ANALYSIS & OPINION: TEST & MEASUREMENT
QUALITY CONTROL
Creating an invisible network is the next step in connectivity, so it is important to put quality, rather than speed, at the heart of the broadband experience
ROBIN MERSH
CLEARLY THE PERCEPTION THAT SPEED EQUALS QUALITY IN THE BROADBAND REALM IS OUTDATED, AND NEEDS TO BE REPLACED BY A MORE HOLISTIC VIEW OF THE BROADBAND EXPERIENCE
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ince the inception of broadband in the early 2000s, speed has been the leading measure in the mind of the consumer that equates to a beter broadband
experience. Given where we started from, with frozen
images waiting for ‘buffering’ and multi- hour downloads of large files as applications overwhelmed connections that were measured in Kb/s, it’s no wonder speed became the perceived proxy for broadband quality. Fast-forward to 2019, with more than a billion
homes and businesses connected to broadband at speeds up to a Gb/s or more, and studies show that more than half of broadband consumers are still dissatisfied with their broadband experience. Clearly the perception that speed equals quality in the broadband realm is outdated, and needs to be replaced by a more holistic view of the broadband experience.
Instant gratification Market trends are also accelerating this need for change. Te proliferation of the Internet of Tings (IoT), the advent of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and the broad adoption of over the
14 FiBRE SYSTEMS n Issue 25 n Autumn 2019
top Services (OTT) such as Netlix and Amazon TV, all feed an instant gratification mentality for consumers where video streaming, uploading a web page, or interacting with their smart speaker are not only immediate, but complement each other seamlessly. Until now, operators addressed these
changing demands by feeding into the ‘speed is beter’ frenzy and enjoying the benefits that oſten accompanied these upgrades in the form of less latency, higher reliability, and other complementary advantages. However, as applications and their interactions become more complicated, they require atention to more granular metrics and characteristics. Te world-class broadband experience of the future demands this granularity, and the Broadband Forum’s latest project, Broadband Quality Experience Delivered (Broadband QED), aims to provide them with the tools to do so. Today, having reached half of the homes on
earth with broadband, operators are faced with managing the experience of these users, both to reduce churn, but also to further monetise their broadband experience – and this requires more than just a fast network.
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