Network management

What does future demand for broadband speed and usage mean for last mile technologies? The fastest broadband technology today is fiber, and the most common fiber technology is passive optical network (PON), which brings broadband to local clusters of customers.

Speed is but one thread in the tapestry of connectivity and user experience. To address bandwidth-constrained households, some ISPs and vendors are exploring alternative routes to enhance network performance. Traffic prioritization tools within the home, for instance, offer a potential solution for the bandwidth-constrained. The key to driving user adoption of tools like this is to make the interface easy to use, and automate where possible. Speed has become “less relevant,”  said OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau, now that the industry has reached multi-gig levels.

It’s easy to understand the growth in download bandwidth due to people streaming higher quality video and similar uses. Why do you think upload broadband usage is growing even faster? According to OpenVault, average upload usage has increased 290% since 2019, while average download usage has increased by 270%. There are some obvious reasons why upload bandwidth usage has been growing. There is now a substantial percentage of people who work from home.

The message that emerged from Comcast Converge was that everything the company does—mobile, video, sports streaming, security and, of course, broadband—relies on the performance of its network infrastructure. By extension (given the fact that no one has plugged anything into a router to connect to the internet in ages), that means Wi-Fi. The way Comcast is thinking about convergence is probably best exemplified with this statistic: The first NFL playoff game which was exclusively streamed on its Peacock service in January accounted for a whopping 30 percent of all US internet traffic.

Verizon Communications reported strong fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 results highlighted by total wireless postpaid net additions, fixed wireless net additions and increased wireless service revenue. Total broadband net additions of 413,000, represented the fifth consecutive quarter that Verizon reported more than 400,000 broadband net additions. Total broadband net additions included 375,000 fixed wireless net additions, bringing the subscriber base to over 3 million.

On the Hopi Reservation’s more than 1.5 million acres of desert landscape in northeast Arizona, most residents live in villages atop arid mesas. Below ground, there’s a network of copper wires that provides telephone and internet service. In 2004, Hopi Telecommunications bought the company that had installed them, but has been struggling ever since to upgrade the network to broadband speeds. Hopi Telecommunications serves both the Hopi reservation and parts of the surrounding Navajo Nation.

Engineering work has begun on a fiber-optic network expansion planned for Springettesbury Township (PA), which will bring a future-proof fiber-optic network to over 7,500 homes and businesses in the community. Glo Fiber, which provides fiber-to-the-home broadband service, utilizes a 9,300-mile network owned and operated by Shentel, also known as the Shenandoah Telecommunications Company. Mark Hodgkinson, the manager of Springettsbury Township, said the township welcomes GloFiber’s services to the community. 

Archtop Fiber, a 2022-founded startup focused on rebuilding broadband providers with all-fiber networks in underserved markets, completed its third acquisition in five months, buying Warwick Valley Telephone with plans to upgrade its network operating in New York's Orange County, the Mid-Hudson Valley and northwestern New Jersey. Archtop is rebranding the latest acquisition as WVT Fiber and is “over-lashing fiber onto WVT’s existing lines and making preparations to power up its state-of-the-art XGS-PON network,” the company said.

In a recurring theme, Lumen finds itself facing financial challenges. At the end of the third quarter of 2023, Lumen CEO Kate Johnson announced some restructuring with current debt holders to extend the due dates of some debt to ‘reduce the noise” around the company’s debt. The company is also eliminating staff to reduce expenses by $300 million annually. Lumen’s revenues dropped over 17 percent compared to 2022, but a large part of that drop comes from its spin-off of copper networks to Brightspeed for $7.5 billion and the sale of its Latin American business to Stonepeak for $2.7 billion.

NOVOS FiBER publicized itself with an announcement that Arlington (TX)will soon have a new broadband provider. NOVOS FiBER was founded in 2022, funded by InLight Capital, a private investment firm based in Sugar Land (TX). NOVOS Fiber is entering both the retail and wholesale markets and plans to serve a “significant number” of homes over the next two years. First focusing on Texas, NOVOS will eventually expand beyond state lines. Founder and CEO Andrew Snead said he and the company have a strong conviction to go against the grain of the “internet service is primarily a utility” mentality.