You cannot improve what you don’t measure: Aprecomm’s take on ISP experience”

With fixed broadband adoption rising, ISPs face increased churn due to poor visibility into home networks and changing consumer expectations. Aprecomm’s lightweight, AI-based software enables real-time monitoring, proactive support, and network optimisation directly from customer devices, reducing support calls, truck rolls, and churn. Now operating in multiple global markets, Aprecomm partners with major OEMs and chipset providers to scale its solution, aiming to tap into a USD1 billion addressable market in the next five years.

Pramod Gummaraj, CEO and CO-Founder, Aprecomm spoke with Voice&Data. The interview highlights how Aprecomm is addressing major challenges in the broadband industry, particularly in India and emerging markets, by focusing on reducing customer churn, lowering operational expenses, and enhancing user experience through AI-driven solutions. Here are some excerpts from the interaction:  

V&D: India had over 15 million fixed broadband users as of FY24, yet ISPs are still struggling to reduce customer churn. Why is that? Could you help us understand the root of the problem, and more importantly, what could be a long-term or even permanent solution?

Pramod Gummaraj: Yes, absolutely. Let me first give you a quick overview of the market and where we stand today. We’ll take it step by step. India has a population of 1.4 billion, and nearly a billion people are mobile users, some even have two SIM cards. So mobile broadband has reached saturation.

Now let’s talk about fixed broadband. India has about 450 million households, but only 35 to 40 million are currently connected, that’s roughly 10% of the addressable market. ISPs are now targeting this untapped market, aiming to increase connections from 40 million to 200 million households over the next 3–5 years.

Now, coming to your question on churn: Networks today aren’t fully equipped to handle this level of growth. Post-COVID, the way people consume data has drastically changed. Education, healthcare, and other critical services now depend on reliable internet, making uninterrupted service as essential as food and water.

And it’s no longer just about speed, it’s about experience. ISPs compete on the quality of experience, but here’s the problem: they lack visibility into what’s happening inside the home. Five different users might be using the same network for different needs, but ISPs have no insight into their actual experience. That’s the gap Aprecomm is addressing, by measuring and improving customer experience.

Even with that, churn has continued to rise. Until recently, ISPs didn’t focus much on churn or the growing customer demands. But now, users are willing to pay more, as long as they get better Wi-Fi. These evolving expectations are pushing churn even higher. ISPs are trying all possible methods to keep customers happy. But unless you can measure experience, you can’t improve it. Aprecomm helps ISPs do exactly that, measure and enhance the customer experience.

You can see public information about what ACT is doing in the market. Their “Smart Wi-Fi” offering is powered by Aprecomm. They’ve seen doubled or tripled internet speeds, significant drops in support calls, and reduced churn all measurable outcomes.

V&D: Talking of the issue of rising OPEX for ISPs. From truck rolls to support calls, energy, bandwidth licensing, and congestion management, it all adds up. Could you shed more light on this?

Pramod Gummaraj: Definitely. Let’s focus on two major operational cost drivers: support calls and truck rolls, both of which are linked to churn.

Take support calls: when a customer picks up the phone to call their ISP, they’re already frustrated. If the support agent then asks ten more questions, about blinking lights and cables, the frustration only increases. Customers don’t want to call. You don’t. I don’t. We all just want an uninterrupted network.

But every support call often results in a technician being dispatched. In India, a truck roll costs about Rs 400. In Western countries, the cost is significantly higher. If you have a million subscribers, that could mean a million truck rolls annually.

Then there’s the cost of churn. Losing a customer means losing three months of average revenue, about Rs 800/month, or Rs 2,400 lost. And acquiring a new customer typically costs another Rs 4,000–Rs 5,000 due to installation, cabling, and equipment. Reducing churn even by 20–30% can make a significant difference.

V&D: So how exactly does Aprecomm help reduce OPEX?

Pramod Gummaraj: With Aprecomm, the entire process becomes smarter. First, the number of support calls is significantly reduced. And if a call does happen, the agent already has visibility into your home network. For example:
“Hi Ayushi, I can see you’re using YouTube on two devices. One had an interruption twice today and once yesterday. We’ve made the necessary reconfiguration, and you should no longer face issues.”

