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The Multi-Gigabit, Multi-Device, Multi-User Era
The home has become the hub from which your subscribers collectively live, work, play, and learn - virtually. The demands upon the hyper-connected homes continuously grow because of the demand for 4K streaming, online learning, remote working, and cloud gaming across various devices. This is compounded by multiple family members accessing the network simultaneously with numerous devices. According to a recent Plume Insights report, U.S. households are now averaging over 21 connected devices. This has driven the need for higher-bandwidth residential services. According to OpenVault’s Q4’21 Broadband Insights report, gigabit subscriptions were up 44% in 2021 and now constitute 12% of all subscribers. Fiber providers are raising the bar with multi-gigabit residential services via 10-gigabit-capable XGS-PON technology.
Addressing the Bandwidth Bottleneck
However, deploying fiber and multi-gigabit services is not the only solution. The bandwidth bottleneck is now shifting to the in-home Wi-Fi network. Subscribers now equate Wi-Fi with the Internet, and extending the gigabit experience from the access network into the home is critical for your success.
So, which Wi-Fi technology offers the best blend of coverage and device support? What about mesh Wi-Fi? What tools do you need to manage and optimize the Wi-Fi experience? How do you empower your customer service representatives (CSRs) with insight to speed issue resolution and avoid truck rolls?
The five keys to delivering next-level, in-home Wi-Fi experiences and gaining passionately loyal customers are:
1. Start with Wi-Fi 6
Wi-Fi 6 or 802.11ax is the latest generation of Wi-Fi technology. With support for wider 160 MHz channels, and up to 8x8 Multi-User Multiple Input Multiple Output (MU-MIMO), Wi-Fi 6 delivers more than four times higher throughput and supports eight times mor
In a market now inundated with data-hungry social media platforms, whether you are an Internet service provider, network wholesaler, or mobile service operator, the industry continues to grapple with the challenge of growing revenue and margins across its broadband consumer base. Finding the right balance between network investments and the average revenue generated per end-user has been difficult for most organisations due to the forever-moving target of data growth and consumption.
We are observing an unprecedented need for speed from end-users globally, with the year 2021 setting data usage records spurred on partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic but predominantly driven by society's insatiable appetite for streaming services. Setting the benchmark for the rest of the world, we saw the average weighted broadband consumption in the North American market surpass 512 GB for the first time, with many network operators now scrambling to keep pace with the growing demand. To complicate matters further, network operators must plan to deliver strategies that will combat the expected tsunami in data utilisation from the next evolution of the internet - the Metaverse!
So, what is the Metaverse, and when will it arrive?
This may surprise some, but the transition to this new world known as the Metaverse has already begun. To back this up, we are already seeing massive investment dollars being piled into initiatives spawning from the "Metaverse," with the likes of Facebook changing its name to Meta as part of its investment into the next digital frontier - The Metaverse! The Metaverse is the next generation of internet and centres around how the user will experience the internet of the future – Web 3.0. It is a concept of delivering a persistent, online, 3D universe that combines multiple different virtual spaces. So advanced are some metaverse industries that people are already calling this transition "the future iteration of the i
Today, we see the benefit of the accelerating deployment of Fiber-to-the-Home. Gigabit services are rapidly becoming available to more subscribers. Increasingly, these high-capacity services are priced within the normal elastic spend of households for their broadband services. This has favorably impacted service adoption rates, especially over the last two years, where a substantial percentage of the population has been working from home. Faster broadband speeds have been essential in the residential market for the consumption of services for leisure, education, and teleworking, where video conferencing and remote collaboration have become part of everyday life across the globe.
With cost-effective, 10G-capable XGS-PON technology reaching widespread adoption among all types and sizes of broadband service providers, the available speed and capacity have enabled those service providers to offer attractively-priced multi-gigabit services. Marketers are quickly pushing the envelope with service offerings beyond 1 Gbps to differentiate themselves from their competitors. From the United States to Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, XGS-PON enabled, multi-gigabit service offerings are resetting the broadband value point across the developed world's markets in France.
As discussed in previous CTO Insights blogs, these new 10G PON-based offerings are helping to accelerate the market’s abandonment of gigabit limited point-to-point FTTH technologies. Additionally, they are calling into question the role of GPON as a technology with which to light new fiber networks. When services of 5 Gbps and more are available for less than €20 in the European market, it is difficult to successfully argue for new fiber deployments with these legacy FTTH technologies when most new entrant FTTH operators are lev
Adtran discusses how Italy’s Digitization Investment project alongside its Connectivity Voucher Scheme fits in with the Open Disaggregated model of invest as you grow which will allow operators of all sizes to launch gigabit services in any part of Italy be it rural or cities without over investing.
