholm this September 26-28 – read more and register here.
/Claus.
