CDG’s operations support systems and business support systems are poised to gain new capabilities through the incorporation of artificial intelligence. The goal is to improve broadband service providers’ subscriber and support capabilities, and it’s part of a broader initiative to transform how CDG offerings are developed.

CDG will work with Innovation Incubator, an AWS partner and developer of AI technology, on the initiative.

CDG AI Plans

One of the tasks that CDG and Innnovation Incubator will undertake is to incorporate AWS Bedrock knowledgebase-powered AI chatbots into CDG platforms for managing telecom provider services and operations. The companies also will enhance the CDG platforms with 360 customer dashboards and digital twins of network equipment and devices. Also part of the plan is to enhance the OSS/BSS platforms with a generative business intelligence (BI) suite.

“We selected AWS not only as our telecom infrastructure partner but also as an innovation platform and lab,” CDG CTO Tony Stout said in a prepared statement. “Establishing a partnership with Innovation Incubator was the next logical step to help us evolve our OSS/BSS capabilities.”

CDG is undergoing a complete transformation in how it develops and delivers its platform solutions, Stout explained.

“We expect significant time and cost savings and increased speed to market through leveraging the power of the AWS cloud platform and the vision and experience of Innovation Incubator,” he said.

CDG is “uniquely positioned” to transform the $140 billion U.S. telecom OSS/BSS market, said Antony Satyadas, CEO, managing partner and co-founder of Innovation Incubator’s group of companies.

That transformation, he said, will involve Innovation Incubator providing an AI native technology innovation lab and platform and app modernization delivery.

“Our innovation lab and integration services, rooted in decades of AI experience and a nine-year partnership with AWS, allow us to inject the right blend of self-service and hyper-automation into CDG solutions,” said Satyadas in a prepared statement.

In addition to AI, Innovation Incubator provides immersive experience and platform technology services and startup incubator/accelerator services. In addition to the telecom industry, the company focuses on the real estate/mortgage, health care/wellness, automotive and social retail sectors. It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York. It has offices six states and India.

As streaming video providers crack down on password sharing, churn is increasing, according to a new report from Horowitz Research.

Fifty-two percent of those surveyed who view TV content have cancelled or lost access to one or more of their subscription video on demand (SVOD) services within the past year, the researchers found. Among respondents in that situation, almost 30% said not being able to share or borrow log-ins was a factor.

Other reasons for canceling or losing access to SVOD services are: cutting subscription costs (cited by 38% of respondents); cost increases (30%); not seen as a good value for the cost (26%); free trial ended (24%); show/sport season subscribed for ended (18%); person who shared access with respondent is no longer able to (17%); and could no longer share access with others (13%).

Thirty-five percent of respondents said they were paying more this year than last for services. The self-reported average spending on SVOD rose from $49.33 in the company’s 2021 study to $60.60 this year.

The researchers found that 59% of respondents are receptive to ads if it cuts cost, and almost one in three surveyed Netflix subscribers said they are on Netflix’s $6.99 ad tier.

Twenty-three percent of respondents plan to cancel one or more services in the coming months, an increase from 19% who planned to cancel last year. Netflix is the most likely to be cancelled, the report showed.

SVOD Password Sharing Crackdown

Cutting down on password-sharing is a necessity for SVOD providers, Adriana Waterston, Horowitz’s executive vice president of insights and strategy, said in a prepared statement.

“Given rising costs for streaming, consumers will become more and more judicious about how they are spending their money in the streaming ecosystem. To avoid churn, subscription streaming services will need to focus on smart windowing strategies to keep audiences consistently engaged with their content and be proactive about helping consumers downgrade to lower-priced and/or ad-supported tiers as soon as they see a subscriber’s viewership and engagement dropping,” Waterston said.

The Horowitz Research report, titled State of Media, Entertainment & Tech: Consumer Subscriptions 2024, had input from 1,405 people.

Horowitz Research is a division of M/A/R/C Research.

CompTIA has provided details on its new learning and certification programs for its Essentials and Expansion training programs for the burgeoning AI job market. The goal is to train people already working in the IT industry on various AI disciplines without requiring them to spend time dealing with material with which they already are familiar.

The initial focus of the new program is on six job roles. Four are existing job clusters: software development, cybersecurity, systems operations (SysOps) and data analytics. The AI educational roadmap also looks deeply at two emerging job roles: prompt engineering and AI systems architects.

The organization provides nine courses, each with an intended job role. They are: AI Essentials (aimed at any occupation); Sec AI+ (security engineers); PenTest AI+ (penetration testers); CySA AI+ (security analysts); data AI+ (data analysts); AI SysOp+ (systems operations); AI Scripting+ (tech support, network operations); AI Architect+ (AI systems architects); and AI Prompt+ (prompt engineers).

All but the AI Essentials are classified as CompTIA Expansion series courses. The program is scheduled for release in July.

The CompTIA Expansions series aims to build advanced skills for specific industries and job roles. The idea is to enable those enrolled to learn about technical advances without revisiting skills that the individual already possesses and practices frequently.

