2021.08.13 – Open Broadband News

Hear, hear! An economic argument for moving away from Mbps

 When face mask demand surged during Covid-19, prices increased, there was a deficit, prices rose, and it took time before suppliers could catch up with demand. Supply and demand, exactly what you learned in ECON101.

When home network demand surged during Covid-19, telecoms companies shrugged and said that they still had plenty of capacity left to spare. If there’s so much extra capacity, are poor user experiences a thing of the past? How can there be an over-supply of network capacity and still unsatisfied customers? Do telcos have high net promoter scores?

The short answer is that Mbps is the measurement of network capacity and Mbps is only one part of the end-user experience. Increasingly, variations of latency and packet loss are the performance bottlenecks. In the past, Mbps have primarily been the performance bottleneck. Still, as the bandwidth moves towards, and over, a 100 Mbps threshold, Mbps is becoming an increasingly worse proxy for user experience. Trends show an increase in streaming content (for example, video games, movies, and music) which has low Mbps requirements but is sensitive to latency, further weakening the Mbps standing.

Read the full blog by Domos CTO Magnus Olden here.

Gigabit broadband to make a splash as UK government plans new water-based fiber rollout

 The UK’s government is calling on the country’s innovators to find ways to feed fiber optic cables through water pipes to help speed up the rollout of gigabit broadband to rural areas.

A £4 million fund has been made available, part of which will go towards technology that can identify and repair water leaks. Traditional infrastructure development involves the installation of poles and ducts, which can account for up to 80% of the cost of building new gigabit-capable broadband networks, according to the government.

To sidestep this, the government has proposed routing fiber optic cables through the existing water pipe network, provided a cost-effective solution is offered up by the broadband industry.

“The cost of digging up roads and land is the biggest obstacle telecoms companies face when connecting hard-to-reach areas to better broadband,” Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman said. “But beneath our feet there is a vast network of pipes reaching virtually every building in the country.”

Check out the five IoT development trends transforming the software industry

There are several Internet of Things (IoT) app development trends transforming the software industry in 2021. According to recent studies, there will be nearly 25 billion IoT connected devices by 2030. Indeed, a wide variety of industries are implementing these innovative solutions to streamline their day-to-day processes.

• Building On IoT Platforms – Many developers are building their applications on Internet of Things platforms for a more seamless connectivity.
• Focus On Containerization – The focus on containerization is another major IoT app development trend transforming the software industry.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) Automation – Notably, AI and ML both facilitate automation. Many developers are using these technologies to automate repetitive tasks, simplify work, and get more accurate details as they develop applications.
• Edge Computing – Edge computing is another major IoT development trend to look out for in 2021. Importantly, IoT developers are starting to use edge computing over cloud computing to store their data.
• Blockchain For Cybersecurity – Many IoT app developers are implementing blockchain for cybersecurity. Importantly, a blockchain is a decentralized database that contains blocks on more than one computer network at a time.

Broadband Benefit program participants feel the need for speed

Cable One shed some light on its experience so far with the FCC’s Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program, finding that a big majority of enrolees are existing broadband customers who use that money to upgrade to faster speed tiers.

Cable One has about 5,000 customers enrolled in EBB so far. However, more than 75% of them have selected tiers offering downstream speeds of 200 Mbit/s or greater, while less than 10% are new customers to Cable One, CEO Julie Laulis said on the company’s Q2 2021 earnings call on Monday.

Laulis said the Cable One customers in the program that are existing broadband subscribers are upgrading to higher speed tiers at three times the rate of non-EBB customers. Like other cable operators and ISPs, Cable One launched the EBB program in May, and this program has enrolled more than 4 million US households so far.

Argentina to feel broadband boom as funding plans announced

Argentina’s telecommunications regulator Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones (Enacom) approved funding totalling ARS 671.6 million (USD 33.5 million) to improve broadband connectivity in the country.

The national communications entity said that as part of the public policies developed by the national State to shorten the digital divide and broaden the plurality of voices, the Board of Enacom approved the financing of works to improve broadband networks.

“With a series of decisions and measures, Enacom authorities reinforce their commitment to guarantee access to the basic human right of connectivity, promoting the expansion of ICT services to democratize the use of networks together with productive and economic development throughout Argentina,” the regulator’s statement said.