I spoke today with Management to clarify a few points around the...

I spoke today with Management to clarify a few points around the most recent update. My sentiment returned to bullish after gaining a better understanding of the outstanding issues and an appreciation of the team that are working to resolve them. I often pick up the phone and talk to directors, although they are not generally able to disclose too much they are allowed to clarify points from announcements. As most of us know it is often not what is said but how it is said that gives us the most information. My interpretation of Cam was that he is an intelligent guy than intricately understands the issues that have been encountered and shares in the frustrations of shareholders in the time that it is taking to resolve. He spoke about the product confidently, without trying to gloss anything up and did not seem like someone who had anything to hide. Having past dealings with directors in another company (@kiwikris you know which one) who were very questionable, they tend to over promise and give the impression that the next big thing is just around the corner then stutter and stammer when asked anything of substance. Cam IMO has nothing to hide, after all management have far more to lose than the majority of shareholders, especially when you consider that a large portion of their holdings would have escrow requirements.

My interpretation of where we currently stand is below.

“ACMA & CAC Subscriber Information Collection
The Apple Review process imposed delays specifically due to Wangle Technologies’ (Wangle) collection of subscriber information such as address and phone number. Apple believed the Company did not need to collect these in order to provide its service to customers. For this reason the binary for 0.1.35 was initially rejected pending further review.
Wangle is required to collect this information in accordance with Australian law. In particular it must retain a data set including subscriber contact, address and telephone number as a Carriage Service Provider (CSP). There is no legal way for the Company to provide its service in Australia without complying with its obligations as a CSP.
Apple Review Outcome Relating to Subscriber Information Collection
After receiving complete references to the Act and specific sections under which Wangle’s responsibilities were detailed the Apple Review team thanked Wangle, apologised for the delays associated with this form of review and conducted the actual functional review of the application. Version 0.1.35 was subsequently approved”
“With approval to collect the relevant subscriber information achieved, Wangle has now focused all resourcing on the submission of version 0.1.50 to the App Store for review. This build includes significant improvements, new features and provides users with access to newly provisioned server infrastructure in Brisbane and Melbourne”

As we know earlier revisions of the app were approved by Apple for release, on the submission of 1.35 for review Apple raised the issues associated with collection of user data. While the collection issues were not fully resolved? It appears that the substance of the app modifications and some level of subscriber data collection were. It’s not clear if the app could have been released at this point or if it remained held up due to the data collection and payment issues, however without the data collection issue fully resolved further road blocks would have likely been encountered at each revision. With the app still in the early phase the team require the ability to quickly resolve any identified to ensure optimum user experience.

Release of 0.1.50 and Subsequent Re-launch
Since entering into voluntary suspension the Technology and Operations team has focused on completing a range of new features, releasing a number of performance improvement features, deploying new server infrastructure and resolving outstanding issues identified since the Wangle App was first released to the public. Together these items have been identified as version 0.1.50. The team is pleased to report that significant progress has been made on all aspects of the 0.1.50 release with the majority of features currently being tested ahead of submission to Apple for review.

The following provides a high-level summary of key platform features that will be made available with the 0.1.50 release due for submission and associated approvals from Apple in the coming days.

• Fixes for a range of significant issues affecting data usage and performance, including resolution of connectivity issues experienced by some users and resolution of data consumption issue associated with certain network conditions that caused increased usage while connected.

• Improved performance when accessing http/s content through the VPN, which in turn reflects better speed results in many testing solutions.

• Manual server location selection, allowing users to select their preferred and/or closest server location through the App.

• Access to new server locations (POPs) in Brisbane and Melbourne, ensuring that users across Australia can realise the best connection performance and overall experience possible.

• The Android client has been updated to match functionality present in the iOS version and a source code protection solution has been implemented.

• The VPN Server component has been enhanced to support higher numbers of users per server, live configuration deployment and the ability to operate in a stand-alone environment (eg Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne POPs).

• The Stats and Meta-data Processing component has been re-implemented in the Elixir programming language, and reworked to support significantly higher throughput and greater levels of concurrency.

One of the significant issues identified an error in the app which meant that some data was being sent twice which obviously reduced performance. This is thought to be fully resolved.

The server locations were reducing the available speed improvements, hence the additional of local servers which should improve regional performance.

The speedtest was in some instances showing better results in certain locations and was indicating poor performance on some sites , this I understand was partially due to the server locations. The supported speedtest was chosen not because it gave false results but rather due to the ability to select the optimum server. Improvements bought about by the addition of local servers and the internal routing are expected to show more consistent results across a range of speed testing sites. This to me is probably the most significant point as I think many had questioned the authenticity of the results.

The switching between different data sources had for some users (self-included) been an issue and there was an occasional need to disconnect/reconnect to get the VPN working. Improvements were made to this in 1.35

“In addition to the above items, significant progress has been made on the integration of In-App-Purchases to the existing billing and customer management layer. This feature was imposed on the Company by Apple following the lodgement of an earlier build for review which included the ability for users to register and pay online (via a secure website) for the service. Although efforts were made to appeal the decision by Apple to impose this requirement, Apple’s decision to impose their payment solution was upheld. Accordingly a team of developers has been working to add support for this feature to the platform. Although not included in the official 0.1.50 feature set, support for In-App-Purchases is expected to be available shortly after its release, removing the last technical impediment to commercialisation.
Based on the current status of the development push for 0.1.50 the Company will be in a position to make further comments on the expected submission date shortly. Once submitted it is not anticipated any significant delays will be imposed by the review process, however it is worth noting that this cannot be guaranteed”

This IMO is the primary sticking point at present, it appears that there were issues with the proposed payment system and that the company continue to work with Apple to resolve this prior to the re-launch of 1.50. If they were to launch 1.50 and then need to make changes shortly after (which is highly likely) then without both the payment system and data collection issues fully resolved there is a high risk of being stuck with any underperformance as there would be a likelihood of further hold-ups when rolling out future revisions

End-to-End Testing & Network Data Capture Facility
In addition to feature development and the deployment of new server infrastructure, the Technology and Operations team has also completed work on an improved testing environment that is capable of capturing key statistics and network data across a range of networks and scenarios that were previously not available. This facility has already allowed the team to identify the source of a number of issues reported by users and will provide an invaluable toolset to the development team moving forward. This facility essentially allows the Company to achieve visibility into low-level detail of how differing network conditions and types impact the performance of the solution and the Company sees it as a key step in ensuring that performance and data savings targets are delivered to the widest audience possible. The facility will also underpin the development of a robust set of performance and data-savings assertions to be maintained moving forward.

To ensure that the team maintain a high level of visibility of the app performance it appears that they have set up improved monitoring to allow known and future issues to become highly visible and quickly addressable.

In summary, I am confident that the company IMO have addressed the majority of app specific issues and are looking to clear the path with Apple to ensure that the app does not meet further road blocks. I support the ongoing suspension and believe it would be irresponsible to open trade prior to having 1.50 approved in its entirety. When Apple give the go ahead (I think this will likely be in the new year) we can expect to see considerable improvements in the re-launched app which will hopefully be reflected by an increase in the SP making it worthy of the long and in many cases painful wait.