2021.11.26 – Open Broadband News

Fiber for Breakfast: One Network is Finally Here!

The advent of 5G presents a significant opportunity for operators to converge on a common core. While this has been attempted in the past without success, the industry is finally at a point where basically everything else has already converged with smart personal appliances leading the way.

So, operators are presented with a once in a lifetime opportunity to fully converge their networks, from the duct to the OSS. The Broadband Forum in cooperation with 3GPP has been working on 5G convergence for wireline for more than 5 years now. The first set of specifications has been published and follow on work is now appearing like clockwork, with the second set currently in finalization for publication and subsequent work on the drawing board.

In this Fiber for Breakfast, Dave Allan, Distinguished Engineer at Ericsson, WWC Area Director and Distinguished Fellow at Broadband Forum, will provide a quick overview of the work, the motivations and answers the question “why now?”. Fiber for Breakfast is a weekly 30-minute live video discussion hosted by Fiber Broadband Association President and CEO, Gary Bolton. To access the full webinar, register here!

Europe urged to build Open RAN ecosystem for a 6G future

A new report, published today by five of the leading European telecommunications companies, and based on findings from independent analyst house, Analysys Mason, called upon policymakers, EU Member States, and industry stakeholders to collaborate and urgently prioritize the Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN). This will ensure that Europe continues to play a leading role in 5G, and in the future, 6G.

Entitled ‘Building an Open RAN ecosystem for Europe’, the report shows that Europe currently has just 13 major Open RAN players, versus 57 for the rest of the world. However, many European players are at an early stage of development and have not yet secured commercial Open RAN contracts, while vendors from other regions are moving ahead.

Analysys Mason Research Director Caroline Gabriel said: “Policy in the U.S. and Japan, among other countries, already strongly backs Open RAN. The U.S. has earmarked more than $1.5 billion to fund Open RAN, and Japan offers financial incentives and tax benefits for companies which develop, supply, and deploy related equipment. While there are some positive examples at national level, for example Germany, today, the European Union as a whole is falling woefully short of providing the necessary support for Open RAN, putting at risk the future viability of a European ecosystem able to compete with other regions in the world.”

Fast and furious! The share of broadband subs reaching top of speed tiers rose during pandemic

The percentage of subscribers who are pushing against the upper limits of their broadband speed tiers has increased dramatically during the past 18 months, according to the Q3 2021 OVBI (OpenVault Broadband Insights) report by OpenVault.

“Speed clipping” – defined as a subscriber exceeding 80% of provisioned broadband speed – spiked at nearly 400% of early pandemic levels in comparisons between May 2020 and September 2021 usage figures. Speed clipping can result in poor customer experiences that require customer care and network troubleshooting resources to resolve. In reality, the issues are not network-based, and this effort and expense can be avoided through the use of proper analytics tools.

While the number of gigabit subscribers has grown 4.5 times over the last two years, the majority of subscribers (56.2%) remain in speed tier packages of 200 Mbps or slower. Speed clipping occurs as those subscribers’ access – often simultaneously by multiple users in the same household – high-bandwidth applications such as video streaming, gaming and video conferencing.

FWA has the power to serve nearly half of all US rural households, according to report

5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services could serve 8.4 million rural households, nearly half the rural homes in the U.S. with a “future-proof”, rapidly deployable, and cost-effective high-speed broadband option, according to a new Accenture study commissioned by CTIA, the wireless industry association.

The report, titled ‘5G Fixed Wireless Broadband: Helping Close the Digital Divide in Rural America’, discusses how 5G FWA services can quickly and cost-effectively bring high-speed broadband to 8.4 million households in rural parts of the country. With the federal Government and states poised to implement $65 billion in broadband infrastructure programs geared toward bridging the digital divide, policymakers should recognize the capabilities of 5G FWA connectivity.

The report also discusses how 5G FWA offers benefits for both mobile rural connectivity and home broadband services. Accenture identifies additional licensed spectrum, particularly in the mid-band range, along with stable, nationwide regulatory frameworks that incentivize the efficient buildout of network infrastructure, as key to bringing 5G FWA to even more U.S. consumers in the future.

5G’s the word! China’s base stations projected to triple by 2025

China is planning to triple the number of its 5G base stations in the next five years. The country aims to get 56 percent of the country on 5G networks by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), up from 15% in 2020. The number of 5G base stations per 10,000 people will reach 26 by 2025, said the plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

According to a report in China Daily, MIIT’s target is a total of 3.64 million base stations by the end-2025. The five-year plan also forecasts that the cumulative investment in telecom infrastructure will increase from 2.5 trillion yuan in 2020 to 3.7 trillion yuan in 2025.

Xie Cun, Director of the MIIT’s information and communication development department, advised that all prefecture-level cities have full 5G coverage, with rural towns at 40% and said 5G has already been used in 22 industries, including industrial manufacturing, mining, ports, medical care, education, and entertainment. “In the next step, we will work with other parties to focus on promoting 5G applications in 15 industries that target information consumption, the real economy, and people’s livelihood services,” added Xie Cun.