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Open Insight #20


Welcome to the 20th edition of Open Insight, our blog for investors. Here, we share our progress, challenges, and insights related to our growth journey. Going forward, Open Insight will be published three times a year. 

We are closing in on two years since we first set out our long-term financial targets for 2023-2027, and I’m proud to affirm that we are on track to achieving our goals. Our focus on technological leadership drives solid growth and we remain on a positive profitability trajectory while simultaneously making significant long-term investments and strengthening our organization for the future.

We are expanding our reach across the value chain in media and continuing to commercialize our time synchronization product Zyntai, for which we are seeing extensive interest.

I hope you enjoy the latest edition of Open Insight!  


Q3 2024 report: Focus on technological leadership drives continued growth

Driven by strong performance in the Americas and a continued focus on technological leadership, Net sales grew by 8.3% year-on-year and 12.1% in comparable currencies.

As a reflection of the robust performance of the core business alongside strategic long-term investments, the operating margin strengthened 2.3 percentage points compared to the same period last year to 15.9%. Total development expenditure amounted to 19.6% of sales (compared to 21.7% in Q3 2023). Net cash flow for the period was solid, amounting to SEK 27.7 million excluding share-related transactions.

We continue to see an extensive interest in our time synchronization solution Zyntai from leading telecom operators. The Zyntai orderbook is extending over several years into the future and stood at approximately SEK 175 million at the end of the quarter. A significant share of this is related to the Türk Telekom agreement, with revenues now being realized and final delivery projected for 2027. The order book decline compared to the previous quarter is attributed to deliveries during the third quarter as well as a strengthened SEK against the EUR and USD.  

Media: On a continued positive trajectory

We continue to take market share and are well positioned within high growth areas in media.

In September, the globally renowned International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) took place, bringing together visitors from 170 countries over four days. The event provided an excellent platform to showcase our solutions, develop new relationships, and reinforce established partnerships. I am very pleased with the outcome and delighted that the Nimbra 400 was recognized as an Innovation Award winner, in partnership with Verizon together with National Hockey League (NHL). We have been contributing to the advancement of 5G technology for broadcast applications and were honored to receive this award for supporting Verizon and the NHL in building a 5G and edge compute live broadcast system. This system utilized our Nimbra 400 product, which, as we announced at IBC, is being upgraded with HEVC 4:2:2 compression. It thereby allows for broadcasters to originate the highest possible image quality, ready for delivery over bandwidth-limited channels. 

We are witnessing significant advancements in Cloud processing across the media market, and the use of unmanaged networks*, such as high-quality open internet connections for media connectivity, is growing faster than the overall media market. The upgrade of the Nimbra 400 platform enhances our competitiveness in this market segment. The Nimbra 400’s capability to deliver robust transmission over the unmanaged internet, combined with efficient video compression, makes the Nimbra 400 well placed to interface to cloud-based video networks and production services that can enable more efficient operational environments. While unmanaged networks may not be suitable in every situation, especially when high reliability, security, and performance are critical, the extensive reach of the internet now enables media companies to expand access to new locations affordably, unlocking opportunities to monetize content that was previously difficult to profit from. For a long time, we have had a strong position in media transportation in managed networks** and while we continue developing our managed solutions, a key strategic focus for us is to grow our market share within unmanaged offerings. In addition to the Nimbra 400 platform upgrade, the launch of the Nimbra 204 in September is an important step in this direction. This compact, cost-effective hardware solution enables fast and easy broadcasting of smaller events from any location. 

* Unmanaged networks are typically self-managed by the user or organization. They require less oversight from a service provider, offering more control but also placing the responsibility for maintenance, security, and performance optimization on the user. 

** Managed networks refer to networks that are actively monitored, maintained, and optimized by a service provider or IT team, ensuring reliability, security, and performance. These networks often include services like troubleshooting, traffic management, and software updates. 

Read more about IBC takeaways: IBC 2024: A Dynamic Showcase of IP Innovation, Cloud Solutions, and the Rise of 5G in Broadcast 

For more information on the Nimbra 400 upgrade and the launch of the Nimbra 204, please refer to the respective press releases: 

Read more about our latest customer in South Korea that will leverage our Nimbra platform for a nationwide IP media network:  LG U+ selects Net Insight for new nationwide IP media network – Net Insight 

Media: Launch of groundbreaking 400G IP solution at the turn of 2025/2026

The shift from traditional broadcast technologies to IP-based and cloud-native workflows has been accelerating. This shift is fundamentally transforming media operations, driven by the demand for greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-efficiency. It also necessitates the development of robust, high-bandwidth IP networks that can support high-value events. This trend is particularly prominent in the U.S. and especially in live sports broadcasting. The significance of such content is underscored by the unparalleled viewership figures — such as the NFL’s dominance in top broadcast rankings and outside U.S. sport also exemplified by the global reach of Premier League matches.  

