Technicolor's Tony Strutt: Ultra-Broadband with Wi-Fi Integration Takes Hold in Northern Europe to Meet Tech-Savvy Consumer Demand
Ultrafast broadband – a new generation of telecommunications technology that delivers speeds of 100 Mb or more – is gaining ground in northern Europe, according to Tony Strutt, Technicolor's vice president of sales, Connected Home, for northern Europe. These technologies will be the focus of much interest at Mobile World Congress 2017, which is being held in Barcelona between the 27th of February and the 2nd of March.
Service providers are exploring how to deploy fiber-optics all the way to the home or use hybrid solutions with other technologies, such as: Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS), an international standard that permits the addition of high-bandwidth data transfer to an existing cable TV system, and G.fast – a digital subscriber line (DSL) protocol standard for local loops shorter than 500 meters.
Podcast Interview with Tony Strutt
Ultrafast broadband gives telco operators the necessary speeds they need to meet the increased demands and expectations of a more tech-savvy customer base. G.fast is already being trialed in the United Kingdom, and it will play a crucial role as service providers there and in other northern European countries hit their targets for ultrafast broadband rollout within the next three to five years. Meanwhile, there's growing interest in DOCSIS 3.1, an upgrade of the existing DOCSIS 3.0 that can offer fiber line speeds of up to 10 Gbps downstream and 1 Gbps upstream.
"The majority of operators in the region are playing in a very competitive environment. End users — the consumers — are becoming more savvy when it comes to shopping around for the best deal. And operators are being put under the spotlight more than ever before," says Strutt. "End users are expecting good value for money, fast broadband — everywhere in the home by the way — and uninterrupted services. And, enabling ultrafast broadband plays an essential role in meeting the expectation of those users, which is good. It's important for the operators in terms of customer retention and customer growth in new subscriber additions."
One challenge will be to reconcile the ultrafast broadband technologies they offer with the existing Wi-Fi capabilities in customers' homes. According to Strutt, ultrafast broadband's improved speeds can be undermined if the fast-broadband access cannot be distributed effectively to each and every device and every user in the home.
"That's where a good Wi-Fi performance comes into play," Strutt says. "To fully utilize the
ultrafast broadband delivered to a home, the gateway in the home must feature the best-in-class Wi-Fi design."
To that end, Technicolor is focusing on the design and optimization of Wi-Fi gateways that are extensively tested to ensure performance. In addition, Technicolor offers software that not only monitors and manages the gateway, but also any Wi-Fi extenders and access points that may be in the home.
At MWC 2017, Technicolor will showcase two cloud-based services:
• Wi-Fi Doctor, which enables operators to visualize what kind of Wi-Fi performance is occurring in the customer's home, and which can make suggestions to fully optimize that performance; and
• Wi-Fi Conductor, which enables Wi-Fi roaming from one device to another in a seamless operation in the home.
To listen in on the podcast interview with Strutt, visit:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mi71g7kvbi46hjs/2_02_2017_TonyS...
To read the written Q&A with Strutt, visit:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zgfga67z71uwvvs/Q%26A%20--%20MW...
Journalists and analysts are free to pull quotes from this Q&A feature with attribution in media and market reports.
