CIO Bulletin

NetNumber — The leading provider of centralized signaling and routing control solutions to telecom operators worldwide

Information technology and the ability to connect and communicate are a fundamental part of how our society operates. In today’s digital ecosystem, telecommunication underpins the foundation for businesses, governments, communities, and families to seamlessly connect and share information. The telecom industry continues to drive accessibility of voice, data, and messaging to the furthest reaches of the network, raising the quality of life all around the planet. With the business digitalization amid the recent pandemic, we have also seen how telecom networks are a lifeline for global continuity, brand reputation, productivity, and overall success.

For decades, telco networks were built with technologies that tended to be monolithic and complex. Hardware-based products and rigid processes impeded the ability of CSPs to upgrade, customize, or scale the network. CSPs have had to maintain legacy 2G and 3G networks alongside 4G and will likely continue to do so with the advent of 5G for some period of time. The telecom industry is undergoing a dramatic transition to 5G, edge computing technologies, and associated platform capabilities to extract value beyond connectivity. At the same time, carriers must rely on continuing to support and maintain legacy networks until subscribers, services and revenue streams shift onto the next generation of network services and infrastructure.

NetNumber, Inc. is the leading provider of signalling routing, security and data solutions to wireless and wireline telecommunications operators worldwide. Founded in 2000, NetNumber was born from individuals with a rich background in telecommunication infrastructure and services spanning 30+ years. The company is committed to the industry to deliver solutions solely around core network infrastructure and how that affects Signaling, Routing, Data, and Security. They have provided Global Data services and core network services for over 20 years and into 300+ different carrier and enterprise networks. Their global footprint of people comes directly from the top 50 names in Telecom vendors and Carriers and includes backgrounds in Development, Sales, Architecture, Marketing, and Billing & Finance.

Transforming global telecom for good

NetNumber looks at the very genesis of what their customers experience today and their challenges in the core networks. It considers this as the starting point and comes up with a solution as if it were a customer. From there, it has a direct and continuous feedback loop with all of its customers and stakeholders to ensure getting real-time feedback at every step along the development path.

The company’s mission is to provide disruptive and innovative services that immediately impact making customer’s lives easier. It makes sure that customers get consolidated provisioning complexity, considerable opex savings, and products that automate and protect their networks.

Keeping the demand for traditional services up with innovative ideas

While there may be a global trend on transformation from traditional services, in truth, it’s a slower journey than most vendors and carriers would like. This can cause some anxiety and stress but also open up opportunities for change. NetNumber embraces these opportunities as a mission to deliver new ideas to its carriers in a part of the network that traditionally would be considered “complex and clunky.” The result is an incredible intergenerational platform that marries the traditional (because there are still businesses that rely on that) with the new (because many customers are already racing to the future).

An annual customer event called Nexus is significant to the company. It brings together an entire global customer base, both in person and virtually, and holds dedicated “What If” sessions to understand the key areas of importance. While the company has always been at the forefront of innovation, it has taken great strides to ensure that the legacy, or the traditional, is captured so it can be the catalyst to help carriers transition when they are ready and at their own pace.

“Using NetNumber Global Data Services, Zipwhip is bridging the gap between the 350 million wireless phone numbers that have always had texting and the 200 million non-wireless phone numbers that never had it,” John Lauer, CEO Zipwhip.

Keeping up with disruptive new technologies

Being a company with 20+ years of history, whose products and services are predicated on an intergenerational platform, it is also dedicated to developing new cutting-edge technologies for the customers who need it. There are many telecom operators who want the latest tech to keep ahead of the competitors. NetNumber believes in providing customers with the full breadth of the intergenerational network services required to service legacy but also bringing in the new.

As the company has 300+ customers spanning across the globe in over 65 countries, it acknowledges that carriers will all move at different speeds and have different requirements. New trends and migrations away from standard “box” solutions means innovative and evolutive solutions that bring in virtualization, containers, cloud services, micro-services, and more must be a continuous journey for both NetNumber and its customers. Marriage of Data and Security with Core network products allows NetNumber to deliver disruptive solutions that other vendors cannot match.

