2019.09.06 – Open Broadband News

Broadband Forum leaps forward in pursuit of better broadband quality of experience

Significant progress in efforts to enhance the quality of the broadband user experience has been reached at the Broadband Forum Q3 meeting in Milan.

In a first-of-its-kind Practical Implementation Demonstration as part of Broadband Forum’s Broadband Quality of Experience Delivered (Broadband QED) initiative, innovative carrier-grade solutions vendor OutSys showed how service providers can look beyond conventional measurements such as minimum/average/maximum latency and jitter to provide operators with deeper insights that can form the foundations for overall broadband experience improvements.

Addressing this same challenge from a different angle, Broadband Forum also announced the publication of Application Layer Test Traffic Architecture and Requirements Technical Report-421 (TR-421), which defines an architecture and requirements for the specification of test traffic and measurements associated with the application layer – an area critical to broadband service quality, but historically overlooked.

“As new applications place increasing demand on networks, we need to look beyond factors such as data rate and ping time to move from a fast network to a quality network where everything just works,” said Fabrizio Guidotti, Partner at OutSys. “The demonstration for Broadband Forum members represents a significant step in achieving this as it shows operators how Broadband QED can be implemented to perform measurements and analysis in different scenarios.”

F-Secure joins Broadband Forum to help shape Connected Home Security Standards

F-Secure has joined Broadband Forum to better serve communication service providers and secure its wireless home offerings better in the battle against ever-increasing cyber threats.

The world-leading Finnish cyber security company has made the move in order to help shape Connected Home standards of the future as the explosion of home-based connected devices brings both challenges and opportunities for consumers.

“The challenge is how do we work together to mitigate against new vulnerabilities? The opportunity is to create new services for our customers that both protect their data, and their privacy,” said Paul Palmer, Director of Business Development at F-Secure Corporation. “It is the responsibility of all of us in our industry to keep our users safe. Strong collaboration is the key, and organizations like Broadband Forum have the power to bring together an ecosystem that finds the right solutions.”

Délicieux! French operator Iliad dishes up a FTTH supreme!

Disruptive French operator Iliad is in exclusive talks with InfraVia, a French private equity firm specializing in the infrastructure sector, about a partnership aimed at accelerating Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) rollouts in sparsely populated areas of France, which Iliad says would amount to 26 million lines.

In a statement, the operator said that to help facilitate the proposed partnership it has set up a “special entity” dedicated to the management of fiber lines, in which it would sell a 51% stake to InfraVia for €600 million ($658 million), a figure that values the proposed entity at about €1.2 billion ($1.32 billion).

The proposed partnership would form part of France’s national broadband plan, Plan Très Haut Débit. Iliad added 172,000 FTTH subscribers in the second quarter – the most of any French operator in that period – taking its FTTH customer total to 1.3 million.

UK’s Openreach dangles fiber carrot in front of housing developers

Openreach will be slashing the cost of installing fiber wires in new residential developments of less than 30 plots, as it looks to tempt housing developers onto a fiber diet.

House builders are not currently mandated by law to install fiber broadband infrastructure on new premises. This presents an opportunity for the housing developers to make a profit. During the last quarter, the Office for National Statistics estimated 42,870 new homes were completed, though not all took fiber as default. Around 88% of plots on new builds contracting with Openreach elect fiber, though this number increases to almost 100% for plots of over 30 premises.

However, there are still numerous developers which are not taking fiber as a default position. Openreach suggests 124,000 of the new homes constructed in the UK in 2018 still lack access to ‘superfast’ broadband speeds of 30 Mbps or more. The situation is gradually improving, though there still much work to do. With this in mind, Openreach is looking to increase the attractiveness of installing fiber connectivity through cutting costs by up-to 75% for multi-dwelling housing developments up to 29 properties.

The name is Home. Smart Home.

Over the last few years, smart home technology has revolutionized the way we live at home and according to PWC’s White Paper, Connected Home 2.0, 10.8bn will be spent on smart home devices in the UK in 2019. But despite this, a recent survey carried out into the connected home highlighted consumer frustration with smart home technology.

Consumers cited all sorts of problems – from not being able to get their smart home technology to connect to each device and talk to each other; not having an idea of how to work it; being worried about security; and seeing little perceived benefit or value in the technology. Whilst this may sound negative, this presents a huge opportunity for 5G to boost further appliance adoption and showcase the future possibilities in the home.

