2023.02.10 – Open Broadband News

PON spending to surpass $13 billion by 2027

Passive optical networking (PON) technology is likely to sustain its grip on the broadband equipment market and widen its lead over cable spending over the next five years, with Dell’Oro Group predicting global PON equipment revenue will reach $13.2 billion by 2027 – up from $11 billion in 2022.

The rise in PON spending is hardly surprising, Dell’Oro Group VP Jeff Heynen told Fierce Telecom, given how much focus there’s been on fiber deployments and overbuild projects in the past year. Specifically, the firm noted the PON market will be largely driven by XGS-PON deployments in North America, EMEA and Latin America and the Caribbean (CALA).

“We’ve kind of all known over the years that fiber is the future, it’s obviously becoming very apparent now,” said Heynen. “Even if you were to remove China from the overall spend, the growth of fiber…has really spread and has really become dominant.”

5G uptake drives revenue growth

Findings from the Ericsson Mobility Report provide encouraging evidence for communication service providers (CSPs) worldwide by identifying a correlation between 5G uptake and revenue growth.

Flattening revenues have been a challenge for service providers in all parts of the world, often impacting network investment decisions as part of their business growth strategies, known as ‘monetization’ in the industry  addresses these monetization opportunities as they relate to 5G.

The report finds:

• Tiered pricing models are key for service providers, both for effectively addressing the individual needs of each customer and for continuing to drive long-term revenue growth.
• The top 20 5G markets have seen a significant network performance boost following the introduction of 5G services.
• After a period of slow or no growth, wireless service revenue curves are again pointing upwards in these leading markets. This correlate with 5G subscription penetration growth.

IT spending priorities survey reveals mobile, cloud opportunities for service providers

A new report on IT spending priorities reveals where money might be budgeted for communications services in 2023. Cloud and mobile are key opportunities, according to the survey of IT managers conducted by Info-Tech Research Group.

Cloud computing and next-gen cybersecurity are the first and third technologies, respectively, in which organizations have already invested. The clear winner in the overall category is cloud computing, which has garnered investment from 82% of respondents. That’s 18 percentage points greater than the runner up, application programming interfaces (APIs). Next-gen security was third at 54%.

Cloud computing – at 58% – also took top spot on a question focusing on the technologies that respondents expect to invest in by the end of the year. Though next-gen cybersecurity was fifth (out of six technologies), at 39%, it was only two percentage points behind data lake/lakehouse and APIs, both of which were cited by 41% of respondents.

EU Commission starts showing hand in questionnaire on ‘fair share’ initiative

The European Commission is set to open a consultation on the future of the connectivity sector, including whether digital players should contribute to deploying high-capacity networks like 5G.

The senders-pay initiative, also known as ‘fair share’, relates to a long-standing plaint of telecom operators that large online platforms like Google and Netflix are driving a surge in traffic demand, reaping most of the benefits without contributing to infrastructural investments.

The Commission has picked up the idea and is due to launch a consultation next week, although continuous delays have made indiscretions related to the timeline unreliable.

To read the contents of the questionnaire, click here.

ETSI adopts software-centric standardization approach

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) unveiled Software Development Groups (SDGs) as a way to improve the standardization process through early, collaborative, software-defined testing and validation.

The SDGs will offer various software copyright licenses [such as open source] to provide the industry “with an easy path to link software and standards” through a “neutral venue and a governance model derived from open, transparent standards development.”

Ultan Mulligan, Director of ETSI‘s Center for Testing, explained these groups are tasked with developing software and tools to help “define, prototype, validate, or complement standards” and accelerate standardization processes through “early and frequent” feedback loops within the groups. The collaboration will allow for a higher quality of standards that have been validated upon publishing, which Mulligan said will also encourage a more open ecosystem of developers bringing in “new types of users and contributors through the availability of software and tools.”