Ottie is our new connectivity solution for employees when working from home.
Ottie helps organisations ensure the productivity and satisfaction of their hybrid teams by eliminating home Internet connectivity issues. It’s the hero of remote worker connectivity with three superpowers:
The Ottie app offers a user-friendly interface for the initial setup and ongoing monitoring of the service. It provides a history of avoided outages per day/week/month, and the number of devices that are currently protected by the Ottie box.
The Ottie differenceAt the heart of the Ottie solution is the Ottie box, a desktop mobile network router which provides the connectivity between your business devices and the mobile network. It features 4G/5G connectivity and the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard to support your devices at the highest possible speed.
Ottie SubscriptionsOttie has two different subscription levels available for a low monthly fee:
Ottie is now available in Belgium with more European countries coming soon.
More info: www.ott.ie
]]>Tessares is proud to announce that for the first time they have combined live 5G and fixed access networks at Proximus’ headquarters in Brussels. A DSL line synchronised at 70 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up was boosted to 550 Mbps down (see chart below) and 60 Mbps up. Operators who are deploying 5G Hybrid Access can therefore deliver fiber-like speeds now, in those areas waiting for fiber or where fiber is not economically feasible.
5G Hybrid Access can support 5-7 times the number of FWA subscribers with the same radio network investment. This is achieved by offloading an estimated 86% of traffic that would otherwise be transmitted over the 5G radio network. Given that a typical FWA user may use 100 times more capacity than a mobile user, 5G Hybrid Access produces significant savings in both capacity investment and energy consumption.
Tessares achieved this milestone by integrating their Hybrid Access software solution on a Sagemcom 5G outdoor router. Proximus’ current DSL residential gateway provided the fixed network connectivity, while Tessares’ production hybrid aggregation gateway (HAG) in the Proximus network provided the termination point for both networks.
Tessares’ 5G Hybrid Access solution enables operators to provide better speed and services to customers, without the wait for fiber or the network costs of 5G FWA.
While fiber roll-outs are well on track in many countries, not everyone will benefit right away. Combining 5G and fixed access networks is a cost and energy efficient alternative to FWA which allows operators to deliver a significantly improved user experience today to those in need of more speed and services. We are very proud to have achieved this milestone.
Denis Périquet, CEO and co-founder of Tessares ]]>Tessares is proud to announce that BT in the UK has launched a converged fixed and mobile solution using Tessares’ technology (see PR “BT cranks up broadband speeds for thousands of small businesses on copper lines”). Available to BT’s small business customers, this solution combines BT’s fixed network with EE’s mobile network to deliver a truly converged service. The Tessares solution provides BT’s customers with more speed today, while it continues its roll-out program for full fibre.
With such an approach, BT demonstrates their focus is not only on longer term full fibre coverage targets, but also on waiting-for-fibre customers who will continue to be served by low speed copper lines for several more years.
Tessares’ solution combines existing network assets, fixed and mobile, into a single and bigger ‘pipe’; it is quick to deploy and cost-effective.
While fibre roll-outs are well on track in many countries, not everyone will benefit right away. By adding hybrid to its technology mix, BT is pursuing a very pragmatic approach to deliver a significantly improved user experience today to those in need of more speed. We are very proud to add BT to our list of commercially deployed customers which proves the relevance of this approach, the reliability of our solution and our operational excellence.
Denis Périquet, CEO of Tessares ]]>----
New Funding RoundThanks to the growing success of its Hybrid Access solution and a double-digit growth rate (40+% CAGR over the period 2016 - 2020), Tessares has attracted new investors. The EIC Fund and Sagemcom have led the funding round of 3.5 million EUR to which the initial investors (Proximus, VIVES & SRIW) have also contributed.
Notably, Tessares is among the first European SMEs to be granted blended finance from the EIC (European Innovation Council) Accelerator Program of the European Commission: a mix of subsidy and equity injected by the newly established EIC Fund. This very selective programme supports European growth companies bringing highly innovative and disruptive technologies to the market.
The EIC Fund was launched to back up innovative entrepreneurs who bring new disruptive technologies and products to the market in situations where the private investors alone consider the investment still too early or too risky. Therefore, the EIC Fund is proud to co-invest into a faster, more reliable and consistent hybrid internet access for mobile devices.
Heidi Kakko, European Innovation Council Fund Committee MemberSagemcom is a long-standing industry partner of Tessares and after working together on several successful projects, Sagemcom has taken the next step and become an investor. Sagemcom brings a wealth of experience and expertise in the broadband ecosystem.
As the main integrated partner of Tessares since its creation, we're delighted to strengthen further our relationship. We firmly believe in Tessares’ strategic vision, technology expertise and software capabilities to continue bringing innovative and unique solutions that will enable the operators to boost and enhance the broadband experience
Ahmed Selmani, Senior Executive VP, Sagemcom BroadbandProximus - the early-stage development partner of Tessares -, VIVES - the capital fund of UCLouvain - and the SRIW - the investment partner of many ambitious business ventures in Wallonia, Belgium - have all reconfirmed their confidence in the project by contributing to the new round.
