Top-10, Bottom-10 Speed Experiences on U.K. Networks Can Vary 500%

You cannot blame consumers for being a bit confused about their internet access speeds, which are, virtually always, offered “best effort,” without quality of service guarantees that provide a minimum “always available” speed.

Even on a single service provider’s network, with identical network platforms and the same amounts of resource sharing, the difference between the bottom 10 percent and top 10 percent of experienced speeds easily can reach 500 percent.

One expects that sort of variance on telco digital subscriber line access networks, where speed and distance are inversely related. Customers on shorter access lines always will tend to experience higher speeds than customers on long access lines.

The same sort of gaps also seem to exist on fiber to home networks where access line distance should not make much difference.

Those differences do not reflect “busy hour” congestion, when typical speeds on every platform will tend to dip, but only the high-low differences across a single service provider’s network.

UK Broadband Providers and Services in April 2017 (Download Speed in Mbps)
Provider	Download Speed of bottom 10%	Median Download	Mean Download	Download Speed of top 10%
Hyperoptic Gigabit	107	253.7	268.1	499
Virgin 300 Mbps	34.3	89	108.4	215.9
BT Infinity 3&4 (FTTP)	39.8	73.3	93.3	191.2
B4RN	2.7	62.8	143.7	405.7
Virgin 100 Mbps	19.5	56.3	55.5	90.9
Zen Internet up to 76 Mbps (FTTC)	27.5	55.7	53.4	73.7
TalkTalk UFO (York)	16.8	54.2	68.7	137.2
BT Infinity 2 (FTTC)	29	50.9	50.6	72.5
BT Infinity 2 (FTTP)	27.6	49.8	52.7	82.8
KCom Lightstream	27.6	49.8	52.7	82.8
AAISP (FTTC)	22.2	49.1	68.8	73.6
Virgin Media 200 Mbps	24.4	48	77.4	159.3
Hyperoptic 100 Mbps	21	47.8	50	78.2
Small/Medium providers - up to 76 Mbps (FTTC)	22.4	45.9	47.7	72.8
Gigaclear	21.1	42.4	66.5	98.8
PlusNet Fibre Extra (FTTC up to 76 Mbps)	17.5	38.9	40.1	66.1
Sky Fibre Pro up to 76 Mbps	26.6	38.5	44.2	63.7
EE Fibre Plus up to 76 Mbps	22.2	37.4	39.9	61.6
IDNet (FTTC)	14.9	37	40.5	72.9
Daisy Wholesale (FTTC)	12.9	36.6	38.3	71
SeeTheLight (IFNL - FTTH)	12.2	36.3	36.2	57.6
TalkTalk Fibre Plus up to 76 Mbps	15.1	31.7	33.5	56.3
Vodafone Broadband (FTTC)	12.8	29.5	31.6	52.4
BT Infinity 1 (FTTP)	10.8	29.3	29.1	47.6
BT Infinity 1 up to 52 Mbps (FTTC)	12.5	29.3	29.8	48.7
Eclipse (FTTC)	10.6	29	33.4	63.6
PlusNet Fibre (FTTC) up to 38 Mbps	14.1	28.3	27.1	37.1
EE Fibre (FTTC) up to 38 Mbps	10.8	26.3	24.8	36
Sky Fibre (FTTC) up to 38 Mbps	11.6	26	26.4	37.5
TalkTalk Faster Broadband (FTTC) up to 38 Mbps	12.5	25.2	25	36.9
Zen Internet (FTTC) up to 38 Mbps	7.4	22.9	22.4	36.9
Small/Medium Providers (FTTC) up to 38 Mbps	7.8	22.5	22.3	36.9
EE Mobile	3.1	21.6	28.3	59.3
Virgin 50 Mbps	2.6	21.3	24.4	52
Hyperoptic 20 Mbps	5.3	20.3	16.9	22
Vodafone Mobile	3.6	15.5	19.1	40.2
O2 WiFi	2	14.8	18.4	39.4
Quickline (Fixed Wirless)	4.3	12.6	13.3	23.9
Relish	2.1	11.4	15.3	33
O2 Mobile	2.6	11.2	15.8	34.4
Europasat (satellite)	2.5	10.5	11.1	21.3
Three Mobile	1.9	10.4	16.6	39.8
IDNet (ADSL)	2.5	7.1	8.8	16.3
KCom (ADSL)	2.2	6.6	7.4	13.2
Zen Internet (ADSL)	1	6.2	7.6	16.3
Vodafone Broadband (ADSL)	0.9	5.8	7.1	15.6
EE (ADSL)	1.1	5.8	6.9	14.9
Plusnet (ADSL)	0.9	5.8	6.9	15.1
Sky (ADSL)	1.2	5.7	7	15.1
Entanet (ADSL)	1.7	5.7	7	14.2

source: Think Broadband

SIP, IP Voice Growing at 21.5% CAGR, Frost & Sullivan Says

Session initiation protocol and IP voice market, considered as a single category, will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.5 percent from 2015 to 2020, and a user base at a CAGR of 18.1 percent, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Very few telecom product markets now grow that fast. Still, as important as business voice and voice trunking are for business customers, that growth will have almost no impact on overall industry revenues, as those markets are too small to “move the needle” one way or the other.

