2020.10.02 – Open Broadband News

I need a hero, the Wi-Fi’s gotta be strong, and gotta be fast…

The new normal is testing the limits of broadband capacity and consumers’ expectations have changed. From dropped connections, slower download speeds, and loss of video feeds, Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) can be a challenge if everyone is wanting to use the Wi-Fi to its full potential at the same time. With the volume of inbound support calls to customer care teams related to technical issues occurring in the home Wi-Fi network on the rise, the pressure is on service providers to improve the home user experience, while reducing operational costs.

There are many drivers for better Wi-Fi including reduced interference, a consistent Mesh Wi-Fi experience, and increased visibility into customers’ Wi-Fi networks. There is a drive for open standards to collect the increased data usage as propriety standards don’t scale as effectively, and most operators have multiple vendors and multiple equipment models. Therefore, there was a demand for a single, consistent view. Many operators are utilizing Broadband Forum standards during this unprecedented time, and work on network performance measurement, monitoring, and management has become more important than ever.

Read the full blog from Liam Clark, Connected Home Council member at Broadband Forum on ‘The rise of USP in Managed Wi-Fi and Mesh Wi-Fi’ here.

Cox doubles down on commitment to connect students

Cox Communications has pledged $60 million over the next year as part of an initiative aimed at closing a “digital learning gap” that has widened during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced school closings and caused millions of students to work remotely.

Tied in, Cox launched a new program, called the Cox CARES Act Solutions for Education, to help school districts implement virtual learning during the pandemic. That program ties into the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which provides funds to school districts for purchasing tech needed to support online learning for K-12 students.

“The pandemic has amplified the importance of ensuring that students have access to solid broadband connectivity,” said Pat Esser, Cox CEO. “It’s not just about getting homework done anymore. It’s about giving our kids the ability to show up and participate. Today, being present often means you need an in-home internet connection to access online education.”

Foot down and into fifth gear, COVID-19 accelerates race to the cloud

It’s a well-known development that cloud-based products and services have become increasingly popular during 2020, as businesses have been forced to find ways to support remote workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to data from Synergy Research Group for the second quarter of this year, spending on unified communications or collaboration tools increased by seven percent from the second quarter of 2019, reaching over $12 billion. The report found that Zoom, Twilio, Vonage and Slack all now feature in the top-ten ranking of collaboration vendors.

“COVID-19 and the sudden radical change in working practices has resulted in an acceleration of that transition,” said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s Founder and Chief Analyst. “Chief Information Officer’s (CIOs) need to find ways of maintaining communications and productivity in a world where remote working is the new norm and offices are sparsely populated. This is a world for which hosted, and cloud solutions are perfectly suited.”

Money, money, money, always sunny, in a smart lifespace world

Telecoms firms are being urged to re-segment their market and understand what’s happening in the household in order to optimise their opportunities in the new normal and accelerate time to new revenue.

According to research from analyst firm Omnisperience, telecoms service providers have spent billions on designing, deploying and innovating new networks such as 5G and Fiber-To-The-Premises (FTTP). But as has been the case with previous network refreshes, they have failed to articulate a clear path to offset the massive CAPEX involved, with the consumer-facing proposition particularly uncertain.

“A lot’s been written about the revenue-generating potential of 5G, but many of these so-called opportunities have no proven demand and are either improbable, highly-speculative, hard to deliver, or some way off,” said Teresa Cottam, Chief Analyst at Omnisperience. “Service providers need new revenue streams today but as is often the case, they’re overlooking the obvious. The new normal has clearly revealed that the household is no longer what many ICT firms believe it to be. It’s become a different size and shape because people are living differently. It’s become a hive of business. And it’s utilising an ever-wider range of technologies.”

Chile climbs up the fiber rankings!

Chile’s Mundo Pacifico is looking to climb up the country’s fiber broadband rankings by becoming the second firm in the world to adopt the HyperNET solution.

Mundo first deployed the software-defined IP network in July 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic, according to local outlet Pisapapeles. Based on the disaggregated coherent switch and open packet transponder Cassini, the system helps Mundo to increase capacity and thereby improve performance.