I am very excited to participate in this new fund raising that will enable this disruptive technology to enhance the user experience of millions of smartphone users. We are confident that Tessares will contribute to the development of this growing ecosystem.
Colin Loyens, Investment Manager at SRIWThis new funding will be used to accelerate the development of Tessares’ new solution which combines 4G and 5G with Wi-Fi for a superior smartphone experience.
Making Wi-Fi and cellular (4G/5G) work as oneThe core business of Tessares is to develop software solutions that combine any type of Internet access. We started by combining xDSL and 4G (aka Hybrid Access) to give a speed boost to those who are too far from the fibre to have a decent Internet connection. Seven incumbent operators have already deployed the Tessares solution for their Hybrid Access service, several others are in field trials as Tessares seeks to become the leading vendor in the Hybrid Access market.
Tessares’ second solution will seamlessly combine Wi-Fi and cellular (4G and 5G) networks. This solution benefits smartphone users by always connecting them to the best network, or to both networks where appropriate, and benefits telco operators whose network assets will be better utilised, saving significant amounts of money. In the context of exponential smartphone traffic growth, unlimited data plans and the need to use network resources sustainably, the addressable market is huge as eventually billions of smartphones will benefit from this elegant approach. Tessares is cooperating with major mobile industry players in Europe and North America where the first pilot projects are already deployed.
Wi-Fi and 4G/5G are equally needed to cope with the ever-growing data volumes generated by the smartphone users. Our ambition is to play a pivotal role and become a market leader in the solution that will make Wi-Fi and 4G/5G work as one.
Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO & Co-Founder----
About Tessares
Tessares is a spin-off from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Belgium where researchers have contributed to the design, implementation and standardization of a new Internet protocol: Multipath TCP (MPTCP). Tessares is headquartered in Belgium with development and sales teams in Europe, North America, Asia and Latin America. Today, almost 60% of Tessares’ staff are shareholders.
About the EIC Fund
Established in June 2020, the European Innovation Council Fund (EIC Fund) is a breakthrough initiative of the European Commission to make direct equity and quasi-equity investments (between €500.000 and €15 million) in European high impact and deep tech start-ups and scale ups. The EIC Fund provides patient capital and invests in companies from any sector, across all EU countries and countries associated to Horizon 2020. The Fund pays particular attention to empower and support female founders as well as contributing to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries.
The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is not to maximise financial investment returns, but to have a high impact by accompanying companies with disruptive technologies in their growth. Its objective is to crowd in market players, further sharing risks by building a large network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments and follow-on funding.
About Sagemcom
Sagemcom is a leading European group on the high added-value communicating terminals market (broadband solutions, audio video solutions, and smart grid end-to-end solutions) which is based in France. Group turnover totals €2.1 billion, the headcount of 5,500 employees works in more than 50 countries.
About SRIW
SRIW (Société Régionale d'Investissement de Wallonie) provides equity and/or debt to companies that generate added value and employment in Wallonia.
For the last 40 years, SRIW has been facilitating the region's economic development, contributing effectively to the modernisation, growth and restructuring of the businesses that make up the Walloon industrial network.
About VIVES
VIVES (VIVES II - Louvain Technology Fund) is an investment fund (€ 43M created in 2011) mainly focused in UCLouvain spin-offs. VIVES has invested in around twenty companies which, together, have raised more than 650 million euros through public and private funding. VIVES Inter-University Fund, the third fund, made a first closing at € 32M in July 2020.
The VIVES funds are managed by SOPARTEC, the technology transfer and investment company of UCLouvain.
]]>----
New board compositionThe Tessares board of directors is being reshuffled significantly to take into account the arrival of the new investors and the departure of several board members:
- Matteo Gatta, who has been recently appointed as the CEO of BICS (a member of the Proximus Group) has resigned from his position to concentrate on his new challenge;
- Thomas Dhondt, who is taking a new role abroad within the Proximus Group, has resigned from his position to concentrate on his new challenge;
- They will be replaced by Wim Bouckenooghe (Director Core & Communication Solutions, Proximus);
- VIVES will continue to be represented by André Vandemeulebroecke (Senior Investment Manager, VIVES Technology Fund);
- The SRIW will continue to be represented by Colin Loyens (Investment Manager, SRIW) whose role changes from observer to director of the board;
- Sagemcom will be represented by Ahmed Selmani (Senior Executive VP, Sagemcom Broadband);
- The seat of the EIC Fund will remain vacant until a director is proposed;
- Denis Périquet (co-founder and CEO, Tessares) will continue to represent the founders and act as the company’s managing director;
- Eric Schutz and Philippe Lemmens, who were acting as independent directors and whose terms were coming to an end, have resigned;
- Jacques Wénin (Business Coach, WSL) will continue to act as an observer to the board until the end of 2021;
- Finally, Tessares has appointed Pierre De Muelenaere (Founder, Past President and CEO, IRIS Group) as independent director (through Pygargue srl);
I would like to warmly thank Eric, Philippe, Matteo and Thomas for their strong contribution to the development of Tessares during the past years. We wish them great success in their new challenges. The transition and onboarding process is almost completed. With Ahmed, Wim and Pierre, we welcome knowledgeable and talented new board members, and we are convinced they will help Tessares through its next steps of development.
Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO & Co-Founder ]]>Thanks to innovative hybrid technology, Hrvatski Telekom, a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, is now able to provide 30 megabits per second speed to more customers in rural and less populated areas of Croatia. Hybrid combines the most available fixed and best mobile networks in a unique service which delivers stable and fast Internet access.
By implementing Tessares’ Multipath TCP technology, this 30 mbps offer will now become available to more residents in Croatia, both through own retail and also through a wholesale offer of Hrvatski Telekom.
"The main goal of Hrvatski Telekom’s activities is to connect everyone with the opportunities the latest technology offers so that everyone can now live better and more easily, creating the basis for a better future. That is why we are constantly investing in the development of a secure and stable network, and use innovative solutions to bring fast internet to every corner of Croatia,” said Boris Drilo, Member of the Management Board and Chief Technology and Information Officer of Hrvatski Telekom,
“We are very proud to be able to help Hrvatski Telekom in bringing modern, MPTCP hybrid Internet connectivity to previously underserved areas of Croatia. This project has been delivered quickly and smoothly, with excellent collaboration between all the teams involved. Notably, the deployment is running on OpenStack which demonstrates our ability to provide NFV-ready solutions to meet operators’ demands.” said Denis Périquet, CEO of Tessares.
About Hrvatski Telekom
Hrvatski Telekom is the market leader and the only company in Croatia providing full range of telecommunications services, fixed line and mobile telephone services, data transmission, TV services, internet and international communications. Every year, Hrvatski Telekom invests 25 percent of its total revenues in infrastructure and technology, well above the European industry average. HT investments enabled HT to offer home Internet speeds of over 20Mbps on almost complete households footprint with recent introduction of a hybrid fixed-mobile solutions.
]]>
GO plc in Malta has launched a converged fixed and mobile solution using Tessares’s Multipath TCP technology. Available to all GO plc customers, this solution combines the operator's fixed network with its 4.5G mobile network to deliver a range of converged services.
Commenting on the launch, Joseph Attard, GO CTO, said: “Our primary focus is to utilise the leading edge capabilities of GO’s fixed and mobile networks to offer innovative services such as immediate provisioning, backup services, wireless internet and faster internet access over the converged hybrid network.”
“We are very proud to add GO to our list of commercially deployed customers. This project has been delivered quickly and smoothly, with excellent collaboration between all the teams involved.” said Denis Périquet, CEO of Tessares.
GO is Malta’s leading communications services company. As the first quad play provider in Malta they provide mobile, fixed line, internet and TV services to more than 500,000 customers. GO also provides services to the Maltese business community, including Cloud Services, roaming hub services, data networking solutions, business IP services, and managed services.
]]>▶ Korea Telecom (KT) & Tessares have succeeded in the world’s first test of ‘5G Low Latency Multiradio Access Technology’ in a 5G commercial network
▶ Faster and more reliable 5G service available to 5G customers
KT announced on the 28th August that it has completed the world’s first ‘5G low latency multi-radio access technology’ test in a 5G commercial network in collaboration with Tessares.
The 5G multi-radio access technology, which the 3GPP has named ATSSS (Access Traffic Steering, Switch and Splitting), is one of the 5G differentiators that is standardized in the 3GPP Release-16 5G System Architecture Standard (3GPP TS 23.501). ATSSS was defined in collaboration with KT, Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and Cisco and is based on Multi-Path TCP technology. KT is leading the development of multi-radio access technology, and applied it to commercialize the world’s first ‘GiGA LTE’ and ‘GiGA 5G’ services in 2015 and 2019, respectively.
ATSSS technology reduces the initial session setup time to achieve 5G ultra-low latency in a multi-radio context, resulting in a setup delay of less than half compared to previous approaches. KT and Tessares have together led the international standardization of this initial delay reduction technique through the IETF TCP Working Group. Founded by MPTCP experts, Tessares is a Belgian tech company providing software based hybrid Internet access bonding to telecom operators.
In the IETF 105th meeting in Montreal, Canada, from July 22 to 26, the results of this testing in KT’s 5G commercial network were announced. Other working group members gave positive responses in regard to the effectiveness of the technique. Leveraging 5G low latency multi-radio access technology can provide customers with faster and more reliable networks. In addition, low-latency network technology is applied to KT’s enterprise dedicated 5G service, which is expected to greatly contribute to the activation of delay-sensitive enterprise applications such as smart office, smart factory, etc.
“The success of this low latency multi-radio access technology test will allow customers to take advantage of existing LTE and Wi-Fi networks, as well as 5G, to enable wireless services at higher speed and quality.” said Sun-woo Lee, Senior Vice President, KT Infra R&D Laboratory. He also mentioned “KT will continue to develop core 5G technologies to strengthen its R&D capabilities”.
“We are convinced that mobile Internet usage requires an efficient combination of all existing network assets such as WiFi, LTE and 5G. We are delighted to have collaborated with KT, who is clearly leading the 5G race, to demonstrate the benefits of ATSSS.” said Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO.
