Triple-play Support: The View from the Home Network

Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA

This panel addresses the role of residential gateways, advanced CPE, and service provisioning and networking maintenance tools in reducing support costs for the service provider and enhancing the bottom line.

Duncan Bees, Deputy Chairman of the HGI Quality of Service Working Group, PMC-Sierra, Inc. Wayne Davis, Technical Advisory Board, Peak8 Solutions
Richard Nesin, Vice President, Marketing, CopperGate Communications
Tushar Saxena, Director, Home Networking Technologies, Verizon Communications
Michael Stich, Director, Service Provider Strategic Marketing, Texas Instruments
Ofer Vilenski, CEO, Jungo Software Technologies
Moderator: Kurt Scherf, Vice President, Principal Analyst, Parks Associates


Panelists discussed the required features of an end-to-end broadband and in-home network ecosystem as managed by a service provider. Kurt Scherf introduced the topic by indicating Parks Associates’ research predicts service providers will manage upwards of 30% of the home networks, via smart residential gateways, deployed by year-end 2010. Scherf further indicated that if the industry is to provide sufficient support for advanced services, it must build solutions to address the following issues:

• CPE installation and configuration;
• Service provisioning;
• Diagnostics and monitoring;
• Remote support;
• Telephone support; and
• On-site support.

The panelists represented a diverse spectrum of companies involved in the end-to-end management of broadband and home network services. Wayne Davis, representing Peak8 Solutions, indicated that they are focused on solutions for both the customer as well as the help-desk agent. Rich Nesin at CopperGate discussed QoS monitoring that is made possible through home networking chipsets. Michael Stich at Texas Instruments discussed the company’s DSP-based monitoring and measurement solutions, notably PIQUA™. Ofer Vilenski from Jungo discussed the role of residential gateway software in monitoring, management, and easing service provisioning. Duncan Bees from PMC-Sierra discussed the Home Gateway Initiative (HGi) and its goal of helping service providers deploy more standardized management and provisioning solutions. Tushar Saxena from Verizon said that the service provider’s biggest challenges today are installing broadband and home networking services and platforms with minimal expense; ensuring interoperability between different customer premise equipment; and making troubleshooting more efficient.

Clearly, service providers face growing challenges as they take on the responsibility for deploying a growing number of converged services. Ofer Vilenski mentioned that customer support costs in the first year of a subscriber’s service to a triple-play service can often exceed the dollars spent on the home networking equipment. The panelists believe that there is no firm business model for monetizing support at present, fearing that a fee-based business model may alienate customers today. Instead, enhanced customer support could actually be a good differentiator for service providers to set themselves apart from their competitors.

Carriers as "Experience Providers"

Summary information from Day 2: CONNECTIONS™ May 2007, hosted in Santa Clara, CA.

Carriers as "Experience Providers"

This panel addresses the new focus on consumer experiences with an examination of changing business models, enabling solutions for service providers, and fixed-mobile convergence trends.

Jay Deen, Vice President of Technology, Casero, Inc.
Kai Hackbarth, Requirements Chair, OSGi Alliance
Keith Higgins, VP, Marketing, Stoke, Inc.
Ellis Lindsay, Home Networking and Digital Lifestyle SME, Alcatel-Lucent
Kirk Munroe, Director, Product Management, Radialpoint
John Ulm, Fellow of the Technical Staff, Connected Home Solutions, Motorola, Inc.
Moderator: Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband & Gaming, Parks Associates

In 2006, U.S. broadband penetration reached 50% while bandwidth costs year over year have been plummeting. The next step is for service providers to move beyond selling raw bandwidth and start focusing on smart bandwidth and smart-home applications. They need to leverage the multiple screens they own and deliver cross-platform experiences based on convergence networks. The panel discussed this transition, including what’s happening and what’s to come. The panel also addressed the opportunities for hardware and software solution providers. For instance, a residential gateway is likely to be a key enabling platform for service providers. France Telecom has shipped more than 4 million LiveBoxes to date, and their success with the “unik” fixed-mobile convergence phone service is partially because of the large installed base of LiveBoxes.

Bundling is another megatrend in the carrier market. Cable MSOs are killing telcos in certain markets due to their triple-play success. Fifty percent of Comcast’s new broadband subscribers in Q1 2007 churned from telecom carriers. Consumers are likely to focus first on discounts and on-bill convenience but will eventually demand convergence features. Carriers need to make sure they educate consumers along the way.

Right now, the most successful VAS offerings on the broadband platform are still PC and home network security, although other services are gaining traction. According to Radialpoint, 15% of customers for their carrier clients buy security services from broadband carriers, and it has become a sizable revenue stream. The next step is to provide network-based backup, sharing, and community services. Exclusive content may also be a differentiator, and major carriers have begun investing heavily in content.

Another topic discussed was that consumers don’t always need to foot the bill for the services they receive. Carriers can become arbitrators between consumers and businesses to provide “validated bandwidth” in a similar way to restaurants validating parking for their patrons. However this requires carriers to know more about their subscribers and leverage that knowledge in order to deliver targeted advertisements relevant to consumers. Carriers have not monetized user information very well and have a long way to go before they can catch up with Google and other over-the-top providers. Over-the-top is definitely a threat, but quality will always be important – and carriers can provide that quality with their managed network. Carriers have also begun to use more white-label solutions instead of partnering with companies like Yahoo! and MSN for their Internet services.

IMS will be an important platform if the industry is to realize this vision of experience-based services. Carriers need to improve both the front and back ends of their platforms. Right now the technology is still at an early stage, but investment in the next few years will be significant. IMS will enable carriers to provision new services on the fly. Right now developers have demonstrated only limited applications, but IMS is like IP — it has unlimited potential. However, it will take many years for carriers to transition to the IMS platform. Having the ability to provide both wireless and wireless services will also be extremely important for large carriers. The cell phone will be the key for consumers to access other personalized services, and with more and more broadband-enabled cell phones on the market, broadband solution providers need to begin addressing this platform. Universal parental control and security will also be important. In the end, if carriers can make consumers’ lives easier and more comfortable, they’ll make money.