Autumn 2015 • Published by Decisive • A CommsDay publication

The leadership teams steering Telstra, Optus and Vodafone through changing times

SwiTzerland blazes a trail for multi-technology broadband

FuTure wireleSS: next-gen wi-Fi and lTe-u

The STaTe of HFC

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COMMSDAY

5 Cover Story Who’s who at the top of Aussie telecoms

Features

19 Australia’s NBN inspiration: Switzerland

24 LTE vs Wi-Fi

32 An interview with Alcatel-Lucent

37 The latest deal with HFC

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Geoff Long

CEO Andy Penn has big shoesto fill when he officially takes

over from David Thodey on 1 May2015. Thodey’s tenure of just undersix years saw him transform the busi-ness and double its value to overA$80 billion, leaving it with a domi-nant market share, a massive indus-try lead in revenues and profits, andexceptionally strong mobile networkassets.

Making things easier, however, arean orderly succession and a blue-print to growth laid out by his prede-cessor and the senior managementteam - including Penn himself. Pennwas appointed as Thodey's successorover a number of internal candidatesand has played a key role in the com-pany's success as CFO over the pastthree years, as well as additional re-sponsibilities for international opera-tions since May last year. He also hasprevious experience as a CEO. Priorto joining Telstra in 2012, Penn held

senior roles with insurance businessAXA Asia Pacific for 20 years, thelast five as CEO of the company.

Given his integral involvement withThodey and the rest of the seniorleadership team in strategy develop-ment, Penn says that his focus for

the moment is on execution, deliver-ing on a “very clear path forwards.”He also has a passion for Asia, a mar-ket which Telstra has been openlytargeting for expansion for severalyears and has accelerated its growthinto with, for example, the acquisi-tion of Pacnet and a partnershipwith PT Telkom in Indonesia. Do-mestically, he’s looking to continueto invest in fixed and mobile net-work differentiation, and where nec-essary to invest to boost Telstra’s IPin areas like intelligent video andeHealth.

Backing Penn up is a well-establishedteam of business leaders. Wholesalegroup executive Stuart Lee is the cur-rent Australian CommunicationsAmbassador, having been given thehonour at the most recentCommsDay/Communications Alli-ance ACOMM Awards.

The recognition came as a result ofsustained and wide-ranging industryleadership, commitment to the bet-

Who’s who at the top ofAustralia’s Big 3 telcos

It’s a time of extraordinary change for Australia’s top-tier telcos. Almost within a single calendar year,the ‘Big 3’ operators by revenue – Telstra, Optus and Vodafone – have all announced new CEOs asthey seek to either change or cement their respective fortunes. But Andy Penn, Allen Lew and IñakiBerroeta are all backed by teams of key senior executives, whether company veterans or new hires,

charged with controlling critical areas of their business. Petroc Wilton, Geoff Long and Richard van derDraay take a look at the top ranks of Australia’s telco elite. .

Andy Penn

At the top of Telstra

terment of the sector and for his de-velopment of future industry leaders.Lee has headed up the TelstraWholesale division since 2011 buthas over 40 years' experience withTelstra and its predecessor organisa-tions after starting as a cadet engi-neer. An executive since 1987, hehas held a variety of executive andsenior roles across products, engi-neering, billing, marketing, IT, inter-national, procurement, and opera-tions. At one time or another he hasled all of Telstra’s product portfolios,and worked across the consumer,business and enterprise segments.

Retail group executive Gordon Bal-lantyne arrived at Telstra in 2010 af-ter a career spanning IT and telcoacross Europe. Previous roles includ-ed VP of HP's personal systemsgroup in the UK and Ireland, as wellas senior roles and an executiveboard member at T-Mobile in theUK. He took on the role of groupexecutive of the newly formed Tel-stra retail business in October 2013.Previous positions included groupMD for the Consumer business andchief customer officer across all ofTelstra's customer segments of con-sumer, business, enterprise and gov-ernment, which he took on in July2012.

COO Kate McKenzie first joinedTelstra in August 2004 as head ofTelstra's regulatory group and hasheld a number of key positions sincethen, culminating in her appoint-ment as chief operations officer inOctober 2013. She is responsible forTelstra Operations, the Chief Tech-nology Office and innovation portfo-lios to better integrate technology de-velopment and implementation. Pri-or to her current role, McKenzie wasgroup MD for Telstra Innovation,Products and Marketing, where sheoversaw product, promotion andpricing across Telstra. She has alsooverseen the rollout of Telstra'sbrand identity, has been at the fore-front of the turnaround in Telstra'smobile business, and has led thecompany's transition to the NBN bycreating differentiated products and

services in a highly competitive mar-ket.

Networks GMD Mike Wright is bestknown for his global leadership inthe rollout of Telstra's 4G LTE net-work, one of its most prized assetsand key competitive differentiators.But he is also responsible for the en-gineering and internal constructioncapabilities of all of its networks:fixed, wireless and media.

He has over 30 years of telecoms en-gineering experience and has beenhighly engaged in the wireless tech-nology evolution including a seriesof world leading developments such

as 200km cell range, HSPA evolu-tion, the world’s largest HD Voicefootprint and Australia’s first Cat 4and LTE-A capabilities. Wright's net-work team is also driving the evolu-tion and development of wirelinenetwork capabilities including lowcost ADSL expansion techniques,DOCSIS 3 upgrades, 1Tbps opticaltransport trials, world-first Applica-tion Aware Networking capabilitiesand the evolution to new ASP net-work architectures.

Along with Wright, Products GMDWarwick Bray has been critical tothe success of Telstra's mobile strate-gy in recent years. He leads the teamresponsible for Telstra’s mobileproduct set -- from strategy and plan-ning through to development andlifecycle management.

Before joining the mobile productgroup, Bray was Telstra’s head of cor-porate strategy and worked with theCEO to redefine Telstra’s corporategrowth strategy and renew Telstra’semphasis on customer service. Hehas worked in the telecommunica-tions industry for over 25 years inEurope, Asia and Australia, and waspreviously a partner at McKinseyLondon, where he advised incum-bent, new entrant and mobile tele-communications companies on strat-egy, regulation, mergers and acquisi-tions, capital spend and operationaleffectiveness.

One of the most recognisable figuresin Penn’s leadership team is corpo-rate affairs group executive TonyWarren. Warren has been at thecoalface of one of Telstra's most im-portant tasks of the past few years –the $11 billion deal with NBN Coand the Australian government toensure its participation in the na-tional broadband network. Warrenled the successful negotiations on be-half of Telstra and has also headedthe team that recently concluded therenegotiations with the parties fol-lowing the government's move to amulti-technology mix NBN. In hiscurrent role he is responsible for reg-ulatory affairs, government relations,engagement, external and internalcommunications, and sustainability.Prior to joining Telstra in 2002,Warren was a Director of the Net-work Economics Consulting Group,a major regulatory economics con-sulting firm.

On the other hand, a key player be-hind the scenes is business supportand improvement group executiveRobert Nason. He’s best known inrecent times for his role in drivingproductivity and cost-savings in theso-called Project New initiative,which was also tasked with simplify-ing the business. That transfor-mation that he first started in 2010continues today, allowing the cost-savings to be reinvested into the tel-co’s mobile business and new growthsectors such as the key network ap-plications and services division. Prior

Kate McKenzie

to joining Telstra in 2010, Nasonwas MD for wagering at Tabcorp. Healso has two decades of experience intelecommunications or related in-dustries, including executive VP atconsultancy AT Kearney.

Another important mover and shak-er inside Telstra’s senior team is hu-man resources group executiveTracey Gavegan. She joined Telstraas a human resources executive inApril 2006, advising the company'senterprise and government and oper-ations business units, and was ap-pointed to lead the Human Re-sources team in July 2011. In thattime Gavegan and her team have leda cultural realignment and assistedthe business in transforming to a

more agile and customer-centric ori-entation With Telstra's futuregrowth prospects nailed to new re-gional businesses such as network ap-plication and services, there’s a lotriding on the shoulders of BrendonRiley, who heads up a new $5 billionrevenue business unit as Group Ex-ecutive, Global Enterprise and Ser-vices. Riley joined Telstra in 2011 aschief operations officer, having lefthis role with IBM as GM of North-east Europe. He had a varied careerwith IBM throughout Europe andhas also been CEO of GlobalSerivces Australia. He was previouslybased in Japan for over five years,where he was part of the team thatlaunched, scaled and matured the

IBM Global Services business acrossthe Asian region Amongst a raft ofveteran senior Telstra execs, CTOVish Nandlall is a relative newcomerto the firm, coming in as CTO inAugust last year. He replaced HughBradlow, who has moved into a newrole as Telstra's chief scientist. Butwhile Nandlall is new to Australia,he’s a well-established senior telcoexec in the US, where he was mostrecently CTO and head of strategyand marketing at Ericsson NorthAmerica. Before joining Ericsson hewas the CTO of Extreme Networksand prior to that the CTO for Nor-tel Carrier Networks, where he led ateam of more than 90 architects andstandards delegates who worked onGSM, CDMA, WiMAX and LTE.

Optus’ upper echelonPetroc Wilton

Optus CEO Allen Lew is a re-

turning veteran of the Aus-

tralian telco scene. He served as MD

of both Optus Mobile and Optus

Consumer Business until 2006,

when he headed to Singapore to

head up the local operations of Sing-

tel; Optus itself is a subsidiary of the

larger Singtel group. Since he took

the reins of Optus in October, Lew

has made a strong early impression;

his first quarter at the helm saw

strong revenue, EBITDA and mobile

handset share gains.