]]>
A diverse group of innovators attended the event and presented disruptive digital solutions ranging from Wi-Fi optimisation to cybersecurity, robotics, wearables and smart cities. Throughout the day, there were 4 pitching sessions and over 30 parallel business meetings.
Tessares pitched its solutions for greater Internet connectivity to top Orange representatives and had the chance to deliver a detailed presentation in exploratory one-to-one meetings with Orange managers.
Speaking about the motivations behind the event Bertrand Rojat, Orange Fab’s director, stated: “Orange is very strong on its core business. However, for us to innovate faster, we need to take advantage of the strong ecosystem of startups and SMEs around us. That’s our challenge, and that’s why we’re here today.”
Christian Schneiter, Lead Product Manager for Cloud Solutions and Artificial Intelligence at Orange, addressed the success factors behind Orange’s innovation strategy: “The main factor of success is to focus on solving our customers’ problems. The technology is there only to solve real problems.” Moreover, he shared some advice for the companies in the room: “My advice is to approach us with new ideas to tackle existing problems. As a big company, we need your inputs and fresh perspective.”
Denis Périquet, CEO of Tessares, Hybrid Access Solutions, commented, “We’re very happy to be selected for this event. We believe our Hybrid Access innovation will unlock new opportunities for Orange and start a mutually fruitful partnership.”
]]>Telia Finland has launched a Hybrid Broadband service which combines fixed & mobile (4G) Internet access to bring a faster and more reliable Internet service to residential customers. Tessares technology was selected after careful evaluation in Finland and a previous deployment at Telia Lithuania. With Hybrid Broadband, Telia Finland is targeting to improve the broadband experience of more than one million households where fiber is not yet deployed.
Kalle Muhonen, broadband service business manager at Telia Finland, said: “Hybrid Broadband will make surfing the web easier for more than one million Finnish households. It supports multiple users and makes it easier to watch TV, even in HD. In Pori, for example, only about one in ten homes has been able to get fast and reliable fixed broadband from Telia, but the new hybrid network will enable nearly every household in the city to watch elite league ice hockey.”
“We are very happy that Hybrid Broadband is delivering greater connectivity so that more customers can enjoy services which were previously unavailable. Our effective collaboration with Telia and their CPE partner allowed this project to go live within a very short time frame”. said Denis Périquet, CEO of Tessares.
The home Hybrid Broadband service includes a hybrid router in the monthly subscription. Different packages are available with download speeds up to 100 Mbps.
About Telia :
We’re Telia Company, the New Generation Telco. Our approximately 20,000 talented colleagues serve millions of customers every day in one of the world’s most connected regions. With a strong connectivity base, we’re the hub in the digital ecosystem, empowering people, companies and societies to stay in touch with everything that matters 24/7/365 - on their terms. Headquartered in Stockholm, the heart of innovation and technology, we’re set to change the industry and bring the world even closer for our customers. Read more at www.teliacompany.com
]]>Therefore, in April 2015, Proximus and VIVES II - Louvain Technology Fund - invested in Tessares, a spin-off of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) based in Louvain-la-Neuve, which had developed an innovative Hybrid Internet Access technology based on the "Multipath TCP" (MPTCP) protocol. Thanks to this technology, which combines the speeds of existing fixed and mobile networks, it is possible to improve the Internet experience of customers living in rural areas (a long distance away from street cabinets).
From laboratory tests to country-wide deploymentsAfter a study phase and laboratory tests, it was decided that Tessares' innovative MPTCP solution would be monitored and tried out in real-life situations by Proximus customers living in the most remote areas. Therefore, in June 2016, Proximus chose the municipality of Frasnes-Lez-Anvaing to launch a pilot. The idea was to combine the bandwidth of the customer's fixed network with that of the 4G network.
Today, after a successful pilot phase, achieving a very high satisfaction rating among customers, Proximus is pleased to announce that its “DSL + 4G/LTE” solution has successfully gone through all the qualification steps needed for country-wide deployment. Tessares' objective is to become the reference provider for hybrid telecommunications networks.
Willing to constantly improve and offer the best quality networks, Proximus, for its part, plans to upscale this pilot project to a nationwide Live User Test to assess the feasibility of a nationwide commercial launch later in 2017. This is a solution for its customers located a long distance away from a Remote Optical Platform (ROP), where an attenuation effect cancels out the efficiency of VDSL technology. Proximus’ aim is to ensure access to high-speed Internet across the whole of Belgium in line with the objectives of the EU Digital Agenda which aims that, by 2020, all Europeans have access to Internet speeds of at least 30 Mbps, and half of all households enjoy at least 100 Mbps.
