Leading wireless provider
improves its customer
experience with a successful
4G LTE rollout
U.S. Cellular increases availability, capacity, scalability and security with
SonicWall SuperMassive firewalls
Customer profile
Company
Industry
Country
Employees
Website
US Cellular
Telecommunications
United States
6,700
www.uscellular.com
Business need
As part of its expansion to a 4G LTE network,
U.S. Cellular sought a network security and
secure remote access solution that could meet
its continually increasing data and capacity
demands while also adhering to its budget
constraints.
Solution
U.S. Cellular met its growing need for robust,
streamlined network security and secure
remote access with SonicWall SuperMassive
E10800 next-generation firewalls in high
availability, SonicWall TZ 215 Series firewalls
at each of its 300+ retail locations and
E-Class Secure Remote Access (SRA) EX9000
appliances.
Benefits
“With the SuperMassive platform, we’ve been
very successful at providing an ‘always on’
network to the extent that we’ve not had a
single minute of downtime in nearly three years.”
Dannie Combs, Senior Manager Network Security Engineering Operations,
U.S. Cellular
• Increased packets-per-second ratio from
20,000 to over 200,000 on a per-device
basis
• Exceeded 15 million concurrent sessions
per second
• Reduced data center device footprint and
consolidated security services into single,
small-footprint appliances in 300 retail
locations
• Met financial compliance regulations
• Increased the reliability and security of
partner communications and data transfers
Solutions at a glance
• Network Security
• Secure Remote Access
U.S. Cellular operates in 126 markets across 26 states. It has
more than 300 retail store locations across the country, and
serves more than 20 million direct and indirect subscribers.
In addition to wireless services, the company offers handsets,
wireless modems, tethering and a variety of devices through its
technology partnerships.
“The SuperMassive
10800 platform is
unique in that we
no longer have
to find creative
ways to balance
security with
availability, capacity
and scalability.
It sustains our
impressive volume
bandwidth
consumption while
providing an equal
level of security
protections for
users.”
Dannie Combs, Senior Manager
Network Security Engineering
Operations, U.S. Cellular
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The company’s mission is to deliver an
‘always on’ network for reliable cellular
and data services, and security plays a
major part in helping it achieve its goal.
“We are primarily focused on ensuring
availability of our services, and security
risks are certainly present that put that
availability at risk,” explains Dannie
Combs, senior manager of network
security engineering operations at U.S.
Cellular.
Moving to a 4G LTE network
makes capacity and scalability top
priorities
Because the cellular industry is growing
rapidly, U.S. Cellular is constantly
evolving to meet surging capacity needs.
The company has been expanding its
4G LTE network — the “next generation”
of cellular technology that enables
customers to surf the web, download
and upload files and watch videos at
speeds 10 times faster than 3G. Yet in
order for the expansion to be successful,
the company needed a firewall and
internet security platform that could
support the increased need for
bandwidth capacity and scalability.
The company’s longtime trusted partner,
FishNet Security, recommended that
U.S. Cellular partner with Dell to achieve
its mission. “FishNet Security has been
a valued partner and a trusted advisor,
introducing us to the SonicWall™ team
many years ago,” explains Combs.
Based on FishNet’s recommendation,
U.S. Cellular evaluated the SonicWall
SuperMassive platform and found that
“it was the only product that would allow
us to provide internet services at a scale
that meets our consumers’ current needs
and their forecasted needs.”
A need to balance capacity growth,
availability and security for an
improved customer experience
U.S. Cellular had another key business
challenge in rolling out its 4G LTE
network: accommodating capacity
growth while ensuring the availability
of internet services — without
compromising security. “We had to
ensure that we had enough capacity
to support the internet services
consumptions of an evolving landscape,”
explains Combs. “The proliferation of
smart phones, the success of Android
and the like, has resulted in an averageper-user consumption of our services
that increases each and every day. We
needed to plan for this expanding
capacity and balance that against
security risk, and the SonicWall team was
able to help us.”
The SonicWall team helped U.S. Cellular
to deploy the SuperMassive 10800
in high availability. “We’re using the
SuperMassive 10800 platform in a
number of solutions, but most notably as
our internet edge firewall,” says Combs.
