With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are facing an unprecedented situation on a global level. Countries are in lockdown, and people everywhere are being asked to stop or minimize their social and physical interactions. Our broadband connections are becoming our lifelines. We are using them to get news, connect to our office work, and for entertainment too.
Working from home during lockdown means guzzling of internet data more than what we usually do. Sometimes this means hitting the FUP limits before the month ends and sometimes working at a slow internet speed due to several devices connected to a single network.
Due to affordable data availability on cellular networks, wired broadband in India was stagnant for some time. But this trend has changed drastically due to the coronavirus outbreak that has locked the lives of many people around the world. Now, fixed broadband has a great opportunity to expand in India as it provides steady links and speed. Covid-19 has forced people to work from home and this has become the new normal. Also with too much pressure on wireless networks, professionals working from home have to use Wi-Fi for consistency of speed and internet.
India has 19 million fixed-line broadband users which include enterprises and offices and 17 million home fixed-line broadband users.
ISPs are seeing an increased demand for new connections across various. Some ISPs have also introduced a promotional standalone Broadband plan for free of cost to all the existing customers. Others are offering one-month free trials for all new customers helping them to keep business as usual during COVID-19 precautions. Currently, plan upgrade is ongoing across service providers as people need even faster speeds to complete their operations from home.
Though, all ISPs and telecom operators these days are working hard to provide adequate Internet access to their customers. Many of them have also brought various upgrades to their existing systems to keep the Internet up and running for the masses in the country. Service providers need to ensure that their internet infrastructures are up to these new tasks – with enough capacity and ability to deliver all services with high performance under the increased traffic demand.
Service providers need an integrated O/BSS suite that can enable them to rapidly launch new revenue services without spending countless hours in endless integration. They need tools for subscriber-centric operations & billing platform that allows service providers to rapidly deliver volume-metered, differential bandwidth services based on subscriber identity, traffic flow, location & time of access. A new generation O/BSS suite such as Inventum UNIFY™ can help broadband providers rapidly deliver personalized & differentiated revenue-generating services. ISPs can integrate various modules (Reseller Mobile App, Self-care Mobile App, and salesforce automation) as they grow.
Today’s heterogeneous broadband networks require a multi-personality AAA solution that can address all forms of access networks. Inventum’s AAA solution supports both IETF & 3GPP standards within the same server, including protocol translations which save both integration & capital costs.
At the same time, service providers need multi-gigabit routers for bandwidth management, firewall & IP filtering, lawful logging, and QoS etc. Inventum offers a range of multi-gigabit Integrated Services Routers suitable for service providers. They can play multiple roles in a network. Deploy for gateway connections or enable the BNG module for subscriber & service aggregation. Other modules include WAG and DPI.
With the advent of software-defined networking (SDN), many functions of the modern enterprise are being virtualized to save cost and vendor lock-in. Inventum’s VSR is a virtual router that can replace any hardware router. The VSR software automatically detects the PC hardware and sets it up to function as a router.
The lessons we are learning and the challenges we are facing will forever change the way we work, communicate, and entertain. Mobile service providers are increasingly using Wi-Fi hotspots to decongest their mobile network traffic. Mobile data offload is allowing telecom operators to seamlessly acquire and move mobile traffic to the Wi-Fi network while retaining policy and charging control. Inventum offers products & solutions for both trusted (3GPP release 8) and untrusted (3GPP release 6) mobile offload projects.
Despite low mobile data prices, customers are turning to Wi-Fi for better and much-improved experiences. This has also carved a niche market for managed Wi-Fi services. Managed Wi-Fi solutions and services play a key role in better managing the user’s access and the entire lifecycle of WLAN right from designing to installing wireless systems including proactive network and infrastructure management. The adoption of cloud-based Wi-Fi services is the future.
ISPs/WISPs can use Inventum’s Udaya brand of Wi-Fi 5 products that offer a fully cloud-managed experience for offices and premium homes, allowing customers to use a mobile app and control everything about their Wi-Fi experience.
So how will you deal with growing internet demand at home during this period? We can provide you the wireless equipment, the backend software systems, lawful interception systems, security systems, and routers that are all made by us; but more importantly, we can also install and operate the entire network for you.