Strategically, Lew is pushing ahead

with an expansion of Optus’ LTE

network – it had aimed to hit 90%

population coverage by March – a

fresh look at its wireless broadband

offering, and perhaps most signifi-

cantly a new level of integration of

its fixed and wireless networks. That

means lifting a fixed-line gameplan

that, Lew himself concedes, has been

seen as “flip-flopping.” “Fixed cannot

be a secondary product,” he says.

“Optus has to do well in mobile and

fixed. Today, our revenue and our

focus is very mobile-centric; we have

about A$6 billion in revenue from

mobile, A$1 billion from fixed. That

has to balance out a lot more.” Lew

also plans to leverage Optus’ unique

stock of 2300MHz spectrum to find

a compelling edge over competitors,

though he’s hinting that asset might

be at least partly used to boost fixed

rather than mobile wireless. And

he’s out to build a new identity for

Optus as a ‘telco innovator’ – partic-

ularly in the way it interacts with cus-

tomers.

That’s where customer MD Vicki

Brady plays a key role. A 16-year tel-

co veteran, Brady worked at KPMG

before joining Optus in 1997 where

she held various key positions in

marketing, sales and commercial for

mobile. She moved to Singtel in

2003 but returned to head up the

Optus wholesale and satellite divi-

sion from 2008-2012.

Now, with Optus having moved into

positive net promoter score territory

last year, Brady is focused on finding

new ways to ‘wow’ the customer,

such as social media- or web chat-

based peer-to-peer customer service.

“I think big corporates, sometimes,

think everything has to be industrial-

strength and perfect. But we’re us-

ing, a lot more, the approach of

proof-of-concept; [for example] we’re

trialling a new technology that

knows you’re calling on a

smartphone and, rather than waiting

in the queue [asks whether] you’d ra-

ther speak to someone immediately

via web chat,” she says. “Rather than

waiting this to be on an industrial

scale, we’ve trialled it via proof-of-

concept and it’s gone fantastically

well... we’re trying to take a more ag-

ile approach to new technology.”

Brady, says Lew, illustrates one of

Optus’ unique advantages in the

management stakes; its close rela-

Allen Lew

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TOMORROW starts here.

tionship with parent Singtel. “We

manage our senior talent as a pool

within SingTel, within the group.

The beauty of this is that it gives our

Australian executives the opportuni-

ty to get experiences across different

parts of the group… it gives us a

good opportunity to bring talent that

we need into Australia, and take

Australian talent and put it out in

different parts of Asia. In terms of a

career proposition for mid-senior-

level executives, we provide a pretty

unique opportunity compared to our

competitors – not just in telco, but

in the entire digital technology

space,” he says. “A person here in

Optus has the ability to craft their

own strategy based on cost of re-

sources and the financial resources

given by Singtel. A person from

Google, Facebook, IBM or Cisco

here in Australia executes strategy

that’s developed in Silicon Valley,

[or] in Europe if you’re a part of

Nokia… Korea, if you’re part of Sam-

sung. They don’t have as much lee-

way to exercise their creativity, their

initiative compared to someone at

the Singtel Group.”

“If you look at a person like Vicki,

she looks at the objectives she have;

she has the opportunity to make a

difference in the lives of Australi-

ans… Singapore doesn’t tell Vicki,

unlike Korea for a Samsung execu-

tive, ‘here’s the phone, here’s the ad-

vertising we developed, now go im-

plement it and here’s the numbers

that I want you to get’,” Lew adds.

“She has… lots of flexibility, lots of

ability to develop her own career

here and do something really mean-

ingful.”

Also deeply involved in the links

with Singtel is Murray King, CFO

both for the Australia operation and

for Singtel’s group consumer divi-

sion across Australia, APAC and Af-

rica. He’s been with Optus since

2003 in a series of senior financial

roles and has also worked as com-

mercial director for consumer and

mobile; before Optus, he worked at

Virgin Mobile, which is now a fully

owned subsidiary of the firm.

“Murray is the person who gives me

the guidance in terms of the finan-

cial realities of where I’m taking the

company, and links back to Singa-

pore to make sure we’re in sync in

terms of our investment require-

ments and profiles,” says Lew.

Some of the key Optus management

responsibilities are taken care of di-

rectly from group level. “The bulk of

the key personalities [at group level]

that are involved in Optus opera-

tions are mainly on the network, and

on the IT side. That’s what Singtel

excels in – they’re a 150-year-old tel-

co, we’re a 25-year old telco! So there

are a lot of processes, they’ve got a

lot of understanding of the fixed

space that is of value to us, and of

course in the IT space they’ve been

doing such things for a while,” says

Lew. “The rest of it we do ourselves

in Australia; where necessary, we

share experience from other parts of

the group, where it’s relevant. The

rest of the team I try and keep very

Australian, very local.”

Currently, Optus’ CTO position

falls into the first bracket, though

Lew is looking to move to the se-

cond. “Tay Soo Meng is covering the

CTO role for me; he’s from Group,

but it’s not a permanent position,

he’s covering it for me until I find a

replacement,” he says.

“We used to have Vic McClelland,

but he left for his own personal rea-

sons, and finding a replacement is

something I take very seriously. It’s

not just about the talent of the indi-

vidual, it’s not just about persistence

and perseverance; it’s also the ability

to come in and work within the cul-

ture and the team that I already have

in Optus. If they come in, there are

jagged edges and they can’t meld in-

to the team, I’d rather not have

them. So I’m taking my time to find

someone suitable.”

“The new person that we’ll be look-

ing for absolutely has to have experi-

ence in the fixed, as well as in the

mobile side of the network; and un-

derstand what needs to be done in

fixed to work within the wholesale

model at Optus. That means we have

to have someone that’s able to know,

for example, how [to] link up to Tel-

stra for ULL, or RDSL; how to hook

up to NBN Co… and how to link

the mobile network to the fixed net-

work, if I need to. That person will

have to be someone who has worked

in a telco, who has not just mobile

but fixed and mobile [experience],

and someone who has done transfor-

mation within a traditional telco or

mobile company to move it to… a

more integrated operation, with vid-

eo operations capability as well.”

On the front-end, sales MD Rohan

Ganeson looks after all sales and dis-

tribution from retail to channel and

telesales. He joined the firm in 2008

as SMB director, but has more than

two decades of experience in the

ICT, mobile and payment industries.

“He’s very execution-focused, all

about making sure we hit our sales

targets. He delivers on his promises;

we have the logistics support, now,

to look after a huge operation, [370]

stores. And he manages that together

with a bunch of third-party channels

as well,” says Lew.

Optus Business MD John Paitaridis,

meanwhile, heads up all enterprise,

corporate and government business;

Vicki Brady

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though a newer hire, having joined

in 2012, he also boasts twenty years

of experience across Europe, Asia

and Australia with a deep under-

standing of the telco and ICT needs

of enterprise and government cus-

tomers. He has also worked at arch-

rival Telstra as executive director of

network products and services. And

leading the Wholesale and Satellite

division as MD is Rob Parcell, whose

career with Optus includes stints as

regional director, CEO of subsidiary

Alphawest, acting MD of the Busi-

ness section and director of voice

and marketing – and goes back to

1992. “Rob’s been there since the in-

ception of this company, he looks af-

ter satellite and all my wholesale cus-

tomers in a very good way!” says Lew.

Other key senior Optus execs in-

clude ‘Future of Yes’and fixed phone

and broadband VP Sue Bailey, an-

other 20-year telco veteran whose

track record with Virgin Mobile

(now a subsidiary of Optus in Aus-

tralia) covers stints both as SVP of

Virgin Mobile USA from 2008-10

and CEO of Virgin Mobile Australia

from 2010-2013. “Sue Bailey has

been doing fixed for us [and] is very

important; she ran our Virgin opera-

tions and now she’s running our

next-generation transformation bill-

ing system, and operating support,”

says Lew.

And on the regulatory front, there’s

corporate and regulatory affairs VP

David Epstein; a prominent figure in

Australian telco policy and regulato-

ry debates, whose impressive nation-

al and international background in

regulation and public affairs includes

time as a senior adviser to three

prime ministers, culminating as chief

of staff to Kevin Rudd. He works

with Optus chairman and former

CEO Paul O’Sullivan, another fa-

mous senior figure on the Australian

telco scene, whose current role is to

advocate Optus and competition in

the market; O’Sullivan served eight

years as CEO, driving eighteen con-

secutive quarters of EBITDA growth,

and was Singtel Group Consumer

CEO from 2012-2014.

“The level of people working with

me more closely are all very talented

people. They have strengths in differ-

ent areas; they’re all key in their dif-

ferent areas of expertise,” concludes

Lew. “At the end of the day, in Sing-

tel when we look at our people who

we want to put in senior positions at

Optus… there are two important

things. People at that level reporting

to me are all extremely intelligent,

but the two things that differentiate

them are passion – do they find that

working here is meaningful to them?

Because they’re going to work rea-

sonably long hours! – and secondly,

do they have the perseverance?

They’re what I call the two ‘p’s: pas-

sion and perseverance.”

“In this market, you’re competing

against a very, very strong incum-

bent, and at the lower end you’ve got

people who market on nothing but

price. So do you have the persever-

ance to learn; if you hit a roadblock,

to learn what happened and do

something different and go around

it, rather than just saying ‘I give up’.

Quo Vadis, Vodafone?

Richard van der Draay

S ince its network travails of a few

years previously and the subse-

quent loss of vast numbers of cus-

tomers – more than 1.2 million in

2013 – Vodafone Australia has been

the subject of close scrutiny by indus-

try commentators. Indeed, just weeks

ago, iiNet founder and ex-CEO Mi-

chael Malone predicted the mobile-

only carrier would either merge with,

or be acquired by, a local fixed-line

player.