5G is a transformative technology for the home, as it is spearheading a multi-dimensional world connecting appliances, brands and people in real time with its fast bandwidth and reduced latency. There are already numerous appliances that rely on a strong wireless connection to work – iPads, virtual assistants, laptops – and without it everything comes to a halt. 5G will provide an alternative to fixed wireless Internet making things connect quickly, nicely and simply. From rural areas where broadband speeds are poor to urban areas where speeds can suffer from congestion; 5G will enhance the possibilities for a smarter home.

Wooooo-hooooo! KT launches Virtual Reality theme park in Malaysia

KT Corporation, South Korea’s largest telecommunications company, is expanding its Virtual Reality (VR) business abroad as it pioneers future markets with the world’s first 5G network and other innovative technologies.

KT launched its first overseas VR theme park, VRINITY, in the Legoland shopping mall in Johor, Malaysia, in August. The global joint venture will provide Malaysian customers with differentiated VR experiences by using KT’s immersive media platforms and VR content.

“VRINITY has great significance as KT’s first overseas venture in immersive media services,” said Kim Hoon-Bae, Head of KT’s New Media Business Unit. “With VRINITY serving as a beachhead for our global reach, VR platforms and content will help consolidate KT’s presence in overseas markets.”

Love is in the air for mobile operators and 5G

Mobile operators have now received further verification that Wi-Fi will play a critical role to the success of 5G, as illustrated in a new white paper developed by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) and the Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance.

Developed with input from mobile carriers, telecom equipment manufacturers and Wi-Fi advocates, the WBA & NGMN Joint Task Force: RAN Convergence White Paper explores the importance of existing and future Wi-Fi and cellular convergence, highlighting techniques that enable convergence and identifying solutions to bridge technology gaps.

According to the paper’s findings, mobile operators will benefit from the convergence of Wi-Fi and 5G by gaining improved visibility into Wi-Fi networks, affording them the ability to control customer experience, deliver better services to customers and provide enterprise Wi-Fi network management solutions to enterprise customers.

A Series of Fortunate Events – by Broadband Forum

The Q3 Broadband Forum meeting took place in Milan, Italy this week. Thank you to everyone who attended and our key sponsor, F-Secure. We hope to see you in Panama City in December!

Broadband World Forum 2019 will be a key event for Broadband Forum, with the return of its Interop Pavilion at the event which will take place at the Amsterdam RAI from 15-17 October. As part of the Interop Pavilion, Broadband Forum will showcase demonstrations of the Connected Home and CloudCO including Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA).

There will be two Connected Home demonstrations from a team led by Vodafone and Domos as well as a demo of OB-USP-agent demonstrating the testing of USP managed devices from CommScope and QA Cafe.  The Vodafone/Domos demo will also include Kaon Media and Axiros and will implement USP to exploit new data collection and transport capabilities. If you would like to participate, and gain the marketing value of being a thought leader in this space, please reach out to BUS Work Area leader John Blackford at john.blackford@commscope.com.

The CloudCO/OB-BAA Demo follows the success of the OB-BAA demo last year which gained very high industry visibility. This year, Broadband Forum will take a major leap forward by leveraging Application Note 446 (APPN-446) which has been enhanced for multi-vendor capabilities that will be provided by the OB-BAA reference implementation. Supported by BT, Swisscom, and TIM, this demo promised to gain a lot of attention. More information can be found on the Wiki here.

Broadband Forum is a forum partner of SDN NFV World Congress 2019, taking place at World Forum, The Hague, Netherlands from 14-17 October. Broadband Forum will discuss key projects at the Multi-player Association Workshop, where there will also be extended informal Q&A sessions to allow the audience to engage with project leaders to better understand how initiatives and standards can help their specific business. Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh will also speak as part of the conference, exploring how operators can achieve seamless co-existence and cost-effective migration when implementing automated access networks.

Finally, Broadband Forum has confirmed the dates of two more of its highly popular BASe events. Two concurrent workshops on the Connected Home and 5G will kick-off Broadband World Forum 2019 on the morning of October 15. If you are planning to attend BBWF 2019, mark your calendars now and go here to see more detail on the Day 1 agenda! Additionally, Broadband Forum will host its annual BASe North America event prior to the stat of ConneXions 2019 in Las Vegas on October 26. Don’t miss this opportunity to catch up on the latest technology updates and best practices across 5G, Connected Home, Security, and Next Generation Access. Keep an eye out for more details soon at BASe home on the Broadband Forum website.