Deutsche Telekom calls on Broadband Forum members to "Collaborate on 'true convergence' of mobile and fixed networks to unlock full potential of 5G"

BERLIN, July 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the Broadband Forum held its quarterly meeting in Berlin, Deutsche Telekom's 5G Executive Program Manager Antje Williams called for true convergence between fixed and mobile networks so that a seamless experience could be delivered to consumers.

Access-agnostic networks are a vital component in realizing the full potential of 5G, and in order for this to happen, more collaboration is needed between different standards bodies, including open source communities, according to Williams.

"When you look at the amount of challenges and traffic that has to be transported in the future, we will not manage that with just the mobile network," said Williams. "Today, a much bigger portion of whatever is transported runs through fixed line networks and we strongly believe the solution for the future has to be a combination of the two, or access-agnostic networks. This means that when using the networks, consumers shouldn't see a difference between mobile access and Wi-Fi access.

"Today, standardization of the two networks is done separately and to become one network, we need more alignment," she added. "From a consumer perspective one of the most important topics is convenience. Therefore, it is essential that 5G delivers to its full potential."

Williams concluded her presentation with a call-to-action to Broadband Forum members to play their part and start engagement and work on this area, in order to realize the broadband networks of the future.

The theme of Williams' presentation echoed the perspectives of the Broadband Forum's special meeting on Broadband Network Evolution, which was held in Atlanta in May. Following this meeting, the Forum set out a course of action which reinforces its interaction and commitment to embracing the best of both open source and standards development, and increasing its work with key industry groups. 

"Convergence of fixed and mobile networks is absolutely vital for 5G and Antje's thoughts today reflect the thinking of our members and are very much in line with our agreed plan as we move forward in an ever-changing telecoms landscape," said CEO Robin Mersh. "I'm sure our members will rise to the challenge set by Deutsche Telekom today and this strengthens the importance of the work we are already doing around SDN, NFV, ultra-fast access and 5G."

About the Broadband Forum
Broadband Forum, a non-profit industry organization, is focused on engineering smarter and faster broadband networks. Our work defines best practices for global networks, enables service and content delivery, establishes technology migration strategies, engineers critical device & service management tools, and is key to redefining broadband. Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at www.broadband-forum.org. Twitter @Broadband_Forum.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to http://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information, please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or [email protected] or Jayne Garfitt on +44 (0) 1636 812152 or [email protected].

About Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with more than 156 million mobile customers, 29 million fixed-network lines and around 18 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2015). The Group provides fixed-network/broadband, mobile communications, Internet, and Internet-based TV products and services for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has around 225,200 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 69.2 billion in the 2015 financial year – around 64 percent of it outside Germany.

SOURCE The Broadband Forum

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