NEW YORK, Aug. 3, 2015
/PRNewswire/ -- In early July, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst
Sterling Perrin, hosted Huawei's
first-ever Asia/Pacific Ultra Broadband Summit, which took place in
Bangkok, Thailand, and drew more
than 400 telecom leaders from throughout Asia/Pacific, including from India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Regional efforts to meet
aggressive plans to roll out broadband services were the focus of
Huawei's Ultra Broadband Summit, with the goal of working toward
ways of achieving the ITU's Connect 2020 agenda. ITU Connect 2020
calls for connecting 55% of home users to the Internet and
achieving 90% coverage in remote areas (including wireline and
wireless) by 2020. Achieving these goals will require significant
cooperation and investment among governments, network operators and
equipment suppliers.
The Asia/Pacific Ultra Broadband Summit focused specifically on
the role of fixed broadband networks in this future, with the
spotlight on two main sub-themes within the conference: driving
affordable fixed broadband penetration across developing nations,
primarily through adoption of national broadband network policies
and strategies; and moving from today's fixed broadband rates to
next-generation ultra-broadband rates of 100 Mbit/s or higher in
developed nations.
"Developing nations have been rapid adopters of mobile
technologies, to tremendous benefit for those countries and their
citizens," noted Sterling Perrin,
senior analyst at Heavy Reading and a lead presenter at the event.
"Yet there was general agreement at the Summit that mobile
broadband alone is not sufficient for Asia/Pacific nations to achieve their
broadband goals because mobile data speeds do not compare to fixed
broadband speeds -- particularly when looking at fiber optics or
next-generation copper advancements, such as G.fast."
Developed economies -- such as South
Korea and Japan -- are
building their next-generation broadband networks on top of already
well-established infrastructures, but developing nations in
Asia-Pacific have very limited
fixed networks.
However, there is also an opportunity for developing nations to
leapfrog technologies and move directly to the best and most
advanced fixed technologies available -- such as GPON/FTTH, said
Daniel Tang, CTO of Huawei's fixed
network business unit. Developed nations are often forced to
continue to invest in their legacy copper networks, because the
installed base is so large, even though copper is inferior to fiber
and very costly to maintain. This is the greenfield builder's
advantage, according to Tang.
The main challenge ahead is less about technology than finding
the money and the overall commitment to building out fixed
broadband networks more aggressively, Perrin added. "Leading-edge
nations have already shown that 100 Mbit/s or even gigabit fixed
broadband speeds are achievable with current technology," he
explained. "While heads generally nodded in agreement about the
economic and quality-of-life benefits of national broadband
networks and an ultra-broadband future, the real challenges of
finance and execution need to be tackled before 2020."
Additional information on Huawei's Ultra Broadband Summit in
Asia can be found here:
http://www.lightreading.com/gigabit/ultra-broadband/an-ultra-broadband-future-for-asia-pac/a/d-id/717291