The Headlines

Overcoming the barriers to deploying value added services

A better speed test for proving service quality

OBUSPA integrated with prpl and RDK

New initiative readies wholesale access for the full fiber and cloud era 

CEO’s note

The countdown to the Broadband Forum Spring 2026 Member Meeting is on! Next week marks an exciting time for our community, with several key events taking place in Melbourne, Australia.

The BASe Summit Australia 2026 - co-hosted with Australia’s wholesale open-access broadband network NBN Co - will generate important discussions on the challenges and opportunities in the broadband sector. This will be followed by our ‘Open Access/Wholesale Delivery and Retail Service Provider Needs’ focused Town Hall Innovation Series, and the Spring Member Meeting. These platforms will provide the perfect opportunity for industry collaboration and supply the momentum to drive our work area initiatives forward.

Several key topics set to be explored in Melbourne have been emerging in the work of the Broadband Forum in recent weeks. We announced the launch of our Wholesale Access project, which I’m excited to see move forward, and our Future of the Connected Home webinar series explored the barriers BSPs face when deploying value-added services, along with the key role USP is playing in enabling them to build successful deployment strategies.

More on all these topics below and I can’t wait to continue the discussions when we meet Down Under. See you there!

- Craig Thomas, CEO at Broadband Forum 

Thank you to our Media Partner:

Communications Day is a daily subscription newsletter seen as the bible of ANZ telco industry news. The oft-awarded publication was established in 1994 and is read by nearly 10,000 ANZ telco executives every working day.

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

• The BASe Summit Australia 2026 will set the stage and serve as a thought-starter for the Broadband Forum’s series of events on March 23^rd -27^th. You can register and view the full agenda here.
• Our Spring Member Meeting is next week, but there’s still time for you to complete your registration and join us in Melbourne. Complete your registration today and join us from March 24^th – 27^th.
• Discussions on the Broadband Forum’s 2026 Innovation Demonstrations are already underway. In 2026, these demonstrations will expand beyond Network X to include other venues, increasing the reach of the innovations driving the development of the broadband sector. We encourage you to get involved and submit your ideas and proposals, here.

News and updates

• In a recent Broadband Forum blog, Connected User Work Area Co-Director Jason Walls explores the key barriers to deploying value-added services (VAS) as well as summarizing some of the key insights from our lineup of expert speakers during the first Future of the Connected Home webinar. Read the full blog and learn more about how USP is enabling seamless VAS deployments here.
• As modern broadband carries cloud gaming, video conferencing, remote work, IoT traffic, and other latency-sensitive applications, traditional speed test technology has profound limitations. Monitoring and evaluating service quality for these applications requires a new methodology where stability, responsiveness, and reliability matter just as much. Our recent blog explores how TR-471 and OB-UDPST provide a better speed test for proving service quality. Read it here.
• We were delighted to announce that two the most widely used carrier-grade open source platforms for home broadband management, prpl Foundation’s prplWare and RDK’s RDK-B software, have integrated the Open Broadband USP Agent (OBUSPA) project’s releases with their middleware stacks. The integration will allow broadband services providers using prpl Foundation and RDK platforms to deploy new services faster on end-user CPE. Read the full announcement here.
• A new initiative is set to provide service providers with clearer guidance on sharing network infrastructure for wholesale use. The Broadband Forum’s Wholesale Access project, announced earlier this month, will define service requirements, best practices and technical solutions needed to advance wholesale access in broadband networks. Read the full announcement here.
• Multi-dwelling units make up nearly half of Europe’s addressable broadband market, yet deploying fiber in existing buildings can be costly and disruptive. In this Broadband Forum Innovation Demonstration, a standards-based approach shows how 5G mmWave and existing coax infrastructure can deliver multi-gigabit broadband to MDUs quickly and cost-effectively. Learn more, here.
• Latency can make or break today’s interactive applications. In a Broadband Forum Innovation Demonstration, we showcased L4S (Low Latency, Low Loss, Scalable throughput), an emerging technology designed to dramatically reduce queuing delays and deliver ultra-low latency for applications like cloud gaming, video conferencing, and VR. Learn more, here.

Technology Spotlight

CloudCO 2.0

As broadband networks evolve to support new services and business models, flexibility and automation are increasingly essential. The latest marketing report from Broadband Forum, MR-530 Cloud Native Broadband Networking, shares insights into the next stage of the CloudCO architecture. Designed as a multi-vendor, multi-technology framework, CloudCO enables service providers to deploy services faster by combining abstraction, disaggregation, and network intelligence within a software-driven broadband environment.

The latest evolution, CloudCO 2.0, introduces modern cloud-native capabilities such as AI-driven operations, virtualization, and containerization to further streamline network management and scaling. Real-world operator experience has played a key role in shaping the update – deployments by companies like Deutsche Telekom and Türk Telekom have demonstrated how CloudCO can deliver greater operational flexibility while enabling operators to leverage cloud development tools and expertise. Together, these advances help build broadband architecture ready to adapt to changing service demands and future innovation.

Download MR-530 here.

Upcoming events

• March 19^th: BASe at OFC 2026
• March 23^th: BASe Summit – Australia 2026
• March 24^th: Town Hall Innovation Series
• March 24^th – 27^th: Spring Member Meeting 2026
• April 9^th: Building the Intelligent Broadband Network: Open Source, Standards, and AI in Practice
• April 20^th – 24^th: Broadband Forum PON Plugfest at LANPARK’s Laboratory
• April 21^st: State of PON 2026 - Industry Reality Check
• April 23^rd:Turning Speed Tests into Service Insight: Modernizing Performance Measurement with TR-471
• May 17^th: BASe at Fiber Connect 2026

Our latest certifications

BBF 247 GPON ONU Products (testing services provided by approved laboratory, LANPARK)

• ZTE: F8748Q | 0
• TP-Link: XC220-G3v

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