2021.09.24 – Open Broadband News

Standards recommendations for the Biden Administration

Consortia believe there are several areas in which standards policy action – and in some cases inaction – by the Biden administration is most urgently needed and outlined their recommendations including the following:

• Support Open-Source Software Development

Over the past two decades, open-source software (OSS) has become essential to virtually every ICT product and service. An astonishing percentage of essential technologies today are fundamentally based on OSS stacks, from operating systems to telecommunications to much more. The time has come for Congress and the administration to recognize and support the vast importance and value of OSS to critical infrastructure, the economy, and all other aspects of our technology-based world.

• Restore the Country’s Reputation in Global Standards Development

In 2001, in reaction to the 9/11 attacks, the US tightened border restrictions. Global SSOs typically have multiple face-to-face meetings, and non-US participants chaffed at being fingerprinted, or having their visa requests denied entirely. There is today a growing backlash against such impositions, leading to a sense that new SSOs should be organized outside the US.

• Reduce the Risk of Standards Wars

With the exception of specific treaty obligations, international adoption of standards is entirely voluntary and market driven. Competing standards can, and often have, been used as competitive weapons, both to exclude or burden foreign products or to avoid licensing costs associated with “standards essential patents” (SEPS). While both the US and China are signatories of the World Trade Organization Treaty on Technical Barriers to Trade (TTBT), this did not prevent China from launching its own wireless standard (WAPI) in competition with Wi-Fi a decade and a half ago, alleging that the Wi-Fi standard developed by the IEEE provided insufficient security.

Calix on cloud 9

Calix is further extending its commitment to industry standards by adding technical specifications such as Broadband Forum’s TR-369 and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Data Elements™ to its software stack. These specifications are particularly important components of a standardized broadband ecosystem because they enable BSPs of all sizes to tap out-of-the-box device management, monitoring, upgrade, and control capabilities.

These specifications will enable BSPs to deliver a more complete solution for subscribers while providing deeper subscriber insights for BSPs. BSPs will be able to leverage rich, streaming, analytics that provide real-time insight into the subscriber experience. These new standards will also extend compatibility to the Internet of Things (IoT) devices that are proliferating in subscribers’ homes and businesses.

“Members like Calix are propelling the broadband industry by adopting industry standards that foster widespread innovation and drive global scale,” said John Blackford, Chairman, Broadband Forum. “The future of broadband depends on a collective, collaborative approach that goes beyond delivering high-quality point solutions. By combining the flexibility and speed of open source with the efficiencies of interoperability and open standards, the market possibilities become endless, opening up a world of collaborative opportunity for BSPs and their subscribers.”

Gigabit Britain at 50%

The latest data update from Thinkbroadband has estimated that 50.23% of properties in the United Kingdom now have access to take a fixed gigabit-capable (1000Mbps+) broadband ISP connection, which is up from 41.72% in July 2021 and largely reflects the impact from Virgin Media’s (VMO2) recent DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades.

At present, 26.24% of properties can access a gigabit speed service via Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, but most of the recent growth in gigabit coverage has come from Virgin Media’s ongoing upgrade of their existing Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) lines with DOCSIS 3.1 technology. The latter recently hit 10 million premises (here) and such upgrades are due to complete by the end of this year (14.3 million premises).

Nadine Dorries, UK Digital Secretary, said: “We’ve passed the halfway point in our national mission to level up the UK with lightning-fast gigabit broadband. Millions of people can now access the fastest, most reliable internet connections, allowing them full advantage of new technologies over the next forty years. Thanks to the work of industry and our record £5 billion investment, we are making phenomenal progress in the Prime Minister’s infrastructure revolution.”

Internet freedom on the decline

Online freedom is continuing to decline globally, according to a new study, with governments increasingly cracking down on user speech and misinformation on the rise. The yearly study, which has been published since 1973, uses a standard index to measure internet freedom by country on a 100-point scale. It asks questions about internet infrastructure, government control and obstacles to access, and content regulation. Countries are scored on a scale of 100 points with higher numbers considered more “free”.

The report from Freedom House found internet freedom declined for the fifth year in a row in the US and the 11th year internationally – for two distinct reasons. Freedom House cited a growing lack of diversity among sources of online information in the US that allowed conspiracies and misinformation to rise, an issue that was gravely underscored during the 2020 elections and the 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol. “The spread of false and conspiracist content about the November 2020 elections shook the foundations of the American political system,” the report said.

No such thing as a free launch

The night sky is going to get much busier thanks to thousands of new internet satellites set to launch over the next few years—and researchers say it’s going to affect Canada more than most places on Earth.

Researchers from the University of Toronto, the University of Regina and the University of British Columbia found that most light pollution is expected to happen near 50 degrees latitude north and south due to the orbits of the new satellites.

The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, has been submitted to The Astronomical Journal. Rein also helped develop a web app that allows people to select a latitude, season and time of night to find out how many satellites will be in the night sky and how bright they will be.

“The sky plays an important cultural and scientific role in people’s lives,” he says. “You cannot escape this technology—you will always see these satellites flying above you, no matter where you are in the world.”

Jamaica sees high online migration but little growth

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic having driven much of Jamaica’s business and social activities online, there has been a mere 4.5 per cent increase in the availability and use of broad internet service – both fixed and mobile – in the country over one year of the pandemic from March 2020 to March this year. At the same time, the revenues of telecommunication firms fell by 3.5 per cent over the one-year period to March 2021, according to regulatory data.

Since the onset of the pandemic, access to the internet moved from being utilitarian to essential as a major means of learning, according to the latest Economic and Social Survey Jamaica, ESSJ, 2020 published by the Planning Institute of Jamaica, PIOJ, this year. The ESSJ report cited a study of 600 students across five tertiary colleges, citing that 95 per cent of them were engaged in virtual learnings. Despite its importance some Jamaicans still have inconsistent connectivity, the PIOJ report had noted.

“Internet connectivity was the most pressing challenge noted by institutions,” stated the ESSJ.