The ultimate goal is to create an interconnected and digitized country, in which private users can take advantage of essential and innovative services, businesses can improve their sustainable productivity and have the opportunity to innovate continuously, and in which society itself can benefit from tools to improve the well-being of all its components.
To achieve this vision, it is necessary to create the conditions for adapting infrastructures throughout the national territory, promoting in particular the laying of the fiber as close as possible to fixed and mobile users; but it is also necessary to continuously stimulate the demand for digital goods and services (market pull), among citizens and businesses.
The latest initiative of the Ministry for Economic Development (MISE), managed by Infratel Italia and active since 1 March last, fits into this context: the connectivity voucher for businesses, dedicated to encouraging the digitization of the production sector throughout the national territory.
This is an economic contribution for businesses (micro, small and medium-sized) ranging from € 300 to € 2500, depending on the characteristics of the internet connection chosen. The contribution can be requested and paid directly by operators through their commercial channels. There are two essential prerequisites to be able to request it:
The emphasis is therefore on connectivity perfo
Adtran racconta come il progetto di investimento in digitalizzazione dell'Italia, insieme al suo voucher per la connettività alle imprese, si adatti alle soluzioni che consentono un investimento scalabile nella connettività, e permetterà agli operatori di tutte le dimensioni di lanciare servizi gigabit in qualsiasi parte dell'Italia, sia essa rurale o cittadina, con investimenti ottimizzati.
L’obiettivo finale è quello di creare un Paese interconnesso e digitalizzato, in cui gli utenti privati possano usufruire di servizi essenziali ed innovativi, le imprese possano migliorare la propria produttività sostenibile ed avere la possibilità di innovare continuamente, e in cui la società stessa possa beneficiare di strumenti per migliorare il benessere di tutti i suoi componenti.
Per arrivare a realizzare questa visione è necessario creare le condizioni per un adeguamento delle infrastrutture su tutto il territorio nazionale, promuovendo in particolare la stesura della fibra il più vicino possibile alle utenze fisse e mobili; ma è anche necessario stimolare continuamente la domanda di beni e servizi digitali (market pull), presso cittadini e imprese. In questo contesto si inserisce l’ultima iniziativa del Ministero per lo Sviluppo Economico (MISE), gestita da Infratel Italia e attiva dal 1° marzo scorso: il voucher connettività per le imprese, dedicato a favorire la digitalizzazione del comparto produttivo su tutto il territorio nazionale.
Si tratta di un contributo economico per le imprese (micro, piccole e medie) che va da 300€ a 2500€, a seconda delle caratteristiche della connessione internet scelta. Il contributo può essere richiesto ed erogato direttamente dagli operatori tramite i loro canali commerciali. Due sono i prerequisiti imprescindibili per poterlo richiedere:
Der Energieverbrauch und die Energiekosten für Telekommunikationsbetreiber sind traditionell hoch und werden voraussichtlich weiter steigen. Dieses Wachstum ist in erster Linie auf die exponentielle Zunahme der Verkehrsnachfrage und des Breitbandbedarfs der Verbraucher zurückzuführen.
Kostenreduzierung sollte ein berechenbares Ziel für Telekommunikationsbetreiber sein. Aber auch die Reduzierung der mit dem steigenden Energieverbrauch verbundenen Emissionen wird für viele zu einer wichtigen Aufgabe. Wer nicht als umweltbewusstes Unternehmen angesehen wird, steht der Gefahr, dass strengere Vorschriften erlassen werden. Mit Emissionen, die nicht durch teure Emissionszertifikate kompensiert werden und durch institutionelle Anleger, die sich stärker auf umweltfreundliche Unternehmen konzentrieren, könnte es für Netzbetreiber zukünftig erheblich schwieriger werden, erfolgreich zu sein.
Glasfaser ist GRÜN
Das vom CDP veröffentlichte Green House Gas (GHG) Protocol unterteilt die GHG-Emissionen eines Unternehmens in drei Bereiche – Scope 1, 2 und 3. Die Emissionen von Scope 1 und 2 machen in der Regel zwischen 15 und 30 % der Gesamtemissionen eines Unternehmens aus und machen etwa 5 % der gesamten Betriebsausgaben eines Betreibers aus. Bei Netzbetreibern, die sich auf die energieintensiveren mobilen Dienste konzentrieren, kann der Anteil jedoch auch bis zu 15 % betragen.
Emissionen im Scope 2 liegen im Einflussbereich einer Organisation, daher wird erwartet, dass sie kontrolliert, überwacht und vorrangig vor anderen Emissionen behandelt werden. Ein großer Teil der Scope 2 Emissionen stammt aus der Erzeugung von zugekaufter Energie, die für den Betrieb von Zugangs- und Aggregationsnetzen verwendet wird. Die Möglichkeit, die Scope2 Emissionen zu reduzieren, hängt damit ganz von der Energie- und Emissionseffizienz dieser Netze ab.