The Frasnes-Lez-Anvaing pilot proved a great success, customers are highly satisfied as they can enjoy speeds up to 20 Mbps faster than before giving a much better experience for Internet & multimedia. The successful integration of the Tessares MPTCP solution in our infrastructure has convinced us to deploy the service more widely
Geert Standaert, Proximus CTOI’m pleased that our Multipath TCP solution has evolved to a high level of maturity, enabling country-wide availability of the service. This standardized technology has been enhanced with path management, giving operators the flexibility to enable intelligent traffic steering for optimized usage of xDSL and LTE assets. In addition, the system has been tuned for high performance on existing home gateways from several vendors, and is fully compatible with NFV, a major telecom trend. We are grateful for the confidence Proximus has shown in the solution which has led to substantial interest from operators across Europe, Asia Pacific and America. Tessares has three operator customers with several more expected during 2017.
Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO ]]>Tessares, the leading developer of Multipath TCP (MPTCP) access bonding software which significantly enhances Internet speeds, and Askey, a leading manufacturer of smart communications devices, are today launching an entirely new way for Telco operators to deploy access bonding in their networks and so provide higher speeds to rural and low speed customers.
Low speed Internet users find it difficult to access important on-line services and are often denied entertainment innovations that the rest of the community now take for granted. The Tessares/Askey solution resolves this important issue for many by combining the available speeds of an operator’s DSL and LTE networks.
Building on Tessares’ extensive MPTCP expertise the two companies will now offer the Tessares bonding agent on the Askey RTL0030VW LTE residential gateway. This approach to deploying MPTCP bonding has several advantages:
"Askey has always been keen to push technology boundaries and DSL+LTE bonding with MPTCP is an area of focus for Askey. Today we are proud to see the fruits of our latest efforts demonstrated to the thousands of visitors attending BBWF (Broadband World Forum). We believe this innovative approach to delivering MPTCP bonding will accelerate the adoption of this technology, enabling operators to better satisfy their lower speed customers."
Eric Lui, Askey Chief Technology Officer“Our development team has evolved our MPTCP solution to enable simplified and faster deployment. This open-source technology has already been enhanced with path management, giving operators the flexibility to intelligently route traffic for optimised usage of their existing xDSL and LTE assets. In addition, the system has been tuned for high performance on residential gateways, and is fully compatible with the move towards SDN/NFV. This latest innovation has led to substantial interest from a number of important operators.”
Denis Périquet, Tessares' CEOThe solution will be presented for the first time at Broadband World Forum in London (18-20 October 2016) at the Tessares Booth, B11.
]]>Tessares, the leading developer of Multipath TCP (MPTCP) access bonding software which significantly increases Internet speeds, today announces General Availability (GA) of its market leading DSL+LTE bonding solution. This enables broadband operators to offer higher speeds to rural and low speed customers without the traditional costs and risks of a large scale infrastructure project.
Low speed Internet users find it difficult to access important on-line services and are often denied entertainment innovations that the rest of the community now take for granted. The Tessares solution resolves this issue for many by combining the available speeds of an operator’s DSL and LTE networks.
Operators can use their existing DSL residential gateways or alternatively deploy the technology on new DSL+LTE combo gateways. Tessares provides an end-to-end software-only solution, ensuring there is no hardware lock-in.
Tessares’ CEO Denis Periquet remarked, “We are delighted our development team, comprising the most highly skilled MPTCP software engineers, has brought our solution forward to GA. This is an important milestone for both our technology and our company. This open-source technology has been enhanced with path management, giving operators the flexibility to intelligently route traffic for optimised usage of their existing xDSL and LTE assets. In addition, the system is tuned for high performance on residential gateways, and is fully compatible with the move towards SDN/NFV.”
Periquet added, “I am also pleased to announce that we will be presenting 1Gbps bonding (DSL+LTE) for the first time on a commercially available residential gateway (dual core 1.6GHz CPU). This is a significant breakthrough and provides further evidence of the scalability of the Tessares solution.” This comes at a time of growing interest among Telcos in combining fixed DSL and mobile LTE network capacity to increase available bit rates for subscribers. Tessares can provide a quick and cost effective way of delivering acceptable access speeds to many more consumers without immediate fiber build out.
The demonstration will take place at Broadband World Forum, London, Booth B11 (18-20 October 2016).
]]>The paper proposes enhancements to the performance of Multipath TCP via the automatic detection and closing of poor performing connections and the opening of new replacement connections. This feature is essential when bonding together stable fixed networks with less stable mobile networks, as in hybrid bonding, and laid the foundation for Tessares' Path Manager. The IRTF received 53 nominations and chose SMAPP and five other winners based on a diverse set of criteria, including scientific excellence, substance, relevance, and potential impact on the Internet.
About the IRTF: The IRTF <https://www.irtf.org> is the research arm of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) <https://www.ietf.org>. The IRTF develops techniques and protocols that could become Internet standards in the future. The IRTF also closely monitors research publications and every year selects for the ANRP <https://irtf.org/anrp> the published papers that are likely to influence standardisation within the IETF.
]]>After successful tests with Proximus employees, this latest test will prove the technology in a real life situation with low line speed customers. In the coming weeks numerous such customers will be invited to participate, with the first customers being connected in July 2016; the test will continue for several months. Based on the results Proximus will decide whether to deploy the service more widely.
