2020.05.05 – Open Broadband News

Zoom blooms and another boom looms soon

Zoom, the video conference provider, has revealed that its hypergrowth phase related to the COVID-19 pandemic is going to last at least another few months. The company projected that Zoom will haul in 240% more revenue during this current quarter than it did this time a year ago.

The company announced earnings on Tuesday and said the revenue for its second quarter of fiscal 2021 is “expected to be between $495 million and $500 million.” If that holds true, Zoom will top its quarterly revenue of $145.8 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2020, which ended July 31, 2019, by around $350 million or more.

Zoom’s reported earnings were impressive but not as eye-popping as its projections. The firm reported a net income of $58.3 million on revenue of $328.2 million for its first quarter of fiscal year 2021, the period that ended April 30, 2020. The company’s revenue for the past quarter was up 169% from a year earlier.

As businesses and schools closed and states enacted stay-at-home orders to help slow the spread of the new coronavirus, all video conferencing platforms got a boost. Zoom, however, became the default choice because of its layout, free introductory plan and easy-to-use software and apps.

We’re the kids in America! Lockdown drives broadband service upgrades

According to research from actionable intelligence firm The Diffusion Group (TDG), seven percent of US broadband households upgraded their service in April 2020, a rate that varies dramatically relative to the number of children under 18 living at home.

The report revealed that only four percent of broadband households without children under 18 at home upgraded their Internet service in April. Children in the home, however, acted as a multiplier. The upgrade rate was 2.4 times greater among single-child households, 3.4 times greater among two-child households, and 5.3 times greater among those with three or more children at home; according to TDG’s recent survey of 1,995 US adult broadband users.

Fib-tastico! Open Fiber to connect Italian town Ragusa

The Open Fiber wholesale-only venture of Italian utility giant Enel and state lender CDP has announced an agreement with Ragusa town council in Sicily to bring Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) services to the locality, in an investment of around € 8 million.

The company said 24,000 homes in Seregno will be able to access gigabit broadband services after it completes the rollout of 132 kilometers of cables in around 18 months’ time.

Open Fiber has so far connected some 8.5 million homes and businesses throughout Italy and is aiming to bring FTTH to another 11 million in 271 Italian cities and over 7,000 smaller localities by 2022.

ZTE and China Mobile join forces to keep the healthcare industry beating

ZTE and China Mobile have launched China’s first 5G medical edge cloud platform. As a new-generation 5G information communication infrastructure for medical industry customers, it is the industry’s first 5G intelligent edge cloud platform, employing a cloud-network integrated architecture.

Integrating 5G slicing and edge computing technologies, the 5G medical edge cloud platform can satisfy the core capability requirements for connection, computing, storage, middle platform, service and security in the medical industry in a one-stop manner, thereby providing manageable and controllable cloud-network integrated services.

The 5G edge cloud deployed on the user side can effectively shorten the network route and greatly reduce network delay. In addition, the highly reliable connection guarantee capability of the 5G private network enables innovative medical applications, such as remote diagnosis and surgery, AI assistance, mobile medicine and surgical instruction.

Developed a USP Agent? Test its smarts – and interoperability – with Broadband Forum’s USP certification program

Broadband Forum is in the final stages of preparing to launch its USP Certification Program. The program will enable member companies to have their certified equipment listed in a Broadband Forum Certification project registry, similar to the Gfast list of Certified Interoperable Products and Companies. At the launch of the program, there will be a press release and additional marketing outreach about the program and the first certified devices.

This first USP Certification Program will focus on testing USP Agents according to the requirements of Broadband Forum TP-469 and its forthcoming corrigendum document.

If you are a non-member who is interested in the program, and would like to join a growing number of member companies involved with Broadband Forum, please contact Rhonda Heier at info@broadband-forum.org.

Once launched, the USP Certification program will enable participants to perform self-testing utilizing the approved certification tool. Once the participant is satisfied with their test results, they will submit them to an approved testing lab for a final review and approval process.

A Series of Fortunate Events – by Broadband Forum

Get your gym gear on for a free Broadband Forum training session!

