Broadband Forum News - April 2025

The Headlines

CEO’s note

It was a real pleasure to spend time catching up with our members at the Spring Member Meeting in Hong Kong. Together, we tackled some of the key challenges shaping our industry, particularly the ongoing pursuit of an enhanced end-user experience, and we continued to build momentum in our Open Broadband projects.

The flexibility, innovation, and speed enabled by open software, combined with the discipline, efficiency, and global reach of open standards remains critical. The synergy between open source and standards will ensure the cost-effective and efficient delivery of next-generation broadband technologies and services.

As we prepare for our upcoming Summer Member Meeting, on June 23^rd-26^th, Open Broadband remains a central focus for the Broadband Forum. I hope to see many of you there as we push this crucial work forward. Your insights and participation are fundamental to this success.

And don’t forget – the BASe Technical Summit follows right after, from June 26^th-27^th. Make sure it’s in your calendar!

Craig Thomas, CEO at Broadband Forum

Contribute to the future of broadband and work with the Broadband Forum!

Broadband Forum’s upcoming Summer Member Meeting 2025 will take place in Munich, Germany, from June 23^rd-26^th. Register here.
Broadband Forum leadership elections will take place during the Summer Member Meeting 2025. Nominations are now open for the Broadband Forum Board of Directors, for the five seats available, each for two-year terms. The nomination process will close on May 19^th, with election voting taking place from May 26^th to June 23^rd. Learn more about the candidacy here.
Registration is now open for the BASe Technical Summit 2025, taking place right after the BBF Summer Member meeting on June 26^th-27^th. Don’t miss this unique face-to-face event focused on the future of technology innovation and current industry challenges. Attendance is free for service providers, journalists, and regulators – register today!
The Broadband Forum has partnered with Fiber Broadband Association for the Fiber Connect 2025 Proof of Concept program: “Light it Up to Take Fiber Further”. This year’s demonstrations will be centered on one of three BBF specifications: BBF.247 (OLT/ONT Interoperability), TR-369 (User Services Platform) and/or BBF.398 for Wi-Fi Performance. Find out more about how you can get involved. The Broadband Forum will also be holding four BASe workshops on a range of topics, so be sure you don’t miss them.
The Broadband Forum Pavilion is back for Network X 2025, with a limited number of pods available exclusively for our members. Reserve your pod now to secure your space among industry frontrunners – get in touch with the Network X team.

At ANGA COM 2025, the Broadband Forum will be hosting two BASe workshops. The “State of Fiber, Telco & Cable” panel will dive into the latest fiber technologies, exploring their application and evolution to meet the needs of network operators. “Subscriber Experience Beyond Connectivity” will explore how operators can proactively ensure broadband quality to and within the premise, driving customer loyalty and satisfaction. Broadband Forum is delighted to cooperate with ANGA COM and to offer free exhibition tickets (use the code: AC-PTHHEFAT) and a 15% discount on conference tickets (use the code: 15-A2ZE5SP7) to its member companies here.

News and updates

The broadband industry is increasingly more competitive, demanding the integration of global broadband standards and open source software to simplify network operations. Tom Van Caenegem, Broadband Forum’s OB-CAS Project Lead, explored how OB-CAS helps service providers improve user experience, reduce costs, and increase ARPU through enhanced network monitoring and data analysis. Read the full blog here.
Network operators need the right tools to ensure that modern broadband users’ expectations for on-demand, flexible connectivity can be met. OB-STEER is set to assist operators by delivering greater efficiencies and traffic optimization within the network. Read OB-STEER Project Lead Hagen Woesner’s blog here.
Broadband Forum’s OB-STAMP project is helping address increasing customer demands for greater QoE. The project team is creating a tool that will help reduce the cost and time associated with deploying network infrastructure for measuring latency. Take a look at the blog here.
Broadband Forum’s Spring Member Meeting brought together members from across the globe to exchange ideas about the latest innovations and challenges facing the broadband industry, with a focus on enhancing end-user experience. Missed the meeting? Catch up on the discussions and work carried out with our Spring Member Meeting newsletter round-up here and the End-to-End QoE Town Hall Innovation Series here.
Broadband Forum has recognized the instrumental contributions of industry leaders over the past year in helping broadband networks become more intelligent and increasingly user focused. The “Broadband Forum Awards” were presented during the Forum’s Spring Member Meeting in Hong Kong. Find out more about this year’s winners here.

Technology Spotlight

Open Broadband Subscriber Session Steering (OB-STEER) is developing a reference implementation, which is an example of how a Broadband Forum specification can be implemented for key components of the Subscriber Session Steering architecture, based on Broadband Forum’s WT-474. The goal: to enable flexible, on-demand connectivity and streamline network management.

The project builds on code originally developed for last year’s Broadband Forum Innovation Demonstrations at Network X, and it continues to evolve as a collaborative open source effort.

Interoperability is critical, as Subscriber Session Steering will be deployed across a wide range of vendor equipment. OB-STEER is working to define compatible implementation options that ensure seamless integration across the ecosystem.

At the Spring 2025 Meeting, the OB-STEER team extended an open invitation to interested parties to join the initiative and contribute to advancing the code base. If you’d like to get involved, please contact Hagen Woesner.

Upcoming events

BBF.398 Carrier Grade Wi-Fi Webinar: April 24^th
BASe - AI-Powered Networks: Navigating the Complexities of Automation, May 15th
BASe at Fiber Connect 2025: June 1^st – 4^th
BASe at ANGA COM 2025: June 3^rd – 5^th
Summer Member Meeting 2025: June 23^rd – 26^th
BASe Technical Summit 2025: June 26 and 27^th

Get involved in our newest projects!

Access: WT-385 PON YANG Issue 3: The project will provide a framework for cross-vendor interoperable OLT PON deployments based on ITU-T PON specifications and the 25GS-PON MSA. WT-385 Issue 3 will continue to address the market need for PON vendors and service providers to support interoperable solutions.

Access: Architecture and Requirements for Fiber and MT-FWA Access Extension: This specification will provide a design guideline for vendors developing products and solutions that can be deployed within BBF ecosystems as fiber access extension or multi-tenant extension technology over existing coaxial networks. The current TR-301 specification describes DPU requirements based on VDSL or G.fast over copper technology, which cannot be used for the other technologies.

Our latest certifications

BFF 247 GPON ONU Products (testing services provided by approved laboratory, Lanpark)

Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology Co., LTD. – GN630VE

Welcome new BBF members

Digital Platforms, Morse Micro, Wavenxt Technologies.

Join the Broadband Forum today!

Are you interested in becoming a Broadband Forum member? As the communications industry’s leading organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development, we are constantly looking for like-minded people who share our passion.

Find out more: https://www.broadband-forum.org/join-broadband-forum.