This initiative aligns with Minister Marcourt’s Digital Plan to ensure minimum speeds across the whole of the Walloon Region. Low speed Internet customers find it difficult to access important on-line services and are often ineligible to receive entertainment innovations that the rest of the community take for granted. The Tessares solution resolves this important issue.
]]>What is the business of Tessares?
Our mission is to help operators offer faster Internet connections that are stronger, more mobile and more secure by combining fixed and wireless networks. We have developed software that can be easily added to routers, making it possible to combine fixed lines (cable, ADSL) with the mobile network (4G, etc.). Our software can distribute traffic across different networks, and then restore it, in both directions of course.
Who is your solution aimed at?
The benefits are many, especially for operators whose clients have a low throughput fixed line because they are too far away from the local exchange, for example. In addition to this increase in speed, the connection is more robust since it is spread across several networks and is also more secure for the same reason. All of this is part of a favourable trend as people talk of a tripling of the number of connected objects in the next five years, the European Union wants to boost the flow rates accessible to European citizens and users themselves are now increasingly dependent on connectivity.
So the market isn't just Belgian?
Although progress can still be made in certain regions, Belgium is generally a well-off country in terms of throughput. So our mission is therefore to move quickly abroad, not only in Europe (particularly in France) but also in Asia, Australia and the Americas.
What are your ambitions in terms of sales?
The market is potentially huge: we are talking about 300 million fixed lines in the world, one third of which is in Europe. Not all lines are affected and we will only take a percentage of the market because there are competing solutions. We're still at the very beginning of our adventure, R&D is continuing but we can reasonably expect to generate sales of about 5 million EUR within the next 5 years and have exceeded the profitability threshold by then.
Tessares is the 70thspin-off from UCL laboratories. In what way is it the result of university research?
UCL has made a great contribution to the research work that resulted in the definition of a new protocol: Multipath TCP (MPTCP), which is an evolution of the TCP protocol, which was invented about forty years ago and is used for over 90% of Internet traffic. This protocol has been very well received by telecom operators because it allows them to offer a significantly improved Internet experience while taking advantage of existing infrastructures. In addition to having contributed to the definition of this new protocol, the UCL researchers were the first to develop a prototype software solution embedding this new standard, and marketing this solution is precisely what Tessares intends to do.
You have benefited from solid sponsorships from the outset: the WSL incubator and especially Proximus. Is this a guarantee of credibility?
We have indeed benefited from the support of the WSL incubator, which has particularly helped us to validate our market approach, and in the wake of this we have raised a significant amount of money from the Vives II investment fund and Proximus. This support is not only financial but also technological, since it is with Proximus that we will finalise the solution, so that it perfectly suits the needs of operators and can be quickly and easily deployed on their infrastructures.
The company was founded in March 2015 and employs 12 staff. What comes next?
The first appointments we made were actually the founders: Professor Bonaventure, head of the lab at UCL within which the research was conducted, Sébastien Barré and Gregory Detal, the researchers who contributed the most to prototype developments and myself with my experience in the telecom world. We now employ 12 people, but we must continue to recruit in order to have about 20 employees by the end of next year.
Is it easy for a small company like yours to attract talent?
It is not easy, especially because the profiles that we want to attract are highly sought after in the market. And we are still building our reputation. Anything that can help us to strengthen it, such as an interview in Références, for example, is therefore particularly welcome. We also took part in an international exhibition a few weeks ago, the Broadband World Forum in London, where we were selected for an award among such giants as Deutsche Telekom, Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE and Korea Telecom. Within the software/IT community, that counts!
What kind of profiles are attracted to a spin-off?
People who are, above all, attracted by the project and its high technological content. They are also attracted by the idea of taking part in this adventure from the start and having a real impact on its success. Such motivation is shared equally by both the younger and more experienced staff. I recently hired a person in his fifties, with whom I had worked before: his children are now grown-ups, he has had a successful career and, more than pay or job security, it is actually taking an active role in this project that interests him. This is exactly the same kind of motivation that I had, although I have spent my entire career working for large groups. The values on which we have worked, such as excellence, freedom, fluidity and pleasure, should enable us to attract the profiles that have an entrepreneurial spirit, and like us, want to work for the Internet of tomorrow.
What are the profiles that interest you?
Mainly engineers who work in development and who have expertise in Internet protocols in order to do so: we have recruited people who have written their dissertations on the subject, computer scientists specialising in open source or networks, among other things. We will also need profiles that will help us to validate solutions in terms of technology and present them to the market including engineers, but also graduates and PhD students. For some more commercial functions, the degree is less important than the person's personality and their network that will make the difference.
]]>With little or no network changes, multi-play xDSL and cable operators are now able to
The BBWF Awards are highly prestigious as they are judged by the operators who actually deploy these technologies.
]]>Tessares just completed a first round of financing (Round A) financed by Proximus and Vives II - Louvain Technology Fund.
Internet: from traffic explosion to the rise of a new Internet protocol
Internet usage continues to grow steadily driven on one hand by an ever increasing number of connected devices (which are not limited to PC’s, laptops or smartphones but now moving towards vehicles, watches or other wearables) and on the other hand by new and data-hungry services and applications (e.g. cloud).
