How Service Providers Can Transform Their Networks and Business Models to Meet Evolving Challenges Head-on

I had the honor of participating in The Independent Show in Minneapolis recently both as an exhibitor (for DZS) and a speaker. The Independent Show is a great yearly event hosted by the National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) that attracts a wide range of both telecom and cable service providers, content providers and equipment and software vendors to this audience. The discussion in the halls of the show reflected the top-of-mind issues for many U.S. service providers today that will continue to grow as we progress through the rest of 2023 and beyond. Specifically – how do I continue to transform my business to meet the changing needs of the future, and how can I leverage the current and upcoming broadband stimulus programs to better serve my communities and position by business for future success?

Here are some of the key takeaways from the event that I believe both shed light on current concerns while pointing a clear path to how they could and should be resolved:

• The video business model has changed dramatically – IPTV and traditional cable are rapidly being replaced by streamed TV. This begs the question of “how do I transition from my current model to meet the changing landscape, and how do I replace lost video revenues with new broadband services and revenues?” Streaming has turned the pay TV economic model upside down, with significant portions of customers cutting the cord while service providers are asked to pay more for content and to maintain their headend infrastructure. In response, service providers need to shift from being “triple play providers” to broadband quality of experience providers, where they can support with assurance and agility the growing array of broadband-based services – from entertainment services like streaming and gaming to business and work-from-home services like conferencing, collaboration and telehealth.
• BEAD is the biggest fish among many government programs available today or on the horizon that offer an unprecedented opportunity for service providers to scale while at the same time subsidizing buildouts in their regions that historically couldn’t be economically justified. However, these are only opportunities if these subsidized areas can support an ongoing profitable business AFTER the buildout grant dollars have been spent. To take advantage of these opportunities, service providers must invest strategically, leveraging architectures that can be cost effectively upgraded in the future to meet new demands, and be operated remotely with AI-driven insights to anticipate service issues that can be proactively and quickly resolved.
• For many cable operators, the move to FTTH is in play or about to happen. Successful service providers will embrace this shift as quickly as possible, as FTTH offers lower operating costs and the potential to meet future capacity demands efficiently and effectively. Architectures that have the headroom to scale will be essential, not only in the last mile, but also the middle miles.
• Multi-Gigabit services are the new frontier, and NCTC members are rapidly finding that they need to transform their networks to be ready for these services. Strategic service providers are embracing an “experience provider” mentality that is positioning them for long-term success. This entails a heavy emphasis on cloud-based software solutions that focus on in-home WiFi experience management, end-to-end network and service assurance, automation and orchestration that dramatically lower operational costs while at the same time accelerate time-to-market for new services.

The DZS network edge portfolio is ideally suited to address the challenges faced by NCTC members head-on. Featuring systems and platforms that are not only Build America, Buy America (BABA) ready to take advantage of government programs, but also universally hardened and architected with unparalleled capacity to be ready for the demands of the future and AI-driven software that delivers both service agility and performance excellence.

• DZS Velocity is available in V1, V2, and V6 optical line terminal (OLT) solutions in a range of form factors from 1RU to 6RU, supporting up to 25,000 subscribers in a non-blocking architecture with the capacity to allow in-place upgradeability from 10G PON to 50G PON and beyond. The award-winning DZS Velocity portfolio, which also has 14- and 16-slot chassis-based form factors, provides industry-leading density, can be deployed in centralized and disaggregated architectures featuring advanced software-defined networking support.
• DZS Saber 4400 is an environmentally hardened platform that redefines the economics of coherent optical metro and edge transport and supports the industry’s smallest form factor multi-degree CDC Flex-Grid ROADM functionality. Ready to support BABA requirements, the Saber 4400 is ideal for US middle mile broadband programs,
• DZS CloudCheck and Expresse are AI-enabled, cloud-based software solutions that enable operators to monitor, manage, and optimize both home WiFi networks with support for the market’s widest array of customer premise equipment (CPEs), as well as provide extensive service assurance across the entire network. Leveraging contextual analytics and machine learning (ML) algorithms to proactively optimize subscriber WiFi networks and end-to-end quality of experience, these two solutions help operators deliver the ultimate subscriber experience while significantly reducing truck rolls and overall support costs.
• DZS Xtreme leverages proven AI for automated, cross-domain network and service orchestration. With access, transport, and mobile components to knit all network domains into a coherent whole, DZS Xtreme empowers operators to create services tailored to subscribers’ specific requirements—from content streaming to telehealth to virtual reality.
• DZS FiberWay is the industry’s first comprehensive, hardened edge broadband solution designed to bridge the digital divide drawing from our DZS Cloud, Velocity, and Saber portfolios and complemented by key industry partners.

Whether you are a member of the NCTC or a service provider that is experiencing the same challenges they are facing, let DZS be your strategic partner in navigating a path to a successful future. Please engage with us at www.DZSI.com, or look for us at upcoming events like Fiber Connect 2023 in Orlando August 20-23.