TDC: Giga Speed Zips into Play

By Linda Xu

TDC Group is Denmark’s biggest telco and the world’s leading multi system operator (MSO). The Danish tech innovator has begun revving up its networks to launch DOCSIS 3.1 in 2016 and hit 1 Gbps speeds to meet ultra-broadband service demands. TDC Group CTO Carsten Bryder told us why things are looking rosy for the Giga era.

Key to Giga speed

WinWin: TDC has stated that around 50 percent of Danish households will enjoy Giga speeds by 2018. How are you going to make this happen?

Carsten Bryder: TDC is in quite a unique position, because we deliver broadband services on a mix of copper, coaxial, and fiber access networks. But, increasing customer demand and competition from fiber companies means we need to improve the services we offer and upgrade our network infrastructure. 

We’re aiming to utilize our cable TV assets to do battle against the fiber players. It's a very cost-efficient way of building the same - or better - broadband capabilities for 10 to 12 percent less than building fiber. We can also offer customers better services. That's basically our rationale for connecting our cable TV customers to the broadband coax network that we’re building with Huawei.

WinWin: How do you plan to reach this ambitious goal?

Carsten Bryder: We chose to work with Huawei and DOCSIS 3.1 technology. DOCSIS 3.1 boosts data transmission efficiency by 50 percent over OFDM modulation [Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing] to hit speeds of 2 Gbps upstream and 10 Gbps downstream. It also saves up to 30 percent in per bit cost.

In June 2015, we field-tested a DOCSIS 3.1 compliant head-end device from the Huawei’s D-CCAP [Distributed-Converged Cable Access Platform] solution, a test platform for Customer Premises Equipment launched at AngaCom 2015. We ran the test on our coaxial broadband network in Copenhagen. 

This early field test used DOCSIS 3.1 OFDM modulation, with extra line signal gains supported by distributed access architecture. This gave us downstream traffic rates of up to 840 Mbps on 96 MHz, reaching to 3.5 Gbps (downlink speed) and 1.5 Gbps (uplink speed) during test in February 2016. The Huawei D-CCAP solution digitizes Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) networks, which reduces analog equipment and investment in fiber. D-CCAP can coexist with FTTH in unified platforms, greatly increasing the flexibility of existing Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) architectures.

We plan to swap over around 50 percent of our customers at the end of this year, and finish network transformation in 2017. So, that’s our basic roadmap.

Rich offerings

WinWin: Do you see any offerings as vital for superfast broadband uptake?

Carsten Bryder: We’ll see plenty of different services like 4KTV and 8KTV, and even virtual reality. People are watching more video, which increases the demand for bandwidth. We want to make sure that customers have all the bandwidth that they need now and for the next decade. That’s why we plan to upgrade our cable network to DOCSIS 3.1 early — so we can future-proof our network.

Initially, we’ll launch a TV set-top box (STB) in a month or so that will include 4KTV content, and later in the year we’ll consider big sports events on 4KTV like the Olympics. 

WinWin: What else has TDC got up its sleeve for competing with OTT players?

Carsten Bryder: Actually, we don't see OTT players as competitors. TDC is a cable operator with a STB, so we’re the only place that can aggregate content. People don't want one TV channel from an OTT player — they want several TV channels from several OTT players and cable companies. We aim to aggregate what our customers want in one simple STB with simple UI. OTT players are in fact driving demand for really fast broadband services, which is also our core business. 

Strong partnership

WinWin: Huawei is relatively new in the MSO market. What do you expect from Huawei, especially in the MSO market?

Carsten Bryder: TDC has a special story with Huawei. We’re one of Huawei’s first customers in Europe and the Nordic area on DWDM — we were also probably the first full-fledged managed service customer in the Nordic area. 

Just recently, we completed mobile network transformation. We’re looking forward to the DOCSIS 3.1 era, and have a lot of confidence in Huawei.