Network management

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asked her fellow Commissioners to support a formal Notice of Inquiry to learn more about how broadband providers use data caps on consumer plans. In particular, the agency would like to better understand the current state of data caps, their impact on consumers, and whether the FCC should consider taking action to ensure that data caps do not cause harm to competition or consumers’ ability to access broadband Internet services. Specifically, the Notice of Inquiry would:

The cost to manage video streaming in broadband networks is growing 2-3 times faster than revenue, frustrating broader investment and affordability goals. Some 44 of 50 broadband providers report that streaming video accounted for at least half of all their network traffic, with at least 23 providers reporting that streaming video accounted for at least 70 percent. Three-quarters of broadband providers experience that video streaming negatively impacts their ability to serve their customers without additional investment.

Growth in neighborhoods and cities means that there is a lot of stress on the existing utilities. As you might expect, the over-taxed utilities are showing the strain. Our telecom networks are not immune from growth problems. The Charter cable network clearly has occasional problems. It’s not hard to imagine that there are neighborhoods where the cable network is overloaded due to growth.

Flume, a service provider operating in New York City, metro Los Angeles, and Connecticut, has a rather unique business model. It offers fiber broadband but has very little fiber infrastructure of its own. “In the metro core, there’s a lot of overbuilt fiber,” said Prashanth Vijay, Flume co-founder and CEO. In some cases, the fiber may have been installed by a utility company, cell tower company, or another entity that doesn’t offer residential broadband.

June 2023 marks four years since the completion of backbone construction and lighting of all phases of the Westminster Fiber Network (WFN) project in Westminster, Maryland. Another milestone will soon be achieved: Subscriber growth will begin generating sufficient revenue for the city to cover the debt service on the general obligation bonds sold to finance the project.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (Bureau) announces January 1, 2024 as the start date for the requirement to begin one year of pre-testing and reporting of speed and latency results for the Bringing Together Puerto Rico Fund Stage and the Connect USVI Fund Stage 2. Testing will begin on January 1, 2025. For the carriers participating in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), pre-testing will begin on January 1, 2025, and testing will begin on January 1, 2026.

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) network has been used for interconnection to the local incumbent offices and tandem switches, for connecting to 911 centers, for connecting to operator services, for connecting to cellular carriers, or for connecting to other neighboring carriers. We are finally starting to see that network being shut down, route by route and piece by piece. But like everything related to operating in the regulated legacy world, it’s not easy to disconnect the PSTN connections called trunks.

In the first quarter of 2023 subscribers on usage-based broadband (UBB) plans for the first time reached and marginally surpassed consumption parity with flat-rate broadband (FRB) plan consumers, according to an OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) report. Operators have long pushed for this to happen, but now they must face the network health and congestion challenges that come hand-in-hand with UBB consumption growth. The OVBI report said that significantly higher rates of usage growth among UBB subscribers resulted in average (562.7 GB) and median (382.0 GB) monthly consumption — slightly

Broadband partnerships have emerged as an attractive option for deployment in many areas of the country. However, in order to be successful in developing a mutually beneficial Network Operating Agreement (NOA), the parties should keep the big-picture goals of the project in mind throughout the negotiations. A successful NOA will typically address the following ten core issues:

Speed tests have barely changed in nearly two decades, even though the way we use the Internet has changed a lot. With so many more people on the Internet, the gaps between speed tests and the user’s experience of network quality are growing. The problem is so important that the Internet’s standards organization is paying attention, too. From a high level, there are three grand network test challenges: