New Omdia Research Paper Highlights Need for Broadband Service Providers to Focus on Latency and Quality of Experience for Home Wi-Fi

New report, commissioned by Airties, shows the global acceleration of FTTH, the growing need to focus on latency, and the importance of deploying in-home Smart Wi-Fi to enhance QoE

PARIS, Oct. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — In advance of the 2023 Network X Conference, Airties, a global leader of managed Wi-Fi solutions for broadband service providers, today released a newly commissioned whitepaper from Omdia titled “Ensuring Consistent Home Wi-Fi QoE is Critical to Broadband Success.” The paper, written by Michael Philpott, Omdia Research Director, Service Provider–Consumer, highlights the global acceleration of ultra-high-speed Internet, the growing need for operators to focus on latency, and the importance of deploying in-home Smart Wi-Fi to enhance Quality of Experience (QoE) for subscribers.

According to this new Omdia report, 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. But speed alone will no longer be a competitive advantage for broadband operators. The report notes that in the future more and more applications will be interactive in nature, relying as much on low latency as speed, and 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.

“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.”

Managed Wi-Fi is Critical for QoE

Based on Omdia’s research with leading broadband service providers, the new report highlights that a lack of home Wi-Fi investment can lead to the following:

An increase in customer support calls, with up to 60% of all broadband service calls relating to Wi-Fi;
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 because 80% of routers that are returned as faulty are found to have no physical defect, or no fault found (NFF);
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; and
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.

Data from this new report demonstrates the critical need for broadband service providers to deploy Smart Wi-Fi software that can monitor, predict, and solve performance issues. Operators interested in reading more about how Smart Wi-Fi can be used for monetization and differentiation are also encouraged to read a prior Omdia report titled: “Marketing Smart Wi-Fi: The Key to Broadband Differentiation.”

The Importance of Low Latency

The new report, “Ensuring Consistent Home Wi-Fi QoE is Critical to Broadband Success“, notes that the next generation of Internet applications will also be far more interactive, where low latency and network consistency will be crucial to the overall experience. For example, the report gives use cases such as for cloud gaming, where a consistent level of low network latency is more important than speed. For XR applications, the report notes that ultra-high fast speeds and ultra-low latency are equally important. If such services are to be delivered with sufficient quality of experience, it is essential that operators, as they develop their next-generation optical fiber networks, ensure they are capable of multi-gigabit access speeds, but also low levels of latency and jitter, efficiently providing the required reliability and consistency.

The report states that service providers must invest in advanced Wi-Fi technology, like that provided by Airties, if the home network is not to become the new bottleneck to the delivery of high-quality broadband services and applications. Recently, for example, Airties announced an integration with Domos that aims to provide enhanced latency measurement at the device and application level as a capability of Airties Cloud.

Another key finding of the report is the importance for broadband operators to deploy a common Smart Wi-Fi platform to all households, regardless of hardware or chipsets deployed, to monitor and manage the quality of service experienced by all customers. Utilizing the data collected, cloud analytic tools can then also help in creating more efficient hardware deployment strategies, effectively target broadband marketing campaigns, and optimize QoE per household.

Airties at Network X and Wireless Global Congress EMEA

Airties will exhibit at Network X in stand C22 from October 24-26 in Paris. In addition, at Wireless Global Congress EMEA, Airties’ Co-CEO and founder, Metin Taskin, will speak on an executive session titled: “How Next-Gen Wi-Fi will Transform the Smart Home” on Wednesday, October 25 from 4:35pm-5:10pm. Airties’ Head of Research, Sarper Gokturk, will speak on the panel: “Operators: Optimizing Network Deployment and Management to Deliver the Best Wi-Fi Experience” on Thursday, October 26 from 10:15-10:45am. To register to attend, visit: https://www.wirelessglobalcongress.com/wgc-emea-2023/

Airties has been recognized with many prestigious industry awards for its innovative work serving broadband operators, including: “Best Home Wi-Fi Solution Award” from Broadband World Forum; “Best Wi-Fi Service Provider Solution” and “Best Home Wi-Fi Product” awards from Wi-Fi NOW; “Best-In Home Wi-Fi Network” award from Wireless Broadband Alliance; “Best Broadband Customer Experience” from Cable & Satellite International; and many others.

Additional information about Airties can be found at: www.airties.com.

About Airties

Airties is a leading provider of managed Wi-Fi solutions to operators around the globe. The Smart Wi-Fi portfolio from Airties includes Airties Edge, smart Wi-Fi software for gateways; Airties Cloud management platform and its companion app; and Wi-Fi mesh extenders. Operators turn to Airties for the design, implementation, and ongoing optimization of their customers’ broadband experience. Airties’ customers include AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Singtel, Sky, Telia, Telstra, Vodafone, and many others. More information is available at www.airties.com.

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