2020.01.10 – Open Broadband News

Under the tree in 2019 people found: socks, soap… and new smart home devices

A major new report by Strategy Analytics, released to coincide with this week’s CES Show in Las Vegas, suggests that smart homes have now become the majority in the US.

According to the survey of 2642 respondents in Q4 2019, 54% of homes own at least one smart home device, with the most popular being smart speakers, interactive security systems, and smart thermostats. Smart home adopters say that the main reasons for buying into the smart home products are that they are easy to use, very convenient and that they feel more secure.

As well as the US, the study researched smart home adoption in France, Germany and the UK. Smart home adoption rates have now reached 50% in the UK, 40% in Germany, and 38% in France.

“After less than a decade as a commercial proposition, the smart home has already passed the tipping point,” said Bill Ablondi, Director of Smart Home Strategies. “The fact that a majority of people have bought into the smart home shows that there is no going back – the smart home has become the normal home.”

New Year, New 10G

Cable operators will launch 10G field trials later this year, CableLabs’ Chief Research and Development Officer said before the kick-off of CES 2020 in Las Vegas earlier this week.

The announcement by Mariam Sorond, who recently took on the role at CableLabs, plays on last year’s strategy when the cable industry took away some of the 5G hype by first announcing 10G at CES 2019. The cable initiative is a next-gen DOCSIS-based approach designed to deliver symmetric 10 Gbit/s with low latency and high security.

Light Reading’s Jeff Baumgartner reports from the event, that the cable industry is not sharing many details about these 10G pilots: So far, little is known about when they will occur or how participants will implement them, he wrote. Nor is it known how Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) will expand to incorporate other fixed or wireless access network technologies like Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP).

Initial DOCSIS 4.0 specifications, which are key to 10G, should be finalized in “early 2020,” said Sorond, who was former Chief Wireless Architect and VP of Technology development at Dish Network.

Move over Veganuary – Virgin has officially made this month Broadbanduary

More than a million Virgin Media customers in the UK are set to receive a completely free boost to the provider’s M100 broadband, meaning they’ll benefit from average broadband speeds of 108Mbps – around twice as fast as the UK average.

Under the plan, more than half a million Virgin Media customers can expect to see their broadband speeds double with some seeing their speeds increase fivefold. For most customers, this will mean they can enjoy ultrafast broadband significantly faster than the top services offered by many other internet providers.

Annie Brooks, Executive Director of Connectivity at Virgin Media, said: “We’re starting 2020 with a broadband bang by rewarding our loyal customers with this free speed upgrade so even more people can experience our ultrafast, future-proof connectivity.”

Should old network speeds be forgot and never brought to mind? For the sake of a full-fiber future, Ofcom thinks so

The national telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has launched its first combined Wholesale Fixed Telecoms Market Review 2021-26 (FTMR), which proposes major changes to help boost investment in “full fiber” broadband and high capacity Ethernet (leased line) services for both the residential and business connectivity markets.

All of this is designed to align with the Government’s on-going efforts to boost 5G mobile and “full fiber” network coverage and investment. At present FTTP style broadband networks, which can deliver speeds of 1Gbps (Gigabits per second) but in the future may bring Terabit speeds (Tbps) to the masses, cover around 11% of the UK (3 million premises) and that’s roughly double what it was last year.

Jonathan Oxley, Ofcom’s Interim CEO, said: “These plans will help fuel a full-fiber future for the whole country. We’re removing the remaining roadblocks to investment and supporting competition, so companies can build the networks that will drive the UK into the digital fast lane.”

AT&T ticks off its New Year’s resolution

Consider 2019 a lag putt for AT&T’s stated goal of having 75% of its network virtualized by 2020, but the telco plans to drain the remaining short putt by year’s end.

After virtualizing more than 55% of its network functions in 2018, AT&T’s goal was to hit 65% in 2019, which it did early last year.

“We aim to control 75% of our core network functions with software by the end of 2020, and by reaching 65% at the end of 2019, we’re nearly there,” said Scott Mair, President of AT&T Technology and Operations, in a blog post. “Today, 100% of the data traffic that runs through the infrastructure connecting the elements of our core network together is backed by Software-Defined Networking (SDN).”

What’s Paraguay’s New year’s resolution? Nationwide fiber of course!

Paraguay’s ICT ministry MITIC has announced that it expects to conclude work on the country’s National Fiber-Optic Network (RNFO) next month. In a short statement, the ministry said some 14,000km of fiber-optic infrastructure had been successfully integrated by the end of 2019.

It awarded the $12 million contract to combine the fiber networks of state-owned Copaco and electricity provider ANDE, in addition to smaller networks owned by the interior and finance ministries, to a consortium led by Asuncion-based company Celexx in February 2019.

The next step will be to connect hospitals, police stations and schools as well as other public spaces to the network, added the ministry.

New York might have let the ball drop, but the opportunity to submit an abstract to speak at BASe OFC “PON Reality Check 2020” has been extended to January 16!

There is still time to submit your abstract and participate in one of the Optical Industry’s major though leadership events – BASe OFC! Broadband Forum will host a full-day Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) OFC on March 11 at OFC 2020 in San Diego. Last year’s seminar saw a packed room, where the audience heard service provider perspectives and insights shared by Verizon, SK Broadband (Korea), BT, Google Fiber, and the Fiber Broadband Association, as well as from top tier analysts and leading vendors/suppliers. We expect to see the same level of success at this year’s seminar as well! This year’s event will focus on the theme “PON Reality Check 2020”.

Send Questions and Abstract Submissions (Include presentation title, 1 paragraph abstract summary, company name, and suggested presenter/title) to BASeChair@broadband-forum.org.

For all companies who submitted Presentation Abstracts for Broadband Forum’s BASe OFC “PON Reality Check 2020”, please expect the final agenda to be published by the end of the month.

Timeline:

• Final agenda based on abstract selection: Due by January 21
• Final presentations: Due by February 28
• Event date: March 11 (8am-5pm) at OFC San Diego

Send any questions to BASeChair@broadband-forum.org.