Building Broadband for 2021 and Beyond

The last year ushered in a digital acceleration on an unprecedented scale and scope, and there is a prevailing sense that many of these new trends are sustainable over the long term. Service providers have added a significant amount of capacity to meet the sudden spikes in demand, but the demands on their networks are only expected to increase. Meeting market requirements in 2021 and beyond will require more permanent, sustainable, and flexible solutions.

Acceleration of Digital Trends

The recent months have brought into focus the crucial role that communication networks play in virtually every aspect of life. Today, many companies are accelerating their shifts toward digital-first models at warp speed, resulting in a digital acceleration of an unprecedented pace and scale. At the same time, consumers’ behavior has changed, resulting in significantly increased video conferencing, binge-watching, online gaming, and other activities.

2021 and beyond will usher in a new era where broadband is the runtime enabler for the world and where new services will be needed at an unprecedented scale. Cable operators are uniquely positioned to play a major role through the digital acceleration but will need the right partners with the depth and breadth of solutions for all parts of their networks combined with expertise and commitment from large professional services organizations to help them align their network transformation with their current and evolving business objectives.

Solutions for 2021 and Beyond

Although each operator will have unique requirements, the following solutions have broad appeal as they address the most pressing needs of the industry worldwide:

• Increased Upstream Capacity
• Distributed Access Architectures
• Headend Virtualization
• 5G Densification
• DOCSIS 4.0
• Passive Optical Network (PON)
• Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E
• Low Latency

Architecting Success in a Volatile Market Environment

Delivering the infrastructure to enable digitization on this scale is no small task. Some of the essential elements of success for the operators include the following:

• Flexible Solutions that Simplify Deployments
• Optimizing Total Cost of Ownership
• Breadth of Solutions
• Experience
• Deep Resources for End-to-End Support
• Flexible Business Models

Summary

Cable operators are poised to play a critical role in the massive digitalization that will unfold in the next few years. To successfully capitalize on this opportunity, they need to maximize their network resources and invest in new solutions and capabilities that can carry through the decade and beyond. The solutions they deploy and the partners they work with will be key ingredients of success. They need a continuum of solutions that are optimized for their evolving requirements and partners with extensive resources that help them sweat existing assets, solve problems, respond to unexpected challenges, and accelerate business transformation. Not only do they require a partner that will help them innovate, but one that also provides the level of support they need when they need it.

For a deeper dive on the technologies and solutions outlined above, download our whitepaper: The Power of Differentiation: Building Broadband for 2021 and Beyond.