The competition for acquiring premium sports rights is intensifying, with global media rights projected to soar to $90.6 billion by 2033 according to Rethink Research. Delivering these broadcasts without compromising quality or latency requires cutting-edge infrastructure. Net Insight has long been at the forefront of innovation in this space, and for example with the Nimbra 1060 as the industry’s 100G IP pioneer in 2018. Now, as the demand for enhanced transmission grows, we are once again leading the way and developing a 400G IP platform expected to debut at the year-turn of 2025/2026. This pivotal advancement in delivering the world’s first media-ready 400G IP solution will solidify our leading market position. With this 400G IP platform, we not only meet the evolving needs for reliable, ultra-dense, and high-quality media transport, but also help our customers reduce their costs for capacity by lowering the cost per gigabyte. 

Time Synchronization: Extensive interest in Zyntai from leading telecom operators

Since we first announced the launch of our Zyntai synchronization product portfolio optimized for 5G and other mission critical services in February 2023, we’ve been on an exciting journey of growth and innovation.  

In contrast to 3G/4G, 5G networks require accurate time synchronization at all base stations and as of today, most networks use GNSS/GPS for synchronization. However, recent global events have shown that GNSS/GPS alone is not sufficiently secure for synchronization due to how sensitive the signal is to jamming and spoofing. This has led to additional regulatory requirements and operators taking more measures on resilience. A more reliable solution is network-based synchronization (Precision Time Protocol (PTP)), but this method requires hardware support at every network node. This makes the rollout and maintenance cumbersome and time-consuming. Furthermore, if the network has leased capacity, which is often the case, it doesn’t allow for the synchronization to be transferred through those parts of the network.

Zyntai works by overlaying precise timing signals to enable synchronization over existing IP networks. It eliminates the need for separate timing infrastructure or GPS and by leveraging existing network infrastructure it offers telecom operators a faster, more flexible, and cost-effective way to roll out 5G networks, making it an attractive option in the telecom world. With 5G now moving onto the next phase, to 5G standalone and 5G advanced and to providing critical services, we see an increasing demand for this type of resilient synchronization, and we are well-positioned for these types of needs in both today’s 5G and tomorrow’s 6G networks.  

The Proofs of Concept (PoCs) with the new Zyntai products have gone very well. A majority have advanced to the next phase and we have a significant number of PoCs ongoing. While a few PoCs have been prolonged, no Zyntai PoC has failed and resulted in a missed business opportunity. I’m very pleased to see the sustained high interest from the market, including leading telecom operators, but it’s also important to remember that the sales cycle is significantly longer for our time synchronization products than for our media products. Time synchronization is a fundamental function for 5G operators and therefore requires extensive testing before being deployed in the networks. That, combined with extensive planning phases for network expansion and subsequently the long lead times for the following steps of the process, including PoCs, lab tests, field tests and framework agreements, means that the entire process can take over a year.  

Read more about GNSS independent synchronization here: Technology for GNSS independent sync in 5G networks 

Time Synchronization: TaaS operators and monetization of 5G infrastructure

Time as a Service (TaaS) represents a new opportunity for telecom operators to monetize their investments in 5G and future 6G infrastructure by selling time as a service to other industries.

Our society is becoming increasingly dependent on time synchronization and a recent UK government report on the critical role of Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) services indicates that the economic impact of losing GPS/GNSS would be £1,42 billion the first 24 hours, with over 70% relating to timing services.

Net Insight’s Zyntai solution is well positioned to offer operators a flexible way to extend their own synchronization infrastructure to other industries and customers, enabling new revenue streams by offering timing as an integral service to sectors such as industrial IoT, autonomous systems, and critical infrastructure. This allows Net Insight to accelerate go-to-market into new segments, broadening the total addressable market for the Zyntai solution, while encompassing larger industries and organizations such as Public Utility & Infrastructure or Government & Defense, without the need for extensive additional investments in sales and marketing resources.

