july august | Page 16

Cover Story

Cover Story

6 / 7 on the newly availability , uncongested 6GHz spectrum is ideal for video delivery in the home ,” he notes .
“ Given that ISPs now provide paid-for services to manage networks beyond the socket / entry-point , most backed by guarantees to consumers on home network availability and typical bandwidth , this element is becoming more important for consumers with larger homes , or those constructed with solid walls , where coverage cannot be universal ,” advises Forrest . “ Most households do not possess someone with the necessary knowledge and / or skills to troubleshoot problems on their
“ The demise of the STB has been discussed for some time , as OTT devices proliferate .” - Simon Forrest , Futuresource Consulting home WiFi network , and the majority do not change the settings on home gateways . So auto-configuration and redundant links are used – either via mesh within the home , or 4G / 5G capacity alongside the fixed-line broadband infrastructure – in parallel with strategies that dynamically select the optimum radio frequencies and WiFi channels to best avoid interference and improve throughput overall .”
“ Mesh WiFi systems and devices are primordial because they allow you to stream movies , music and other entertainment to multiple devices ,” suggests Eisenberg . This requires a super-strong WiFi in every room of the house . At Netgem we understand this and that ’ s why we ’ ve developed the only easy-toinstall 2-in-1 TV & WiFi service .” COVERAGE . “ WiFi is a critical part of a contemporary broadband service ,” states Simmons . “ Customers ’ mostly experience - and therefore derive value from - their broadband service through WiFi . It ’ s essential to connect mobile devices and most other connectable devices , which increasingly utilise WiFi as the only option for connectivity . The most critical aspect is to provide the coverage and capacity across the entire home . This can be achieved in many dwellings with a single WiFi access point and optimisation software . All service providers should have the ability extend WiFi coverage with mesh solutions for larger dwellings or those architectural designs that make whole-home coverage challenging for single access point solutions .”
“ At a time when consumer habits have shifted towards a hybrid work-from-home model , more than ever , providing impeccable in-home connectivity is massively important for service providers and their customers ,” suggests Bill McFarland , chief technical officer at Plume . “ Layering on top of the recent introduction of new and more complex WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E technologies - including the availability of the 6 GHz spectrum - has only added to the need for more sophisticated cloud- and AI-management .”
“ OpenSync , the open-source software that Plume ’ s SaaS Experience Management system is built upon that sits in the CPE , not only ensures that service providers can deliver a fully optimised cloud-controlled adaptive WiFi
WiFi must be backbone of operator strategy , consumers don ’ t care about CPE , claims Alex Davies , senior analyst , Rethink TV .
“ The pay-TV industry gets quite
a few headlines that proclaim
that a really good set-top box
will save the decline of operator
video services . These are
misleading , and the facts of
the matter are that consumers
are increasingly moving to OTT
video services , operators are
fed up supporting legacy video infrastructure , and consumers do not care about their CPE , so long as their WiFi works well .
Rethink TV , a subscription service from Rethink Technology Research , examines a lot of data , in its day-to-day business . We track the global counts of broadband and pay- TV subscribers , and looking at the figures , it is quite clear that pay-TV is in its death spiral .
Here , we see the global count for pay-TV decline from around 846 million , by our reckoning , to some 711.7 million in 2027 . Conversely , fixed-line or equivalent
broadband households grow from 1.37 billion to 1.77 billion in the period . Worse , many of these pay-TV homes are only achieved by the aggressive bundling of video services . If push came to shove , or if it were actually possible to churn to an OTT alternative , this pay-TV customer count would plunge at a much sharper rate . However , more video is being watched than ever before , and the number of video devices installed in homes is growing consistently . Unsurprisingly , the proportion of video consumed via linear distribution channels is falling , and conversely , the amount
Rethink Research
consumed via OTT distribution is rising .
We can split this view out further , and here you can see the growing importance of Connected TVs ( including those connected by dongles
and whatnot ), as well as Smartphones . In our view , Computer and Tablet viewing increases roughly in line with the growth of broadband homes , but this is not much to write home about .
As for the actual installed base of video devices in the home , our modelling suggests a total count of some 11.5 billion in 2022 , declining ever so slightly to 11.2 billion – on account of the decline of TVs without Internet capabilities , the growth of personal devices taking more of a share of viewing time , and the continued decline of the set-top box .
So , while the number of video devices falls slightly , the number of WiFi devices that operators have to concern themselves with does grow sharply . This is due largely to the expected growth of smart home devices and controller hubs . The growth of WiFi connectivity in previously ‘ dumb ’ appliances is also to be considered , particularly in white goods and HVAC systems .
To this end , our global
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