“The crossing of the AI chasm means workers and companies need to quickly hone their skills-building strategies across AI domains,” CompTIA Chief Product Officer Thomas Reilly said in a press release issued today. “CompTIA’s investments in these areas confirm our commitment to delivering best-in-class competency-based learning and certifications designed for the age of AI.”

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is an international IT certification and training body.

5G connections will comprise more than half (51%) of all global mobile connections by 2029, according to new research from GSMA Intelligence (GSMAi). Increasingly, the networks are based on standalone 5G (5G SA).

Standalone 5G networks do not rely on previous-generation technology but instead have a dedicated core network. They support certain capabilities not available with non-standalone 5G networks.

As of the first month of this year, 261 operators in 101 countries had launched commercial 5G services, and at least 90 operators from 64 markets had committed to rollouts, the researchers said. Forty-seven of the 261 commercial services are provided via 5G SA networks. Another 89 5G SA deployments are planned.

One key driver of 5G SA deployments is network slicing. Slicing enables providers to offer tailored services to customers with different performance parameters to support different applications such as internet of things or videoconferencing applications.

Other key 5G SA drivers include a simplified network architecture and “ultra-reliable low-latency communications,” GSMAi said.

The availability of 5G SA networks, as well as more private and dedicated networks, is expected to fuel strong connected device adoption. A ”massive number of connected devices” are expected, GSMAi said.

There currently exist 10.7 billion IoT connections in the enterprise segment, according to GSMAi data. Enterprise connections are expected to more than double to 38.5 billion by 2030. A big chunk of those originate from smart buildings and smart manufacturing, which account for 34% and 16% of total enterprise connections, respectively.

“The early success of 5G was driven by enhanced mobile broadband (EMBB) and EMBB-related network traffic requirements,” said Peter Jarich, head of GSMAi, in a prepared statement about the 5G mobile connections research. “Yet, while consumer requirements will continue their trajectory, we’re now seeing use cases beyond that.”

“Opportunities are now appearing in areas including API monetization and 5G RedCap for enterprise IoT – all supported by 5G-Advanced and 5G SA networks. 5G SA brings home 5G’s early promise, particularly where slicing, low-latency and massive IoT capabilities tied to enterprise service needs can be met. 5G-Advanced will only extend that further.”

In terms of sheer numbers, 5G connections surpassed 1 billion at the end of 2022, rose to 1.6 billion at the end of 2023, and are expected to reach 5.5 billion connections by 2030, GSMAi said.

Leader AT&T and five other service providers earned a spot on Vertical Systems Group (VSGs) 2023 U.S. Carrier Ethernet Leaderboard.

The overall category rose 2.4%. The direct Internet access (DIA) sector drove the growth. It was somewhat offset, however, by the declining demand for switched service, according to VSG principal Rick Malone.

Malone called the year “challenging” and said that providers were dealing with “(T)he ongoing transition from legacy wireline data services to SD-WAN/SASE architectures.”

The Leaderboard, which consists of service providers with 4% or more of the retail Ethernet services market in the U.S. are, in order, AT&T, Lumen, Spectrum Enterprise, Verizon, Comcast Business and Cox Business.

The Challenge Tier notes companies that have between 1% and 4% of the market. They are, in order, Altice USA (including Optimum and Lightpath), Cogent, Frontier, GTT, Windstream and Zayo.

Key findings of the latest U.S. Ethernet Leaderboard:

• Lumen remains in second position based on port share that accounts for its spinoff of U.S. assets to Brightspeed, European assets to COLT, and South American assets to Stonepeak.
• Shares are tightening between several Leaderboard companies. This may impact mid-2024 rank positions.
• Rank positions changed for several companies cited in the Challenge Tier.
• Dedicated Internet/Cloud Access (DIA) is the top U.S. Ethernet service. Following it are Ethernet Private Lines, Ethernet Virtual Private Lines, E-Access to VPN, Metro LAN and WAN VPLS.
• Ethernet pricing has stabilized for lower speed services. Price compression persists for gigabit speed offerings.
• AT&T, Lumen and Verizon are the three LEADERBOARD companies with MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet (CE) certification.

The Market Player tier consists of providers below 1% of the retail Ethernet services market.

A non-exhaustive list of firms in this category, in alphabetical order: ACD, AireSpring, Alaska Communications, Altafiber, American Telesis, Arelion, Armstrong Business Solutions, Astound Business, Breezeline, Brightspeed, BT Global Services, Centracom, Consolidated Communications, Conterra, Crown Castle, Douglas Fast Net, DQE Communications, Exa Infrastructure, ExteNet Systems, Fatbeam, FiberLight, First Digital, FirstLight, Flo Networks, Fusion Connect, Global Cloud Xchange, Granite Telecom, Great Plains Communications, Hunter Communications, Intelsat, Logix Fiber Networks, LS Networks, MetTel, Midco, Momentum Telecom, NTT, Orange Business, Pilot Fiber, PS Lightwave, Ritter Communications, Segra (including UPN), Shentel Business, Silver Star Telecom, Sparklight Business, Syringa, Tata Communications, TDS Telecom, TPx, Uniti, US Signal, WOW!Business and Ziply Fiber.