TR-369 or User Service Platform (USP) is the evolution of TR-069 with the enhanced user experience in mind. It has been designed and built by the service providers and vendors of Broadband Forum by leveraging the experience of deployment managed services through complex network environments.

As part of this significant global industry initiative The Broadband Forum Connected Home Council is hosting a series of FREE training sessions on USP / TR-369 surrounding Broadband Forum’s Q2 Virtual Meeting, the weeks of June 15th and 22nd. These sessions are open to the public.

Please view the workshops below and register for each session that interests you FREE of charge. (Please note each session requires its own registration).

USP Overview: Why standards, why now?

• Tuesday, June 16 – 12:00 UTC

USP Configuration and Discovery

• Tuesday, June 16 – 16:15 UTC

Using USP Alerts and Events

• Wednesday, June 17 – 12:00 UTC

Using USP Defined Commands

• Wednesday, June 17 – 16:15 UTC

Statistics and Monitoring in USP

• Thursday, June 18 – 12:00 UTC

USP End-to-end Secure Communication

• Tuesday, June 23 – 12:00 UTC

Applications of the USP Multi-controller Architecture

• Tuesday, June 23 – 16:15 UTC

Implementing the Open Source USP Agent (OBUSP-A)

• Wednesday, June 24 – 12:00 UTC

Using USP for Managed Wi-Fi & Mesh WiFi

• Wednesday, June 24 – 16:15 UTC

Get Certified: The USP Agent Certification Program

• Thursday, June 25 – 12:00 UTC

Back to BASe-ics – the emerging reality of PON in 2020

With full broadband connectivity services, the Connected Home and the customer experience becoming more critical than ever, Broadband Forum and its BASe series have a responsibility of keeping the industry informed and inspired.

While stay at home initiatives across the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic make this more difficult, staying up to date is crucial to make sure the entire ecosystem can continue to work together to deliver the optimum service customers require.

Therefore, Broadband Forum has virtually reformatted its BASe workshops. With the new-look workshops delivered via a series of upcoming webinars, people can access the latest information on technologies driving the broadband industry and learn about the latest technologies enabling the next era of connectivity.

The focus on PON will continue with our next Home BASe Webinars, with the follow topics set to be covered:

• ECO system update: The State of Vendor PON Solutions – June 11
• The state of PON applications in the telco market – June 25
• Best practices – PON challenges today and in the future – July 11
• The state of PON applications in the MSO market – July 23

It is also set to be a hectic last quarter of 2020, with Broadband Forum’s physical BASe events set to return from October. Two BASe BBWF 2020 Workshops will kick-off Broadband World Forum 2020 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and BASe North America, in Las Vegas, USA. UFBB BASe 2020 will return in November, in Den Haag, The Netherlands, for the twelfth consecutive year and the first ever BASe FTTH Europe 2020 will take place at FTTH Conference, in Berlin, Germany, in December.

For more information about the BASe Webinars and to register for the next event, please click here.

Missed the first PON Webinar? Listen again here.

The event must go on – Broadband Forum hosts virtual Q2 meeting 

In light of the current global situation, Broadband Forum has decided to switch its Q2 meeting, scheduled for June 16-19 in Melbourne, Australia, to a series of virtual meetings.

These sessions will run between June 15-25, 2020. This will provide an opportunity for our Members and Observers to safely participate from around the globe. A detailed agenda and additional information is available to members on the Wiki.

To attend the virtual Q2 meeting, please register here. If you have any specific questions or suggestions, please email help@broadband-forum.org.

If you are considering membership in Broadband Forum and would like to observe the meeting,  please contact Rhonda Heier at rheier@broadband-forum.org.

Huawei Technologies will be Broadband Forum’s Exclusive Sponsor for the Q2 Virtual meeting and a Global Platinum Sponsor of BASe events.

Read – or watch – all about it!

From 5G and the smart home to next-generation access and network automation, Broadband Forum is working on a series of initiatives to enable the next era of connectivity. If you would like to track or get involved in these projects, you can learn more about Broadband Forum’s work in progress here or visit its YouTube channel for further insight.