anga_anga 10/05/2014 13:02 Page 12
Connected Home trend calls for
reliable connection
ew ways of monitoring fibre and copper
networks will be key
to keeping customers happy,
according to independent
telecoms research and development company UTEL. The
firm is warning operators
and service providers to
future-proof their fibre and
copper network upgrades or
face increasing numbers of
disgruntled customers.
UTEL notes that despite fibre
roll-out to the home, building or
cabinet becoming more and more
widespread for many networks
across Europe and the rest of the
world, for most it is still not possible to monitor status in real time.
For most operators managing copper networks it is also not possible
to have reliable visibility all of the
way into the customer premises.
“Telecom service providers are
focusing on smart
applications to
generate new revenue sources and
technology vendors are currently
building their
product ecosystems. The era of the smart home,
coined some twenty or thirty
years ago, is now teetering on
imminent prominence,” advised
Frank Kaufhold, managing direc-
tor of UTEL. “At ANGA there will
be no end of discussions on media
home gateways, apps for TV
usage, home security and smart
metering, all of
which go way
beyond triple play
applications. The
more customers
that rely on these
technologies, the
more they will
notice when the
service is disrupted
and ultimately the greater the
importance network reliability
will hold. I predict it will become
a key differentiator, even as
important as advertised download
US pay-TV subs set for
rebound
ue with a Compound Annual
Growth Rate (CAGR) of 8.3%
through 2019. IPTV service
operators AT&T and Verizon
are approaching the future
with different strategies, but
both are focused on driving
advanced services and multiplay bundles with digital television and high-speed Internet
at the core of their
packages.
In the cable
segment, Comcast
has reversed a
long-standing
trend of subscriber losses, following the company’s rollout of its
Xfinity X1 platform.
Consolidation among US cable
operators should enable faster
digital transitions and a wider
deployment of technology
platforms. This trend will give
customers better opportunities
to acces