ImageStream and PowerCode Announce Partnership

The router maker and OSS software developer have begun a beautiful friendship, encouraged by their WISP customer base.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 24, 2007]

Both companies have a large number of WISP customers. Both are based on Linux. Adapting ImageStream's routers to work with PowerCode's software made sense. PowerCode's based in Orem, Utah. ImageStream's in Plymouth, Indiana.

The PowerCode system, until now, has required the deployment of hardware that the company calls BMUs, for Bandwidth Management Units. Customers who already had routers asked why they should put another device in their network.

But PowerCode's not just a billing system. "We're moving towards calling it a provisioning system," says John Wright, president of PowerCode. PowerCode handles provisioning, billing, and authentication. It can help providers roll out value-added services like VoIP, for which the company partners with several VoIP providers to give ISPs a choice.

And to do all of this, it needs Linux. For example, if you add a new customer, you want to add their MAC Address to your tables. PowerCode can do that on ImageStream routers. "We're effectively not selling BMUs anymore," says Wright. "We're selling ImageStream routers, which are multipurpose products ranging from the low end to the high end."

For ImageStream, the partnership gives the company's routers an impressive list of features. "A lot of people are still using the traditional Radius server and PPPoE," says J.C. Utter, president of ImageStream. "This is next gen. PowerCode takes provision and billing and automates a lot of things: QoS, bandwidth limits per customer, security, VLANs, all on our router."

PowerCode is also trying to persuade WISPs to upgrade. "We're still educating our customers about the necessity of an OSS and billing systems. Many are still using paper or QuickBooks."

QuickBooks can handle monthly billing and print invoices; PowerCode can deliver and bill for multiple services with different prices, and provision them, and check that they're still up and running.

Recently added features include a link to Google maps, so that your sales operation can use PowerCode to see whether there is an AP within range of the potential customer. It's not what the cell phone companies use (it's two dimensional instead of three dimensional) but as the system improves it could approach, for free, the quality of the maps that cellular companies pay thousands of dollars for.

Another cool feature: since PowerCode does authentication based on MAC address, a customer can log on to the WISP network at any radio, allowing the WISP to provide nomadic service within its network. Nomadic service is the ability to log on at any node. This is not mobile service, where you can hop from one node to another during a session. Wright says he sees no demand for mobile service from his customers, but knows it is coming.

Is it a merger? "It's not a merger," explains Utter. "We work with their products and they work with ours."

And Linux makes that possible. "Our Linux heritage opens doors all over," says Utter.

The companies respect each other. "ImageStream sold 30,000 units in the last 10 years," says Wright.

"You really should talk to PowerCode," says Utter. "They're doing interesting things."

The result is an agreement providing for interoperability, and cooperative product development and customer support, that comes into effect tomorrow, Tuesday September 25, 2007. You can see the results this week at WiMAX World and next month at ISPCON.

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