2019.01.14 – Open Broadband News

Broadband Forum announces next Broadband Acceleration Seminar

NG-PON2 and its potential to provide a universal platform for residential, business and wireless 5G will be the focus of Broadband Forum’s next Broadband Acceleration Seminar (BASe) series event.

Taking place during OFC Conference 2019, in San Diego, on Thursday, March 7, and sponsored by Go!Foton, Lightron, and Calix, the seminar will be split into four segments, with each one featuring prominent industry leaders from across the broadband ecosystem. The four segments are:

• Worldwide Access Market Overview
• Component Market Update
• Ecosystem Overviews & Best Practices
• Integration and Applications

Confirmed speakers taking part in the event include sponsors Go!Foton, Lightron, and Calix as well as leading service providers (AIT Greece, Google, Verizon), influencers (Ovum, Fiber Broadband Association) and vendors (Hisense, Pic Advanced, Bifrost, Hybrid Access Solutions, Corning, Huawei, and DASAN Zhone).

BT extends ‘Complete Wi-Fi’ offer to all fiber customers – ending black spots for even more homes with the world’s first Wi-Fi coverage guarantee

BT has extended its performance-guaranteed “Complete Wi-Fi’ offering to new superfast and ultrafast fiber broadband customers.Using a Wi-Fi mesh involving unique Wi-Fi Discs which pair with the new BT Smart Hub 2 to create a single seamless, powerful Wi-Fi network in a customer’s home that provides strong, reliable Wi-Fi for every room of their home. Complete Wi-Fi enables both wall-to-wall coverage, and faster Wi-Fi speeds, allowing customers to stream HD video content in more places around the home. A four-bedroom home could see an increase in Wi-Fi speeds of up to 25% around the home with just one disc.

Pete Oliver, Managing Director of Marketing for BT’s Consumer business said: “A strong Wi-Fi connection throughout the home is so important for modern families, whatever they’re doing – whether it’s online gaming in the attic, homework in a bedroom, or streaming HD movies in the spare room. Complete Wi-Fi has been hugely popular for those on BT Plus, and we want even more customers to benefit from the very best connection in every corner of their home, so we’ve now also made it available to all BT fiber broadband customers.”

Internet of Things, 5G, and Cybersecurity dominate CES 2019

With CES 2019 ending last week, the rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) was showcased to the world.

Its promise of minimal latency is perhaps one of the greatest forces driving the quick introduction of 5G – and both technologies took center stage at the event. And, of course, IoT nodes governing critical military, medical, and industrial functions can’t be left unguarded, bringing cybersecurity into the conversation in a big way.

As companies all over the world step up to meet the demands for IoT innovations and infrastructure, CES showcased the latest and greatest developments.

Broadband Forum opens registration for next quarterly meeting 

Registration has opened for Broadband Forum’s first quarterly meeting of 2019.

The Q1 meeting will take place in Warsaw, Poland, from Monday, March 18 to Thursday, March 21. Keynote speakers and special sessions taking place at the meeting will be announced soon.

For more information about the Q1 meeting and register to attend visit: https://www.broadband-forum.org/news-events/meetings/current-meeting

5G is running full steam ahead as operators and equipment manufacturers prove they’re on track with plans

2019 is set to be the year for 5G, with a number of companies stepping up their efforts in real-world deployments and device development.

In one of the most recent demos of the technology, Japanese telco NTT DoCoMo and compatriot conglomerate NEC used 5G to streamed 8K footage of a steam locomotive onto a train as part of a Japanese government project to examine the outdoor use of 5G systems that have average data speeds of 4Gbps to 8 Gbps.

Over in America, AT&T intends to rollout nationwide 5G services across the continental United States by early 2020, according to the company’s president for Technology Operations. Speaking at an industry event in Las Vegas this week, Jeff McElfresh said that the company would look to build on the success of its initial fixed wireless offering, which the company bought to market in 2018.

Devices are also catching up to broadband’s capabilities, with Samsung displaying its 5G smartphone prototype at CES 2019 and Telstra securing exclusive early access to a number of 5G smartphones for the first half of 2019.

But it is not all good news, with the longest United States government shutdown in history potentially delaying 5G development. According to CNET, new phones, tablets, Wi-Fi routers, and internet of things devices will all be slowed down as Federal Communications Commission approval processes are hit by the shutdown.

Comcast leverages AI for connected home device security 

Comcast has launched a new AI-powered security service to protect against threats as an increasing number of smart devices come online in the home.

The Xfinity xFI Advanced Security offering leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to keep tabs on and analyze Wi-Fi traffic in the home.

“As the digital world gets more complex, we wanted to make it simple and easy for our customers to protect their home networks. That’s why we developed xFi Advanced Security,” said Fraser Stirling, Senior Vice President of Digital Home, Devices and AI at Comcast Cable.