2021.10.01 – Open Broadband News

Altice Labs and Calix unveiled as first vendors to achieve BBF.398 benchmark recognition

Broadband Forum  announced Altice Labs and Calix as the first two vendors to be listed as part of its newly launched BBF.398 Grade Wi-Fi Program. Service providers and device manufacturers will be able to reduce the number of customer complaints they receive about poorly performing devices thanks to the latest performance test plan released by Broadband Forum.

Issue 2 of TR-398 can seamlessly validate the devices used in broadband deployments and optimize their performance while addressing and identifying potential operational issues before the devices are introduced to the field. It also updates a number of performance test cases and adds additional test cases for mesh and Wi-Fi roaming between Access Points (APs), and for the recently published IEEE Standard 802.11ax™-2021.

“Issue 2 builds on the foundations laid by TR-398 – the industry’s first open Wi-Fi performance testing program – in allowing operators to efficiently test Wi-Fi performance, capacity, coverage and stability. The performance test plan measures an Access Point’s performance against the growing expectations of service providers to make sure devices used in their deployments are meeting customer needs and expectations,” said Lincoln Lavoie, University of New Hampshire InterOperability Principal Engineer and Broadband Forum Technical Chair.

What’s this then? Vodafone and partners testing open, disaggregated BNG architecture

Not content with shaking things up in the radio access network sector with its Open RAN efforts, Vodafone is now also taking the anti-vendor lock-in fight to the fixed access network by testing an open, disaggregated, multivendor BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) architecture with Benu Networks, Casa Systems, Cisco and Nokia.

The BNG is, essentially, the brain that controls the access network, comprising the control plane (user authentication, identifying associated policies, managing CPE interaction) and the user/data plane (forwarding traffic functions and policy enforcement).

All of this is traditionally provided in a single, integrated system but, as in the radio access network domain, Vodafone wants to be able to source its technology from multiple, best-of-breed vendors. The test, already successfully completed, is “an important step in opening up the current single-supplier, monolithic broadband gateways to greater technological innovation from a more diverse supply chain,” according to the operator.

The operator based its test architecture on specifications developed by the Broadband Forum – namely the Disaggregated BNG specs, or TR-459, which can be viewed in full here.

Research reveals increased switch on as smart TV adoption surges during pandemic

Parks Associates has announced the release of its latest Consumer Insights Dashboard, a new ongoing service that analyzes the firm’s quarterly surveys of 10,000 US broadband households to track consumer adoption of home devices and services.

The research reveals that among the most commonly adopted CE device categories, smart TVs and smart speakers/displays showed significant growth during the Covid-19 pandemic. Smart TVs reached 56 per cent while smart speakers/displays reached 53 per cent.

“Big announcements in the smart TV space by Amazon and Comcast are evidence of where the home entertainment market is headed,” said Paul Erickson, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. “TVs are now consumers’ most common video centerpiece in the home, and technology powerhouses are vying to own this point of entertainment aggregation – and all the data that goes with it – by controlling the platform itself. The competition now is not just about providing access to entertainment, it’s also about adding increasing value to the platform through features such as voice assistants, smart home integration, and better user experiences. Smart TVs are now seen as a key anchor device for ecosystem penetration into today’s broadband households.”

No excuses now! Broadband switching to be made easier and faster under new regulations

Media regulator Ofcom says new rules will make it faster and easier to switch broadband provider. It means customers will only have to contact the new company they want to deal with, even if they are switching to a different type of technology.

Ofcom said the “one touch” switching process could take as little as a day, with customers owed compensation if it takes longer. The same system will apply to switching landline phone lines. The change is, in effect, an expansion of the system already in place for providers who share the same kind of technology.

Ofcom said the new rules would make it much faster and easier to switch provider, and the broadband firms would also have to give customers compensation “if things go wrong and they are left without a service for more than one working day”.

It said its research showed that 41 percent of people who decide not to switch providers are “put off by the hassle” of the current process, while 43 percent thought it would take too long.

2Africa unveils the world’s longest subsea cabling system, spanning multiple continents!

2Africa can now officially boast that it is the longest subsea cable system in the world after the announcement that it has been extended to the Arabian Gulf, Pakistan and India. The 2Africa consortium – China Mobile International, Facebook, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, stc, Telecom Egypt, Vodafone and WIOCC – has announced the addition of the new segment called the 2Africa PEARLS branch. This extension will bring the total length of the 2Africa cable system to more than 45,000 kilometres.

Today, with 2Africa PEARLS, 2Africa will be providing international connectivity to an additional 1.8 billion people – and three billion people in total. Now connecting three continents, Africa, Europe and Asia, terrestrially through Egypt, 2Africa has added landing locations in Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Pakistan, India, and Saudi Arabia. The new 2Africa branch joins recently announced extensions to the Canary Islands, the Seychelles, the Comoros Islands, Angola, and a new landing in south-east Nigeria.

The consortium says that the expanded system will serve an even wider range of communities that rely on the internet for services from education to healthcare, along with businesses, providing the economic and social benefits that come from increased connectivity.