The average family has witnessed groundbreaking technological advancements within their own homes over the last couple of decades. Technologies and services have developed drastically, from simply having access to the internet to interactive and immersive experiences such as Virtual Reality (VR) gaming being increasingly prevalent. Many of these technologies and services have been driven from broadband access innovation.
But each evolution within the broadband ecosystem has been met with differing demands. Issues surrounding speed and manual operation from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to get the end user’s home broadband working again are now of the distant past. These challenges would not have been possible to navigate without a solid foundation and collective understanding of the path that is to be taken, set out by open standards and open source software.
Now that we enter the “Application Age”, it is important that this collaboration and standardization efforts continue to align and adapt with the end-user’s growing needs and requirements.
Setting the standard
The introduction of fixed broadband revitalized home connectivity in the early 2000s by allowing the signal in one line to be split between the telephone and online services, meaning the end-user could make phone calls and be online at the same time. This new digitalized way of life spawned new challenges. Online businesses grew, entertainment sites boomed and the sharing of images, video and music took off. But for these to operate as desired, consistent connectivity was required.
As the internet was still relatively new and not yet ubiquitous, if your home broadband connection went down, you were shut off from the online world. And this blackout could last as long as it took for an engineer to visit your house, diagnose the problem, and get your home broadband up and running again. Not only was this often time consuming and a pain point for the end-user, but it was also costly for the ISP in terms of the engineer call out costs and customer churn due to displeasure in their broadband service.
Recently celebrating 20 years since its inception, TR-069, a technical specification for broadband device management, has become an integral part of ISP deployments. By providing an interface for the remote configuration and management of user devices, the standard had streamlined service provisioning and reduced operational expenditures for ISPs. As a result, broadband connectivity services have become more reliable and efficient, benefitting both ISPs and their customers.
A new age of broadband
With the challenge and high costs of attaining connectivity and speed no longer the inhibitor to more broadband services, you may wonder how ISPs make their brand unique? And how do they manage to turn in a profit if they are constantly undercutting their competitors to sell more services and faster speeds? Well, those ISPs that wish to drive more value from their offerings, beyond speed and connectivity, are certainly missing a trick.
In recent years, the connected home has become increasingly comprehensive with smart devices and services. It is now a hotspot for online working, schooling and entertainment, such as gaming and streaming. For end-users to enjoy the plethora of services and applications in the home, they require much more than fast speeds alone. They need low, consistent latency which is ubiquitous throughout the home, improved customer support and network automation.
Broadband networks need to become more dynamic with service-aware and application-appropriate intelligence and end-to-end low latency, as well as equipped to adapt and prioritize traffic if any congestion is experienced within the network. With consumer expectations growing and the responsibility and blame of poor online experience often falling on the ISP, this perfectly positions them to capitalize on the full potential of broadband beyond residential broadband services.
If ISPs are to strategically transition to intelligent networks and reap all the monetary benefits it has to offer, the industry must realize the importance that standards play in delivering greater interoperability and device management.
Honoring the past while creating the future
As ISP demands evolve for a “services-led” broadband experience for their subscribers, so too must the foundations for this innovation. The Broadband Forum recently announced that TR-369, also known as the User Services Platform (USP), has now become the cornerstone for future developments in device management as it responds to the rapidly growing needs of the connected world.
However, this is not entirely an “out with the old, in with the new”, scenario. The history of TR-069 will be ingrained on the future of broadband, quite literally. USP builds on TR-069 blueprint and the existing data model, adapting and expanding to meet the new challenges and possibilities in an ever-connected world. USP’s technology is also being used to realize the promise of “application-enabled services gateways”, allowing operators to quickly deploy new, value-added services in an interoperable way for the first time in history.
While TR-069 still exists for those that wish to solely ensure reliable connectivity services for their customers, making the step towards USP signifies a shift toward more agile, distributed, robust and secure network infrastructure that aligns with an expanding market of application providers and provides more opportunities for the consumer electronics industry.
Where interoperability meets innovation: Revitalizing ISP offerings
The interoperability – enabled by open standards – of multiple devices, services and applications, ranging from security to home automation and entertainment, is essential for securing value beyond speed and lower priced broadband packages. Standardizing the managed connected home offers a number of benefits to ISPs.
ISPs can increase average revenue per user (ARPU) and generate new revenue streams by offering value-added services on top of their broadband offerings. For example, by targeting the increasingly diverse connected home subscriber, operators can offer personalized broadband packages where the user, such as a gamer, may be more willing to spend funds on greater QoE and lower latency which they value much more than just the speed of their connection.
ISPs are transitioning from self-build networks to autonomous, sustainable and multi-service broadband networks that cater for the multiple users in the home. Open standards offer the key for ISPs to monetize their networks with relevant QoE per application and allow customers to pick and choose their own services. More differentiation alongside a prioritized user experience will lead to greater customer satisfaction in the connected home, today and in the years ahead.
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