• The agreement will combine the Fiber Broadband Association’s strong advocacy, industry research, workforce development and educational experience with Broadband Forum’s technical standards and interoperability expertise

Fremont, California, and Washington, DC – Broadband Forum and the Fiber Broadband Association have today signed an agreement in principle to advance the industry forward with future-proof, high-capacity, low latency fibre broadband capabilities that will enable the Metaverse and beyond.

With a common focus on developing and educating the broadband industry on best practices, the agreement will combine the Fiber Broadband Association’s strong background and expertise in fibre advocacy, research, education, and member and community resources with Broadband Forum’s technical strengths in best practices, interoperability, certification, and standards.

Broadband Forum will leverage the new relationship by increasing awareness of its progress in technology, standards and certification work. It will also increase awareness and education amongst Tier 1, 2, and 3 operators and vendors of its mission to advance broadband innovation and the benefits of interoperability.

The agreement will give the Fiber Broadband Association’s Technology Committee leadership team increased visibility of Broadband Forum’s work across all areas of fibre broadband service delivery from inside the building, across the fibre access network to the cloud. It will also give the Fiber Broadband Association the opportunity to contribute to current and future specification work and represent the needs of fiber broadband providers within the Broadband Forum community in the Americas. The Broadband Forum has held technical pre-conference workshops at the past two Fiber Broadband Association Fiber Connect annual conferences and will become a more integral part of the conference.

“We are pleased to sign an agreement in principle with the Fiber Broadband Association and we look forward to its members’ engagement and contributions,” said Ken Ko, Managing Director at Broadband Forum. “The largest operators have traditionally contributed the most to industry standards, but now, operators of all sizes have a level playing field. The Fiber Broadband Association represents the full fibre ecosystem with 51% of its members being network operators and the other half representing the supply side of the industry, with the fibre manufacturers, equipment vendors, engineering consultants and deployment specialists, so its value cannot be overstated.”

“In an effort to achieve true progress, we recognise it takes a collaborative engagement across the entire broadband industry and that is why we have formed alliances with some of the most impactful broadband organisations across the globe,” said Gary Bolton, President and CEO at the Fiber Broadband Association. “Our agreement with Broadband Forum is an exciting next step in our journey to advance fibre deployments across the Americas and finally connect every community to standardized, ubiquitous, high-speed broadband services.”

The Fiber Broadband Association represents the complete fibre ecosystem of service providers, manufacturers, industry experts, and deployment specialists in the advancement of fibre broadband deployments. The organization helps providers, communities, and policy makers make informed decisions about how, where, and why they should build better fiber broadband networks. Its ongoing work includes best practices for fiber-based network operator deployments and funding, complementing Broadband Forum’s technical standards efforts.

The collaboration between the two organisations will be represented at the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect 2023 event in Orlando, Florida, from August 20-23. Broadband Forum is presenting the Technology Deep Dives track. For more information, visit: fiberconnect.fiberbroadband.org

For more information about Broadband Forum, please visit: https://www.broadband-forum.org/.