ClearAccess

About ClearAccess

ClearAccess, founded in 2005 by Ken Hood and Joel Pennington, operated from Vancouver, Washington, as a provider of software solutions for managing broadband customer premises equipment (CPE). The company focused on serving telecommunications and broadband providers by offering tools to streamline the activation and management of residential and mobile devices. Its business model centered on licensing its software to these service providers, enabling them to reduce operational costs and create new revenue opportunities.

The company's flagship product was the ClearVision Management System, a software suite based on the TR-069 standard. This protocol facilitates remote management of devices like modems, routers, and gateways by an auto configuration server (ACS). ClearVision provided service providers with capabilities for automatic subscriber activation, remote CPE management, diagnostics, and analytics. This allowed providers to remotely monitor bandwidth usage, manage connected homes, and offer services such as content filtering and managed Wi-Fi, ultimately aiming to decrease customer churn and operational expenses.

ClearAccess secured a total of $6.26 million in funding over two rounds, including a Series B round in July 2009 led by investors like Blade Ventures and Montlake Capital. This financial backing supported its growth and product development. In a strategic move to bolster its network management portfolio, Cisco Systems announced its intent to acquire ClearAccess in March 2012, a deal that was finalized in May 2012. The acquisition encompassed ClearAccess's software business and its team, which were integrated into Cisco's Network Management Technology Group to augment the Cisco Prime software suite. The hardware division, known as SmartRG Gateways, was not part of the acquisition and continued to operate as a separate entity.