Australia: Ultra-fast HFC broadband to hold off FTTP
July 22, 2016
Ovum, an independent analyst and consultancy firm , has published a report entitled HFC: Delivering Gigabit Broadband, commissioned by Australian broadband network nbn.
Key Report Takeaways from the report include:
– The global HFC/Cable broadband market will remain buoyant despite the growing deployment of FTTB/P
– HFC/Cable will retain a 19 per cent share of the global broadband market between 2015-2020
– Total global HFC subscribers will grow from 152 million in 2015 to 187 million in 2020 – a 23 per cent increase
– The European HFC/Cable broadband market will expand from 36 million to 42 million over 2015-2020
– HFC/Cable broadband will maintain European market share of 17 per cent over 2015-2020
– Cable will remain dominant in the US market with subs rising from 59 million to 66 million over 2015-2020
– Cable will also hold or increase its market share in Latin America and Asia Pacific
– The increasing speed capabilities offered by HFC is putting it on a level par with FTTP in terms of performance
– Upgrading HFC networks to DOCSIS 3.1 enables the delivery of Gigabit broadband in a very cost and time efficient manner
– Over 20 global operators have already committed to launching DOCSIS 3.1
– European DOCSIS 3.1 aspirants: TDC (Denmark), Liberty (Pan-Euro), ComHem (Sweden), DNA (Finland), Altice (France) and VOO (Belgium)
– Canadian operator Rogers says it will upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 for just US$50 per network premise
– Vendors are already lab testing new symmetrical Gigabit Full Duplex DOCSIS technology
-The move towards Full Duplex DOCSIS will deliver incredible symmetrical broadband speeds for operators
Dennis Steiger, CTO of nbn, commented: “Back in 2013, nbn decided to make HFC an integral part of our Multi Technology Mix (MTM) and one reason was because technological advances being made in the HFC space – with much faster speeds becoming available – put it right up there with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) in being able to deliver fast broadband services to end-users.”
“Three years on with our HFC technology now launching, this view is supported by this Ovum report which predicts that over the next five years the global HFC broadband market will continue to thrive despite the growing availability of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) networks in many countries.”
“Advances being made in HFC’s DOCSIS technology in recent years have been little short of breath-taking. We are seeing networks that 10 years ago were struggling to make double-digit Megabit (Mbps) speeds now on the verge of speeds up to 1Gbps per second and beyond.”
“What’s more, the HFC speed train is only going to get faster as newer technologies such as Full Duplex DOCSIS become available and unleash incredible speeds onto legacy cable networks.”
“We are already seeing some technology vendors dipping their toes into the Full Duplex DOCSIS waters and getting incredible results with a trial by Nokia in April delivering a blistering 10Gbps symmetrical speeds over 100 metres of co-axial cable under lab conditions – and we have barely even left the starting gate.”
“At nbn we are planning to launch our DOCSIS 3.1 services in the second half of next year and we have a keen eye on other new emerging technologies such as Full Duplex DOCSIS because of the extraordinary potential that it offers.”
“What this means for nbn and for Australians that will receive their nbn services via HFC is that we have an exhilarating journey ahead of us where we expect to have the ability to deliver speeds that were simply unimaginable a decade ago.”