2020.07.03 – Open Broadband News
Craig is all the rage – Broadband Forum appoints new marketing director
Experienced and highly-respected B2B marketing professional Craig Thomas has joined Broadband Forum as its new Senior Director, Strategic Marketing, reinforcing the open organization’s position as the broadband industry’s most relevant standards initiative.
Bringing extensive experience in technical and commercial sales and marketing, Thomas will ensure Broadband Forum continues to be central to the industry discussion on standardization. This is especially important as service providers evolve their networks to Cloud-based infrastructures, integrate open source software and prepare for the era of 5G and the Connected Home.
“I am delighted to join the communications industry’s leading organization focused on shaping the future of broadband and driving innovation across the industry,” said Thomas. “The conversation around standards remains as important as ever, perhaps even more so, as new technologies play an increasing role in broadband networks. With the expertise of Broadband Forum, we can ensure a smooth evolution and continue to play a pivotal role in building the broadband foundations of the future.”
Here we grow again! OpenVault joins Broadband Forum
OpenVault, a global provider of technology solutions and industry analytics for broadband operators, is now a principal member of Broadband Forum, the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards and ecosystem development.
OpenVault’s membership expands its commitment to collaborate with fellow industry leaders to drive and develop initiatives, standards and best practices that shape the broadband landscape. Working with the Forum’s membership, OpenVault will leverage its solutions and insights to help the industry manage network performance and optimize customer experiences.
“By bringing together leading players from around the world, Broadband Forum is spearheading the rapid pace of the industry’s continued growth and evolution,” said Tony Costa, CTO of OpenVault. “Working closely with other Broadband Forum members will enhance our ability to share worldwide the strategies and practices that have driven market success and ROI for our customers over the past 10 years.”
South Korea gets its smarts
South Korea has achieved a new milestone in its efforts to spearhead a smart city initiative as the global smart city market is expected to reach above 2,000 trillion won ($1.66 trillion) by 2025.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and Korea Land & Housing Corp. (LH) said on Tuesday that it has broken ground to build a pilot smart city in Sejong, the nation’s administrative city, on an area of 2,743,000 square meters.
The smart city – due to be up and running by April 2023 – will consist of three zones (startup zone, business zone and smart living zone) to provide innovative mobility, education, energy, governance, job and culture and shopping services to residents.
Is UK broadband as bad as the weather?
While many people are happily working from home during the pandemic, for others a switch to remote working has thrown the deficiencies of their home internet connections into perspective.
UK comparison site Uswitch has found that people have been performing 44,000 searches per month in the hope of fixing their broadband issues. The top 10 searches are all related to technical issues and two thirds (62 percent) of all searches are related to speed.
A separate study by YouGov found that 35 percent of Brits say their internet performance has got worse during lockdown.
5G – high speeds, higher reward, bringing £158bn to UK
A report commissioned by multiplay telco Vodafone UK has found that upgrading to 5G could add as much as £158 billion (€173bn) to the UK economy over the next decade, and could transform the way the public accesses vital services. Investment in 5G could lead to the creation of new jobs and business opportunities, as well as improve the provision of public services across the country.
The report comes as Vodafone marks one year since launching its 5G network in the UK, and looks ahead to how the technology can impact the UK’s economy.
“5G will play a vital role as the economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic,” states Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK CEO. “It is crucial to recognize the role that fast and reliable connectivity will play in unlocking the digital potential that exists in every nation and region across the UK. 5G will provide new and exciting opportunities for businesses of all shapes and sizes and across all sectors.”
School of rock and roll out! FCC asks Congress to fund more broadband for education
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said he has asked Congress to increase funding for broadband in support of education, claiming that the agency has seen success with its Covid-19 Telehealth Program and could do the same with a program for remote learning.
“I have asked Congress for authority and funding for a remote learning initiative like what we did for tele-health,” Pai said, speaking on a webinar hosted by the Internet Innovation Alliance. “I know that there are of course different fiscal demands on the Congress at any given time, but to me at least, when you’re talking to consumers who are out there, broadband is pretty much at the top of the list for many of them, so I would hope [Congress] could give the FCC more resources to be able to do that kind of job, as they did with the Covid-19 Telehealth Program.”
Congress appropriated $200 million for tele-health as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The FCC is currently administering applications for the funding, which eligible healthcare providers can use to pay for telecommunications services, information services, and devices necessary to provide tele-health services.
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:
- Best practices – PON challenges today and in the future – July 9
- 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 last PON Webinar? Listen again here.
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.
For Press and Analyst inquiries, contact Proactive PR at broadbandforum@proactive-pr.com
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