2021.04.16 – Open Broadband News

Welcome aboard! Broadband Forum announces newly elected Board of Directors

Broadband Forum has announced the results of newly elected and re-elected members of its Board of Directors and the annual election of its officers that brings together representatives from leading global companies.

Chosen for a two-year tenure, leaders from a variety of operators and product and technology developers have joined or re-joined the eleven-member Board including Aleksandra Kozarev of MaxLinear, Barbara Stark of AT&T, Hongyu Li of Huawei, Manuel Paul of Deutsche Telekom and Mike Talbert of Verizon.

As part of its annual officer elections, the organization reports Mike Talbert was voted in as Broadband Forum President and Manuel Paul as Vice President. They join the re-elected officers: John Blackford of CommScope (Chairman), Dave Sinicrope of Ericsson (Vice President), Frank Van der Putten of Nokia (Treasurer) and Aleksandra Kozarev of MaxLinear (Secretary).

Accepting his new role of President of the Broadband Forum, Mike Talbert stated: “It is an honor and privilege to be elected by my industry peers. This is such an exciting time for the whole broadband industry, the terrible pandemic we have witnessed has truly demonstrated the importance of broadband for all areas of society from consumer, IoT, business and public services.”

octoScope passes the test with its new TR-398 Issue 2 testing suite

octoScope®, a Spirent Company and the leader in accurate, repeatable and automated wireless personal testbeds, announces the introduction of a test suite for the TR-398 Issue 2 Wi-Fi router performance test standard from the Broadband Forum.

ltCustomer care calls and truck rolls associated with Wi-Fi are a big pain point for service providers. They are looking for testing solutions that help them quantify the performance of a Wi-Fi router prior to releasing it on the market. To address this need, Broadband Forum has recently released an update to its TR-398 in-home Wi-Fi router performance standard. Issue 2 of TR-398 added performance test cases for Wi-Fi 6 and for mesh networks.

TR-398 is the only standard to systematically and quantitatively evaluate home Wi-Fi router performance. It does this across seven dimensions: receiver sensitivity, throughput, coverage, multiuser support, anti-interference, stability and mesh networks.

“We are excited to announce this implementation of TR-398 Issue 2, because this test solution will be of great benefit to telecom operators and end users when selecting optimal Wi-Fi solutions,” said Fanny Mlinarsky, Founder of octoScope.

HomeGrid Forum ramps up G.hn use in industrial settings

Industry alliance HomeGrid Forum is accelerating the development of G.hn for use in industrial settings, which will prove critical for the future success of businesses worldwide. G.hn is a gigabit home networking technology based on ITU-T standards and is considered the most reliable and versatile wireless home network backbone available today.

By leveraging data through Internet of Things (IoT) devices and incorporating machine-to-machine communication and automation, industries can achieve an uptake in productivity and efficiency. All of this requires scalable, interoperable, reliable communication and connectivity. A key focus for the HomeGrid Forum is industrial automation and G.hn technology and this is perfectly suited to meet the needs of 4IR.

“Offering a strong backbone, with the ability for bidirectional data traffic, G.hn is the key to unlocking the potential of future industrial applications – most critically because it can be simply integrated into the legacy systems commonly in use in industrial environments,” said Livia Rosu, Chair of the HomeGrid Forum Marketing Work Group.

Magnifico! Italy to spend 60% of EU funds on broadband boost

Italy aims to spend almost 7 billion euros ($8.33 billion) in European recovery funds on ultra-fast networks, up 60% from a previous goal, as ministers lay out alternatives to a long-delayed single national broadband plan, sources told Reuters. The government of Mario Draghi, which took office in February, is revising a national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) that would entitle it to some 206 billion euros by 2026 from an EU program to help nations hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Two sources close to the matter told Reuters Rome of plans to raise the amount spent on broadband, 5G and satellite infrastructure to 6.7 billion euros from 4.2 billion euros earmarked in January by the previous government. One of the sources also added that the total funds for boosting digitalization amount to some 49 billion euros, up from a previous 46.3 billion euros, including investments in public administration and grants for small and medium-sized companies.

Italy ranked fourth to last in the European Union for digital competitiveness in 2019, the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) compiled by the European Commission found.

EU smart home markets soared in 2020 according to data report

In the fourth quarter of 2020, the smart home market in Europe grew 12.2% compared to the same period of 2019, according to research by International Data Corporation (IDC). 41.3 million units were shipped to the region between October and December.

By 2025, the smart home market is expected to have reached almost 210 million units in Europe and will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14.94% between 2020–2025.

“After a negative first half of 2020, the smart home market recovered and showed continued growth and interest among consumers,” said Antonio Arantes, Senior Research Analyst for smart home devices in Western Europe. “Smart TVs, one of the products that suffered the most between January and June of 2020, recovered the trend of 3Q20 and were one of the biggest contributors to growth.”