Network Engineering Manager Marco Alcayaga said: “Predicting that Coronavirus was going to require confinement of people in their homes, it was evident that we would face an unprecedented increase in traffic. We decided to expand our capacity with Cassini, rather than the traditional Transport, MPLS and IP stack, because it is much simpler to deploy and operate, and requires reduced infrastructure in our sites.”

We’re the networks of America…woah!

US wireline networks held up well under the network usage shifts associated with the coronavirus pandemic, according to new data from benchmarking and analysis company, Umlaut. The one exception seems to be related to ultra-high-definition streaming, which requires relatively high bandwidth in the downlink.

Umlaut examined crowdsourced data related to whether wired networks were able to handle the applications commonly used for at-home work, both on a national basis as well as in the top five US metropolitan areas: Standard definition video chat, high definition video chat and high-quality high definition (HQHD) video chat, plus YouTube UHD transmission.

“Overall, the results of our crowd-based evaluation of fixed lines in the US are encouraging,” said Hakan Ekmen, CEO of Umlaut. “By far more than 90 percent of the lines in the US easily meet the challenges of working from home. We only see restrictions when video platforms with UHD streaming are used in addition to video conferencing.”

Interested in joining Broadband Forum?

Watch the latest video of Rhonda Heier, Director of Membership Development, discussing the value of a Broadband Forum Membership.

If you’re interested in learning more about joining Broadband Forum, please contact Rhonda directly at rheier@broadband-forum.org.

If you join Broadband Forum, you will be able to access our previous webinar recordings. For all of our current members, you can view them here.

A Series of Fortunate Events – by Broadband Forum

Roll-up roll-out! Get your latest Market Updates

Broadband Forum has released its latest Market Update which illustrates how the move towards the User Service Platform [1] and convergence on a common device data model (TR-181) [2] can also be used as an opportunity to further harmonize the device management approach across multiple access technologies, specifically FTTH and DOCSIS.

If you wish to view this Market Update you can find it here with all other releases.

Virtual Broadband World Forum 2020 – discounted participation for BBF members

Broadband Forum will join the Virtual Broadband World Forum (BBWF) event on 13-15 October 2020. BBWF is offering Broadband Forum members the opportunity to participate in this major industry event at a reduced rate.

As a key, long-standing partner to Broadband World Forum, Broadband Form will remain a major contributor to the conference content.

Broadband Forum members interested in being part of the Interop Pavilion will enjoy the following perks:

• A discounted rate for a Broadband Forum pod at a fraction of what it would cost to display on the show floor independently at £2,900
• 2 x full access delegate passes for the conference
• 10% off from any full price exhibitor package

To find out more about features, capabilities and functionality of a virtual stand.  BBWF invites you to view a demo here: https://tmt.knect365.com/bbwf/client-demo-your-guide-to-the-virtual-platform/\.

For additional enquiries or to book a Broadband Forum pod, please contact Tamas Szuts on tamas.szuts@informa.com or +44 (0) 207 017 4260.

Virtually back to BASe-ics

Broadband Forum has confirmed the dates of its next vBASe sessions. It will host its first ever virtual demo at Broadband World Forum, from October 13-15, showcasing the latest developments of its OB-BAA initiative. A panelist session on the Connected Home, along with a live Q&A, will also be held.

vBASe North America will then take place on October 26, with a theme of “2020 Lessons, 2021 Reality”, while vBASe Australia will see Broadband Forum team up with nbn to provide three weekly 90 minute sessions to deliver a market update.

The vBASe series continues for the first-ever virtual UFBB 2020 during the weeks commencing November 16 and 23. vBASe UFBB will cover the theme of ‘The Technology Leaders’ and will see three virtual sessions on Market Update, Access technology and Connected Home technology.

Participate in Broadband Forum’s OB-UDPST project

Broadband Forum’s Open Broadband User Datagram Protocol Speed Test (OB-UDPST) project is an open-source project and anyone is welcome to follow the work by logging into the BBF tools and navigating to the OB-UDPST Wiki space.

If your company is not a Member of Broadband Forum, but you would like more information, please contact Rhonda Heier, Director of Membership Development at rheier@broadband-forum.org.

To actively participate and contribute to the discussions and the work, please click here to learn more, then download and submit the Participation Agreement. Learn more about all Broadband Forum’s open source projects here: Open Broadband.

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.

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