This continuous growth, both in terms of quantity of information to convey and performance and reliability of the connectivity, creates a demand for an improved Internet experience: more speed, more mobility, more resilience and more security.
A yet untapped way to address this demand is the aggregation (or bonding) of several Internet access links, using similar or heterogeneous underlying technologies.
During the last years, researchers, including several from Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), have designed, implemented and standardised a new Internet protocol: Multipath TCP (MPTCP). More specifically, it is an evolution of TCP, invented 40 years ago and used for over 90% of Internet traffic. This protocol is getting more and more attention from the telecommunications industry. In comparison to alternative solutions, it offers many benefits in particular in terms of deployability. It is simpler and cheaper to deploy.
The promise of this approach is to offer an improved Internet experience by better monetizing the existing network assets of telecom operators.
For the Internet user, the promise is to offer a superior Internet experience by taking advantage of the existing infrastructure. This approach meets their growing concern in terms of eco-responsibility for a better use of resources (whatever they may be, and in this case, telecom resources).
For the telecom operators, the benefits are also attractive: in addition to offering their customers a better service, it also allows them to better leverage their existing infrastructure with an efficient convergence solution. This perfectly fits with the trends towards fixed-mobile consolidation observed among operators.
Tessares, the 70th spin-off of UCL
In addition to having greatly contributed to the definition of this new protocol, the UCL researchers were the very first to develop a prototype software solution for industrial applications embedding this new standard. The demonstration of this prototype to telecom operators received a very positive feedback. Indeed, the results obtained with the prototype are promising: in residential use, a combined throughput of over 50 Mbps was demonstrated on existing equipment by aggregating a DSL connection (25 Mbps) with a mobile LTE connection (30 Mbps). A much higher rate was even obtained in the laboratory. Since the addressable market is very large, the decision to create a new company to turn that prototype into a commercial solution for telecom operators became obvious.
Tessares, spin-off of the UCL, was founded in early March 2015 by Prof. Olivier Bonaventure, head of the laboratory in which the research was conducted, Sébastien Barré and Gregory Detal two senior researchers who contributed most to the development of the prototype, Denis Périquet who brings a wealth of industry experience in the telecom world and SOPARTEC, the UCL technology transfer company.
Tessares’s vision is that in the future all consumers will access the Internet by combining in an efficient way the available Access Networks. Today, each Internet consumer selects consciously or unconsciously a single access network through which she or he connects to the Internet. This selection is often based on a combination of criteria such as availability, speed or price. Thanks to Tessares’s software solution, each consumer will be offered the possibility to connect to the Internet by using simultaneously several access networks. Whether these access networks are based on similar or different underlying technologies does not matter: e.g. DSL + DSL or DSL+LTE or LTE + WiFi.
Bonding heterogeneous access networks together improves the Internet Experience by combining 4 key benefits: 1) Improved speed/bandwidth: the bandwidth available for the consumer is roughly the sum of the bandwidth of the bonded access networks; 2) Improved mobility: switching (hopping) from one access network to another becomes extremely fluid as access networks are used simultaneously; 3) Improved resilience: Internet access does not anymore depend on the availability of one access network and can continue even in case of outages on one access network; 4) Improved security: as data can be distributed over independent access networks, it will be extremely complex for a malicious entity to capture the entire content.
The first objective of Tessares is to develop a commercial implementation of a solution consisting of a set of software components that enable an Internet Service Provider owning both an xDSL network and a mobile network (preferably 4G / LTE) to intelligently combine the resources of these two networks. This will improve the bandwidth made available to customers via their Internet access home router.
A crucial step: the first successful funding round
Within several cooperative research projects funded by the European Commission since 2009, the laboratory was able to push the frontiers of knowledge in this specialized field.
Since 2012, the "leap from lab to market" has been supported by the LTTO (Louvain Technology Transfer Office), industrial sponsors (including Proximus since 2012) and Walloon Region fundings.
In September 2014, Tessares partnered up with WSL, the Walloon incubator of engineering sciences, which brings valuable support on a range of key topics such as the study of the potential market, the establishment of a financial plan, etc.
In April 2015, Tessares finalized its first fundraising Proximus and investment fund VIVES II - Louvain Technology Fund decided to invest together to bring the prototype to an industrial level of maturity. The Proximus contribution goes well beyond financial support and also will also take the form of a technology collaboration to build a solution that meets the requirements from network operators around the world.
By the end of 2016, Tessares intends to recruit a dozen employees. The sought-after profiles are computer and telecommunications engineers with a good knowledge of Internet protocols.
