Future Broadband Access Networks - Trends in user and service requirements

The interest of the current study is to describe broadband trends in Europe based on the work performed within the BROADWAN project. The services and user experiences in broadband trials performed in Norway showed that always on, high-speed Internet access for PCs is a very popular service regardless of gender. The always-on feature changes the usage pattern of the services and leads to new ways of using broadband, such as increased use of music and movie downloading. For private users there is traffic all day and surprisingly high traffic loads from midnight until dawn, with some reduction during working hours. A small fraction of the private users dominates the traffic volume, and for these users the traffic towards the network exceeds the incoming traffic volume. Future user behaviour is expected to follow the trends of the users currently classified as demanding. Broadband networks must have capability to offer the individual user a capacity that can be asymmetric on demand in both directions. A breakthrough for capacity demanding e-services will require that the majority of users reach a certain activity level. Volume growth of these more demanding services requires that a large fraction of the population be connected to broadband. Additional key elements required are confidence and trust in e-based services by handling security issues seriously, overcoming the language barrier, standardised online payment methods and solving copyright issues. Erling Bråten L., Tardy I., Elek Z., Morozova A. and Nordbotten A. (2004). Future Broadband Access Networks Trends in user and service requirements. In Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Shaping the Broadband Society, pages 49-57 DOI: 10.5220/0001405200490057 Copyright c © SciTePress