2020.01.24 – Broadband Forum Takes on Carrier-Grade WiFi Challenge

Broadband Forum Takes on Carrier-Grade WiFi Challenge

2020.01.24 – Broadband World News 

The Broadband Forum is focused on developing carrier-grade WiFi, while it sees ongoing projects in connected home, broadband abstraction and WiFi management begin to bear fruit this year.

“WiFi has always been very effective from a consumer point of view. We have developed the first generation of a test plan of what makes a WiFi network carrier class. Now we’re working on the next release of that, a test plan,” said Robin Mersh, Broadband Forum CEO, in a call with Broadband World News. “It will build in mesh capabilities and try to get to a much more robust way of building, then deploying WiFi networks. WiFi technology problems get in the way of all those monetizing ideas [carriers] have. If you haven’t got a reliable WiFi network it can kill you.”

Carrier-grade WiFi is a newer conundrum the Forum is taking on, but several initiatives it’s tackled over the past year or two are coming to fruition this year as well, he said. “Things are becoming a little more real,” Mersh said this week. “There are a few subjects we’ve been working on where there’s been a good deal of preparatory work, where you’re starting to see things be deployed, or there are things where you’re starting to see actual plans, where real technical work is going to happen.”

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