How to build a network your customers love: Start by cleaning up junk traffic

Every telco wants the same thing: a network that customers rave about. The kind of network that feels fast, reliable, and secure – one that keeps them coming back and reduces churn. But here’s the secret no one talks about: it’s not just about speeds or coverage. It’s about what you don’t see – the junk traffic bogging everything down.

The invisible enemy: Junk data

Behind every lagging connection, poor streaming experience, or failed load is junk data. This includes malicious threats like phishing attempts, malware, and command-and-control traffic. But it also includes excessive, unnecessary adware and other waste clogging up bandwidth.

Here’s the challenge: telcos often focus on expanding capacity and deploying the latest technologies without addressing the root cause of many network issues — unwanted traffic.

The impact of cleaning up traffic

When you clean up traffic, you create a seamless customer experience. Fewer threats mean fewer service disruptions, faster load times, and happier customers. Our customer data shows that for just 200 initial users, cleaning up traffic blocked over 953,000 threats in a month – that’s an average of 31,767 daily threats that never reached users.

Imagine what this could mean for millions of customers.

Read the case study

Why it matters

For customers, it’s simple: less junk means faster, safer browsing and streaming. They feel the difference, even if they can’t see what’s happening behind the scenes. For telcos, the benefits are just as clear:

• Reduced operational costs: Blocking unnecessary traffic saves bandwidth, reduces downtime, and optimises the network
• Improved QoE (Quality of Experience): A cleaner network means fewer complaints and happier customers
• Stronger retention: Customers stay with networks they trust to deliver consistently

The solution: Proactive network intelligence

The solution isn’t just to react to problems but to proactively manage traffic. Using AI-powered cybersecurity platforms like BlackDice Retina, telcos can identify and block malicious traffic before it even reaches users. It’s about transforming the network from a pipeline into a shield – protecting customers and improving performance simultaneously.

BlackDice Retina – a powerful cybersecurity intelligence platform for telecoms operators

BlackDice tackles junk data by using advanced AI and machine learning to proactively identify and block unnecessary or harmful network traffic. Here’s how it works:

• Traffic analysis and filtering:
  BlackDice monitors network traffic in real-time to identify and block adware, botnet traffic, unnecessary file hosting requests, and other types of junk data that consume bandwidth and degrade network performance.

• Device-level visibility:
  By fingerprinting connected devices and understanding their typical behaviour, BlackDice identifies anomalies that may indicate junk traffic or malicious activity originating from a device.

• AI-powered insights:
  Machine learning models analyse traffic patterns to predict and prevent the buildup of junk data, stopping it before it clogs the network.

• Command-and-Control mitigation:
  Junk data often stems from compromised devices communicating with malicious servers. BlackDice detects and blocks command-and-control (C&C) traffic, cutting off these channels and preventing further junk data generation.

• Reduction in bandwidth strain:
  By eliminating non-essential traffic, BlackDice frees up bandwidth, improving network speed and reliability for end users while reducing operational costs for telcos.

• Customer experience optimisation:
  Junk data can cause slowdowns and interruptions for customers. By removing this noise, BlackDice ensures a smoother and more satisfying experience.

The result? BlackDice cleans up network traffic at its source, saving millions in operational costs, boosting customer satisfaction, and creating more efficient networks for telcos and their users.

The takeaway

A network customers love doesn’t just deliver speed; it delivers reliability and security. By cleaning up traffic, telcos don’t just fix problems – they prevent them. The result? Happier customers, lower costs, and a competitive edge in the market.

So, telcos, ask yourself:

How clean is your traffic? It might just be the key to building a network that customers can’t stop talking about.