Airwide Solutions, which provides next-generation mobile messaging infrastructure, applications and solutions has revealed that it is working with Cricket Communications, the  7th largest mobile operator in the US, to upgrade its next-generation, tiered messaging architecture, which incorporates the full range of Airwide products. The upgrade includes a capacity expansion of AirMessenger Router infrastructure and the implementation of AirGuard AntiSpam in collaboration with Cloudmark, an Airwide Solution Partner. The move is designed to increase network capacity, and counter the increasing mobile securty threat.

Cricket has undergone significant recent growth, both in terms of subscribers and messaging traffic. The company offers simple and affordable unlimited wireless services, with no long-term commitments or credit checks required, and serves more than 5m customers in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Cricket uses AirMessenger Router and AirManager Admin to reliably deliver the millions of text messages its subscribers send every month. This expansion adds capacity to ensure that subscribers are experiencing the performance and reliability required.

Additionally, to ensure that subscribers are well protected and free from spam, Cricket is to implement Airwide’s AirGuard AntiSpam solution, deployed in conjunction with Cloudmark. The AirGuard AntiSpam solution leverages Cloudmark Authority for comprehensive network protection of mobile spam from all sources, and manages capacity using AirMessenger Router.
Speaking exclusively to Mobile Marketing, Jay Seaton, chief marketing officer at Airwide, said it was reassuring to see Cricket talking openly about the issues around mobile security, and hoped it would encourage other operators to do the same.

“Many operators don’t want to acknowledge security problems or fraud problems,” said Seaton. “With the shift that both operators and the market are going through, security is a real problem, but over the past two or three years, most operators have denied that…Virtually all operators have done something about the problem, to varying degrees, but they have not been willing to talk publicly about what they have done, or to acknowledge how big the problem is.”