By Marko Estacio, CommScope; Brian Lane, CommScope
Today, broadband is recognized as an essential utility, on par with electricity and water. Gone are the days when broadband was used only for web browsing and entertainment. Today, education, healthcare delivery, and many essential services are delivered over broadband. Furthermore, today, broadband is a fundamental part of business models in most industries, particularly as the world goes through a tsunami of digital transformation. From video streaming to digital healthcare, remote education, wireless backhaul, work from home, intelligent farming, the metaverse and so many others, the opportunities are endless. This has caused broadband consumption to soar and has created new requirements for operators such as reliability, latency, security, to name a few. It has led operators worldwide to increase capacity in served areas, and to extend broadband deployments to previously unserved areas. In doing so, they must juggle numerous parameters that include technology solutions, capex availability, competition, ARPU trends, and regulation to name a few.