Also in this roundup: Ofcom report shows UK fiber growth; Virgin Media says November was the busiest month for data; Openreach creates jobs to "build back better."
OneWeb has launched 36 satellites into orbit, marking its first launch since emerging from bankruptcy in July. This latest deployment brings OneWeb's satellites in orbit to 110. Ultimately it plans to launch 648 low-Earth orbit satellites to its broadband constellation. "Lift-off occurred on 18 December at 12:26 GMT. OneWeb's satellites separated from the rocket and were dispensed in nine batches over a period of 3 hours 52 minutes with signal acquisition on all 36 satellites confirmed," said the company in a press release. With this latest launch, OneWeb says it is on track to launch regional commercial service in 2021 and global service in 2022. "Each launch moves us closer to our goal of building this much-needed global, secure, trusted, enterprise-grade broadband network, powered from space," Neil Masterson, OneWeb CEO, said in a statement. You can watch the launch below:
A new Connected Nations report from UK regulator Ofcom shows that 8 million homes can now access gigabit broadband, with 5 million of those coming from full fiber rollouts. In the last year, full fiber access has increased by 80%, which the regulator says is the "largest increase to date." According to the report, full fiber availability is highest in Northern Ireland, with 56% coverage, followed by Wales (19%). All in all, full fiber broadband is now available to 18% of UK homes, up from 1.7% in 2016. Ofcom urges "continued investment" in fiber services and says it will publish guidance in March "to promote competition and supercharge investment."
Speaking of all that UK broadband, Virgin Media announced that it's had a "record-breaking 2020" in terms of home broadband use. The company says that customers downloaded an extra 2.8GB of data per day on average. November was the busiest month for network traffic driven by a national lockdown and new games and consoles. "During November, customers downloaded an average of 17.3GB per day – enough to stream six hours of HD TV, send and receive 900 emails, play three hours of online games, as well as spending hours browsing the web and social media channels – all in the space of 24 hours," Virgin Media said in a press release. Despite everyone being home, mobile data usage also increased by 23% this year as well.
Joe Biden has yet to be sworn in as president of the United States, but his campaign slogan is echoing worldwide. In a series of press releases, Openreach has touted its work to "build back better" in the UK by creating 5,300 new engineering jobs to be filled in 2021 in the interest of furthering its nationwide broadband rollout. "The new roles, located in communities throughout the country, will enable the company to continue improving service levels across its existing networks, whilst building and connecting customers to its new, ultrafast, ultra-reliable 'Full Fibre' broadband network at a record pace," Openreach said in a release. The jobs expansion includes 2,500 in Openreach's service and network build divisions and 2,800 positions with supply chain partners. That's no malarkey.
Launch of 2-Gig and 5-Gig FTTP tiers in 70-plus markets puts more pressure on cable ops to enhance their existing DOCSIS 3.1 network or accelerate their upgrade activity centered on the new DOCSIS 4.0 specs.
Ziply Fiber, an operator that tangles with Comcast and Charter, has launched two multi-gigabit tiers in 60 urban areas, aiming for all markets by Q2 2022.
Elon Musk's nascent broadband will need to radically accelerate the rate of satellite launches – and navigate tricky supply chain logistics – if it's going to come close to fulfilling its global ambition.
MoffettNathanson questions whether mobile operators will have the network capacity and the right business metrics to back their aggressive stance and forecasts for fixed wireless home broadband.
With early lab trials, a first wave of interoperability testing and collaborations between key suppliers, DOCSIS 4.0 made significant progress in 2021, even as deployments remain well out on the horizon.
The demand for high-speed broadband services and hyperconnectivity has driven massive surges in network data usage like never before. Due to this trend, the networks of communications service providers (CSPs) are increasingly overburdened. Service providers need to optimize their networks to scale service delivery efficiently, while maximizing the opportunity to innovate at a rapid pace.
Learn how cloud-native containerized solutions can position CSP networks for long-term evolution and sustainable growth. Hear practical steps and flexible options for implementing a cloud-native PON solution in your network. Discover how to maximize operational resources and make way for enhanced applications, innovations and new use cases.
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