But CEO Iñaki Berroeta seems to

have made significant progress in

turning the once-listing ship around,

executing on the turnaround plan

set in place by predecessor Bill Mor-

row. The company has invested heav-

ily in its networks, cut costs and

launched new plans with more data

– and is determined to become “best

in class when it comes to customer

service.” Vodafone Australia picked

up 91,000 new subscribers in the se-

cond half of calendar 2014, by all ac-

counts a ringing endorsement of the

CEO’s assertion that he’s met all

shareholder objectives under the

firm’s turnaround plan.

But Berroeta, previously CEO of Vo-

dafone Romania, still faces a clear

challenge. As well as further building

on the subscriber growth – Voda-

fone’s first half-year of expansion

since 2010 – Berroeta will need to

turn around an 8.8% decline in ser-

vice revenues through 2014 in the

face of fierce competition from Op-

tus and Telstra to steer the top line

back into the clear.

Benoit Hanssen

http://www.ericsson.com/spotlight/cloud

To meet those challenges, and with

the objectives of his predecessor’s

turnaround plan now met, Berroeta

is bringing in his own strategy. This

includes using mobile data allowanc-

es as a key differentiator to lure new

subs away from rivals and get back to

growth, shared plans, and a focus on

content delivery that has seen Voda-

fone team with Fairfax and Nine

Network to offer customers access to

Stan – one of a raft of subscription

video on demand players currently

stepping up to check new arrival Net-

flix’s bid to crash the party. In addi-

tion, Vodafone has clinched a deal

with Spotify to offer postpaid cus-

tomers free premium access to the

music streaming service – and is un-

folding a broader strategy that cen-

tres on customer satisfaction.

But Berroeta is also looking to en-

sure that Vodafone’s LTE speeds are

on par with or better than its com-

petitors. One challenge there is that

some of the carrier’s edge around

speed had been predicated on an ad-

vantage in spectrum holdings, now

diminished as Optus and Telstra

bring online the spectrum they

snapped up at the 2013 Digital Divi-

dend Auction – in which Vodafone

notably declined to take part.

Berroeta has said that Vodafone’s ge-

ographical distribution of spectrum

holdings – in particular, in densely

populated cities – will help it suc-

ceed in its key urban markets. But

the telco also has a strong infrastruc-

ture focus for 2015 to help its mo-

bile network stand out, under the

purview of CTO Benoit Hanssen,

with anticipated developments in-

cluding network carrier aggregation

and Voice-over-LTE trials.

Hanssen joined the firm in 2013

from Ericsson in Stockholm where

he headed up the global managed

services operation. Before that,

Hanssen served as CTO with

Hutchison Indonesia from 2007

where he oversaw the building of a

15,000 site/25 million sub business

from a greenfield start. His impres-

sive international career includes a

key role in starting and developing

Ericsson’s managed services business,

taking in the running of the Telfort/

O2 network in the Netherlands and

the Bharti Airtel network in 15 Cir-

cles in India under a managed capac-

ity construct. Now, he sees plenty of

scope for Vodafone Australia to em-

ploy network carrier aggregation to

boost speed and performance.

“Just a few weeks ago, we actually

combined our 850MHz low-band

LTE network with the 1800MHz

high-band LTE network and in that

way you get an additional step in the

performance of the services,” he says.

Hanssen adds that as usage and de-

mand on the LTE network continue

to rise, the company would continue

to aggregate more spectrum, noting

it has more bands still available that

could be used; for instance more

1800MHz and 2100MHz spectrum.

“We’re looking at what the right tim-

ing is to do that. Technically, our

network supports it and we could de-

ploy those if and when needed, but

there is no demand yet that is that

high and we also don’t have the

phone penetration.”

Hanssen is also pushing Vodafone

towards what could be one of Aus-

tralia’s earliest deployments of voice-

over-LTE, promising high quality

without needing to fall back to 3G

for voice communications – a com-

plex process which can impact user

experience – as is the case for all

Australian networks currently.

“We’ve successfully conducted a se-

ries of VoLTE field trials and made

calls on the production network,”

says Hanssen. “It’s still in a con-

trolled environment because we’re

now going through the various test

phases to make sure there’s con-

sistency in the service; especially

from a charging point of view. [But]

this is the phase that leads up to

broader field trials where we would

get actual users on the network, we

anticipate that later this year we will

make the service commercial.”

Perhaps reflecting Vodafone’s com-

mitment to turnaround, many other

members of Berroeta’s key team are

also relatively fresh hires. On the

front end is customer service direc-

tor Errol van Graan, who joined the

firm in February; Vodafone pulled

him from arch-rival Telstra, where he

was director of consumer sales and

service contact centres. Van Graan

has certainly hit the ground running,

telling media that he intends to see

Vodafone have the lowest com-

plaints per 10,000 customers ratio in

the business by next year – putting

behind it for good the spectre of the

‘Vodafail’ network outages of a few

years previously. Before Telstra, van

Graan has also held executive posi-

tions in customer care and opera-

tions with Vodacom South Africa

and Vodafone Romania.

Another fresh recruit is chief market-

ing officer Loo Fun Chee. She

joined the ranks of Vodafone Aus-

tralia in January from Globe Tele-

com in the Philippines, where she

was head of consumer marketing. In

this role, Loo Fun was responsible

for driving growth in mobile data,

customer loyalty management, busi-

ness intelligence and digital market-

ing. Hailing from Malaysia, Loo Fun

has also worked for Maxis Commu-

nications Berhad in a range of mar-

keting roles. Prior to that she spent

almost a decade at marketing com-

Loo Fun Chee

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munications firm JWT in Malaysia,

working on a range of international

brands including Citibank, Unilever

and Nestle.

Behind the scenes is general counsel

Trent Czinner. Appointed in De-

cember 2013, Czinner is responsible

for Vodafone’s legal function and

leads a team of expert lawyers sup-

ported by a panel of external law

firms. He provides advice on a wide

range of legal matters across the busi-

ness and assists the executive to en-

sure the company complies with its

legal and regulatory obligations.

Czinner has worked as a telecoms

and technology lawyer since 1998,

when he was employed as legal man-

ager for Hutchison Telecoms Aus-

tralia. He spent the next 13 years

working as a senior lawyer for

Hutchison Whampoa’s telecoms

businesses in Australia and Europe.

From 2011 to 2013, he ran the legal

function for Salesforce.com in Aus-

tralia and New Zealand. Czinner

started his legal career as a litigator at

one of Australia’s largest law firms.

Vodafone’s CFO is James Marsh, ap-

pointed in January 2013. He was pre-

viously CFO at Vodafone New Zea-

land, where he led a finance team of

more than 150 staff and served on

the company’s board and executive

committee. Marsh has been working

within the Vodafone Group since

February 2000 when he joined as

group financial planning manager,

and focused on financial reporting

and analysis – overseeing financial

operations in Spain and as head of

reporting and analysis across the wid-

er European region.

From December 1995 to early 2000,

Marsh was senior auditor and audit

manager for Arthur Anderson in the

UK, managing an audit portfolio of

Global 1000 and listed public com-

panies. He kicked off his career in

the finance industry as an auditor at

Clarks Chartered Accountants in

1992.

Other key Vodafone execs include

sales director Ben McIntosh, whose

Australian and international career

spans a string of key roles at Harvey

Norman including a stint as country

manager for Slovenia, and time as

commercial director for Courts Asia;

and industry strategy and public poli-

cy GM Matthew Lobb, an alumnus

of NBN Co and, like van Graan, an

ex-Telstra executive, with an eight-

year track record across multiple

group and general manager roles at

Vodafone’s arch-rival.

Iñaki Berroeta

Policy

Business

Technology

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O rson Welles' character in TheThird Man famously notes

that after five hundred years of de-mocracy and peace, the main thingSwitzerland gave the world was thecuckoo clock. Of course that is mani-festly unfair on this population of 8million, given its chocolate, watches,army knives and . . . multi-technology mix broadband. While itsbroadband model might not be itsmost famous export, it's one that alot of other countries are watchingclosely; none more so than Australia.

Australian communications ministerMalcolm Turnbull has been a vocalproponent of looking at overseasbroadband experiences, and one ofthe most influential to date has beenSwitzerland and its incumbentSwisscom. Before the minister andNBN Co had decided in late 2013that an all-fibre network would betoo slow and too expensive to rollout, Swisscom had already come tothe same conclusion – in 2011. Priorto that, like Australia, the carrier hadalso planned a full fibre-to-the-

premise broadband network formost of the population.

One of the key people behindSwisscom's move from an all-fibrerollout to a multi-technology mixbroadband network is Klaus Liechti,the carrier's senior project manager.He was recently in Australia wherehe was mentioned by Turnbull inParliament for his advice onSwisscom's broadband experience.He also took time out for briefings

with NBN Co as well as CommsDayMagazine.

According to Liechti, the decision toupgrade Swisscom’s existing copperwas based on both economics andthe length of time that would beneeded for FTTP.

In Swisscom's case, its need for aquicker rollout was made more ur-gent due to competition from rivaloperators, particularly well-financed

Switzerland blazes a trail for multi-technology

When Australia was looking to adopt its multi-technology mix national broadband network, it looked toSwisscom for inspiration. Geoff Long reports.

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local cable operator UPC-Cablecom.The Swiss cable operators reacharound 2.5 million households withdownload speeds of at least100Mbps and in some areas up to250Mbps. As a result, Swisscom de-cided to upgrade its copper, initiallyusing VDSL vectoring and then tak-ing fibre to existing manholes in thestreet or to building basements. Itnow offers 100Mbps VDSL vector-ing services to around 500,000homes and businesses on its FTTNnetwork and a further 100,000homes on its fibre-to-the-street andfibre-to-the-building networks.

“The issue is that the more rural yougo with this FTTP deployment, thecost will rise. With fibre to the street,we can do for the same investmentup to five connections, so it's muchcheaper. For fibre to the building it'sabout 70% of the cost,” says Liechti.“But behind the capex it's really therollout speed. In the next few years,instead of deploying 100,000 FTTPconnections, we can do five timesmore by taking the fibre-to-the-streetapproach.”

Fibre-to-the-street is the term used bythe Swiss, although it is sometimesknown as fibre-to-the-distributionpoint or fibre to the curb. Instead ofhaving to build street cabinets, theSwisscom approach is to place asmall 16 or 48 port device in a man-hole in front of the street, which in-cludes vectoring technology from thebeginning. It gives them 100Mbpsdownload speeds today, while futureversions are expected to boost that toup to 500Mbps.

Homes that were on the early FTTHrollout map received 1Gbps speeds,but Liechti believes it's not all aboutspeed. “We realised that it's good tohave 1Gbps but you don't reallyneed that at the moment. And wedecided we cannot just do the fibreto the home rollout, we needed tohave something else because wewould lose too much in terms of cus-tomers [to the cable operators].”

Swisscom has already passed morethan 900,000 homes with FTTH, or30% of populated areas and covering

all of the main cities. It will stopFTTH at around 1 million homes,but the immediate focus will be onupgrading the copper network. Thefirm has a new target of being able toprovide 100Mbps speeds to almost90% of the population by 2020.

Currently, vectoring is allowing thecompany to roughly double thespeed on its existing nodes. Howev-er, Swisscom has also started triallingG.fast technology and hopes to beone of the first carriers in the worldto roll it out commercially. Its aim isto do pilot testing this year, with therollout to start next year.

“With this combination [of G.fastand fibre to the street] we reallything we have a very good proposi-tion for ultra-broadband that willcover up to 88% of the populationwith a minimum of 100Mbps andup to 50% to have 500Mbps to1Gbps by the year 2020,” saysLiechti, adding that Swisscom willalso plan to offer wholesale offeringsto other ISPs.

Working with vendor partnerHuawei, the carrier has also statedthat it wants longer copper looplengths than some other carriershave been proposing. In its case, upto around 220 meters. Liechti notesan early trial where Swisscom testedthe technology on 200m of copperand achieved 500Mbps downloadspeeds; on a 100m loop, he says, itcan go up to 900Mbps. “So fromthat perspective there is not a lot ofdifference for the customer betweenfibre end-to-end and this solution,”he suggests.

Of course Swisscom is not the onlycarrier that is finding renewed life inits copper network and opting for amulti-technology broadband model.Around the world carriers includingthe likes of AT&T, BT, Belgacomand Deutsche Telecom are doingsimilar things. Other vendors are al-so announcing major initiativesaround VDSL2 vectoring and G.fast.For example, at Broadband WorldForum in 2014 Alcatel-Lucent an-nounced 12 customer trials forG.fast, including with BT, Orangeand A1, a subsidiary of TelekomAustria.

A recent white paper from analystgroup Analysys Mason also notesthat investments in VDSL2 vectoringand G.fast can be used by operatorsas intermediary steps along the waytowards a long-term goal of deploy-ing FTTH. It says that rolling out fi-bre to the cabinet or distributionpoint in conjunction with VDSL vec-toring or G.fast gradually lessens theneed for further civil infrastructurework when an operator deploysFTTH – and singles out NBN Co asa prime candidate to benefit fromsuch an approach.

“Operators have the ability to reuseinvestments already made in physicalfibre for FTTx deployments and withminimal additional cost can installextra fibres that can be used for fu-ture FTTH roll-outs. FTTx deploy-ments such as NBN Co in Australiawill allow subscribers to benefit fromsignificantly improved speeds whilepreparing the way for future FTTHroll-outs,” says Analysys Mason sen-ior analyst Stephen Wilson.

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One of the hottest topics at thisyear’s Mobile World Congress

was Wi-Fi. The decade and a half-oldwireless technology is making newwaves as a complement to increasing-ly crowded cellular networks. Thelatest Wi-Fi developments featuremuch tighter integration with cellu-lar both at the radio access and corenetwork levels.

But that is not the only reasonWi-Fi has made headlines. The nextrelease (13) of technical specifica-tions from the Third GenerationPartnership Project, the organisationresponsible for the ongoing develop-ment of cellular technologies, willmake it possible to extend more effi-cient LTE networks into unlicensedspectrum currently used by Wi-Fi sys-tems.

As such the Wi-Fi ecosystem isfacing an aggressive industry, worthhundreds of billions of dollars ayear, which now wants to infringe onits turf.

The camp backing what is calledLTE-U, or LTE unlicensed – firstproposed by a white paper by Qual-comm Technologies and Ericssonback in 2013 – maintains that theintroduction of cellular technologiesinto the unlicensed band used by Wi-Fi will not impact existing systems.But the fact that Wi-Fi might have tonow share its home with an operator-backed network that typically yieldsrevenue is already raising somealarms at the Wi-Fi Alliance, whichrepresents the Wi-Fi ecosystem glob-ally.

“Wi-Fi Alliance is aware of 3GPPwork addressing LTE operation in

the unlicensed 5GHz band, knownas Licensed Assisted Access, as wellas early deployments of pre-standardLAA-like systems,” says the Alliance.“There is a risk that LAA, and espe-cially pre-standard systems deployedahead of coexistence work beingdone in the industry, will negativelyimpact billions of Wi-Fi users whorely on 5GHz today for networkingand device connectivity. It is general-ly agreed in principle that fair shar-ing is required, but there needs to befurther work from all parties to ad-dress this risk in practice.”

To further drill home its mes-sage, the Alliance points out that Wi-Fi is also no slouch when it comes toits contribution to the global econo-my; which, citing figures from Katzand Plum Consulting, the group esti-mates at “hundreds of billions ofdollars.”

Still, it’s hard not to sense a hintof insecurity from the Wi-Fi sector.After all, it doesn’t have any legalright to what is essentially a free pub-lic resource.

As Qualcomm CTO Matt Grobpointed out in a recent interviewwith EE Times, ‘Wi-Fi spectrum’ isnot actually spectrum specifically al-located to Wi-Fi. “It is an unli-censed spectrum and Wi-Fi complieswith the regulation,” he said. “It’snot licensed to any one family.”

So the only plea the Wi-Fi campcan offer up, to the public as well asregulators, is to call for assurancesthat the rights of Wi-Fi users andequipment makers are protectedagainst interference from new tech-

nologies.If the Wi-Fi community’s defence

of unlicensed spectrum is foundedon its past successes, the LTE-Ucamp’s argument is focused squarelyon the future. Basically, cellular sys-tems desperately need help going for-ward.

The general consensus is that inthe next five to ten years, cellularnetworks will have to support 1,000times the traffic they do today. A lotof that growth is attributed to video,but there are plenty of other applica-tions that will also begin to demanda share of network resources, led bythe now catch-all term ‘Internet ofThings’.

There are several vectors the in-dustry is looking at to meet that ex-pected capacity demand, includingdenser networks through small cells,and more efficient radios and anten-nas; but access to new spectrum isfront and centre. The problem foroperators is that licensed spectrum isexpensive, as evidenced in the recentauction by the Federal Communica-tions Commission of the AdvancedWireless Services spectrum in theUS, which raised an unprecedentedUS$44.9 billion.

Depending on the country andmarket, there is anywhere between500MHz to 650MHz of unlicensedspectrum available free of charge foroperators through LTE-U. Com-pared that to the 65MHz of AWS-3spectrum auctioned by the FCC ear-lier this year, and it is easy to under-stand why operators are salivatingover the prospect of LTE-U.

LTE-U vs. Wi-FiA new proposal led by Qualcomm and Ericsson seeks to expand LTE into the unlicensed spectrum fre-quencies currently used by nearly ubiquitous Wi-Fi networks. Is this a blatant incursion by the cellular

industry into the territory of a long-time ally? Or simply the natural evolution of technology, which couldput Wi-Fi on the road to extinction? Tony Chan reports.

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As Verizon network technologyand planning SVP Ed Chan notes,unlicensed spectrum is there to pro-mote innovation – and LTE-U repre-sents a new innovation for the specif-ic frequency bands, which alreadysupport multiple technologies andapplications such as Wi-Fi, Blue-tooth, cordless phones, baby moni-tors, and garage door openers.

According to this argument, LTE-U is simply another technology thatwants to use unlicensed spectrum.

Rude vs. politeThe biggest worry amongst the Wi-Fiindustry is interference; that LTE-Uwill somehow unfairly hog the band.At the onset of LTE-U, Wi-Fi propo-nents immediately pointed out the“rudeness” of LTE, which constantlytransmits an RF signal to the net-work.

This contrasts with Wi-Fi, whichincorporates a so-called “polite” pro-tocol, known by its technical term asdistributed coordination function,which in turn features a technologycalled carrier sense multiple accesswith collision avoidance. DCF makessure each device checks that no oth-er device is talking before transmit-ting their traffic, and to repeat theprocess at regular intervals.

The initial fear is that introduc-ing LTE in its unmodified formwould disrupt Wi-Fi users, whose de-vices are too polite to fight back.

It is a situation well recognisedby the cellular industry. In a recentQualcomm-sponsored white paper,researchers at the Signals ResearchGroup highlighted potential issueswith the current version of LTE,which failed at least two specifictechnical requirements outlined bythe European TelecommunicationsStandards Institute when a technolo-gy uses the unlicensed 5GHz band.

The ETSI requirements are tar-geted at ensuring a fair usage of thespectrum by making sure that usersfirst ask before they send traffic, witha technique called clear channel as-sessment, and don’t hog up thebandwidth once they start sendingusing the channel occupancy timefeature. This requires the sender towait and repeat the first process inregular intervals, hence allowing oth-er traffic to go through.

These requirements are not metby the current generation of LTE-U,which SRG has dubbed Phase 1.

“Although there are mechanismsin place for LTE-U Phase 1 that willallow LTE and Wi-Fi to co-exist inthe same unlicensed spectrum, thereare certain regional-specific regulato-ry requirements that LTE cannotsupport without changes to the airinterface,” says SRG, pointing toETSI’s requirements. “LTE is con-stantly transmitting an RF signal, sowhile it can still apply interferencemitigation mechanisms, it is doing it

while “talking” – a big No-No ac-cording to these requirements.”

According to SRG, full regulato-ry compliance of LTE-U – at least forETSI – is not expected before Phase2 to LTE-U. That will be defined inthe next specification of the 3GPP,or Release 13, due sometime nextyear.

R13 is expected to introduce afeature called “listen before talk,” aswell as dynamic frequency selection– so LTE-U can navigate through theunlicensed bands. These should al-low LTE-U and Wi-Fi to coexist hap-pily alongside each other, Qual-comm’s Grob added.

Performance advantagesIn addition to bringing new spec-trum frequencies to cellular, LTE-U’s advocates argue that simply mi-grating to a LTE radio offers distinctperformance advantages over Wi-Fi,starting with better spectral efficien-cy.

According to Qualcomm’s Grob,one of the key motivations behindLTE-U was to develop the “most costeffective wireless network” possible.“When we look at the performanceand value of the two technologies,and the fact that many operators arealready using Wi-Fi for offload, wefound that… with the LTE family, wecan make the use of the unlicensedspectrum three times more efficient-ly than with 802.11.”

LTE’s core system – includingmore robust protection of controlchannel elements, better link adapta-tion, and a more sophisticated re-transmission mechanism – also helpmake the technology superior thanWi-Fi, add researchers at SRG. “Thelink adaptation with LTE leverageschannel quality indicator reportsfrom the mobile device, which allowsthe serving cell to dynamically adjustto rapid changes in channel condi-tions. Additionally, LTE uses a morecomplex HARQ (Hybrid AutomaticRepeat reQuest) process, which al-lows it to combine the received ener-gy of the (initial) transmission andthe subsequent retransmissions of adata packet for better efficiency.”

According to SRG, these tech-nical differences between LTE andWi-Fi result in “fairly meaningfulperformance differences that favourLTE.”

At the same time, LTE-U also of-fers better mobility – since it uses thesame core network as an operator’sLTE network on licensed spectrum,thus supporting seamless hand offbetween cells, adds Ericsson CTOfor Hong Kong and Macau MichaelLee. For the same reason, LTE-U willoffer better authentication and secu-rity.

Capacity boostHaving said that, no one in the in-dustry is really proposing LTE-U as astandalone platform for new net-works. The fact is that a networkthat is built exclusively with unli-censed spectrum can’t offer any qual-ity of service, adds Lee.

The most common use case forLTE-U being proposed positionsLTE-U as a complementary band foroperators with licensed LTE spec-trum. Through LTE-Advanced’s car-rier aggregation, LTE-U representsanother carrier to be added to an op-erators’ network, primarily to boostcapacity.

The initial proposed architecturecalls for an anchoring macro cell onlicensed spectrum, and LTE-U de-ployed in small cells to boost capaci-ty. Subsequently, LTE-U could be de-ployed side-by-side at the same smallcell as licensed LTE.

“This is a critical solution sincein some markets, like Hong Kong,the regulator does not have anyplans in the near future to release

new spectrum,” says Lee. “To meetfuture network demand, operatorsneed LTE-U to cope with increasingtraffic loads.”

Like any new technology, LTE-Uwill have to overcome its own go-to-market obstacles. As a small cell tech-nology, it will face all the typicalsmall cell challenges, such as back-haul, according to Lee.

“Because LTE-U will have to con-nect back to an operator’s core net-work, it needs a carrier grade back-haul. And since it will be deployedin small cells, that environmentmight be a shopping mall, which initself presents challenges of site ac-cess,” he says. “LTE-U will need itsown business case.”

One topic that should not be anissue is the actual cost of the equip-ment, adds Alcatel-Lucent wirelessCTO Michael Peeters.

“I don’t think this is such a bigbarrier,” he says. “While there aresome changes to the RF, [in] many ofthe components – with respect to

the maturity of RF on both ends –there is significant maturity.”

“For phones, you can reuse theRF for Wi-Fi for LTE-U. From thebase station side, if you are buildinga base station that already [supports]3 to 4 carrier aggregation, which al-ready has the required LTE chipsetsin there, the cost overhead for LTE-U is not that significant.”

That said, LTE-U will requirenew gear both on the network sideand at the handset level, which pre-sents initial adoption and economy-of-scale challenges.

Unified wirelessWhen it comes to LTE-U, it is clearthat there are a lot of different forcesat work. On the one hand, it’s easy

to understand why operators such asVerizon and, most recently, T-Mobile USA are keen to at least giveit a go; it’s really an incremental costthat has the potential to give themaccess to a highly valued commodity.It is also easy to see why an organiza-tion like Qualcomm, Ericsson or Al-catel-Lucent would want to promoteLTE-U since it means more chipsales, more equipment sales, and soon.

But that doesn’t change the factthat LTE-U is really just a better wayto do something that is already beingdone today with other technologies;namely Wi-Fi, and standard LTEsmall cells.

According to Peeters, while it is afact that LTE-U will offer superiorperformance than Wi-Fi, the indus-try should not simply abandon theolder technology in the existing2.4GHz and 5GHz unlicensedbands.

“Wi-Fi has tremendous ad-vantage in existing bands,” he says.“The access points are already thereand the handsets are already presentto be able to connect to those accesspoints, as well as a mature self-regulated ecosystem and a regulatoryenvironment to make sure that any-one who is broadcasting in the unli-censed spectrum adheres to therules.”

In fact, a number of industryplayers are working on parallel solu-tions that will leverage Wi-Fi andLTE at the same time. Alcatel-Lucentdubs the solution ‘wireless unifiednetwork’.

“We also realise that there are anumber of challenges with LTE-U.While it is a great way forward, par-ticularly for the LTE ecosystem be-cause it is more spectrally efficientthan Wi-Fi, we see LTE-U as takingslightly longer to get into the mar-ket,” says Peeters. “LTE-U will verylikely happen, [but] it will requirenew base stations, new handsets and,in a large portion of the world, it willrequire at least licensed assisted ac-cess to make sure it complies withregulation.... we asked ourselves ‘isthere anything we can do that actual-ly accomplishes the same goals, with-out having the same barriers to en-try’.”

Blending techsWith WUN, which Alcatel-Lucent

Michael Peeters

has laid out in a two part roadmap,Wi-Fi is used as part of an operator’snetwork.

“We looked at it and realisethere was a blending we could do.The way we actually looked at it is‘what were the limitations of Wi-Fi,and the limitations of mobile, espe-cially if you think about the enter-prise environment.’ The limitationsare essentially that on the downloadwireless is excellent – it has schedul-ing, and it has very efficient spectralaccess – but... it is licensed spectrum,and getting another 20MHz of avail-able spectrum is tricky, or at least ex-pensive for operators. On the otherhand, Wi-Fi has fewer limitations onthe download, but it is limited in theupstream,” Peeters says. “And so theway we looked at it was ‘is theresomething we can do to take the bestof both worlds?”

Alcatel-Lucent’s WUN solutionovercomes these “limitations” by us-ing the uplink from LTE, and down-links from Wi-Fi.

“The way we’ve developed it al-lows you to do it without having tochange the Wi-Fi access point. It al-lows you to use our normal smallcells. The small cell and the Wi-Fi ac-cess point don’t even have to belongto the same operator,” says Peeters,adding that the system can deliver aperformance improvement of up to30% using today’s technology.

The technology is something Al-catel-Lucent calls Wi-Fi Boost. Theonly requirement is that the mobileoperator’s small cell as well as corenetwork has to be from Alcatel-Lucent.

“The way it works, say you aredoing a video conference, or down-loading a large streaming video; ifyou do that over Wi-Fi alone, youhave most of the bandwidth down-stream, but the upstream packets foracknowledgement are actually eatingup a large portion of the band-width,” he continues. “By movingthose over to LTE, we now have es-sentially scheduled downlink overWi-Fi, with almost no uplink traffic;and we have all of the uplink trafficgoing over LTE, which is not strain-ing the LTE system at all.”

Best of all, the solution is accessi-ble today via a software upgradefrom an app on the end-point, addsPeeters.

Network integrationA similar solution is being broughtto market by Nokia Networks, whichhas unveiled a new system that linksboth Wi-Fi and LTE radio networksto a common core.

The system takes advantage oftechniques outlined by the specifica-tions of the current generation of

LTE, including access network dis-covery and selection function en-hancements, to provide network in-formation from both Wi-Fi and LTEradio networks back to the core net-work. This information is then usedby the core to select the best networkfor the job at any given time.

“With R12 [the current specifica-tion for cellular technology], you canprovide information on networkload, signal strength, backhaul condi-tions… with this information, youcan now have a solution that selectsthe best network either by local, loca-tion, and application type,” saysNokia Networks head of technologyfor Asia Pacific Brian Cho.

According to Cho, these type ofimplementation already enables arange of offload and onload scenari-os between cellular and Wi-Fi.

In addition to offloading cel-lular data to Wi-Fi when the LTEnetwork becomes congested, the so-lution can also ensure better user ex-perience at the Wi-Fi level by onload-ing Wi-Fi hotspot traffic to LTEwhen a hotspot becomes congested,or experience a degradation of signalquality.

Going forward, Wi-Fi and LTElook set to get even closer together.According to both Cho and Alcatel-Lucent’s Peeters, work is now under-way on a LTE/WLAN interworkingsolution that will effectively treat a

Wi-Fi channel as another carrier ona LTE carrier aggregation system.This means that any operator-ownedWi-Fi hotspot can be turned intopart of the LTE network, adds Cho.

New marketAt the end of the day, the who andwhy behind LTE-U adoption willcome down to the nature of the mar-ket and the operator’s particularmarket position, Cho continues.

“If operators can get extra spec-trum from the regulator at a reasona-ble price, then they might not needLTE-U, because licensed spectrum isalready better than unlicensed,” hesays. “If not, then LTE-U is some-thing they will look at. We have al-ready gotten inquiries from severaloperators for LTE-U.”

At the same time, operators whohave already made significant invest-ments in Wi-Fi, such as incumbentslike KT in Korea, might want to lev-erage those investments.

“A lot of operators, which havemany Wi-Fi hotspots, they are inter-ested in LTE/WLAN integration,they are less interested in LTE-U,”says Cho.

In this respect, there is no dangerthat Wi-Fi will be going away anytime soon. Indeed, Wi-Fi could evenget a boost as a result of LTE-U.

“Although some of the operatorsat the 3GPP workshop last June whoseemed in favour of LTE-U are someof the biggest proponents of Wi-Fitoday, we have no expectation thatthey will abandon their Wi-Fi strate-gy,” says SRG. “In fact, one could ar-gue that LTE-U creates a new marketopportunity for Wi-Fi and it also en-courages Wi-Fi to further enhancewith innovative solutions, in802.11ax and beyond.

“As an example, an operatorwithout a strategic interest in Wi-Ficould start deploying Wi-Fi in its net-work when it deploys LTE-U. Theconcept of a Unified LTE Networkis one good reason for doing so. Af-ter all, the incremental cost of theadditional Wi-Fi radio is relativelymodest in the big scheme of thingscompared to the cost associated withinstalling the small cell and the on-going operational expenses(backhaul, etc.).”

Brian Cho

Communications Day: A lot of tech-nologies have emerged in the pastcouple of years in the fixed line mar-ket, including VDSL2 vectoring,G.fast and others. How do you seethe market today?

Federico Guillén: We all under-stand, and we all agree, that the end-game is fibre to the home, that’s thefuture proof solution that will pro-vide you all the speed that you needin the future. But the problem is inorder to get the right coverage withFTTH, you need between 10 to 20years. So the investment is very high,and the time for return on invest-ment is very long, and by the timeyou are finish with the right cover-age, you also face new problems likeentering the house, which is compli-cated and costly.

The other type of customers thatchoose coverage are deploying cop-per, through fibre to the node. Theproblem with that is you have an eas-ier way to address the full popula-

tion, but the opex is higher, and thecapacity that you can provide is low-er. With VDSL, theoretically, youcan reach 100Mbps over 500 metres,but the reality is with the crosstalk, itis more like 40Mbps, 35Mbps with alot of dispersion between the lines.

So what happened was we came intothe market a few years ago with vec-toring, and that changed the picture

completely for both copper and fibrebecause with vectoring, you elimi-nate the crosstalk. From a businessperspective, the implication of thatis, all of a sudden, you are able toprovide 90Mbps, 100Mbps from 500metres – which is a fibre-like speed.

So customers who used to deploy fi-bre only, they are now going into afixed environment with FTTH and

Fixed directionsThe upgrade of the world’s fixed broadband networks is accelerating, with a range of national policies

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FTTN because what this is doing isaccelerating the business case. All ofa sudden, they are able to grab morecustomers and start returning mon-ey, but they can reuse [copper] andshorten the loop, going to the endgoal of FTTH.

We are seeing that happening allover the place – mixed deployments.It is not any more about fibre or cop-per, it is now fibre and copper. Inmy opinion, it is about fibre, andcopper, and wireless. In rural areas,it makes sense, many times, to do afixed wireless type of approach.

CD: Can you comment on what ishappening in Australia with the Na-tional Broadband Network roll out?

FG: NBN is a very good example ofwhat I’m describing is happening inthe market. NBN Co decided to gowith a fibre to the premises deploy-ment, and this is the right thing todo going forward. But they realisedthat it would be too slow. So whatthey did was to combine FTTP andFTTN, because that way, they will beable to provide fibre-like speeds tomany more people in a shorter peri-od of time. This is exactly what I’vebeen talking about. NBN Co is onecustomer that is making the point.

CD: What are some of the new tech-nologies that will enable this mixedfibre and copper environment?

FG: One of the things that we arebringing to the market in the comingmonths is NG-PON2. So you haveyour G-PON network, which is2.5Gbps served between 16 and upto 128 subscribers – that’s down-stream, upstream is 1.25Gbps. NG-PON2 is Time and Wavelength Divi-sion Multiplexing, so we combine[wavelengths], or lambdas. So wehave 4 lambdas, and each lambda is10Gbps symmetrical, which means40G on 4 lambdas. The most im-portant thing is we use the same pas-sive optical network. Lambdas thatare deployed for G-PON can be usedfor NG-PON2, so you can combinethe two, or you can deploy directlyNG-PON2 when it becomes availa-ble… [for] the first product, we have

already lab trials, we are going tolaunch the products over the nextyear.

Now you can imagine the possibili-ties, because you can use one lambdafor residential, one lambda for busi-ness applications, one lambda forwireless backhaul, one lambda forwholesale to one of your competitor.Now you have one network that youcan multiply by four and by four interms of capacity. Looking forward,we are seeking a standard for eightlambdas. What is important is that itfuture proofs your investment.

CD: That seems to be a solution forfibre, what about copper?

FG: On top of combining it withWDM, there is another problem:customers, especially in Europe, de-ploy and they reach a house [but]they cannot enter the house… why isthat? It is a house without anywhereto put the fibre, so you have to drillwalls, and the end customers say ‘noway you are going to do that with myhouse, I’ll stay with DSL.’ So youhave to use copper. And we have putinto the market as well something wecall G.fast.

G.fast is a copper technology likeVDSL2 but it uses much higher fre-quencies, up to 200MHz, that canprovide 1Gbps at very short distanc-es, like 70 metres… at below 100 me-tres, up to 1Gbps.

CD: When do you think G.fast willhappen?

FG: With big commercial deploy-ments, you have to be realistic. It isnot just about technology, no matterhow much you want it. It is aboutthe business case, it is always aboutthe business case, and for a businesscase to work – so you can start using

G.fast in business applications – youwill need the cost to go down. Forthe cost to go down, you need vol-ume, and for volume, you need time.So yes, it will be ready this year,there will be products; but big com-mercial deployments, you can expectnot before 2016.

CD: When will vectoring arrive forG.fast?

FG: The first version of G.fastdoesn’t include vectoring. The se-cond specification for G.fast, whichwill be ready this year, will includevectoring. So that is the importantone, because you need vectoringwith G.fast.

By the way, vectoring is about algo-rithms, and it’s about experience.With the software today, we are get-ting VDSL vectoring that is 20% bet-ter than two years ago. So our algo-rithms are very robust today, but Iexpect much better results. A yearago, we got 800Mbps [on G.fast withvectoring], now I expect 1Gbps.

CD: Are G.fast and NG-PON2 thefuture for fixed broadband?

FG: What G.fast does is comple-ment NG-PON2, but only at veryshort distances…

On top of that there are customersin the middle who have nodes at adistance of 300 metres. [For them,]we are putting in place a technologycalled V-Plus, which can provide250Mbps at 300 metres. So we keepon innovating all the time on bothcopper and fibre, working aroundthe business case of our customers,trying to shorten the period whenthey can get a return on their invest-ment.

CD: What is V-Plus?

FG: VDSL2 is 17MHz, G.fast is100MHz or 200MHz, V-Plus is34MHz. We are working to make itan official standard. VDSL with vec-toring is 100Mbps over 500 metres.V-Plus is more or less 250Mbps over300 metres with vectoring. G.fast is1Gbps at below 100 metres, like 70metres. We are always innovating.For example, Bell Labs showed me a

“For the cost to go down, you

need volume, and for volume,

you need time. So yes, G,fast

will be ready this year, there will

be products; but big commercial

deployments, you can expect not

before 2016.”

technology that got 10Gbps overcopper, we called this XG.FAST.That is over 30 metres or so. Butthat is not a product [yet], it is justresearch.

CD: There seem to be a lot of op-tions for operators. For operatorslooking at VDSL2, should they actu-ally plan for G.fast distances even ifthe technology isn’t quite here? Be-cause if they don’t they might haveto undergo the entire fibre extensionproject again in a couple of yearswhen they want to roll out G.fast.

FG: If you look at the business case,if you do fibre directly, the return is7 years, more or less. If you look at acombination of FTTH and FTTN,after 2 years, you are in profit. Youcan do that in one step, or you cando that in two steps. The thing is,the more you approach the home,the more difficult it is and the morecostly it is. You can choose. Manycustomers are looking at going di-rectly to the home, you can doVDSL vectoring, or you can useG.fast as a complementary methodof getting into the home. Getting in-to the home is an operation thattakes about 2 to 3 hours, so some-times it is better to just put a boxoutside and provide fibre speedswith copper without having to do an-ything inside the home.

