2020.11.27 – Open Broadband News

To 5G and beyond! Broadband Forum published three new standards

Broadband Forum has published three new standards, marking a major step forward to unlock a new wave of 5G innovation and prepare telcos for the mass adoption of 5G.

The three new specifications will allow telcos to build their 5G networks with open, cloud-native platforms that utilize software and hardware components from different vendors, eliminating vendor lock-in and allowing operators to deploy new 5G services faster, more securely and in a more flexible way.

Building on the Forum’s mission to drive a future consolidated approach to 5G, the standards will reduce development time, as well as capex and opex, from the traditional disparate fixed broadband and 5G networks. Ultimately, they will deliver a common and managed broadband experience to the end-user whatever the final connectivity technology.

“Operators are keen to harness and deploy fifth generation technology to exploit new opportunities to enhance existing revenue streams and secure new ones by launching new services and applications,” said Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh. “Spanning the full scope of the network, including CPE, these specifications take a holistic approach to network management and operation and will greatly accelerate 5G deployments, ensuring operator confidence through an open ecosystem.”

Take a look at Broadband Forum’s latest 5G video with David Allan, Work Area Director for Wireless-Wireline Convergence at Broadband Forum and Christele Bouchat, Innovation Group Director at Broadband Forum as they discuss what is coming up in the next phase of 5G work and what opportunities this has opened up for the industry – https://www.broadband-forum.org/christele-bouchat-innovation-group-director-david-allan-wwc-work-area-director-offer-a-5g-update.

Brazilliant news for telecom operators as senate passes two bills

Brazilian telecom operators have applauded the senate’s approval of two bills deemed essential to unlock investments and boost connectivity in the country.

One of the bills passed exempts Internet Of Things (IoT) communication devices from paying telecom levies for a period of five years, while the second amends the legislation governing the fund for the universalization of telecommunications services so its resources can be used to expand broadband.

“It is an historic milestone for the expansion of connectivity and the development of telecommunications in Brazil,” stated Conexis Brasil Digital, the association representing the largest telecom operators in Brazil.

Home smart home! Entertainment to dominate the market by 2025

According to new figures from Juniper Research, the smart entertainment category will dominate the market and take up the bulk of the projected $230 billion revenue smart home devices generate.

Both figures are a marked improvement from 2020, in which it is expected that there will be 7.4 billion active devices by the end of the year.

The firm attributes a significant amount of this ongoing growth to ever increasing voice assistant capabilities, which are becoming an increasingly common way of controlling digital entertainment devices. Many streaming devices and games consoles, for example, are now compatible with smart assistants from Amazon and Google, creating a compelling user experience for the smart home.

These discrete purchases will fuel the smart home market, rather than holistic smart home packages that were common in the early days of the market. Exemplifying this is the prediction that 94% of devices in use will be from individual purchases, with less than 50 million households globally having a smart home subscription in 2025.

Standards are key to building the networks of tomorrow

2020 has shown standards are key to building the networks of tomorrow, and that’s something to be excited about, said Bernd Hesse, President and Marketing and BASe Chair of Broadband Forum.

OpenVault’s Broadband Insights Report for the first quarter of 2020 showed an increase in broadband usage of 47 percent. According to Hesse, this was largely due to the pandemic’s effect on our living habits. Daily Zoom participants grew 2,900 percent since December 2019 and Netflix benefitted from a 22 percent jump in subscriber growth, as we accustomed to the working-from-home lifestyle and adhered to national lockdowns.

As well as teaching us that subscriber demands – and the world – can change rapidly, 2020 has underlined our global, ever-growing dependence on broadband networks. Read the full article from Hesse here on how Broadband Forum is addressing the needs of operators, which will also be available to view in the Fibre Systems Yearbook 2021.

Want fast Internet and affordable living? Study says move to Delaware

According to new data from financial comparison site Money.co.uk, New York Internet speeds lag 25% behind other states, including Delaware, Virginia and Massachusetts.

As per the findings, “higher internet speeds may be pushing up the prices of homes across the country, with residents paying up to 79% more on homes that benefit from faster Internet,” said Max Beckett, Internet expert at Money.co.uk.

However, housing prices and Internet speeds per state do not perfectly correlate. Examples from the study include the states of New York and Washington, with average Internet speeds of 60 Mbit/s and 68 Mbit/s, respectively; and average housing prices of $305,300 (New York) and $567,800 (Washington).

Then there’s California, home to Silicon Valley, with average speeds of 58 Mbit/s and average house prices of $550,800. Meanwhile, in Delaware Internet speeds are 48% faster than the rest of the country, at 75 Mbit/s, and house prices are 3.5% cheaper than the average US home, at $236,300.