2023.02.03- Open Broadband News

The future of broadband service delivery

Broadband internet access is not a luxury, but a necessity for economic and human development and it acts as a powerful tool for the delivery of essential services such as education and healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in smart working has diversified the role of the customer, acting as both the business (smart worker) and residential user on the same broadband access via the same Customer Premises Equipment (CPE).

End-users have always opted for the quickest and most reliable broadband at the most reasonable price. Fixed broadband access has been the dominant option for many years. There is now utilization of assets that serve both mobile and fixed access requirements. As advances in cellular have narrowed the gap between two traditional separate deployment models in fixed and wireless, operators are faced with the challenge of integrating both fixed and wireless technologies within the same network. Now operators need to create a seamless environment between the two different network types so that the end user’s Quality of Experience (QoE) is not affected.

Today’s access network segments form a collection of application specific, purpose-built devices. While this has been the foundation for large-scale successful deployments, the emergence of new technologies and approaches has resulted in a re-examination of the deployed network in the quest for a more responsive, agile ecosystem to better enable new revenue opportunities and operational cost savings.

You can read the full article by Craig Thomas, VP of Strategic Marketing and Business Development at Broadband Forum on Telecoms.com here.

Australian Government poised to introduce local content quotas for streamers

Australia’s Federal Government will insist that leading streamers up their investment in local content from mid-2024 according to ABC News. Precise details are still being thrashed out with stakeholders, but the sector has argued for 20% of revenue as a benchmark.

In some ways, the new rules would just reflect an existing trend, with the main streamers already investing in local content to drive subscription. Last year, for example, the top five streamers, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Paramount+ and Stan (a locally-owned service), spent around A$670 million on Australian and Australian-related programming in a bid to win new subscribers.

The Government is keen, however, to put streamers on the same footing as free-to-air networks, which are already subject to local content quotas. Presumably, there is also a fear that, as the initial push for subscribers abates, the streamers might be tempted to fall back on internationally-sourced content to save costs.

Four States have used a large portion of $793.7 million fund on broadband

Four states – Alabama, Kentucky, Nevada and Texas – have been approved for projects funded through the Capital Projects Fund (CPF). The awards were announced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The awards total $793.7 million and will reach more than 292,000 homes and businesses with broadband infrastructure.

The $10 billion Capital Projects Fund program was established by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to help states and territories face the COVID-19 pandemic. States had the option of using the money for their choice of a variety of infrastructure initiatives, including broadband.

Some states used a large portion of their CPF funding for broadband. In addition, the Treasury noted that some states are using money from their State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) for broadband.

Fiber to drive fixed broadband in Asia Pacific

Fiber-optic access lines will account for about 62% of the total fixed access lines in the developed APAC region by 2027. The share of fiber-optic access lines in the total fixed lines in the emerging APAC markets will be 90%.

Demand for high-speed internet services and competitively priced fiber broadband plans with benefits like unlimited internet and access to major subscription video on demand (SVoD) platforms will drive the fiber broadband service adoption, Kantipudi Pradeepthi, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, said.

China leads the APAC fixed broadband services market with 98% of its broadband subscriptions on fiber optic lines as of 2022. China Government’s Dual Gigabit Network Coordinated Development Action Plan (2021-2023) aims to expand fiber-optic networks to over 200 million households by the end of 2023.

AT&T updates its disaggregation journey

AT&T has been talking about the virtualization of its network functions for almost a decade, starting with its Domain 2.0 vision that set out its plans based on white box hardware platforms – and not just talking about, but actually adopting and deploying disaggregated, software-defined systems in its live production network, with its core routing platform being a prime example.

The US operator has just provided an update on its network function disaggregation progress by publishing a blog authored by Mike Satterlee, its Vice President of Network Core Infrastructure Services. He noted that the initial rollout of disaggregated core routing technology began in 2020, followed swiftly by the introduction of virtualized edge routing functionality using the same underlying white box hardware (but with different software).

“We are continuing to develop the open and disaggregated ecosystem to enable more advanced management capabilities and additional use cases,” noted Satterlee. “The task now is to unlock its full potential and make its capabilities more consumable and flexible for our customers.”