What we are trying to do with ourcarrier customers is to provide themwith all the possibilities, dependingon their requirements. I have hadcustomers who were very decided onFTTH or vectoring, who have decid-ed to look at an intermediate stepwith V-Plus. They are adding anoth-er step because the return on invest-ment is paying the extra to go deep-er. If they don’t do that, they wouldhave to wait too much time and theycould lose the customers. This givesthem money right away, and moneyto further invest.

CD: Going back to Australia, shouldNBN Co be looking at VDSL2 orG.fast?

FG: They should bet on the two.

Every network is different. They arebetting on FTTN when they havenodes that are 400/500 metres, andwhere there are places [where it’s]difficult to access the house, or evenif they decide to do fibre to thebuilding [or] the basement, the dis-tance is not that long; they are readywith VDSL. But [they are also] readyfor G.fast, which is something thatthey are also evaluating. So they arecombining all the possibilities.

The problem with FTTH is that youend up deploying it when it is easyfor you. But that might not be thebest thing to do from a business per-spective, because you might not be

addressing the best customers withthe technology.

What we are doing is sitting with allour customers and analysing togeth-er with them the business case.

The business case depends on manythings. It is not the same if you canuse aerial fibre, it is not the same ifyou have to dig, and put in theducts, or if the ducts are alreadythere; it is not the same dependingon the distance, the geographical dis-persion of the city, whether it is[individual] buildings or flats.

What we do is we sit with them andwe have a department within BellLabs we call Bell Labs Modelling,and we do all the modelling depend-ing on technology and the cost mod-els. We do a complete study, and theresult, normally is that the best thingto do is a combination of FTTH andFTTN; so you initially provide fibre-like speeds everywhere. In the se-cond phase, you go deeper with thefibre. If you do this in one, two,three steps, you find the businesscase for you.

Going back to the NBN, their deci-sion is to combine FTTP and FTTNwith VDSL2. They are not waitingfor G.fast.

CD: What about wireless?

FG: Wireless is a trade off, again, be-tween distance, coverage and capaci-ty. So in some places, it makes sensefrom an economical perspective, butit has to be so close to the customerto offer fibre-like speeds. Sometimes,you have to ask why not just contin-ue with the fibre. I see it more as acomplement in rural areas, for exam-ple. But then the problem is you arenot going to be able to provide thesame type of speed as you can withfibre, or even copper. For me, it is acomplement, it is pure economics. Ifit makes sense from an economicsperspective, then wireless works.

It is the same with G.fast. G.fast isonly needed when you need 1Gbps.And yes, we are seeing customers al-ready doing 1Gbps, but to be hon-est, it is more marketing than any-thing else. Do you really need1Gbps? With today’s applications? Idon’t doubt in the future, 1Gbps[will not be] enough. We have seenthis happen before, when peoplehave asked ‘100Mbps, who needsthat?’ and today that is more or lessthe norm.

Applications like 4K video, andunicast video, where you have tohave an individual stream for eachuser, are possible examples that willneed 1Gbps.

“Yes, we are seeing customers

already doing 1Gbps, but to be

honest, it is more marketing

than anything else. Do you real-

ly need 1Gbps? With today’s

applications?

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A ustralia’s NBN Co will leverageexisting hybrid-fibre coaxial ca-

ble alongside fibre-to-the-premise, -basement and –node as part of itsmulti-technology mix deployment –and has just announced an upgradepath to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.And NBN Co is by no means the on-ly large-scale operator looking toHFC to sit alongside fibre in a next-generation network. It’s an oppor-tune moment to review some currenttrends in the cable technology.

HFC networks were originally de-signed to carry TV signals, but opera-tors can set aside channels – typicallybetween 6-8MHz – on the cables fordata transmission. While the veryfirst HFC networks were one-way sys-tems, they now typically operate bi-directionally, with signals carried inboth directions on the same networkfrom the headend to the home andvice versa. The forward-path ordownstream signals carry infor-mation from the headend to thehome, including video content, voiceand internet data; the return-path orupstream signals carry informationfrom the home to the headend suchas control signals to order movies orinternet data to send emails. To pre-vent interference of signals, the fre-

quency band is divided into two sec-tions. Since video content was sentonly to the home, traditionally HFCnetworks were structured to be non-symmetrical, with one direction hav-ing much more capacity than theother. As additional services were be-ing added to the HFC network –think internet access and telephony– the return-path is increasingly be-ing used.

The DOCSIS standards for HFC al-low for the bonding of more thanone channel on the same cable forincreased throughput. “This is actu-ally a technique I invented 10 yearsago for DOCSIS 3.0, the bonding ofmultiple channels,” says Cisco fellowand access business unit CTO JohnChapman, a key pioneer in DOCSISdevelopment. And, apart from theneed to share the cable with any ex-isting TV broadcasting, he saysthere’s no technical reason not toscale HFC broadband to as manychannels as possible. “Technicallyyou can go to the whole spectrum[available on the cable]… a state ofthe art cable modem today has some-where between 16-32 channels... a32-channel cable modem, at 8MHz[channels], will be around 1.5 –1.6Gbps of downstream through-

put.... or around 1.2Gbps for 6MHzchannels.”

DOCSIS 3.1, the latest evolution ofthe standard, promises even more.““We could have scaled DOCSIS 3.0to full spectrum, which is anywherefrom 128 channels to 150 chan-nels... but, because the number ofchannels you get depends on the sili-con you’re using, we’d have needednew silicon for the next generationof 3.0,” says Chapman. “So we said...‘if you’re going to build new chips,this is a good time to update thetechnology’... and that was the prem-ise for 3.1.”

“We changed the modulation to or-thogonal frequency division multi-plexing, which gives us more flexibil-ity in how we allocate spectrum; wechanged the error correction tosomething called low-density parity-check, which gives us a very niceboost in performance and allows usto increase the modulation by one ortwo orders... and we put in a bunchof other troubleshooting tech-niques... we made it a very superiorsystem.”

Chapman is forecasting DOCSIS 3.1field trials by 2016, with initial earlydeployments in the same year and a

The latest deal with HFCOperators around the world are looking to HFC, and the latest evolution of its DOCSIS standard, todeliver the speeds required to underpin fast broadband deployments – including Australia’s National

Broadband Network Company. Richard van der Draay and Petroc Wilton report.

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19/20 May 2015 Westin Hotel, Sydney

Talk Satellite and CommsDay are delighted to announce the 6thannual Australasia Satellite Forum to be held on 19th & 20th May2015 at the Westin Hotel, Sydney, Australia.

Forum EXPANSIONA gathering of world and domestic satellite leaders will convergeon Sydney for this now TWO Full Day event on the 19 & 20 May2015 at the Westin Hotel, Sydney, Australia. The aim is to identifyand initiate needed dialogue for the development of satellite as aprimary delivery mechanism for universal service purposes. TheAustralasia Satellite Forum will address issues of urgent concernto governments, military, enterprise and end user entities.

New Forum EXPOThe Australasia Satellite Forum continues to grow year on year andit is therefore important to develop the event in line with marketdemand. We have received numerous requests for an exhibitionarea to enable companies to show their products and services in amore visible environment. In response, we shall open up a furtherballroom adjacent to the forum where exhibition booths will beavailable for booking. This will attract further visitors from the val-ue chain that appreciate the trade show experience to conducttheir business requirements.

Lunch sponsored byArianespaceIPSTARBreakfast sponsored byOrbital ScienceEutelsatMorning Teas sponsored byGateway TeleportTelstraAfternoon Tea sponsored byGilat Satellite NetworksOmnispaceBooths sponsored byOptus SatelliteSpeedcastInmarsatNewtec/Lumin

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Paul Fletcher,Parliamentarysecretary to thecommunicationsminister,AustralianGovernment

CommodoreDavid Greaves,CommanderDefenceStrategic Com-munications(CDSC), ADF

OTHER SPEAKERS from Optus Satellite, SES, Intelsat, NewSat, IP-STAR, Newsat, Arianespace, Gateway Teleport, Telstra, Our Telekomin the Solomon Islands, Digicel Pacific Group, Sky Pacific, Inmarsat,Eutelsat Asia, MS Consulting, SSL, Newtec Asia, Foxtel, Newsat, NBNCo, Gilat Satellite Networks, NSR, Optus, SpeedCast, Skybridge, Com-sys, ViaSat, FetchTV, H-IIA/H-IIB Launch Services, Mitsubishi HeavyIndustries, SimonTD & Associates Asia, Orbital ATK, Viasat Inc, GVF,SES, Omnispace, Speedcast and more

Pacific Islands connectivity ● Broadband to the edge ● Manufacture & Ground segments

Mobility market at a crossroads ● VSAT futures ● Satellite operator roundtable

PANEL SESSION TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED

Asia satellite focus ● Oil & Gas, Mining enterprise segments ● Military & security

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DAY ONE May 19 20158.00: Breakfast/Networking Sponsored by Orbital Sciences9.05: Keynote AddressPaul Fletcher, Parliamentary secretary to the communicationsminister, Australian Government9.30: Satellite Operator RoundtablePaul Sheridan – Vice President Optus SatelliteGlen Tindall – Vice President Asia Pacific, SESTerry Beakley - Vice President Asia, IntelsatAdrian Ballintine – CEO, NewsatModerator - Christopher Baugh, President, NSR10.30: Networking Break sponsored by Gateway Teleport

11.00: Mobility Presentation by Christopher BaughMobility Markets at a CrossroadAcross land, sea and in the air, users of satellite increasingly demandbandwidth and services at a faster pace than ever before. Still, MSS sys-tems fulfil the needs of 90% of users with reliable, low bandwidth servicessuch as voice and M2M applications. With future systems including HTS inGEO/MEO/LEO intending to raise the bar via higher throughput, willenough of a market exist to serve planes, trains and land-mobile plat-forms? At the crossroad between volume and quality of service, what willbe the impact of this junction in the market, and how will it be felt acrossall mobility platforms in the region and globally?

