2020.10.23 – Open Broadband News

The spotlight shines on Telefonica in exclusive BBWF podcast

In an exclusive podcast, Light Reading’s Iain Morris and Kelsey Ziser discussed highlights from last week’s Broadband World Forum event, including an update from Telefonica’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Enrique Blanco, on the operators’ efforts around fiber buildouts, both in Spain and South America.

In addition, Morris and Ziser spoke about women in comms sessions on new career opportunities around 5G deployments, closing the gender gap in telecom and building relationships with mentors.

To listen in on the podcast, click here.

We need EU to download the contract-tracing app

The European Commission has launched a European Union (EU)-wide network to make national contact-tracing apps interact with each other.

The system was developed and set up by T-Systems and SAP – the two bodies responsible for developing the German app – which by July 2020, barely a month after its initial introduction, had been downloaded 15.8 million times.

The EU gateway is designed to ensure that apps will work seamlessly across borders, so users will only need to install one app and will still be able to report a positive infection test or receive an alert, even if they travel to another EU state.

“Many member states have launched voluntary contact-tracing and warning apps, and the commission has supported them in making these apps safely interact with each other. Free movement is an integral part of the single market – the gateway is facilitating this while helping to save lives,” said Thierry Breton, European commissioner for the EU single market.

It’s been a g’day for the smart home market!

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked a surge of Australians investing in smart home products, with the market set to grow by over 30% by the end of 2020.

According to a report by technology analyst firm Telsyte, the Internet of Things home market in Australia reached $1.26bn in 2019, a rise of 25%, and is forecasted to grow to $4.8bn by 2023.

Among the categories in the connected home market, video doorbells and locks saw the biggest increase by 76%, followed by smart outlets at 42%, smart garden devices at 40% and smart cameras by 38%. Other products such as smart speakers, security lighting and energy sensors also saw strong sales growth in 2019.

Finally, Telsyte’s findings also show smart home technology is quickly becoming a staple of Australian households, with 61% of homes having at least one smart home product.

Thrilla in Manila – Globe Telecom delivers knockout speeds

Philippines operator Globe Telecom has made a pledge to upgrade its broadband network and stated that 40% of targeted customers have been migrated to higher speed networks for free.

In a statement, the operator said by shifting customers to fiber broadband services, they can now enjoy higher speeds, transfer larger data files and see a more stable connection, as more people rely on the internet for work, education and entertainment.

“A good, stable, and reliable internet connection is a critical need under the new normal,” said Darius Delgado, Globe Telecom Vice President. “To meet our customers’ demands, we upgraded our network with superior technology for a better internet experience. We are rolling out fiber to homes nationwide and upgrading our customers to fiber connections for free to give them first-world internet connectivity that they deserve.”

A fiber connection provides customers in the Philippines with a max download speed of 1Gbps, in comparison, a copper-based service yields speeds up to 15Mbps, stated Globe Telecom.

Operators need an answer to the open source call

When it comes to open source projects, representatives from global operators such as Deutsche Telekom, BT and Telefónica have said that they would like the incumbent telecom vendors to get more involved in open source projects instead of sitting on the side-lines, according to Light Reading.

Speaking at the Broadband World Forum’s virtual panel on Open Source Initiatives to Build the Modern Telecoms Operator, Deutsche Telekom’s Manuel Paul said that vendors shouldn’t view open source projects as competitive but instead as an enhancement to the marketplace. “It would help the addressable market if they helped in the development,” Paul said.

And not only would it help operators but the entire industry. According to Paul Gunning, Principal Researcher at BT Applied Research, competing operators are members of these open source initiatives such as the Open Networking Foundation’s SDN Enabled Broadband Access (SEBA) group, among others, and yet they benefit greatly by collaboration. “We compete as operators but at a technical level we see the benefits of collaborating, and vendors too can evolve to reflect these changes that are good for everybody,” he added.

You better sign up Gfast for the next Plugfest!

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 to market, Broadband Forum is holding its virtual Gfast Interoperability Plugfest from October 26 to November 13, 2020, which will be hosted at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory in Durham, NH, USA.

All participants MUST register and all Gfast equipment MUST be on-site at the UNH-IOL and will be remotely controlled. No on-site attendance will be permitted.  This event is an opportunity for vendors to test the interoperability of their Gfast chipset implementation(s).

You can register for the event here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDILRoFEcs96Bhvmz1vQzQGB6sKTtXXiVM0i0RvB_yu-gg6w/viewform

The event must go on…register now to attend the virtual Q4 meeting  

In light of the current global situation and restricted international travel, Broadband Forum’s Q4 quarterly meeting is going virtual, taking place December 7 – 11, 2020.

Broadband Forum anticipates the series of virtual meetings to run for approximately two weeks and will have both opening and closing sessions, as well as technical sessions driven by an agenda with the usual contribution deadlines.

The detailed meeting agenda is available at: https://wiki.broadband-forum.org/display/BBF/2020+Q4+Virtual+Meeting+Detailed+Agenda

To register, please visit: https://aro.broadband-forum.org/bin/c5i?mid=5&rid=6&k2=1260

Time to get on the case for UFBB BASe

It’s time to register for this year’s UFBB BASe Conference, the leading industry event for technologists and strategists.

The virtual event will take place at 9:00am to 11:00am CET, from November 17-19, 2020, and focuses on how operators plan to leverage the latest advancements within the access network and the Connected Home. Unlike many events, UFBB is designed to meet the requirements for more technical discussion, real-life implementations, testing, and strategic technical planning, as well as valuable peer-to-peer networking.

UFBB BASe will be built around themes for each of its three days:

• Day One:A Market and Regulatory Overview of Europe and Beyond
• Day Two:A Deep Dive on Next Generation Access, Open Source, and Connected Home Technologies and Case Studies
• Day Three:How to Find Success with Advanced Technologies and What to Expect Next

Delivered by those at the forefront of developments in the industry, the seminars will focus on:

• Market updates from operators on the technical challenges and planned new access solutions to meet network and market needs
• The latest breakthroughs in next-generation copper and fiber access technologies
• Real-life use cases and best practice for next generation access
• The latest innovations in the Connected Home and advanced Wi-Fi

Due to the worldwide pandemic, this event will also be FREE OF CHARGE for all attendees. Free attendance includes full access to all seminar speaker sessions, virtual networking opportunities and access to sponsor online booth space.

If you would like to register for the event, please visit: https://hopin.to/events/ufbb-vbase-2020

Virtually back to BASe-ics

Broadband Forum will once again be running its BASe North America aligned with the leading Calix Connexions Conference. This year due to the impact of COVID-19 and global travel restrictions, Broadband Forum will be running the BASe event virtually with industry leading key speakers followed by a round table.

Produced by Broadband Forum and created by technologist to provide actionable insights for technology leaders, the Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) North America consists of a 90 minute Virtual session that combines deep insights from the world’s largest and most innovative service providers with the perspectives of top tier analysts and leading vendors/suppliers.

Topics covered will focus on our theme “2020 Lessons and 2021 Reality” and will range from insights into the market to perspectives on the state of standards, ecosystem readiness for emerging use cases and applications, including:

• The state of fiber connectivity and CSP fiber options
• The new Connected Home
• Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC) and 5G,
• Best practices across the full spectrum of Cloud CO and network virtualization

Speaker line up:

• Teresa McGaughey, Calix
• Liam Clark, Incognito
• Tom Gaffney, F-Secure
• Andrew Bender, DZS
• Ron Heron, Nokia

To register, please visit: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_15XX5VWQR5aiWD5VuBchCA

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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