Access Insights™ At the Intersection of Service Provider Business Drivers and Emerging Technologies

What is “access”?  Simply put, it’s people and things accessing the cloud and each other. 

Access is no longer Fixed or Wireless.  Access is about connecting people and things to each other and to applications and service in “the cloud”.   Thus, access is about Fixed and Wireless.  It’s about having the right combined architecture on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis.  This “combo” trend is having, and will continue to have, major impacts and disruptions in the access market and in the entire service provider ecosystem.  New technologies, architectures and business models will emerge. Market realities are forcing carriers to offer (up to) gigabit speeds and incumbents have billions of dollars in deployed assets and architectures.  All this makes Access challenging for both technical/architectural and business decision making.    

I’ve determined that attention deficit disorder (A.D.D.) is a truly global phenomenon.  Therefore, I will present my points in terse salient bullets :-)

Top Access Insights to Ponder

1. The future of Access is Fixed and Wireless… not “or”
   1. SPs need to adapt organizations, so do vendors!
2. Gigabit Deployment Strategy
   1. Is timing everything? Plus...real strategic implications to the @$# Speed Test.
3. Next Gen Broadband CPE architecture and business models are being disrupted...
   1. Big risk to incumbent service providers and Vendors
4. Wi-Fi: The “toy” that grew up: Strategic implications abound
   1. Wi-Fi: Further proof that the “low end always wins”
5. Voice over Wi-Fi
   1. Nothing but upside to Cable Companies. Nothing but threats to MNOs.
6. LTE vs. Wi-Fi
   1. Remind me which one is for off-load?
7. Next Gen Cable Access Networks …
   1. PON Greenfield is redundant, DOCSIS Greenfield is an oxymoron
8. CPE vs. Carrier Gear (Plastic vs. Metal)
   1. Plastic companies building metal?
9. SDN-NFV in Access
   1. It’s coming… contemplations begin…
10. What’s the value of vendor incumbency at inflection points?
    1. Is Access different from any other industry?

There’s, hopefully obviously to the reader, a lot of thought behind each of these points.  I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss them in more detail.  Please contact me if you’d like to schedule some time explore how these insights impact your strategies and how we can create actionable plans to address and exploit them.

Greg Whelan gwhelan@greywale.com

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