NETWORKS & OPERATORS
Networks
We’re experiencing a similar
Throughout history, new technologies have reshaped the economy - from
the Industrial Revolution to modern conveniences like the telephone,
automobile, airplane, television and computer. Businesses had to learn to
adapt to these radical changes - but they didn’t all survive
transition today, with one big
dierence: e pace of change
is unprecedented. Personal
computers, the internet and smartphones
have created (and destroyed) entire industries
over the last two decades. Now, the latest
technology developments such as articial
intelligence and machine learning could
possibly do the same.
As individuals, we can embrace new
technology at our own pace. As business
leaders, the opposite is true. Employees,
customers and the competition drive tech
adoption - often faster than our plans can
absorb. Businesses have a stake in the status
quo. Changing processes, plans and practices
at scale is time-consuming, risky and may
lead to short-term losses before generating
long-term gains.
But, says John Schwarz from business
media rm Forbes, ‘Change is coming
inexorably, and business leaders must be
nimble in order to embrace it’.
Put bluntly, if we can’t manage the next
disruption, it will destroy us and in today’s
connected world, people increasingly expect
to be able to access online services whenever
they want and wherever they are. And from
any and all of their connected devices – often
simultaneously.
In the network world there are two
major technology changes taking place
almost simultaneously; the introduction
of 5G and the replacement of ISDN with
IP based alternatives. e deployment of
each by business and how they leverage the
technology will expose new winners and
losers and potentially re-shape the business
landscape for some time hence.
How network operators manage these
transitions is equally vital and will most
likely determine whether they survive or
thrive.
Already the numbers of xed telephone
lines used in the UK is showing an
accelerating level of collapse as the switchover
from ISDN to alternative IP connections
picks up pace – not just because support of
ISDN will cease in six years’ time but also
because you can do so much more and better
with IP based networks.
e operator with the most to lose here is
of course BT; they run the largest xed line
network.
Broadband & Migration
A look at the timeline for data connectivity
reveals a progressive increase in speed and
decrease in cost over the long term. It’s a
classic example of economic supply and
demand theory working in a liberalised
industry.
Today, there is a school of thought for
xed line connectivity that says any service
other than that based on bre is merely an
interim solution until you can get the ‘real
thing’, i.e. bre. As we use more and more
cloud-based applications simultaneously
and consume more and more data you can
see that the idea holds a lot of merit but for
those that don’t then a non-bre alternative
can work just ne for you and your business.
Nevertheless, the upward trend in data
consumption remains a constant.
is market is also embroiled in politics;
the percentage of the nation that has access
to full bre connectivity is a fairly hot
potato. e Chancellor Philip Hammond
said recently: “It is the spending on the skills
FIXED BROADBAND SERVICES
• The UK had 26.2 million fixed broadband connections in Q2 2018, up 0.2% (52k) from the previous
quarter and 2.0% (526k) from Q2 2017.
• BT’s share of these lines was 35.5%, a decrease of 0.2% from the previous quarter.
• For the first time, there were over 10 million ‘other (inc. FTTx)’ lines (which are almost all fibre
broadband lines) in Q2 2018. This was a year-on-year increase of 1.7 million lines (20.9%).
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of the next generation, the infrastructure,
including the digital infrastructure, and
the broadband infrastructure. For the 21st
century broadband is to roads in the 20th,
railways in the 19th, and canals in the 18th.
It’s the network infrastructure that will make
this country work.”
And here’s another connectivity market
given; if you give someone a bigger pipe all
they do is ll it up.
So, what are users lling their pipes with?
e consumer market is dominated by the
use of video applications whilst the business
market is lling their boots as a result of the
migration to cloud based applications.
The Broadband Scorecard
In their December 2018 report ‘EU5 and
EU28 Broadband Scorecard’,
How is UK Plc doing in terms of
communications services?
At the end of 2016, the UK ranked rst
among the EU5 countries (at over 99%)
for the household availability of ADSL
broadband, although the dierences between
the UK and the other EU5 countries were
relatively small.
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