2019.04.05 – Open Broadband News

BUSP Plugfest-apalooza! Broadband Forum hosts third USP Plugfest and offers Webinar for backstage access to the talent!

Interoperability in the rapidly changing connected home market advanced today as Broadband Forum hosts its latest User Services Platform (USP) Plugfest, which aims to test new functionalities and highlight increased robustness.

Building on more than one billion installations of the TR-069 protocol, USP addresses the explosion of connected devices, providing a unified, common approach to controlling and managing all types of devices in the new world of the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtualized services. The Plugfest brings together industry leaders ARRIS, AVM GmbH, Axiros, Greenwave Systems, Nokia, and QA Cafe to prove interoperability of their solutions to deliver a common ecosystem where service providers and application developers can guarantee the best possible connected experience.

Jason Walls, Co-Director of the Broadband User Services (BUS) Work Area at Broadband Forum and Director of Technical Marketing at QA Cafe said: “As the momentum of the connected home, IoT, automation, and digital lifestyles gains pace, there is a growing need for industry-wide interoperability and collaboration – USP is at the heart of this. This is extremely evident as we embark on our latest Plugfest, with many vendors and component manufacturers looking to test their devices so they can support operators looking to monetize new and innovative services.”

A Webinar providing updates to USP and the Plugfest featuring Axiros, Greenwave, Nokia, and QA Cafe was offered this week as well, and can be viewed on the Broadband Forum website here.

The Fabulous Five! UK providers to compensate broadband customers

Five UK broadband and landline providers will now automatically compensate customers when services do not work. Customers who experience delayed repairs, installations or missed engineer appointments will be compensated, without having to ask.

BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Zen Internet have joined Ofcom’s scheme, which is not compulsory. Hyperoptic, Vodafone, EE and Plusnet have also committed to the plans.

According to industry watchdog Ofcom, there are 7.2 million cases each year where broadband or landline customers suffer delayed repairs, installations or missed appointments. Previously, only about one in seven broadband or landline customers received compensation from providers for these delays.

“We think it’s unacceptable that people should be kept waiting for a new line, or a fault to be fixed,” said Ofcom’s Chief Executive Sharon White. She added that the new rules would provide an incentive for service providers to want to avoid problems occurring in the first place. “But if they fall short, customers must be treated fairly and given money back, without having to ask for it,” she said.

Under the terms of the agreement, if an engineer does not arrive on schedule, or cancels within 24 hours, the compensation will be £25. If a service stops working and is not fully fixed after two working days, customers will be entitled to £8 a day in compensation.

Interoperability – the latest case for Sherlock Homes

A Parks Associates report has found that smart home solutions will increasingly rely on voice control, video and data analytics, sound recognition, and Artifical Intelligence (AI) to simplify the user experience.

Technology Convergence and the Smart Home reports US broadband households now own more than 10 connected devices, including a mix of connected Customer Equipment (CE), smart home, and connected health devices, and as they buy more, they base their purchase decisions on a product’s ability to work with the existing devices in their home.

“Interoperability continues to be a leading challenge for the smart home industry,” said Chris O’Dell, Research Associate, Parks Associates. “Nearly 75 percent of consumers who intend to purchase a smart home device in the next year report that the ability for that device to work well with other devices is an important factor in their purchase decision. This challenge intensifies when consumers purchase stand-alone devices at different times, from different brands, rather than purchasing smart home systems.”

Cheap as chips, but with more fiber

Despite the upfront costs associated with fiber, it’s the lowest-priced fixed-broadband technology option for subscribers, according to a newly released, searchable data set from BroadbandNow – and that’s bad news for rural regions, which typically have the least access to fiber or more than one choice of provider.

Via the report: “Digital Divide: broadband pricing by state, zip code and income level,” operators, subscribers, vendors and others interested in the country’s broadband picture can conduct an interactive search of assets down to the state level.

Areas of inquiry may include:

• Low-priced plans and the price per Mbit/s for wired broadband Internet via DOCSIS, DSL or fiber
• Median household income and low-cost broadband availability
• State comparison of income and broadband coverage.

“A core mission of BroadbandNow is accurate data. We believe by sharing that data we can foster more discussion, and hopefully foster more competition,” said John Busby, Managing Director of BroadbandNow. “There’s a clear correlation between the number of providers that serve an area and competition.”

Thrilla in Manila! Philippines roll-out with the Wi-Fi punches

The Philippines’ Department of ICT (DICT) has signed a partnership agreement with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) aimed at fast-tracking the deployment of free Wi-Fi access in public places.

Under the agreement, the UNDP will provide support for the government’s Pipol Konek – Free Wi-Fi Internet Access in Public Places Project.

The UNDP will conduct area-based network analysis of target sites, oversee monitoring of project impact, and continue to provide technical training to stakeholders involved in the roll-out.

“Today as we set to seal this meeting of minds, the department is optimistic that our goals of providing free Internet access and promoting knowledge-building among our citizens will soon be realized,” said Eliseo M Rio Jr, DICT Acting Secretary at the signing ceremony.

Cloudy conditions expected at 100 metro locations, BT says

The UK’s BT is working on plans to extend its cloud platforms to about 100 metro locations so that it can better support new types of service, including more advanced 5G applications that may take shape in the coming years.

BT’s core network functions are currently hosted at between five and ten major exchanges in the UK, but under a program called “Network Cloud” it will extend these to roughly 100 metro exchanges.

Those exchanges will also be kitted out to host network applications from customers as BT eyes a key role in the future market for “edge” services.

Explaining the move, Maria Cuevas, BT’s Head of Mobile Core Networks research, said: “We need the flexibility to be able to deploy different functions in different parts of the network based on the needs of the service. Ultra-low latency means bringing user plane functions closer to the edge of the network. That dynamic flexibility will underpin a lot of 5G investment and opportunities for the future.”

Watch David Allan, Work Area Director for Wireless-Wireline Convergence at Broadband Forum discuss the Broadband Forum’s activities in accelerating 5G networks.

Craving more? What’s next on the Broadband Forum calendar?

The Broadband Forum USP Plugfest took place at UNH-IOL this week, thank you all for your attendance! Done miss the USP Webinar that took place this week featuring Plugfest participants. Click here to view.

Our CEO, Robin Mersh, recently spoke on the ‘Webinar: Secret Sauce and Open Source: The Battle for the Home Wi-Fi Middleware’ covering topics on the latest trends in the connected home and how associations will address in-home Wi-Fi. If you wish to purchase the slide deck and the one hour webinar recording, please go to: https://shop.maravedis-bwa.com/products/webinar-secret-sauce-and-open-source-the-battle-for-the-home-wi-fi-middleware.

Broadband Forum workshop on 5G Transport requirements and Broadband Access Abstraction will take place at MPLS+SDN+NFV World Congress Paris 2019 on Tuesday, April 9 from 10am to 12.30pm local time (CET/CEST). Andrew G. Malis, Distinguished Engineer at Huawei Technologies, Carsten Rossenhövel, Managing Director and Co-founder of EANTC AG and Yves Hertoghs, Principal Systems Engineer at VMware will be amongst the speakers at the event.

Why not sign up for our UFBB BASe? Fantastic new speakers from DT, BT, and Domos were just added this week. To register or find out more information about the June BASe event, please visit: https://www.ultrafastbroadband.nl/