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August 1, 2023

Broadband Investment Demands and Trends

Smart city and big data connection technology concept .
In the second in a series of four World Broadband Association (WBBA) Working Group webinars, Kevin Hasley, Vice President – Strategic Initiatives, Ookla, examines the key investment demands and trends impacting the global broadband market now.

The World Broadband Association’s (WBBA) mission is to unify broadband industry stakeholders to address and drive forward shared goals of maximizing the social and economic benefits of equality of broadband for all globally. Consequently, the association aims to create a culture of future-facing broadband cooperation and partnership across the industry. We work to achieve this sustained cross-industry dialogue via the efforts of our working groups, our whitepapers, and our webinars, which we encourage you to join.

As the Co-Chair of the WBBA Broadband Advocacy group, I can share that the working group is releasing a comprehensive whitepaper that highlights the demand for broadband investment as well as current investment trends. The purpose of the Broadband Investment Demands and Trends 2023 whitepaper is to advocate for the broadband sector and to demonstrate the value of broadband in multiple areas and to multiple stakeholders.

Via this new whitepaper, we aim to demonstrate how the demand for broadband is evolving and how it will continue to evolve in the future. The whitepaper also assesses the supply side of broadband and looks at the WBBA’s Next-Generation Broadband Roadmap.

Broadband Investment Demands and Trends 2023 considers the lessons that different stakeholders can learn from the evolution of broadband network capabilities. The whitepaper looks at investment in broadband from several different perspectives, for example, from the point of view of governments, investors and the financial community, and operators. It also offers a list for these different bodies to consider regarding issues around broadband investment and provides recommendations and guidance on best practice.

Key findings from the whitepaper include:

  • Stakeholders need to be aware of how quickly broadband demand is evolving. Broadband speeds and other critical metrics such as latency and reliability have improved, and this is correlated with the increase in fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) coverage in different countries.
  • Broadband demand is likely to continue to evolve over the coming years as new applications become more common and the number of connected devices continues to grow.
  • The supply side of broadband also continues to rapidly evolve, reflecting, for example, continuing innovation in Passive Optical Network (PON) FTTP networks. However, the evolution of broadband networks is very wide-ranging and encompasses several other dimensions such as sensing capabilities, as well as trustworthy and green characteristics.
  • Stakeholders must keep pace with these enhancements in broadband supply characteristics. For instance, when setting forward-looking targets for broadband speed coverage and adoption, governments and policymakers must be aware of the rapid evolution of network performance.
  • Governments must understand the means by which they can shape the broadband market through policy and regulation. In addition, there is a wealth of options for governments in how they seek to fund broadband rollout in underserved areas.
  • Investors need to be aware of the specific nature of investing in fiber broadband access networks. This includes understanding the very long asset life of such networks as well as ways to reduce rollout risks, such as demand aggregation.

Any discussion of the value of broadband must analyze the economic benefits that better quality broadband can deliver. Broadband access is important because industries that use it can derive additional revenue or cost savings from its use. Whole industries can benefit from the digital transformation that better quality broadband brings. In addition to the clear economic benefits that result from the deployment and take-up of next-generation broadband access, there are wider societal benefits of broadband. Broadband is an enabler of home working and the social benefits that this can deliver such as increased leisure and family time.

Kevin Hasley co-chairs the WBBA Broadband Advocacy group with Longjie Xu, Senior Technical Architect, China Telecom. Join Kevin Hasley and Longjie Xu for the WBBA webinar ‘Broadband investment: how to successfully overcome the barriers’ on Tuesday 22 August, alongside industry experts from Omdia and Huawei.

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China Telecom Corporation Limited (“China Telecom” or the “Company”, a joint stock limited company incorporated in the People’s Republic of China with limited liability, together with its subsidiaries, collectively the “Group”) is a large-scale and leading integrated intelligent information services operator in the world, providing wireline & mobile telecommunications services, Internet access services, information services and other value-added telecommunications services primarily in the PRC.

As at the end of 2020, the Company had mobile subscribers of about 351 million, wireline broadband subscribers of about 159 million and access lines in service of about 108 million. The Company’s H shares are listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the “Hong Kong Stock Exchange” or “HKSE”).

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Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have approximately 197,000 employees and we operate in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

Huawei’s mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will: drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks to lay the foundation for the intelligent world; provide the ultimate computing power to deliver ubiquitous cloud and intelligence; build powerful digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, offering consumers more personalized and intelligent experiences across all scenarios, including home, travel, office, entertainment, and fitness & health.

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The world is facing fundamental challenges. Pressure on the planet is increasing, productivity is stalling and access to opportunity remains stubbornly unequal. Technology is central to the solution.

Through technology leadership and trusted partnerships, we deliver critical networks to help address global issues.  We have the power to bring together the world’s people, machines and devices, sensing and acting in real time at massive scale. Our critical networks go beyond connectivity to enable self-optimizing, intelligent systems both locally and globally.

With our customers we deliver solutions that respond to climate change through more efficient use and re-use of the world’s resources, restore productivity growth by bringing digital to the physical industries it has not yet reached and provide more inclusive access globally to work, healthcare and education.

We create meaningful interactions to drive human progress.

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At the start of 2020 we formed Omdia by unifying the depth and breadth of expertise from Informa Tech’s legacy research brands: Ovum, IHS Markit Technology, Tractica and Heavy Reading. This empowered us to serve the technology industry like never before.

Today, we help organizations make better technology choices for their business and enable technology innovators to better understand and reach the markets they hope to serve.

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Swisscom is Switzerland’s leading telecom provider and one of its foremost IT companies, headquartered in Ittigen, close to the capital city, Bern. Its subsidiary Fastweb has built up a strong position on the Italian market. Swisscom brooks no compromise when it comes to serving customer needs; it focuses on service and quality and invests massively in the networks of the future.

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Openreach Limited runs the UK’s digital network. We’re the people who connect homes, schools, hospitals, libraries, businesses – large and small, broadcasters and governments to the world. It’s our mission to build the best possible network with the highest quality of service, and make sure that everyone in the UK can be connected. We’re a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group and our customers are the 650+ communications providers who sell phone, broadband and Ethernet services to homes and businesses.

Openreach is made up of four divisions – service delivery, fibre and network delivery, strategic infrastructure development, and headquarters.

Our 35,000 people are hugely experienced, resourceful and innovative. They tackle complicated engineering problems – from coordinating works with councils, highways agencies, energy suppliers and landowners, to installing and maintaining the complex kit that provides fibre broadband services. They go the extra mile and take on any challenge to build a better, faster and more affordable network that helps our customers stay connected.