Broadband World News - Ovum: 4 Broadband Trends for 2019

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Ovum: 4 Broadband Trends for 2019 Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News, 1/3/2019 Email This Print Comment 29 comments Login 50% 50% When it came time for prognostication, Broadband World News could not think of another person better-suited than an analyst who spends her time in the trenches, speaking to leading vendors and service providers about passive-optical networks, fiber, VDSL and Gfast and other fixed-broadband topics near and dear to the BBWN community. As always, Ovum Principal Analyst Julie Kunstler put aside her own deadlines and gave BBWN her top themes for 2019. They are: Fiber deeper and fiber all-the-way continue. We are seeing this in our market share reports. Bandwidth demand continues to grow unabated, and fiber is needed to support broadband access. Hype around 5G-based FWA will continue. There will be deployments but subscriber forecast numbers will not be large. It is a niche approach to residential broadband access. Yes, there is some cord cutting but for most families with significant broadband speeds today, cord cutting is not realistic. (Bundle cutting, on the other hand, is an entirely different issue as many question the value of quad-play and triple-play, depending on the packages, costs, value and so forth.) Some operators are pursuing "universal access," trying to push as much traffic as possible over the access network. Verizon is a good example, with its deployment of NG-PON2. Verizon is using NG-PON2 for residential and business services. In addition, it is examining the use of NG-PON2 for 5G xHaul. (See Network Slicing: It Ain't Just for 5G.) When coupled with sufficient bandwidth, such as 10G in the network, network slicing generates opportunities for service providers to have the ability to wholesale the network effectively and efficiently. What's on your list of 2019 fixed-broadband trends? How will 5G impact service providers? How much more fiber will be deployed in the next 12 months? Only time -- and BBWN -- will tell. Related posts: How Fiber Plays a Key Role in Orange's Convergent Network Plans SK Broadband, HFR, Sckipio Claim Gigabit Gfast in South Korea NG-PON2: The Case for 5G Trumps Lackluster Equipment Volumes — Alison Diana, Editor, Broadband World News. Follow us on Twitter or @alisoncdiana. comments		More Blogs from Alison Diana USDA invests $146M in rural broadband infrastructure this week alone 1 Comment In a flurry of activity throughout the week, Donald (DJ) LaVoy, Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development at the US Department of Agriculture, and his team spent about $145.8 million in the non-urban or suburban areas of seven states. Calix CEO: 2020 Is a 'Year of Revenue & Profit Growth' 1 Comment Calix reported revenue of $120.19 million – up 4% – in Q4 2019, putting a bounce in the step of company president and CEO Carl Russo and a shine to Calix's ongoing transition from hardware vendor to a provider of platforms enabled by cloud, APIs and subscriber experience. BT Takes Back Ex-Subs' Routers, Set-Top Boxes 4 comments Looking to curtail e-waste and improve the bottom line, BT will require customers to return routers and set-top boxes, although subscribers will not have to pay a fee when they receive regular broadband equipment. Broadband Forum Takes on Carrier-Grade WiFi Challenge 3 comments The industry standards organization is looking to ease operator pain from residential WiFi, while it also sees initiatives in connected home and other projects bear fruit. DOCSIS 3.1 Pays Dividends for Rogers in Q4 Deploying DOCSIS 3.1 across its entire footprint gave Rogers Communications the ability to offer speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, contributing to a broadband segement that generated about 60% of the Canadian operator's $3.05 billion (US) in Q4 cable earnings. More from Alison Diana Information Resources >> Is Network Security Keeping You Awake at Night? >> Does Your Fiber Plant Have What It Takes To Support 10G Services >> Customer Support Blueprint: Your Guide to Key Performance Indicators >> The Marketer and the Broadband Service Provider: Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities >> eBook: Three Steps to Plan, Fund, and Design a Solid Broadband Network >> How regional ISPS are bridging the digital divide through innovation >> IPv4 Cost Estimator >> The Customer 360 Playbook >> Heavy Reading Whitepaper: Monetizing 5G with B2B2X >> Drive Down Costs, Drive New Services Forward: Discover the Freedom of Disaggregation in Your Network All resources