The global COVID-19 pandemic has shined a spotlight on the importance of internet access. The pandemic has led to a digital transformation in which almost all aspects of daily life now include the internet. Unfortunately, individuals with limited or no internet access have been especially hard hit by their lack of participation in this digital transformation.
According to DataReportal, almost 40% of the world’s population doesn’t have access to the internet. And a study by Broadband Now estimated that 42 million Americans, mostly in rural areas, don’t have broadband internet access.
Broadband Access for All
To ensure internet access is available to everyone, governments worldwide are allocating large sums of money for broadband infrastructure.
In the United States, the government is getting ready to pass an infrastructure bill that will spend $65 billion dollars on broadband expansion. The majority of this money will go to states, which in turn would funnel it to internet service providers to expand broadband networks. And the United States isn’t alone as governments across the globe are investing in broadband infrastructure.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity
The tremendous amount of funding for broadband infrastructure creates a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for broadband providers. With impetus from the global pandemic and the resulting digital transformation, providers will probably never see this level of governmental interest and funding again.
Increasing Return on Investment
With so much money being invested in expanding broadband, how can providers increase their return on investment (ROI)?
One way is by moving away from traditional, proprietary solutions. Large operators, like AT&T, have already made the move from proprietary networks to software-based networks, and many smaller service providers are starting to follow suit.
Where Should You Start?
As more people access the internet, the need for more bandwidth continues to grow, which makes broadband network gateways (BNGs) a critical piece of network infrastructure. BNGs aggregate traffic from many subscribers and route it to the network of the service provider, performing subscriber management functions such as authentication, authorization, and accounting of subscriber sessions.
How do I Increase Broadband Network ROI with BNGs?
Broadband providers traditionally bought hardware-based BNGs from large router manufacturers, such as Cisco and Juniper. However, these proprietary “closed-systems” suffer from high costs, and a lack of flexibility and scalability.
netElastic was one of the first vendors to develop a virtual, or software-based broadband network gateway (vBNG). netElastic built their virtual BNG from the ground up by working with eight of the top twenty carriers in the world (in addition to many smaller ones). This valuable feedback laid the foundation for the features and functionality of netElastic vBNG.
netElastic virtual BNG uses white-box x86 servers, which can help broadband providers save up to 70% compared to traditional hardware-based BNGs. For growing broadband providers constantly adding new subscribers, a cost-effective vBNG can be an easy and positive boost to their network ROI.
Don’t Forget CGNAT
With more and more internet users (and connected devices), the shortage of IPv4 addresses is becoming more acute. Although IPv6 has been around for almost ten years, the adoption rate has been slow – primarily due to high costs.
Google collects statistics about IPv6 adoption and based on data from September 9, 2021, 33% of users accessed Google over IPv6. This also means 67% of users were still accessing Google over IPv4.
As a result, broadband providers have to overcome the problem of increasing demand for IP addresses (caused by the proliferation of connected devices) in an environment of IPv4 exhaustion.
How do I Increase Broadband Network ROI with CGNAT?
Service providers can choose from many CGNAT solutions in the market with specialized features and functions. However, most of these solutions run on proprietary hardware. As we previously discussed, proprietary solutions typically go hand-in-hand with high costs.
netElastic virtual CGNAT is a cost-effective alternative to higher priced solutions. netElastic’s software-based solution provides high-performance Carrier Grade Network Address Translation services to extend the life of IPv4 address space, while also transitioning to IPv6.
netElastic virtual CGNAT is built on high-performance virtual router technology, including a scalable software architecture that delivers a high-level of translation performance while supporting a broad range of additional routing capabilities.
For service providers looking for an economical CGNAT, netElastic delivers unparalleled value and industry leading price/performance.
Increasing Network ROI Around the World
To learn more about how broadband providers are increasing their network ROI, please feel free to read any of the following customer case studies:
- Softcom – a American WISP
- FiOS – a Brazilian ISP
- WebSprix – an Ethiopian broadband provider
- Harbour ISP – an Australian ISP