2019.04.12 – Open Broadband News

See you at the (broadband) crossroads – Broadband Forum CMO discusses next-generation access in Broadband Communities Q&A

Broadband Communities caught up with Broadband Forum’s Chief Marketing Officer Geoff Burke to talk about Broadband Forum’s strategy regarding standards for fiber, 5G and open-source software.

Geoff discussed the growth of more than 1 billion fixed broadband subscribers and what this growth was attributed to, how Broadband Forum is building on TR-069 and how broadband is evolving in the industry.

Amazon’s new broadband network is out of this world!

Amazon is preparing for its most ambitious delivery yet: 3,236 low-Earth satellites, designed to provide fast broadband to “unserved and underserved communities around the world.”

The service is called Project Kuiper and according to GeekWire, which broke the story, Bezos and Co plan to put 784 satellites at an altitude of 367 miles, 1,297 at 379 miles and 1,156 at 391 miles. The site says that, between them, the satellites will cover 56 degrees north to 56 degrees south – an area that should support around 95 per cent of the Earth’s population.

“Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband Internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision.”

Swisscom races ahead of its 5G European competitors

Swisscom is ready to claim first-mover status in Europe with the imminent launch of widespread 5G commercial services on the operator’s network.

Smartphones from Oppo and LG (available from May and both based on Qualcomm chipsets), Samsung (from July) and Huawei (third quarter) will enable users to check out the operator’s 5G services, such as shopping with augmented reality, multiplayer cloud-based gaming, real-time video collaboration and more.

However, Swisscom must wait for the Swiss Federal Office of Communications to ‘grant’ the appropriate license before it activates the 5G network. It has prepared this in partnership with Ericsson and the license is set to be approved next month. Swisscom currently has its 5G network ready in 43 towns and cities and says it will offer 5G services nationwide by the end of this year.

Driving towards a data bottleneck? Don’t panic, BT is improving its network for major traffic growth

BT is deploying Nokia’s 7750 Service Router (SR)-s platform to dramatically boost backbone network capacity in preparation for the continued rise in residential and mobile traffic driven by the traffic demands of Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) and 5G.

Traffic across BT’s core network is growing upwards of 40 per cent year on year, driven by video and gaming over high-speed fixed and mobile broadband. To stay ahead of this rising demand, and meet the increasing demand for high-performance, high-capacity routing across its converged networks, BT has chosen Nokia’s 7750 SR-s platform.

Howard Watson, BT Group CTIO, said: “BT’s FTTP footprint is growing on a daily basis, and we are launching 5G this year in the busiest parts of 16 of the UK’s busiest cities. These technologies create an amazing customer experience, and drive people to watch more, play more and share more. We have to stay ahead of the massive traffic growth that this will bring, and Nokia are a key part of that, giving us the capacity and automation that we need.

Coming soon to a TV near you – an IP-based streaming service

T-Mobile has introduced TVision Home, a rebranded and upgraded version of Layer3 TV, which will launch in eight US cities on April 14.

TVision Home will initially cover Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC metro areas, as well as Longmont CO, with other markets coming later this year.

The TVision Home service is a rebrand of Layer3’s service, which is positioned as an alternative to cable or satellite TV in the US. It uses an IP set-top box to offer more than 275 channels as well as a VOD library and online streaming apps.

“And with the New T-Mobile, we can do more than just offer home TV service. We can offer millions of Americans more choice and competition for TV AND home broadband,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile. “I can’t wait to begin un-cabling cable and giving millions the opportunity to cut the cord with Big Cable forever.”

Open house – Virgin Media considers letting ISPs in to its network

Virgin Media is considering opening up its full fiber networks to a host of internet service providers, in a move that would greatly expedite the roll-out of ultrafast services across the UK.

A report in the Daily Telegraph suggests that Virgin Media’s parent company, Liberty Global, is considering whether to allow ISPs to access its networks for wholesale rates. Currently the UK’s ISP’s, such as Sky, rely entirely on Openreach’s fiber network. The report suggests that Sky’s senior management team has approached Virgin Media as it looks to increase its market reach.

Virgin Media’s cable networks cover approximately 50 per cent of UK households, reaching 14.4 million homes. The move would mean Openreach would face competition on the wholesale side of its business for the first time. Virgin Media has embarked on its £3 billion Project Lightning which will see the company extend its reach to 17 million UK properties.

The 2019 calendar for Broadband Forum is picking up pace!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Broadband Forum workshop on 5G Transport requirements and Broadband Access Abstraction at MPLS+SDN+NFV World Congress Paris 2019 on Tuesday, April 9.

Our CEO Robin Mersh also recently spoke on the ‘Webinar: Secret Sauce and Open Source: The Battle for the Home Wi-Fi Middleware’ covering topics on the latest trends in the connected home and how associations will address in-home Wi-Fi. If you wish to purchase the slide deck and the one hour webinar recording, please go to: https://shop.maravedis-bwa.com/products/webinar-secret-sauce-and-open-source-the-battle-for-the-home-wi-fi-middleware.

Broadband Forum hosted its own webinar on “Deliver on the promise of the Connected Home: An expert panel webinar on USP/TR-369.” This involved experts and Plugfest participants from Axiros, Greenwave, Nokia, and QA Cafe that shared keen insights into the emerging challenges and opportunities of the Connected Home, and how USP is poised to provide service providers with the edge they need to have a winning Connected Home strategy.

Broadband Forum is inviting any follow up questions from the webinar. If you missed it or want to review parts of it, request your copy here. Would you like to track or get involved in the development of USP or other projects within our Broadband User Services work area which are focused on accelerating the journey to the truly Connected Home? Learn more about Broadband Forum’s work in the Connected Home here, and click here for a summary of technical projects underway and the progress made at the Q1 meeting, provided by Lincoln Lavoie, Broadband Forum Technical Committee Chair.

Plus, why not sign up for our UFBB BASe? To register or find out more information about the June event, please visit: https://www.ultrafastbroadband.nl/