On the other hand, it is the relative smallness of the business voice market that makes it an important product category for specialists in the industry, as the market or markets are too small for any tier-one service provider to supply, long term.

Globally, the business voice market represents about $28 billion in annual spending, for trunking, managed services and unified communications services, according to IHS Infonetics. These days, sales of business phone systems might not even reach $2 billion annually, globally.

Most specialist markets are fragmented, and the SIP trunking, IP telephony, unified communications market or markets are prime examples, especially in the hosted voice segment of the market.

source: IHS  

source: IHS Infonetics

By 2021, Fixed Voice Will Represent 7.7% of Global Telecom Revenue

By 2021, fixed voice will represent only about 7.7 percent of total global telecom revenues, compared to mobile at 59 percent of total, according to researchers at Ovum.

Fixed network broadband will represent 18 percent of total revenues, while subscription TV represents about 15 percent of total revenues.

The global telecoms & media market will generate $1.58 trillion in revenues in 2021 from 11.96 billion connections, according to Ovum, which counts fixed network, mobile network and video services in its tally.

The mobile segment will dominate, with revenues of $933 billion and nine billion connections in 2021, Ovum predicts. However, fixed broadband will be the fastest-growing market, with revenues growing at a compound annual growth rate of 3.02 percent from 2016 to 2021, ahead of subscription TV at 2.51 percent and mobile at 1.91 percent.

Global broadband will generate $288 billion in revenues in 2021, ahead of subscription  TV with $239 billion and fixed voice at $122 billion.

Not all estimates include video. But even some of those forecasts are in line with Ovum projections.

The relative importance of mobile, fixed broadband, and subscription TV markets varies by country and region.

In 2021, the mobile market will generate 87 percent of total telecom and media revenues in Africa and 70 percent in the Middle East, compared to 50 percent in North America and 49 percent in Western Europe, Ovum predicts.

source: Analysys Mason

FCC Chairman Pai Discusses Net Neutrality

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has outlined his vision for the future of Internet regulation, including a plan to undo "Title II." 

In 2015, Pai's predecessor, Tom Wheeler, reclassified broadband Internet as a "common carrier" service under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act. Net neutrality activists say that public utility regulations are necessary to have a free and open Internet. 

Critics of Title II, including Pai, argue that the rules are outdated and depress investment and innovation. 

Does the answer lie somewhere in between? What role might Congress and the Supreme Court play? Listen to Chairman Pai discuss those issues.

5G Business Models Will be Disparate in Early Rollouts

Ironically, in a business where capacity always has been expensive and scarce, internet access capacity is becoming less an issue than business models that take advantage of that abundance. 

Those changes are coming at a time when revenue earned from selling access connections to humans, for devices they want to use, is reaching saturation. That is why internet of things is so important: services used by sensors and machines represent the major area for growth of connections and revenue. 

So different business models are likely to emerge early in the 5G rollout. In some markets, millimeter wave spectrum will not be a factor, so use cases based on use of small cells might not emerge, either.

In a few markets, 5G in fixed mode might be quite significant; in other markets it will not be a factor.

Internet of things opportunities likewise will vary between regions; large companies versus small companies; urban areas versus rural areas; mobile and fixed use cases and between connectivity supported by 5G or specialized networks.

In some markets, 5G initially might be a way to supply "lots more bandwidth" for human users. Longer term, success is likely to depend on new services created to support sensor-based IoT apps and services.

That noted, longer term, the International Telecommunications Union has identified some frequency bands that can be globally harmonized, in the millimeter wave regions.

■ 24.25–27.5 GHz

■ 31.8–33.4 GHz

■ 37–40.5 GHz

■ 40.5–42.5 GHz

■ 45.5–50.2 GHz

■ 50.4–52.6 GHz

■ 66–76 GHz

■ 81–86 GHz

The U.S Federal Communications Commission already is moving to commercialize 28 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz, and 64 GHz to 71 GHz bands for 5G and other uses. Of particular note, spectrum in the 64 GHz to 71 GHz band will be available on a license-exempt basis.

That seven gigaHertz of new unlicensed spectrum will create potential for possible new business models. What is important is the 11 GHz of new spectrum (including seven gigaHertz of unlicensed spectrum), plus another potential 18 gigaHertz of additional spectrum that might be made available in the U.S. market, dwarfing all existing spectrum previously allocated for public communications purposes.

source: National Instruments

All other things being equal, a service provider likely would prefer to use frequencies at 40 GHz or lower, as signal propagation is better within those regions, compared to all other millimeter wave frequencies. The next “window” of interest, in terms of coverage apps and use cases, is around 80 GHz. The 60-GHz band, by way of contrast, will have much worse propagation characteristics and therefore will make more sense for point-to-point apps where the signal can be highly focused, or for indoor and other settings where capacity--not coverage--is the biggest objective.

source: National Instruments