Ookla snaps up network analytics rival RootMetrics

Speedtest and network analytics provider Ookla has acquired competitor RootMetrics for an undisclosed sum.

Both firms provide services to mobile operators, network infrastructure providers and governments to allow them to analyse and optimise their networks.

Combined with Ookla’s purchase of Solutelia and its Wind software suite earlier this year, the deal means Ookla now claims to offer a more diversified way of analysing network speeds. Its own Speedtest.net portal crowdsources data and bringing RootMetrics into the fold means it now offers drive and walk testing data collection services as well.

“Ookla plus RootMetrics fully enables the network assessment trifecta of crowd measurement, controlled testing and consumer perception—with a sustainable business model that should thrive through the privacy revolution,” said Ookla CEO and co-founder Doug Suttles.

The firm asserts that this sort of monitoring and optimisation is going to be more important as 5G rollouts continue. The release announcing the Solutelia purchase in July stated: “The advent of 5G is resulting in substantial changes to the physical footprint of networks, which will require more cell sites and more intelligent, complex radio networks. This radical shift in the industry means that network operators need to be able to massively scale their testing and optimization efforts, without a commensurate increase in operational spending.”

There’s been a fair amount of consolidation in the crowdsourced network analytics market of late – in September Comlinkdata acquired Opensignal, and before that it snapped up Tutela in 2019. At the time Dave Isenberg, CEO of Comlinkdata said: “This acquisition is a major step forward in our efforts to create the must-have data and analytics platform that communications brands need to thrive and grow in an increasingly competitive market disrupted by 5G, fibre and gigabit internet. The addition of Opensignal’s acclaimed mobile network experience analytics and world-class team to the Comlinkdata portfolio will speed development of new solutions for customers in the mobile, broadband, and enterprise sectors.”

Market consolidation can happen for many reasons of course, however these statements seem to point to a belief within the analytics sub-sector that with telecoms infrastructure changing, new and more holistic ways of measuring success may need to be deployed – driving firms in the space to acquire what they don’t already have in their skillsets.