2020.02.07 – Open Broadband News

In ages past, a long time ago, you may have heard the myth of 5G?

Kevin Werbach of CNN Business has revealed why he thinks the “race to 5G” is a myth.

According to Werbach, telecommunications providers relentlessly extol the power of fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology. Government officials and policy advocates fret that the winner of the “5G race” will dominate the internet of the future, so America cannot afford to lose out. Pundits declare that 5G will revolutionize the digital world. It all sounds very thrilling. Unfortunately, the hype has gone too far.

5G systems will, over time, replace today’s 4G, just as next year’s iPhone 12 will improve on this year’s iPhone 11. 5G networks offer significantly greater transmission capacity. However, despite all the hype, they won’t represent a radical break from the current mobile experience.

5G is a marketing term for a family of technologies, which carriers can stretch to cover a variety of networks. The technical standards are still under development, so what counts as “true” 5G is arguable. As with 4G, the 5G rollout will take years, as carriers upgrade their networks with new gear and users buy new phones. Just as they do today, connections will fall back to slower speeds when users aren’t near enough to a tower, or if the network is overloaded. There’s no magic moment when a carrier, or a nation, “has” 5G.

There’s no wireless without wires, no 5G without fiber

As the immediate buzz from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) dies down and the telecom and tech worlds prepare for Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, conversations continue to center around 5G and the next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) applications it will enable such as self-driving cars, VR glasses, and wearables that haven’t yet been invented.

According to Fiber Broadband Association, there is ample reason for this excitement: 5G will provide gigabit speeds, sub-one-millisecond latency and the capacity to connect an astonishing 2.5 million devices per square mile.

5G is exciting, but it’s not quite here yet and it is, unfortunately, causing a lot of confusion about future networks. Some people seem to believe 5G will replace the need for fiber broadband, but 5G needs fiber.

Telefónica hopes to create a standardized smart home ecosystem with the help of three amigos!

Telefónica has created a global unit, known as the Chief Digital Consumer Office (CDCO), which will champion new digital products and services, paying attention to the smart home.

José Montalvo will become chief data officer, with a primarily focus on the development of the fourth platform project, including integrating new products and services such as Aura onto the platform. David del Val will become director of core innovation, with a focus on edge computing. Antonio Guzmán is the director of digital home, tasked with overseeing the development of the smart home and digital services ecosystem.

These are only a few of the names, but Telefónica is hoping to create a standardized smart home ecosystem for the markets which it currently operates in. This is an incredibly intelligent approach to creating value in the future, and with its global presence, Telefónica can provide competition to other players who are attempting to create a platform to control the smart home ecosystem.

Mi casa, superfast casa – Spain nears 10m FTTH lines

Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) is continuing its rapid growth across Spain and now has more than 9.7 million lines – up 145,738 since October 2019, according to the latest data from the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia (CNMC).

Movistar is the market leader taking 42.9 per cent of all FTTH, with 4.3 million lines. Overall, fixed broadband surpassed 15.16 million lines adding almost 34,000 new connections in October. Movistar, Vodafone and Orange controlled the market with a combined 86.3 per cent.

Today’s forecast: Cloudy with a chance of 5G

As 5G networks become increasingly complex and manual network management becomes infeasible, Nokia’s Network Operations Master (NOM) hopes to use automation to handle 5G’s scaling issues.

“5G networks will require significantly more operations automation than past networks in order to achieve promised levels of efficiency and new service support,” said Dana Cooperson, Research Director at Analysys Mason.

Nokia’s cloud-native NOM software will use machine learning and customizable operations to automate network management, allowing near instantaneous response to a wide variety of network events. It is hoped that this will reduce repetitive actions, allowing CSP operation centers to concentrate on only the most critical of network events.

A Series of Fortunate Events – by Broadband Forum

Save your seat for our February Wi-Fi webinar!

It’s well known that managed Wi-Fi is the future of Wi-Fi, and end-users looking to utilize the latest smart home technology have created a real opportunity for Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to provide value-added services that can both save support costs and provide new revenue streams.

A standardized way of modeling these services, and providing the necessary diagnostic tools and telemetry, is required to realize this opportunity.  The Broadband Forum’s TR-181 data model, known as “Device:2” has been used by the popular TR-069 management protocol for more than a decade as a standardized way to manage subscriber networks, perform diagnostics, and receive telemetry. The need for highly scalable, high frequency data collection and low-latency cloud-device control loops made BBF develop TR-069s successor, the User Services Platform (USP/TR-369). USP leverages the TR-181 data model which allows for coexistence with legacy devices as well as state-of-the-art Wi-Fi management.

On February 19 at 10am ET, join the project leaders in TR-069, USP, and TR-181, plus experts from CommScope, Domos Labs, Incognito Software, NISC, and QA Cafe as they hold a special panel discussion on Device:2.13, including:

• How to use the new Wi-Fi multi-AP model for telemetry to provide high-quality managed Wi-Fi
• How the Broadband Forum has standardized the IoT to create interoperable applications
• How to get valuable packet-level data from your CPE for faster issue resolution
• Testing and validating implementations of TR-181
• An open Q&A with our panelists
• A look at the future of TR-181, and more!

Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zrr_Iz8tR7S901C5bBU3sQ

We’re excited to host this panel of experts and hope you can make it!

Participate in the next USP Plugfest

If you are building a USP/TR-369 solution, there is no better way to accelerate development than by testing your implementation with other solutions created by your peers and other member companies.

To help bring member solutions first to market, Broadband Forum is holding its next TR-369/USP Plugfest from May 11-15, 2020, at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory in Durham, NH, USA.

In addition to interoperability testing, there will be an opportunity to test against the Conformance Test Plan for USP Agents, TR-469, to help give feedback to the plan and drive the certification program into its next phases.

You can register for the event here:  https://www.iol.unh.edu/event/2020/05/broadband-forum-usp-may-plugfest

Ready for a PON Reality Check? Attend BASe OFC 

Broadband Forum will host Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) OFC at one of the optical industry’s major thought leadership events, OFC 2020 in San Diego on March 11.

World leading service providers like Verizon, ORANGE, Altice, and Google are already slotted to share their perspectives and insights, as well as a variety of top tier analysts and leading vendors/suppliers.

This year’s event will focus on the theme “PON Reality Check 2020” and you can find the full agenda here.

BrASe yourself for what’s next on the Broadband Forum calendar

In 2019, Broadband Forum’s BASe initiative leaped forward with five major events reaching over 1,000 industry leaders, 16 sponsors, and high acclaim from all participants. In 2020, Broadband Forum will take these BASe events to a whole new level, with more vents reaching larger audiences in conjunction with an expanded slate of conferences reaching all parts of the world.

Has this caught your attention? Good, because we are looking for dynamic and forward-thinking vendors to take part in our 2020 BASe initiative and are actively recruiting sponsorships.

Remember, priority for BASe speakers is given to sponsors so don’t miss out! For more information, click on the links provided for details on the 2020 Global sponsorship and UFBB BASe sponsorship packages, or reach out to info@broadband-forum.org.

Budapest and Broadband await for the annual Q1 meeting

The hotel reservations and meeting registration is now open for the Q1 Annual meeting taking place in Budapest, Hungary from March 2 – 5, 2020.

For more information please see the wiki page or view our website.