Broadband Forum’s First Meeting

September 19, 2016

The DSL Forum has changed its name to the Broadband Forum and has held its first meeting in the Swedish city of Stockholm.

High on the agenda were a variety of topics including Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC), the role of Internet Protocol (IP) v6, fibre architecture work and the successful deployment of IPTV.

There was also an interactive panel discussion aimed at discussing the future of many aspects of the industry as it moves forward.

The Broadband Forum had a lively discussion with industry giants Ericsson in their first ever meeting.

The discussion revolved around FMC and how they can work together to combine knowledge and experience to push for the growth of wireless broadband network options.

They also discussed how remote management of mobile broadband services and devices could be provisioned for future development.

Fixed Mobile Convergence was definitely a key phrase as it is seen as having an ever growing industry importance.

DSL was not ignored in the discussions, and much was made of the recent Point Topic analysts’ report that made it clear the DSL is alive and well and is still, in fact, the most popular access method.

DSL still maintains some 65% of the market and in just the last three months nine million new users have opted for DSL, at the same time 7% more fibre installations were taken up.

The well reported financial doom and gloom on Wall Street over the last few weeks did not go un-noticed with many providers stating that they will be expanding existing DSL networks.

This in turn will mean that there will certainly be delays or semi-permanent holds placed on new fibre systems.

The Broadband Forum’s very own work around ADSL2/2plus and VDSL2 could turn out to be an important development.

This was demonstrated in the approval of Technical Report 176 (TR-176) “ADSL2plus Profiles for IPTV”.

The report outlines an array of concepts for providers that are intended to assist in Quality of Experience (QoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) for IPTV services.

These are guidelines for members who should follow the organisation’s best practices criteria for the highest levels of service.