According to Ken Ko, Managing Director of the Broadband Forum, Smarter Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), which enables operators to offer tailored offers at the push of a button, is essential for operators to secure new revenue and reverse falling ARPU rates.
Ko urged service providers to invest in devices with built-in application intelligence and create an app store-like experience for their customers as traditional revenue streams such as landline telephony and IPTV decline. This allows them to address multiple market segments such as teleworkers, security, home automation, and augmented and virtual reality while managing fewer product storage units (SKUs) during deployment.
Focus on improved options
Ko commented, “Operators know they need to move away from just being connectivity providers, but how they’re going to do that has been elusive until now.” As consumer demand for innovative services and network quality continues to grow, Ko now focus on offering improved options and improved user experiences if they want to expand their revenue streams. An app-enabled portal for services can achieve this by giving users access to individual bandwidth or application-specific latency at the push of a button.
Ko emphasized the importance of application-intelligent devices as a key factor in the broadband service ecosystem, and cautioned operators against simply upgrading existing devices and becoming utility providers that compete only on speed and price. In order to offer differentiated high quality services, operators need to look beyond these two selling points.
Michael Philpott, Research Director of Digital Consumer Services at Omdia, agrees that operators have an incredible opportunity to be successful.
Philpott said, “With the rapid growth of connected media and IoT devices in the home, consumer demand for the latest next-generation applications is increasing, and the industry is well positioned to leverage the home gateway as a growth platform.” He continued : “It’s critical that subscribers have the flexibility to pay for what they want as they go.”
Ko had some encouraging news for operators regarding the timing and design of network intelligent technology. The Broadband Forum and the prpl Foundation will work together to create open industry standards that create a common software platform that will benefit both service providers and application developers in subscriber homes.
Broadband Forum Technical Report TR-492, Software-Based Architectural for App-Enabled Services Gateway Design Principles, serves as a model for intelligent CPE. This type of device uses the standard open user service platform and allows service providers to offer apps such as parental controls or streaming functions. With this new specification, it will be easier for CPE manufacturers, operators, application developers and OTT wholesalers to offer their products and services to consumers.
