2020.11.20 – Open Broadband News

Combining open source and open standards, key for network automation

Keely Portway, editor of Fibre Systems looks at why network automation could be key to delivering all-important bandwidth.

Over the last 10 years, technological advancements across the world have been remarkable, with the number of devices connected growing exponentially.

‘By 2025 it is expected that more than 75 billion devices will be connected to the internet worldwide,’ said Craig Thomas, Senior Director Strategic Marketing at Broadband Forum. These figures come from a Statista report entitled Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices installed base worldwide from 2015 to 2025. Since its publication, that number of internet-connected devices looks a little conservative. Particularly bearing in mind the current global situation.

Thomas continued: ‘As the decade unfolds, demand will only increase for different types of high bandwidth-consuming applications. Therefore, the need to support these applications will continue to mount, with customer experience becoming more important than ever before. As a result, operators are progressing work on optical network automation.’

Read the full article on pages 16-17 of the latest Autumn edition.

Let it grow, let it grow, can’t hold the users back anymore!

Philippines operator Globe Telecom reports that its Globe At Home Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) service offering saw a 183 percent increase in the number of new customers who took up fiber broadband plans as of September this year, compared to the same period in 2019. The operator also reported a 69 percent increase in the number of Globe At Home subscribers already using fiber broadband during the period.

According to Globe, home broadband penetration in the Philippines has always been low mainly due to the dominance of the mobile platform which accounted for 97 percent of total internet users in the country, based on a report from HootSuite and We Are Social. However, according to Globe, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Filipinos users started to shift from mobile to home broadband for work, learning, and to access entertainment content.

Globe also says it is currently moving its subscribers to FTTH so they can access internet speeds of up to 500 Mbps. The operator migrated 60 percent of its targeted customers to the newer and higher speed network for free from January to September this year. It has also increased its fiber rollouts covering key locations such as Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Batangas, Cebu, and Davao.

Networks show resilience to the Internet storm

The Network Intelligence Report, which examines service provider network traffic and consumption trends in 2020, reveals that networks were made to withstand the Internet’s rollercoaster year.

The report examines overall changes in Internet traffic patterns in the last decade and during 2020, focusing on key application areas such as video streaming, video conferencing, gaming and Distributed Denials of Service (DDoS) security.

As COVID-19 lockdown measures were implemented in March-April 2020, consumer and business behavioural changes transformed the Internet’s shape and how people used it virtually overnight. Many networks experienced a year’s worth of traffic growth (30-50 percent) in just a few weeks. By September, traffic had stabilized at 20-30 percent above pre-pandemic levels, with further seasonal growth to come.

“Never has so much demand been put on the networks so suddenly, or so unpredictably,” said Manish Gulyani, Head of Nokia Deepfield. “With networks providing the underlying connectivity fabric for business and society to function as we shelter-in-place, there is a greater need than ever for holistic, multi-dimensional insights across networks, services, applications and end users.”

Fibrus receives the green light for rural broadband project across Northern Ireland

A £165m deal to improve broadband connectivity in Northern Ireland will be “transformational” for people living in rural areas. The contract for the upgrade work has been awarded by the Department for the Economy to broadband provider Fibrus.

Around 76,000 premises are to benefit from full-fiber broadband access. The total funding for Project Stratum is £165m, with £150m coming from the agreement deal signed between the DUP and the Conservative Party in 2017.

“We are one step closer to bringing next-generation broadband services to those businesses and people who need it most,” said Diane Dodds, Economy Minister. “Fibrus proposes a full-fiber solution, capable of offering speeds of up to one gigabit per second to almost 97 percent of premises in the target intervention area.”