Governments worldwide are investing massively in bridging the so-called digital divide. The US government alone is allocating over $73 billion to extend broadband’s reach to unserved or underserved markets and is investing an additional $14.2 billion to subsidize broadband cost and devices for lower income subscribers. The offer of additional broadband services enabled by this monumental investment will spur prodigious demand. This combination of tremendous demand, network requirements and governmental investment subsidy will result in a generational transformation of the access network.

The entities looking to deploy broadband access run the gamut from highly experienced incumbents with extensive in-place network and operating infrastructures to utilities that have been running their own private networks for many years, to inexperienced new service providers such as municipalities. The optimal access network solution for each deployment depends on a variety of factors such as topologies, which vary widely from dense urban areas to remote sparsely populated rugged rural areas, available technologies, deployment and operational flexibilities, and go-to-market strategies.

The various requirements to receive this funding, the plethora of options for designing the broadband access network, and the variability of requirements and business models have led to market confusion. Less experienced entities are turning to consultants and other third-party players to untangle the market complexity; vendors are struggling to serve the emerging and growing market segments that have needs that differ from their current customers, and even state governments are being required to judge among a multitude of bids for the federal dollars.

ACG is addressing these market inefficiencies along many dimensions and has created the Broadband Access Transformation practice to that end. Some of the services the new practice offers:

• Assessment of the regulatory framework
  • Short-term/long-term implications
  • Funding requirements

• Marketplace analysis
  • Market dynamics and broad trends
  • Market segmentation
  • Major players and emerging ones
  • Emerging market needs (solutions, support, funding, etc.)
  • The existing industry structure and what it must do to meet the changing market needs
  • Market sizing and channel analysis

• Survey of the existing technologies
  • PON
  • HFC
  • FWA
  • Satellite
  • other

• Comprehensive overview of key solutions
• Analysis of the major vendors’ solutions, highlighting points of differentiations and considerations, including both performance and operations
• Framework for:
  • Defining requirements
  • Considerations for broadband deployments
  • Evaluating solutions
  • Selecting an end-to-end solution, focusing not only on the access network, but on the overall environment, including operations and support

• Detailed analysis of select vendors
• Implications for metro and core networks
• Guidance for how to define an effective business strategy

The program will be of particular interest to:

• Equipment vendor product managers who
  • Need to understand their products’ place in the market and plan their evolution
  • Equipment vendor product marketing managers who require detailed understanding of the evolving market segments and the market players, both competitors and potential partners

• Software product and marketing managers who seek to sell their operations and automation systems into the access market
• Existing operators who need to evaluate the various equipment options for their access network transformation
• New operators who are faced with a myriad of approaches, architectures, equipment and software offerings for their new access networks

The program insights will utilize the deep cross-disciplinary expertise that ACG Research is known for, including access technologies, operations, marketing, and business analytics. Highly experienced subject matter expert ACG analysts Liliane Offredo-Zreik, Mark Mortensen and Rick Talbot will lead this effort.

For more information or to schedule a briefing, contact: rtalbot@agcc.com,  mmortensen@acgcc.com, or loffredo-zreik@agcc.com.