2020.10.16 – Open Broadband News

Evolution not a revolution: Broadband Forum demos CloudCO at BBWF

Operators can save time and effort by collaborating to create more automation in the deployment of services and closed loop control, thanks to Broadband Forum and its Cloud Central Office (CloudCO) project demonstration at this year’s Broadband World Forum. Bringing together nine leading vendors and renowned international interoperability labs, the virtual video demonstration showcased how greater network and service agility is within reach.

Aligning remote engineers, equipment and labs from three continents into a single, integrated demonstration of the flagship architecture CloudCO, highlights the work on Open Broadband – Broadband Access Abstraction (OB-BAA) which leverages a combination of SDN automation and virtualization and open source innovation. For the first time, OB-BAA will be partnered with User Services Platform (USP) functionality for remote Wi-Fi Closed Loop automation.

Combining open source initiatives and supported by four of the world’s leading service providers (BT, Swisscom, TIM, Vodafone), the demonstration included speakers and engineers from Altice Labs, Altran, Broadcom, CommScope, DZS, EANTC, Nokia and University of New Hampshire – InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL). It spotlights network transformation and innovation, and leverages a combination of rigorous standards specifications, quality Open Source software components and a collaboration lab test environment.

The demonstration was built from the ground-up with components from the vendor community and open source components from ONAP, and Broadband Forum’s OB-USP-Agent and OB-BAA projects. The demonstration also took advantage of major new enhancements to Broadband Forum’s OB-BAA open source project including demonstrating “white box” and virtual Optical Line Terminal (vOLT) approaches, virtual ONU Management and Control Interface (vOMCI), and cross-domain management, control and orchestration for the Access, Edge and Customer Premises network segments.

Missed the virtual demonstration? Click here to view.

Vivin’ La Vida Loca! Bulgaria expands broadband access with next-gen fiber network

Bulgarian fiber access provider, Vivacom is accelerating its broadband coverage across the country.

The initiative will see Vivacom extend its GPON network into new areas, and replace active Ethernet infrastructure with PON, upgrading top-tier customers to XGS-PON. The company selected Nokia as sole network equipment supplier for the work.

XGS-PON will allow Vivacom to offer 10Gb/s symmetrical broadband services to residential and business customers, which the company says represents a 10-fold increase compared to the current top-tier service.

“Vivacom has taken a major step to ensure fastest fiber broadband access in Bulgaria. Trusting Nokia with building best in class XGS-PON infrastructure we set the course towards providing 10Gb/s broadband services, creating differentiating and more attractive service bundles. In addition, the high capacity fiber networks complement our mobile network and strengthen our position in the upcoming 5G world,” said Atanas Dobrev, CEO at Vivacom.

Nok, Nok… Who’s there? An $8 trillion boost from 5G

Nokia has predicted that 5G-enabled industries could boost global GDP by $8 trillion (€6.77 trillion) by 2030 in its 5G Business Readiness Report. It was produced by Nokia and Nokia Bell Labs, based on a survey by Sapio Research of industries in eight markets including, Australia, Germany, Finland, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, the UK and US.

Nokia commissioned the report which found more than 70% of large companies are expected to invest in the tech within five years. For now, the research identified a group it describes as “5G mature” and Nokia says it was the only group found to have increased net productivity during the pandemic and made up just 7% of the total respondents.

Some 86% of decision makers among those interviewed said they had “some kind of strategy,” although many deployments are only trials. The report acknowledges barriers but still forecasts a worldwide surge in 5G investment between now and the end of 2025.

Deutsche wish your network was reliable like me! Companies sign 10-year fixed line deal

Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica Deutschland/O2 have announced a 10-year extension to their fixed line network collaboration in Germany.

The deal will see Deutsche Telekom continue to grant Telefónica access to its broadband network, including its fiber-optic network – the first time that Deutsche Telekom has allowed a competitor access to its fiber network.

This is an extension to a deal which was first agreed in 2013 and will give O2 customers in Germany access to speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Deutsche Telekom currently reaches 33 million households in Germany via VDSL, but only 1.8 million households are equipped with fiber-optic lines. Both parties will submit the contract to the Federal Network Agency over the coming days.

“This is a pioneering deal for the buildout of the fiber-optic infrastructure in Germany for the next decade, based on a voluntary commercial agreement between two large market players from which many people and companies in Germany will benefit,” said Dirk Wössner, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. “Deutsche Telekom stands for open networks and cooperations. And we are emphasizing this with this wide-reaching cooperation agreement. This contract will secure the utilization of our broadband network. And we will receive financial resources that we will re-invest in our networks.”

Facebook has space for future potential

According to the publication Light Reading, Facebook has confirmed that it now operates a satellite equipped with broadband potential.

“Arianespace [a satellite launch company] successfully launched a ride-share rocket mission that included a Facebook experimental satellite designed to test ways to improve broadband connectivity,” the company wrote in response to questions. “We believe satellite technology will enable the next generation of broadband infrastructure, helping to bridge the digital divide.”

The development comes roughly two years after IEEE reported that Facebook had registered its desire to launch a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite under the auspices of a subsidiary called PointView and a satellite called Athena. A subsequent article by Wired indicated Facebook’s interest in satellite Internet stretches back to 2016.

Nonetheless, Facebook’s official launch into space yet again underscores the growing interest around providing Internet services from orbit. A large and growing number of companies – from SpaceX to Amazon to SES – are looking at new satellite technologies that promise to dramatically improve the performance of satellite-based broadband services.

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