AirTies has announced plans to acquire Technicolor’s in-home Wi-Fi management software business, also known as Wireless Doctor, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Technicolor’s Wireless Doctor is a suite of cloud-based performance management software, embedded decision logic and apps used by service providers to support field technicians, network engineers, customer care agents, marketing personnel and data analysts to improve the in-home Wi-Fi experience of their subscribers.
Technicolor is one of the top suppliers of broadband gateways and routers used by cable, satellite and telco service providers around the world. Once the deal closes, AirTies and Technicolor plan to further partner on technology and sales in the smart Wi-Fi arena to service existing and new customers globally.
As part of the agreement, AirTies is acquiring the Wireless Doctor software portfolio, related intellectual property and gaining access to relationships with existing Wireless Doctor customers and partners. The transaction affects about 30 employees from Technicolor; the Wireless Doctor team currently based in Belgium is expected to remain there once the deal closes.
RELATED: AirTies boasts collaboration with Broadcom on Wi-Fi 6
The U.S. is one of the most mature markets in terms of smart Wi-Fi and the overall market for Wi-Fi monitoring is quite competitive, according to AirTies CEO Philippe Alcaras. The acquisition of the Technicolor assets will strengthen AirTies’ position in the smart Wi-Fi market.
“It’s definitely an acceleration of our growth,” especially in the cloud, Alcaras told FierceWirelessTech.
AirTies offers the AirTies’ Remote Manager, a cloud-based optimization suite that provides real-time visibility and historical performance analysis to manage the consumer Wi-Fi experience.
AirTies Smart Wi-Fi software is designed to help operators upgrade in-home Wi-Fi performance and coverage and proactively fix Wi-Fi issues. The software directs consumers’ devices to the best available channel and band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) based on network conditions.
While Wi-Fi 6 is the latest version of Wi-Fi to come down the pike, this deal is all about earlier iterations of Wi-Fi—namely Wi-Fi 5, or 802.11ac, and Wi-Fi 4, the 802.11n version. Service providers want to improve the Wi-Fi experience for their entire customer base and while Wi-Fi 6 is great, there’s going to be a lag time before it gets into a wide array of devices.
“This technology will allow us to cover 100% of the base—all Wi-Fi types,” Alcaras said.