2020.03.06 – Open Broadband News
Ain’t no stoppin us now, we’re on the broadband movement!
Exceptional vision and achievements, leadership, and technical excellence were among the qualities recognized during Broadband Forum’s annual awards, with Kevin Foster, of BT, receiving two accolades – Distinguished Fellow Award and Leadership Award – for more than ten years of service and expertise.
Serving as Chairman since 2012, Foster joined Broadband Forum board in 2008 before being made President in 2011. He has made significant contributions during this time and played a key role in transforming the Forum from a traditional standards development organization into an agile, collaborative and open association.
“I’m truly honored to receive these awards, which mean all the more for coming from my esteemed Broadband Forum colleagues,” said Kevin Foster, the outgoing Chairman of Broadband Forum. “Since joining the Forum, we have seen a remarkable and rapid evolution of the broadband landscape; I am proud to have played the role that I have in an organization which has been key in making the market what it is today.”
At its Q1 meeting in Budapest, Broadband Forum also appointed its newly elected and re-elected members of the Board of Directors and its new Technical Committee Chair and Marketing Chair to join the 12-member board.
John Blackford, of CommScope, was confirmed as the new Chairman of Broadband Forum and re-elected to the Board, along with David Sinicrope, of Ericcson, and Mauro Tilocca, of Telecom Italia. Francisco de Carvalho, of BT, has been newly elected to the Board of Directors.
Bernd Hesse, of Calix, was also re-elected to the Board, and in addition was appointed to the role of Marketing Chair, which include his former BASe Chair leadership as well as oversight of other Forum strategic marketing initiatives. Frank Van der Putten, of Nokia, was also re-elected to the Board, and resumes his position as Treasurer and Vice Chair of the Technical Committee. Lincoln Lavoie, of UNH-IOL, was elected by Forum membership to reprise his role as Technical Committee Chair.
Be our guest, be our guest, put our fiber service to the test
After backlash from local authorities, the national government in France has revised its application rules for public funding and returned the 92% target for Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) coverage to the full 100%.
In December last year, the French government confirmed its target of 100% FTTH coverage by 2025, proposing a revised set of rules for local authorities applying for funds to set up regional fiber networks. However, the €280 million funds that were made available for application were deemed insufficient, given that the country’s 25 departments have yet to make plans to begin a rollout of this scale.
Senators voted in favour of amending the 2020 budget to free up €322 million to help fund public network initiatives, but some senators suggest that the government needs to commit twice that much if they are to hit their ambitious target. The revised rules announced in December were also criticised for reducing the scope of state funds to just 92% of premises. Following discontent from regional departments, the government has since revised their ruleset once again, now covering the full 100% as previously targeted.
5G – it’s all about the base
James Crawshaw, Senior Analyst of Heavy Reading, has shared his view on how the industry can lay the foundation for long-term 5G success.
According to Crawshaw, a successful 5G rollout is not just about upgrading existing base stations or deploying some new ones, neither is it simply an upgrade of core network capabilities, although these will be critical to delivering low latency and network slicing.
Rather, from a marketing standpoint, a successful 5G rollout will require network planning tools that enable operators to deliver a differentiated service experience versus 4G. And, from a financial standpoint, a successful 5G rollout must bring new opportunities for monetization while enabling the operator to keep operating costs under control.
NFV loses its voice
Hannes Gredler, CTO at RtBrick, claims people aren’t talking about Network Function Virtualization (NFV) as much as they used to.
Writing for telecoms.com, Gredler says that NFV was poised to bring virtualization into the realm of network gateways and other functions, breaking the hard linkage between the hardware and software provided in integrated monolithic systems.
But the discussion around NFV seems to have died down, and many in the industry are wondering, where did all the hype go? Has NFV proved more difficult to implement that anyone thought? Or has NFV just been quietly getting on with it?
You’ve got a friend in IoT!
According to Sigvart Voss Eriksen, CEO of Tapad, each year, the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to impact a variety of industries. Whether it’s healthcare, telecommunications, cars or home electronics, it fundamentally evolves the way we manage our daily lives, how we communicate, and advertise.
In fact, a continued cadence of smart devices creates a longer runway of opportunities for brands, many of whom see new technology as a conduit for building more meaningful and engaging relationships with their customers. This is no surprise, as the average number of connected devices in an American home continues to increase at a rather quick rate year over year, with 10 devices per home as the new baseline.
Foot down and into fifth gear, Nokia accelerates 5G with fixed access portfolio
Nokia has expanded its fiber access portfolio to include new solutions and innovations that will enable service providers to deliver a gigabit experience to everyone.
The enhanced portfolio includes a new Lightspan MF access node designed for the 5G era, a new Beacon 6 in-home gateway that supports 5G mobile data offloading and several Nokia Bell Labs innovations that reduce latency to create a seamless 5G experience. By combining the strengths of FTTH and 5G, Nokia is helping operators accelerate 5G deployments and deploy gigabit services in the most cost-effective way.
A Series of Fortunate Events – minus one – by Broadband Forum
Broadband Forum cancels BASe OFC
The state of California has issued a “state of emergency” to address new threats in the state related to the COVID-19 virus. In light of these new events, coupled with the withdrawal of a number of speakers from our seminar already due to company travel restrictions, Broadband Forum has canceled the BASe OFC 2020 event.
Broadband Forum believes strongly that there is an urgent need to share a “2020 PON Reality Check” with the industry, so is arranging alternate plans, including a webinar series where each planned BASe OFC 2020 speaker will be invited to virtually present in the near future. More details on time and format will be shared shortly.
Bernd Hesse, Broadband Forum Marketing Chair, said: “We did not take this action lightly and apologize for any inconvenience this action may cause. We look forward to your participation in the upcoming webinar series.”
To broadband and beyond – UFBB BASe registration is now open
The Ultra-Fast Broadband Acceleration Seminar (UFBB-BASe) workshop is back this year and better than ever, with world-class visionaries from around Europe and the world. Registration is open for Europe’s favorite broadband workshop by technology innovators for technology leaders!
UFBB BASe is the premier communications industry event that focuses on the important policies, trends, technologies, and opportunities that affect broadband in Europe and beyond in 2020. Unique in its balance of vision, real-world experience, and technical/operational insights, this seminar provides thought leadership, high quality speakers, technical acumen and an excellent networking opportunity.
Broadband Forum, the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, software and ecosystem development manages both the content and logistics for this event.
The dates and location are 2 – 4 June 2020 at the NH Hotel in Den Haag, the Netherlands. Make sure to reserve these dates on your calendar as updates will be forthcoming on the UFBB BASe website!
Swap the date – Broadband Forum Q2 Meeting will start one day later
The Broadband Forum Q2 2020 Meeting will now be held on June 16th-19th, one day later than originally planned.
All other details remain the same, including the meeting registration and contribution deadline on June 8th, 2020, and the hotel reservation deadline on 22nd May 2020.
The meeting will be preceded by the first BASe event to be held in Australia. Taking place at the Crown Promenade Hotel, in Melbourne, the workshop will host panels on a number of topics, including 5G, USP, CloudCO, open sourcing, and migration. There will also be a number of networking opportunities throughout the week.
Many sponsorship opportunities are still available, offering a unique opportunity to highlight your brand in front of the significant influencers of the broadband ecosystem.
For more information, please click here.
USP Plugfest-apalooza! Participate in the next event
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
For Press and Analyst inquiries, contact Proactive PR at broadbandforum@proactive-pr.com
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