Cisco looking at two acquisitions?

Mobile policy management companies in its sights, analyst reports

Cisco is sizing up two possible acquisitions in the mobile Internet space, according to an analyst's report. The company may be looking to buy mobile policy management companies Bridgewater Systems and/or Openet as augmentations to its recent Starent Networks 4G enhanced packet core purchase, according to Avian Securities analyst Catharine Trebnick. 

Bridgewater has partnered with Cisco/Starent in the past, Trebnick reports. The company makes policy control and subscriber management systems that are currently deployed in Verizon's 3G network. Metro PCS is another customer, as are over 45 mobile WiMax operators, including Clarwire, Trebnick states. 

Openet has a long standing relationship with Cisco, Trebnick reports. Openet's Policy Manager product enables operators to dynamically control network resources through policies based on real-time subscriber, session and service usage information. Orange France recently selected Openet and Cisco for a system that allows parents to manage children's wireless usage based on accessed content, time-of-day and type of service, according to Trebnick. 

Why is policy-based management in 3G/4G mobile networks key? According to Trebnick:   

It gives the operator's better control over network usage at the session level setting the stage for the billing of data services and traffic rerouting and metering based on policies set by the operator.  The net, policy control enables more sophisticated service options and provides a path for Cisco to provide operators a vehicle to better manage existing network resources while providing new opportunities to monetize data traffic.  

Citing data from Infonetics, she says that worldwide revenue for policy servers in mobile networks is expected to reach $1.2 billion by 2014, a 47% compounded annual growth rate from the $167 million market in 2009.

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• Starent's widely deployed EPC solution offers 2G/3G functionality