By leveraging operators’ existing customer bases and infrastructure, we facilitate a scalable path to market growth. Operators can capitalize on emerging opportunities in diverse sectors while we maintain focus on innovation and operational efficiency. This collaborative approach allows both us and our partners to tap into high-value enterprise markets effectively. 

Time Synchronization: Strong Time synchronization momentum in North America

North America is a market with a lot of leased capacity in their networks which makes the Zyntai’s time synchronization solution particularly well-suited and it continues to be a priority market for us.

We are currently expanding our US team by recruiting an additional Sync Sales Specialist and we see two reasons to why the Zyntai product is benefiting mobile operators in this region particularly. One is the need to secure resilient synchronization given that operators in the region are now deploying more critical services, for example targeting first responders. The other is the great monetization opportunity, where TaaS could benefit many different segments of enterprise customers to mobile operators.

Several PoCs are currently ongoing, and discussions are held with main mobile operators as well as authorities in both Canada and in the US. 

Time Synchronization: APAC leading 5G rollout and offering great potential

Many countries in APAC are leading the 5G evolution with new advanced 5G services and applications. Japan is one such country where we have already started Zyntai evaluations with good progress.

We are also seeing interest in South East Asia with engagements happening in several different countries.

Another important market with big potential for us is India where we have visited to meet with authorities, partners and operators during the fall. India is one of the most advanced 5G markets in the world with 5G Standalone network rollouts with over 400 000 base stations.

As a result of increased engagement in the region we are recruiting a new Head of Sales Sync for APAC.  

Time Synchronization: Focus on network resilience and the ability to assure robust synchronization at ITSF

Similar to media, conventions and fairs are important sales channel for us, and once again Net Insight was a platinum sponsor of the International Timing and Sync Forum (ITSF) in Seville 4-7 November.

This is the world’s largest event for time synchronization and a place to have a good dialogue with potential customers as well as getting insights and trends of what’s happening in the global synchronization community.

This year, there was a lot of focus on network resilience and the ability to assure robust synchronization. Another theme was around how different industries are relying on timing and synchronization, may it be within media, power utilities, telecoms or even for such broad use cases as coordinating big databases.

It’s positive to see how Net Insight’s strategy aligns well with the evolution of insights from the global synchronization community. Net Insight also gave the presentation “Synchronization over radio in a critical network” at ITSF, showing results from Zyntai in our customer Teracom’s network in Sweden. The presentation was well-received and triggered interest and follow-up discussions during the conference, which is encouraging. 

Time Synchronization: ITU standardization process progressing according to plan

The standardization process of a network-based overlay synchronization protocol (Enhanced Partial Timing Support, ePTS), based on our Precision TimeNet (PTN) technology, is progressing according to plan.

It was initiated at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) last December and is important for the revenue growth prospects of our Zyntai solution.

We are playing an active role in the process and the internal ITU working group. With leading network operators involved, this aligns well with our long-term strategy of collaborating with strong partners to build robust, secure networks. As a significant milestone at the July meeting, Net Insight’s contribution was accepted as the first draft of the ITU document, establishing it as an evolving ITU standard document.

The next meetings are scheduled for Hong Kong now in the coming days and Geneva in March 2025. The standardization process is expected to conclude around year-turn 2025/2026 and will enhance the commercial viability of the Zyntai solution. 


On a clear path to capturing more of the value chain


We are in an exciting time where technological advancements and shifting market dynamics are creating new opportunities for us and our customers. In the third quarter, our core operations continued to show solid growth and a positive profitability trajectory, a testament to the confidence shown in our products and the strength of our business model.

Seasonally, the third quarter tends to be somewhat stronger due to the start of sports leagues, while the fourth quarter is often more volatile depending on our customers’ remaining budget capacity. This year we also face tough comparables.  

With our strong innovation capabilities and commitment to delivering cutting-edge solutions, we look forward to continuing to be a driving force in the development of the media and time synchronization technology of the future. With our broad product portfolio, we will continue to drive demand from a wider range of the value chain, and I see that we are well positioned to meet increasingly advanced requirements for content distribution in Media, both through upgrades in our existing customer base and new sales. The Zyntai interest from leading telecom operators is strong and I’m very pleased that we have a solid PoC-to-contract conversion.  

In connection with the publishing of our Q3 report we reiterated our long-term financial targets, and I very much look to the future with confidence. Together with our amazing team and our partners, we are ready to face the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Thank you for following us on this journey – we look forward to sharing our progress and future successes with you.  

Crister Fritzson,

CEO Net Insight

About the Author

Crister Fritzson

CEO