Airties/Omdia report urges broadband operators to focus on latency and QoE rather than speed alone

Source: GOV.UK

WiFi specialist, Airties commissioned Omdia to deliver a new whitepaper report that revealed speed alone will no longer be a competitive advantage for broadband operators, as in the future more and more applications will be interactive in nature, relying as much on low latency as speed. 

The whitepaper titled Ensuring Consistent Home Wi-Fi QoE is Critical to Broadband Success was written by Michael Philpott, Omdia research director of service provider–consumer. It highlights the global acceleration of ultra-high-speed Internet, the growing demand for operators to focus on latency, and the importance of deploying in-home Smart Wi-Fi to enhance Quality of Experience (QoE) for subscribers.

The report’s findings showed more than 40% of households worldwide will have FTTH connectivity by 2027, and even more in advanced countries. The move to more advanced broadband access technologies is enabling ever-faster broadband speeds, with a 500% increase in the average speed over the past five years, and a further 200% increase expected across all regions in the next five years.

Omdia urged that operators need the right software management tools to identify applications and optimize users’ Wi-Fi performance to avoid the bottleneck simply moving to the in-home network.

Research found that a lack of home Wi-Fi investment can lead to an increase in customer support calls, with up to 60% of all broadband service calls relating to Wi-Fi. There will be an increased operational costs due to the complexity of pin-pointing causes of home Wi-Fi issues, pushing up costs to $30 per customer care call, with 10%–15% of customers needing more than a single call to resolve the issue. Additional inefficiency and unnecessary costs will be a factor, with 80% of routers that are returned as faulty are found to have no physical defect, or no fault found (NFF).  In addition, the company predicts a reduction of Net Promotor Scores (NPS) by up to -40 points by not being able to resolve a customer’s Wi-Fi issues promptly. Lastly, it forecasts unreported discontent, as up to 50–60% of subscribers with Wi-Fi related issues do not report the problem. Such customers typically have a lower NPS of up to -20 points, making a bad Wi-Fi user experience a growing driver of broadband customer churn.

“As service providers continue their push towards full-fiber networks and gigabit broadband services, the ability to provide high-speed, low-latency and highly consistent Wi-Fi connectivity to every device and every corner of the home becomes a vital part of the end-to-end broadband strategy,” said Michael Philpott, Omdia Research Director, Service Provider–Consumer. “Not doing so quickly leads to customer dissatisfaction, which in turn leads to increased operational costs and customer churn. This report discusses the importance of deploying Smart Wi-Fi with enhanced capabilities to address latency, application prioritization, and continually optimize home Wi-Fi performance.”

“Demands placed upon today’s home Wi-Fi networks have never been higher,” said Metin Taskin, co-CEO and founder of Airties. “For today’s intensive usage, especially with applications like high-definition video conferencing, cloud-based gaming, and AR/VR, broadband operators need ways to proactively manage the application experience across every connected device in the home. This new report from Omdia addresses key considerations around latency and QoE, and we’re pleased to help make it available to broadband service providers around the globe.”