By Bruce McClelland, CEO
Working at a company like ARRIS gives you a big leg up: You know the future long before it arrives. We create big and small breakthroughs every day. And sometimes it's years before we can talk about them publicly.
Today is one of those days.
We've been developing the underlying technologies for today's CES announcement of 10G broadband's global rollout for several years.
- In 1992, we began developing one of the original data-transmission technologies for the cable industry, and we continue to advance its performance as the industry's standard. This is the foundation for higher speeds. Today, we are leading global trials and deployments around the world because of our leading portfolio of Gigabit broadband devices.
- In 2006, we established data-transfer bandwidth levels that reduced the delays data experienced moving through the network. That is the foundation for lower latency. Today, we remain active in the technology committees defining new ways to further reduce these delays - watch for them to appear in future versions of the industry's "DOCSIS" standard.
- In 2015, in partnership with our customer thought leaders, we accelerated our work to re-invent how ‘spectrum’ is utilized in an HFC network. Our goal was to greatly expand network capacity, but to do it in evolutionary way that was both capex and opex efficient. This led us to develop two concepts – spectrum expansion and simultaneous spectrum utilization. These new technologies create a more flexible network framework that vastly increases capacity and speeds in both upstream and downstream, with greater reliability and flexibility. We demonstrated it in action for the industry last October. And, today, we are working with service providers worldwide to evolve their networks to deliver multi-Gigabit and address the insatiable demand for a better internet.
Put all that together, and you arrive at today's announcement of the global rollout of 10 Gigabit Broadband.
Further, because we've laid the groundwork, this enormous leap will be achieved within scheduled network upgrades. And, that means it will be available to hundreds of millions of homes worldwide. In the U.S. alone, 1 Gigabit broadband service is already available to 80 percent of the country – up from just 5 percent in 2016.
At 10x the speed of today's fastest networks, 10G broadband's impact makes today's news one of the most significant announcements in our industry's history. 10G broadband will outperform every other platform in transforming consumer experiences at home, at work and everywhere in between. It creates entirely new possibilities for smart cities, healthcare, education, entertainment, and more.
Finally, stay tuned - this is going to move fast. In fact, we'll be announcing pilots shortly.
This technology is maturing rapidly. These service providers are focused. And this industry is ready to deliver.
Happy New Year.
Bruce