NetNumber is keenly working on future technologies and considers that 5G is the upcoming future for mobile and fixed services, which requires new network functions (or elements) to be made available on its platforms. It is moving away from COTS HW at the first phase, virtualization as the second phase, and Cloud-Native as the third phase, meaning carriers must prepare for a new way to build and maintain services.

With the advent of new 3GPP architecture for 5G coupled with the move to a Cloud-base or IT environment, means skill sets and capabilities across all areas need to be replenished with the latest technologies. This is an investment for all parties in the industry, and NetNumber is proud of its proactive approach toward employee education, with the ultimate mission to provide the customers with the best customer experience possible, both in-person and digital.

Contribution towards the development of the telecom industry

NetNumber is proud of its team of Industry Ambassadors, which comprises both vendor and carrier profiles. This has allowed them to participate in many industry working groups and bodies like GSMA, CCA, i3Forum, and others. Their mission there is to provide a transparent and agnostic view of their experiences in the industry, with the goal to bring back anonymized key learning to help the industry provide better guidance to all of the participants.

Dealing with constant risks and uncertainty

Every business will have risk and uncertainty, some of which are known and some of which come without much warning. NetNumber believes that providing the employees with a voice and platform to contribute allows the teams to make better decisions in real-time. Underlying this is a four-legged philosophy that has so far proven successful in keeping the company’s momentum moving up and ahead.

Leg 1 — transparency both internally and externally

Leg 2 — an open platform for all voices to be heard at equal levels

Leg 3 — family-style relationship with the customers

Leg 4 — relying on expertise from all areas of the industry to build proactive, more robust foundational knowledge of the past to weather the future

The future of carrier networks

While 5G is the path to the future, many carriers continue to operate intergenerational networks.

These 4G, 3G and even 2G networks remain functional and continue to deliver valuable services. Another shift impacting carrier networks is from traditional physical infrastructure to an enterprise IT network architecture that is distributed to the edge and cloud based. Increasingly, carriers are looking for new ways to leverage the power of data to enhance security as well as deliver new services. Not all carriers are ready for 5G today, but many are interested in leveraging the benefits of the cloud and our TITAN.IUM platform is ideally suited for those who need a cloud-native intergenerational platform.

The future of NetNumber

NetNumber’s journey is a book comprised of many chapters, and it is only at the beginning of the book. The company views the world opening up every day with new opportunities to both continue its heritage in the Core Network and Data Services while providing customers new services that connect the dots for bigger and broader end-to-end solutions in the future. It will never waiver on its commitment to strive for excellence in its current domains of expertise. NetNumber invests in people, customers, and knowledge. It invests in a future where it provides services that allow carriers to provide their end-users a better level of experience. The company sees itself continuing to evolve data services, core network integrational platforms, and expansion into other areas that allow for a truly seamless E2E solution.

About the Chief Revenue Officer

Matt Rosenberg is the Chief Revenue Officer of NetNumber. He started working at NetNumber in 2008 and serves as the company’s Chief Revenue Officer, responsible for end-to-end revenue management, driving the company’s go-to-market and sales strategies, and ensuring world-class customer success experiences. Rosenberg brings more than 25 years of experience in senior executive positions in the telecom, software services, and content distribution industries. An experienced leader, he has built and managed high-performing, multi-national teams across sales, services, delivery, and field solutions divisions in almost all regions of the world.

Prior to joining NetNumber, Rosenberg held senior executive sales roles at NexTech, Forgent Networks, and Adero. He was a co-founder and the COO of VCinema, an early entrant in the video-on-demand industry. He started his career with Fax International, a value-added telecom service provider delivering private IP-faxing solutions to international enterprises. Rosenberg holds a BA degree from the University of Massachusetts, has lived in seven countries, traveled to more than 90, and speaks a range of languages. He is a frequent speaker at telecom industry conferences around the globe.