“It is the primary solution that protects
our subscribers from the internet, as
well as ensuring the availability of those
services. The SuperMassive 10800
platform is unique in that we no longer
Technology at Work
Hardware
SonicWall SuperMassive E10800
next-gen firewalls
SonicWall TZ 215 firewalls
SonicWall E-Class SRA EX9000
appliances
have to find creative ways to balance
security with availability, capacity and
scalability. It sustains our impressive
volume bandwidth consumption while
providing an equal level of security
protection for users.”
The deployment of SonicWall firewalls
has already had a significant impact
on the availability and reliability of
the company’s services. “With the
SuperMassive platform, we’ve been very
successful at providing an ‘always on’
network to the extent that we’ve not had
a single minute of downtime in nearly
three years,” explains Combs.
Managed growth with significant
cost savings
Like all wireless providers, U.S. Cellular
has experienced explosive subscriber
data growth. Yet the technology
investments needed to meet these
demands don’t necessarily result in
revenue opportunities. Cost-effective
solutions for mission-critical areas like
security are therefore highly valued.
“We were very, very cost conscious about
our price per megabit,” says Combs,
“and the SuperMassive platform directly
supports our requirements in a number
of areas. It simplifies our infrastructure,
reducing our device footprint in our data
centers, and it significantly increases
our capacity and the overall throughput
capabilities of our internet services.
The SuperMassive provides substantial
increases on a per-unit basis as it relates
to capacity and scalability, ranging
from packets-per-second to concurrent
sessions to total utilization.”
“When you combine all of the increased
capabilities and you analyze them
against the investment requirements
for your capital and your long-term
operating expenses, I strongly
recommend the SuperMassive platform.
It provides an unmatched degree of
capacity, scalability and flexibility for a
number of deployment scenarios. In my
opinion, the SuperMassive is clearly in a
league of its own.”
3
A ‘SuperMassive’ increase in
scalability and performance
U.S. Cellular has seen a marked increase
in network scalability and performance
with its new SuperMassive firewalls.
“Previous architectures limited us to
approximately one million concurrent
sessions per second and 20,000 packets
per second,” says Combs. “With the
SuperMassive platform, we’re able to
achieve north of 15 million concurrent
sessions per second and 200,000
packets per second.”
Improved customer experience on
the network and in the stores
Another critical aspect of the
deployment was the company’s decision
to re-architect its retail environment to
comply with government regulations
and protect customers’ data during
financial transactions. “We decided to
deploy approximately 300 SonicWall TZ
215 firewalls,” says Combs. “The TZ 215
segments critical assets away from noncritical assets and consolidates a number
of services, such as firewall, anti-virus,
intrusion detection and logging into one
appliance.”
Combs continues: “The TZ 215 is
paramount in our ability to achieve PCI
compliance. Our customers now enjoy
a relatively unique level of security
compared to our competitors in this
industry. We take very seriously our
commitment to our customers to protect
their personal data while participating
in their consumer transactions. Our
customers know we’ve got their backs.”
Partner communications are secured
In order to achieve secure remote
access with its key business partners,
U.S. Cellular also deployed SonicWall
E-Class SRA EX9000 appliances as part
of its rollout. “We selected the SRA
EX9000 because it enables the secure
transfer of files with our trusted partners
and it provides access to vendors and
other business partners that support
our customer base,” says Combs. “The
SRA EX9000 is highly respected within
“The TZ 215 is
paramount in our
ability to achieve
PCI compliance.
Our customers now
enjoy a relatively
unique level of
security compared
to our competitors
in this industry.”
Dannie Combs, Senior Manager
Network Security Engineering
Operations, U.S. Cellular
the industry. Its capacity and scalability
capabilities and high reliability were
key factors for us. Plus the capability
to provide self-support for end users is
something we value too.”
With SonicWall, U.S. Cellular is
‘always on’
“For customers, an ‘always on’ network
experience is one that is not only
reliable, but is also of the highest
quality and uniquely secured,” explains
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CaseStudy-USCellular-AMER-Metia-D1.pdf
Combs. “The SuperMassive platform
provides us with the capability to insure
availability, capacity, scalability and
security. Our partnership with Dell has
enabled U.S. Cellular to provide the best
service possible for our customers. The
technology clearly speaks for itself. And
the price per unit, as compared to the
capacity and scalability capabilities, puts
the SonicWall team at the head of the
entire next-generation firewall class.”