We're very pleased to collaborate with Tessares to co-develop a new technology that fits perfectly within our strategy of convergence and our objectives of enhanced customer experience. This agreement with Tessares clearly shows Proximus' commitment to innovation and our intention to strengthen the partnerships with the academic world, which is a major driving force of innovation in our country. ( Dominique Leroy, Proximus CEO) Having Proximus among the initial investors of Tessares is a very strong and positive signal for our company as our solution will be associated with one of the currently most innovative and exacting telecom operators in Europe. ( Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO) This new technology transfer is the result of over six years of research funded by the European Commission and the Walloon Region. It shows once again how important our academic research is to stimulate innovation and the UCL’s significant contribution to regional economic development. ( Vincent Blondel, Rector of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL)) This partnership shows the ability of VIVES II – Louvain Technology Fund to unite a consortium of passionate founders and reference partners in raising funds of a critical size allowing the growth of UCL spin-offs and technological start-ups ( Philippe Durieux, CEO of VIVES II – Louvain Technology Fund)About Tessares:
Tessares is a UCL spin-off founded in March 2015 by Olivier Bonaventure, Gregory Detal, Sébastien Barré, Denis Périquet and SOPARTEC. It is above all a technological start-up which is active in research, development, marketing and deployment of software solutions that significantly improve the performance and quality of Internet connectivity by leveraging existing networks.
Contact : Denis Périquet, CEO / +32 10 392 254 / denis.periquet@tessares.net / www.tessares.net
About VIVES II – Louvain Technology Fund:
VIVES II – Louvain Technology Fund is a multi-sector technology investment fund which invests in spin-offs of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) and start-ups in Belgium and neighboring countries. The aim of the fund is to invest in the development of start-ups, from technological validation to commercial maturity. This fund of EUR 43 million is managed by SOPARTEC, the UCL's technology transfer company.
Contact : Philippe Durieux, CEO / +32 10 390 050 / p.durieux@sopartec.com / www.vivesfund.com
]]>Tessares just completed a first round of financing (Round A) financed by Proximus and Vives II - Louvain Technology Fund.
Internet: from traffic explosion to the rise of a new Internet protocol
Internet usage continues to grow steadily driven by an ever increasing number of connected devices and by new and data-hungry services and applications (e.g. cloud).
This continuous growth, both in terms of quantity of information to convey and performance and reliability of the connectivity, creates a demand for an improved Internet experience: more speed, more mobility, more resilience and more security.
A yet untapped way to address this demand is the aggregation (or bonding) of several Internet access links, using similar or heterogeneous underlying technologies.
During the last years, researchers, including several from Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), have designed, implemented and standardised a new Internet protocol: Multipath TCP (MPTCP).
The promise of this approach is to offer an improved Internet experience by better monetizing the existing network assets of telecom operators.
For the Internet user, the promise is to offer a superior Internet experience by taking advantage of the existing infrastructure. For the telecom operators, the benefits are also attractive: it also allows them to better leverage their existing infrastructure with an efficient convergence solution.
Tessares, the 70th spin-off of UCL
In addition to having greatly contributed to the definition of this new protocol, the UCL researchers were the very first to develop a prototype software solution for industrial applications embedding this new standard. Given the extremely positive feedback of demonstrations of this prototype to telecom operators, the decision to create a new company to turn that prototype into a commercial solution for telecom operators became obvious.
Tessares, spin-off of the UCL, was founded in early March 2015 by Prof. Olivier Bonaventure, head of the laboratory in which the research was conducted, Sébastien Barré and Gregory Detal two senior researchers who contributed most to the development of the prototype, Denis Périquet who brings a wealth of industry experience in the telecom world and SOPARTEC, the UCL technology transfer company.
The first objective of Tessares is to develop a commercial implementation of a solution consisting of a set of software components that enable an Internet Service Provider owning both an xDSL network and a mobile network (preferably 4G / LTE) to intelligently combine the resources of these two networks. This will improve the bandwidth made available to customers via their Internet access home router.
A crucial step: the first successful funding round
After having benefited from several European and Walloon fundings, Tessares finalized its first fundraising in April 2015. Proximus and investment fund VIVES II - Louvain Technology Fund decided to invest together to bring the prototype to an industrial level of maturity. The Proximus contribution goes well beyond financial support and also will also take the form of a technology collaboration to build a solution that meets the requirements from network operators around the world.
By the end of 2016, Tessares intends to recruit a dozen employees. The sought-after profiles are computer and telecommunications engineers with a good knowledge of Internet protocols.
We're very pleased to collaborate with Tessares to co-develop a new technology that fits perfectly within our strategy of convergence and our objectives of enhanced customer experience. This agreement with Tessares clearly shows Proximus' commitment to innovation and our intention to strengthen the partnerships with the academic world, which is a major driving force of innovation in our country. ( Dominique Leroy, Proximus CEO) Having Proximus among the initial investors of Tessares is a very strong and positive signal for our company as our solution will be associated with one of the currently most innovative and exacting telecom operators in Europe. ( Denis Périquet, Tessares CEO) This new technology transfer is the result of over six years of research funded by the European Commission and the Walloon Region. It shows once again how important our academic research is to stimulate innovation and the UCL’s significant contribution to regional economic development. ( Vincent Blondel, Rector of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL)) This partnership shows the ability of VIVES II – Louvain Technology Fund to unite a consortium of passionate founders and reference partners in raising funds of a critical size allowing the growth of UCL spin-offs and technological start-ups ( Philippe Durieux, CEO of VIVES II – Louvain Technology Fund)]]>