SoftBank Selects Affirmed Networks to Deliver IoT and Enterprise Mobility Services

ACTON, Mass., Feb. 26, 2018

IoT services represent a key growth area for Communications Service Providers driven by the large number of devices being added to mobile networks each year.  However, widespread deployment has been hampered by the inflexible architecture of legacy networks. Affirmed's Mobile Content Cloud solution (MCC) eliminates these barriers, and provides mobile operators with a cost effective, scalable, and flexible solution to support a wide range of IoT services.

Softbank, one of Japan's major telecommunication operators, provides the country's largest enterprises with both fixed and mobile services over its nationwide network.  Softbank recognizes the importance of creating new, revenue-generating services such as connected car and smart meter applications, to meet the burgeoning need of its enterprise customers focused on capitalizing on IoT services and applications.  Softbank has selected Affirmed Networks' Virtualized EPC because of its flexibility and its support for 5G is critical to delivering the diverse requirements of IoT services.  Affirmed's solution additionally delivers advanced capabilities in the areas of integrated analytics, network slicing and service automation for the creation and delivery of value added services. 

"The proliferation of connected devices and the industry's shift to virtualized networks creates a real opportunity for us to efficiently deliver IoT and M2M services to our enterprise customers," said Sadahiro Sato, Senior Vice President, SoftBank.  "With Affirmed Networks' proven platform, we have the flexibility to deliver services tailored to the needs of each enterprise quickly and easily over a common network infrastructure."

"With the growth in IoT services and the arrival of 5G, mobile operators have an opportunity to expand the services they offer enterprise customers," said Hassan Ahmed, Affirmed Networks' Chairman & CEO.  "As leading operators like Softbank have realized, the delivery of customized IoT services represents an ideal way to monetize their network in new ways.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with Softbank as they deliver Enterprise mobility and IoT services to their customer base."

Affirmed IoT Solution

Affirmed Networks' IoT solution includes mobile core functions optimized for IoT such as LTE-M, NB-IoT Cellular IoT Serving Gateway Node (C-SGN), Service Capability Exposure Function (SCEF) and the Affirmed IoT Service Platform that allow mobile operators to deliver a wide spectrum of IoT services in accordance with the latest 3GPP standards.