This level of proactive support builds trust. It shortens call times and reduces the need for on-site visits. Most issues can be resolved remotely. Our system is also transparent, it records why decisions were made and what improvements were implemented.

Of course, we can’t fix everything. For instance, if there’s a fibre cut, we can’t repair that remotely. But we can detect and notify the ISP immediately. This proactive model creates what we call “intuitive networks”, where the network becomes invisible, like your phone. You don’t worry about its memory or CPU, you just use it. Similarly, the network should just work, for everyone in the household.

Aprecomm runs lightweight software directly on the CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), combined with cloud intelligence. This hybrid architecture is both technically effective and cost-efficient. If a solution saves USD 1 but costs USD 10 to implement, it’s pointless. Ours is designed to be commercially viable, especially in a market like India.

V&D: Could you also touch on how Apricom uses AI?

Pramod Gummaraj: Sure. Measuring subscriber experience is inherently complex. Our systems were built with AI from the ground up. We combine application usage data, radio signal metrics, and network-level insights to understand how customers are experiencing their internet.

We use:

• Semi-supervised learning for experience measurement.

• Supervised learning to manage multi-mesh environments inside homes (like moving devices between routers without disrupting experience).

• Unsupervised learning for anomaly detection and baseline establishment.

The key challenge: we can’t run heavy AI models like TensorFlow on low-end hardware. So, we built proprietary, lightweight models that can operate on devices with minimal resources, yet still deliver real-time insights and optimisation.

V&D: Let’s shift to a global perspective. Telcos worldwide, from Southeast Asia to the US and Europe, are facing shrinking margins and rising network complexity. Why is that, and what can be done?

Pramod Gummaraj: Operating profitably in India, one of the most commercially and technically challenging markets, has been a proving ground for us. If we can succeed here, we can succeed anywhere.

We’ve expanded to Indonesia, Singapore, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and the US. The SaaS revenue we earn outside India is 6–10x higher. But the core challenges, customer churn, OPEX, and user experience, are the same, whether in a Tier-2 city in India or a Tier-2 city in Brazil or the US.

V&D: Aprecomm already serves over 15 million users globally. What’s the global market opportunity, and what are your expansion plans? Also, what challenges do you foresee?

Pramod Gummaraj: The global broadband market comprises around 1.5 billion homes. The subscriber experience management segment alone is worth USD 4–5 billion. We see about USD 1 billion of that as our addressable market over the next 5 years.

We’re currently focused on Latin America, particularly because there are about 20,000 ISPs, and churn rates are even higher than in India. We’re also targeting Tier-2 ISPs in the US and UK. We’re already operational in Southeast Asia and looking to grow from there. Our revenue run rate this financial year is expected to hit USD10 million ARR, and we aim to reach USD 19 million ARR by the end of next year.

V&D: And what are the biggest challenges in reaching those targets?

Pramod Gummaraj: Our software needs to run on OEM devices, like those from TP-Link, HFCL, Hitron, etc. That used to be a hurdle. But in the past 12 months, we’ve made major progress. OEMs and chipset makers now see value in partnering with us.

For example, at the last MWC, Qualcomm announced a partnership with Apricom. Our software is being integrated into their SDKs. Hitron (2M subscribers in the US), HFCL, Tata's TAGES, and even Nokia Enterprise use our solutions. We now support over 200 device models and are partnered with 80+ OEMs globally. This OEM integration has become a major growth driver for us.

V&D: Unreliable networks cost ISPs millions, and Aprecomm’s AI has helped reduce complaints by up to 35%. Could you explain how your network intelligence works in reducing churn?

Pramod Gummaraj: Of course. A satisfied customer doesn’t churn. But the challenge is: how do you know if a customer is happy? Most ISPs have no clue, unless the customer calls to complain.

Apricom is like a virtual network expert inside the home, monitoring everything continuously. For instance, you may be paying for 300 Mbps, but sitting 20 feet away from the router and getting interrupted Netflix streams. Our system identifies this, makes real-time corrections, and prioritises critical applications like Zoom over background downloads.

If a problem persists, we alert the ISP, “These 10,000 customers are likely to churn in the next 60 days, take action now.” Our system quantifies and predicts experience, enabling proactive support and retention.