Broadband service providers are planning to introduce technology that automatically directs more bandwidth and lower latency to services being used by customers, such as security, remote work solutions, energy and IoT devices, according to new research from the broadband forum.
A whitepaper published by Omdia and Broadband Forum, sponsored by Axiros, CommScope, F-Secure, Friendly Technologies, Incognito Software Systems Inc., and Nokia, stats that nearly 72% of telecommunications companies have identified broadband application prioritization as a key focus.
According to the research, this is to meet the growing demands of high-bandwidth applications and to enhance the technology experience in homes and businesses.
Many broadband service providers already offer value-added services related to basic connectivity. According to research, those include home broadband, Wi-Fi speed and reliability guarantees, speed testing and diagnostics, managed Wi-Fi, premium customer support, voice assistants, cybersecurity, VPN/SD-WAN Services, smart home device management, home security and more.
However, service providers will look to offer additional services beyond just simple connectivity, the research says. Additional services could include home security, remote work packages, energy management, and Matter-enabled IoT devices.
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Specifically, the report mentions application prioritization and smart home technologies are potential areas of future investment for service providers, with Matter, Wi-Fi, energy management, healthcare and home security all highlighted as potential areas of revenue growth. Comcast’s Xfinity has already thrown its hat into the smart home before with programs such as a smart home deployment service directed at MDUs in 2018.
The Broadband Forum’s report found that its User Services Platform (USP) open industry standard is critical to the delivery of new value-added services, as 85% of survey respondents said they had already deployed USP or planned to within the next six to 18 months.
According to the Broadband Forum, USP was developed to help deploy, implement and manage all aspects of the smart home.
The research lists Managed Wi-Fi as the top value-added service operators plan to use USP for.
In a statement, Michael Philpott, Omdia’s research director for service provider consumer, says integrations with different vendors and platforms is a key time-to-market barrier for new services from network operators.
“Some network operators may opt for a ‘best of breed’ strategy to develop their own, bespoke, in-home platform to take full control over the ecosystem they create and give them the best chance of differentiation in the market,” Philpott says. “Adopting a fully open standards model at both the lower and higher layers can ensure that both applications and software, or hardware and chipsets can be quickly and efficiently swapped out at any time without the need for further integration work.”
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