Broadband services

There are different types of traffic, but the heaviest usage comes from video delivery. Hence, the traffic can be modeled considering the number of simultaneous video streams per home, the video resolution and required bitrates. A margin needs to be added to deal with peaks of bursty traffic, for example speed tests or heavy downloads.

Gigabit FTTH services account for only around 15-20% of the customer base. Broadband providers can increase subscription rates through better marketing and positioning of Gigabit services. This means paying attention to service tiers and the offer mix, adjusting pricing, and improving the online sales process. As the incremental cost of providing Gigabit speeds compared to slower speeds over fiber is close to zero, operators are missing out on higher ARPUs that are mostly margin.

Wholesale is a global trend in FTTH networks, and active wholesale using bitstream or VULA (virtual unbundling) is becoming the standard wholesale method. Virtualization and network slicing take active wholesale to a new level, giving each retail service provider complete autonomy of SLAs, QoS, and dynamic network management. Wholesale operators benefit from faster network monetization; retail service providers benefit from faster time-to-market; and consumers benefit from competition and a rich service offering.

The most efficient way to connect 5G small cells (also known as mobile transport) is using an existing fiber broadband (FTTH) network. The footprints are complementary, and the fiber network has more than enough capacity for the additional traffic. This delivers cost benefits, performance, and scale.