11.30: Mobility PanelGrowth Market or Oversupplied Mirage?Joe Bravman, CEO, OmnispaceDon Buchman, General Manager, Commercial Aviation Services, ViaSatTerry Beakley - Vice President Asia, IntelsatChristopher Baugh, President, NSR

12.20: Pacific Island PanelLoyley Ngira, CEO, Our Telekom in the Solomon IslandsGary Cobain, Head of ICT Business Solutions, Digicel Pacific GroupClint Ah Sam, Chief Engineer, Sky PacificAndrew Taylor, VP Sales, Pacific Islands, SpeedcastModerator, Maui Sanford, Consultant, MS Consulting

1.10: Networking Lunch sponsored by Arianespace

2.30: Unbreakable Links PanelAsian satellite budgets, broadcasting & broadbandThe Australasia and Southeast Asia video market continues to deliverremarkable growth prospects for 2015-2018.But can these still developing markets sustain such growth in the face ofthe extended reach and tumbling costs for terrestrial OTT and cloud-basedsolutions? In meantime, the ever-expanding deployments of premiumHD, 4K, live sports and event-driven TV services require yet more satellitecapacity – at least until the terrestrial networks catch up. How can thesatellite sector meet the new consumer demands for high-quality contentand distribution -- and pay the infrastructure bills?

Pierre Benoist d’Anthenay, Deputy CEO, Eutelsat AsiaClint Ah Sam, Chief Engineer, Sky PacificMario Querner, Vice President, Newtec AsiaBernhard Conoplia, Head of Strategy - Delivery, FoxtelTony Brown, Public Affairs Manager - Corporate, NBN CoSimon Cathcart, Executive Director, FetchTVModerator: Simon Twiston Davies, CEO, SimonTD & Associates Asia

3.30: Satellite Manufacture / Ground Segment PanelTed McFarland, Vice President, Orbital ATKTony Colucci, Vice President, SSLDavid Ball, CTO, NewSatJohn Humphrey, Strategic Advisor, Leosat, Inc.Moderator: Kevin French, Publisher, talk Satellite

4:30 Networking Break sponsored by Gilat Satellite Networks

5:00 Broadband, to the edge and beyond panelErwin Hudson, Program Manager, NBN Co Long Term Satellite Service(LTSS) Ground System, Viasat IncNick Leake, Director Satellite Marketing, Optus Satellite

Oded Sheshinski, Regional Vice President, APAC, Gilat Satellite NetworksMatt Dawson, Program Director, satellite NBN CoMichael Abela, CEO, SkybridgeKeith Ramsay, V.P. Sales & Marketing, Gateway Teleport Ltd.

5.55: Optus: Platinum Sponsor Speaker6.10: Cocktail Reception

DAY TWO May 20 20158.00: Breakfast/Networking Sponsored by Eutelsat Asia9.00: Keynote AddressCommodore David Greaves, Commander Defence Strategic Commu-nications (CDSC), ADF9.30: Military PanelIncreasing capability to the warfighter through satelliteCommodore David Greaves, Commander Defence Strategic Communications(CDSC), ADFAndy Start - President, Global Government, InmarsatAlexander Jeuck, GM Governments & Institutions Asia Pacific, SESModerator: Don Brown, Senior Vice President Strategic Planning, Newsat

10.30: Networking Break sponsored by Telstra

11.00: Critical National Infrastructure PanelTo be updated shortly

12.00: Vanuatu Disaster Recovery Case Study

12.30: Networking Lunch sponsored by Thaicom

1.45: Keynote AddressParliamentary secretary to the shadow communications ministerMichelle Rowland

2.10: Enterprise Presentation by Simon BullThe fog begins to clear?After unprecedented change in the VSAT market over the past few yearsdriven by new satellite developments, changing economics and a rapidlyexpanding terrestrial infrastructure, is the new market environment begin-ning to become clearer and where is VSAT technology most applicable? VSAToperators need to play to the strengths of both VSAT and satellite technolo-gies whilst also understanding how to position their expertise and applica-tions within demanding vertical segments. The opportunities are immense,but so equally are the challenges.

2.40: Enterprise Network PanelChris Hill, Chief Technology Officer & Managing Director Asia Pacific, ITCGlobalSandeep Kumar, Head of Satellite Sales, TelstraPierre-Jean Beylier, CEO, SpeedCastKeith Ramsay, V.P. Sales & Marketing, Gateway Teleport Ltd.Moderator - Simon Bull, Senior Analyst, Comsys of Spectrum

3.40: ACMA Update TBC

4.10: Networking Break sponsored by Omnispace

4.40: Regulatory Issues WRC-2015N PanelBob Horton, Representative, GVFSimon Twiston Davies, CEO, SimonTD & Associates AsiaMaui Sanford, Consultant, MS ConsultingChris Althaus, CEO, AMTAReg Coutts, consultantModerator: Grahame Lynch, Publisher, CommsDay

5.30 Close of Forum.

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mainstream rollout in 2017. Ven-dors like Broadcom, STMicroelec-trics and Intel are well progressed indeveloping 3.1 chipsets, and opera-tors around the world are position-ing for deployment. In the US, forinstance, Comcast is heavily involvedwith pushing the technology; accessarchitecture VP Jorge Salinger saysthe immediate goal is to be in thefield, establishing network readinessthis year before deploying next year.Salinger has also confirmed thatComcast already has OFDM signalsrunning in one of its headends on itslive network, and – using speciallydesigned gear, ahead of general avail-ability of DOCSIS 3.1 kit – hasrolled out DOCSIS 3.1 to select em-ployee households. Initial results arereportedly promising.

Meanwhile in Australia, NBN Cohas just confirmed that it will rollout the DOCSIS 3.1 standard forthe HFC cable broadband networksit is acquiring from established oper-ators Telstra and Optus. Accordingto CTO Dennis Steiger, the deploy-ment of the standard will kick off in2017; US-based telco equipmentmanufacturer Arris, who will be sup-plying everything from routers to ac-cess transport system products suchas optical receivers and forward pathtransmitters, is already gearing up forHFC upgrades that will ultimatelypush the NBN HFC to DOCSIS 3.1.

While operators prepare for thelaunch of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard,there’s a range of opinions on whatdata rates the technology might beable to deliver in the field – but thecommon theme is fibre-like speeds.

Cisco’s Chapman believes that with-in a few years, once cable modemsare available that can use all of thespectrum on a given coaxial cable,the speeds could get as high as 8-10Gbps before sharing with videoservices is taken into account; he saysthat with DOCSIS 3.1, HFC will of-fer “equal performance” to fibre forthe “foreseeable future.”

Arris APAC chief technologist Josh-

ua Eum says that the tech “will deliv-er the next iteration of bandwidthrequirements without significant in-vestment, to deliver over 10Gbpswhich meets the demands/requirements of consumers and op-erators around the world for theforeseeable future.”

The operators themselves are takinga similar line. “Effectively, this tech-nology has the potential to offerspeeds equivalent to what’s on offerby full FTTP and up to 100 timesfaster – up to 10Gbps – than what iscurrently provided by today’s HFCnetwork,” says NBN Co’s Steiger.Comcast is looking for 1Gbps in thenear future. “Our overall aim is to beable to deploy DOCSIS 3.1 and giga-bit-per-second in a broad scale start-ing in 2016,” says Salinger.

And Arris’ Eum is already lookingeven further ahead, to the next step.“Beyond DOCSIS 3.1 the industrywill continue to look at ways of im-proving the DOCSIS network forbetter efficiency and scalability,” hesays. “For example ARRIS is study-ing extended spectrum DOCSISwhere we are looking beyond the1.2GHz and 1.7GHz spectrum limitsimposed by DOCSIS 3.1 to dramati-cally leverage the network capacity.HFC networks still has plenty of lifeleft in terms of evolving to meet theneeds of the market.”

But it’s not just speed. One of the

benefits of pushing HFC to gigabitthroughput is that it leverages exist-ing, relatively low-maintenance infra-structure. “The fact that we're goingto be able to do this with our HFCnetwork and the fact that the [cable]network is a far lower maintenanceelement than any of the other metal-lic-based, copper delivery services isgood news for the consumer,” saysNBN Co CEO Bill Morrow. “NBNwill utilise a network that is alreadydeployed across millions of homesand businesses in Australia,” addsSteiger.

Even the director of Australia’s Insti-tute for a Broadband-Enabled Socie-ty professor Rod Tucker, an estab-lished FTTP proponent, lauds thepotential for HFC to re-use existingassets. “I’m not a great fan of themulti-technology mix that the[Australian government] has imple-mented, but I think the best part oftheir strategy is to use the existingHFC network, because it does havethe capability of being reused andproviding good extra bandwidth,” hesays. “You can easily expect over100Mbps downstream for DOCSIS3.0, which means in the new NBNthose people with HFC will likely bedoing better on average than thepeople with FTTN.”

There’s also the fact that DOCSIS3.1 is a flexible upgrade. “The beautyof DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade is that it’scompletely backwards compatible toprevious and existing DOCSIS tech-nologies. This means DOCSIS 3.1can be deployed in phases with up-grades in areas as required whichmakes it incredibly flexible and scala-ble in deploying this technology,”says Arris’ Eum. Of course DOCSIS3.1 provides much better spectral ef-ficiencies (upwards of 50%) throughthe use of superior OFDM PHYtechnology as well as LDPC FEC forhigher modulation support… DOC-SIS 3.1’s highlight is the ability toprovide extremely high bandwidths.

“But the best part is the flexibility ofdeployment.”

John Chapman