Glasfaserbasierte Lösungen sind im Vergleich zu Kupfer- und Hybrid-Fiber-Coaxial (HFC) basierten Lösungen am besten
Energy use and costs for telecom operators have traditionally been high and are expected to continue to increase. This growth is predominantly a result of the exponential increase in traffic demands and broadband needs of consumers.
Reducing costs should be an obvious goal for telecom operators. However, reducing emissions related to increasing energy use is also becoming an essential mission for many. The impact of not being viewed as an environmentally conscious organization includes the possibility of stricter regulation, the inability to offset emissions with expensive carbon credits, and the changing appetite of institutional investors to focus on greener companies could make it difficult for companies that are not “green” to succeed.
Fiber is GREEN
Green House Gas (GHG) Protocol published by CDP classifies a company's GHG emissions into three Scopes – 1, 2, and 3. Scope 1 and 2 emissions typically account for between 15-30% of total emissions attributed to an organization and represent about 5% of an operators' overall operating expenditures. But the figure can be as high as 15% for operators focused on mobile services, which are more energy-intensive.
Scope 2 emissions are within an organization's control, so they will be expected to be controlled, monitored, and prioritized ahead of other emissions. A large portion of Scope 2 emissions are from the generation of purchased energy used to power access and aggregation networks. The ability to reduce Scope 2 emissions rests entirely on the energy- and emission-efficiency of these networks.
Fiber-based solutions, relative to Copper and HFC-based solutions, are best suited to meet the growing bandwidth needs of consumers. They also consume the least power and have a much smaller carbon footprint in emissions released.
In a recent study, Prysmian compared the power consumption at the access network across VDSL2 Vectoring, Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial (HFC), and F
The United States government has prioritized expanding broadband coverage to those communities that remain underserved or unserved. Through various programs such as CAF, RDOF, CARES, and USDA ReConnect, billions of dollars have been allocated and distributed to providers for increasing their broadband coverage and closing the digital divide
As the demand for increased coverage grows, federal agencies are now expanding their funding with a focus on distribution at the state and local levels. Some federal agencies are closing applications as soon as February 22, 2022.
What sort of funding is available? How do you know if you qualify?
Adtran has compiled a list of 2022 resources to assist service providers and communities looking to claim funding for expanded broadband coverage. Learn more below about the American Rescue Plan, USDA ReConnect Program, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
American Rescue Plan – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF)
As an industry, we are navigating uncharted territory. For the first time in the history of data connectivity, societies in the developed world are operating in a period of bandwidth abundance. From the inception of the internet to recent times, the connectivity from the home or business to the internet peering points or transit backbones has always been constrained by the capacity of the Wide Area Network (WAN). Originally dial-up, then various flavours of DOCSIS, DSL, and Microwave Wireless, the shift has finally occurred where fibre is being properly recognised as the only suitable foundation for the gigabit societies that governments around the world are scrambling to build.
Why is (or rather was) Point to Point Fibre preferred?
Those in the know have always considered fibre the limitless medium. With terabits per second achievable over a single fibre strand, it is difficult to argue with this; nonetheless, an architectural debate has consumed the fibre industry over the past 20 years. Point-to-Point (P2P) fibre connectivity delivers on that true vision of “limitless.” In contrast, Passive Optical Network (PON) fibre, a point-to-multipoint architecture, has always straddled the balance between resource efficiency and the ability to stay ahead of consumer demand.
The P2P proponents have long argued that the unlimited potential, particularly the symmetric capabilities of P2P networks, means they are the only credible way to build a “real” Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) network. For a long time, it was difficult to counter these arguments. Moreover, with uncontended 1 Gbps symmetric services on offer, it was difficult for those aligned to PON architectures to counter anything more than the more efficient use of resources.
During the last two years, this situation has largely been turned on its head.
The Path to the EU’s Digital Decade
As we enter the third year of the EU’s Digital Decade, we remind ourselves of what the EU objectives are, where each member state stands to date in implementing the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) legislation and what technology options are available to operators in the EU to achieve these ambitious targets.
European Union objectives
“It is really important that we make sure that everybody has the opportunity to be part of the digital society because, to a certain extent, it is the society into which we have moved,” states Rita Wezenbeek, Director of Connectivity within the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology European Commission “Introducing the Path to the Digital Decade,” Shaping Europe’s Digital Future, November 23, 2021.
In the "2030 Digital Compass,” the European Commission has proposed setting up clear and ambitious targets for digital infrastructure.
The Digital Compass states that by 2030, all EU households should be covered by a Gigabit network, and all populated areas should be covered by 5G. The Digital Decade Policy Programme's proposal shows that societal needs for upload and download bandwidth are constantly growing. It states that by 2030, networks with Gigabit speeds should become available at accessible conditions for all those who need or wish to have such capacity.
