The News: Netcracker Technology announced the launch of Netcracker Fiber Cloud Solution to equip wholesale Fiber Operators with an open IT environment focused on agility, efficiency, and business growth. The solution, part of the broader Netcracker Cloud Solutions for NetCos and ServCos automates all aspects of the fiber business across multivendor access networks, from planning and design to rollout, service provisioning, wholesale customer onboarding, settlements, and problem solving. Read the Netcracker Press Release here.

Netcracker Enriches Fiber Operator Diet with Netcracker Fiber Cloud Solutions Debut

Analyst Take: Netcracker Fiber Cloud Solution is designed to provide an open and automated IT environment by combining cloud-native OSS and wholesale BSS functions into a pre-integrated solution that specifically targets the fiber market. The new solution augments Netrcracker’s experience in providing a library of devices, models, integration adapters, and out-of-the box automation processes.

With an Open API integration layer, the solution helps fiber operators to accelerate wholesale customer adoption and respond swiftly to customer needs and advancing business objectives. These assets, taken together with Netcracker’s delivery expertise, DevOps enablement, and managed services can help minimize the time, cost, and intricacies of rolling out and running fiber operations.

I anticipate that the Netcracker Fiber Cloud solution is well positioned to capitalize on growing fiber deployments, particularly the U.S. market. In the U.S., fiber operators are substantially expanding their build-out as up to $130 billion in federal, state, and local subsidies are coming from funding sources such as the American Rescue Plan Act, the Competitive Carriers’ Association, the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund, the FCC’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, National Telecommunications and Information Agency (NTIA), and the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service ReConnect loan and grant program.

For example, AT&T is on track to cover 30M Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) locations by year-end 2025, Lumen is committing to pass 12M FTTH locations, Frontier plans to pass 10M FTTH locations by 2025, Altice is planning to add 2.5M FTTH locations by year-end 2023, and Brightspeed is investing $2B to pass 3M FTTH locations by 2028. Charter was awarded $1.2B in RDOF funding and the company has committed to invest an additional $3.8B for a total of $5B for FTTH.

Moreover, I see Verizon, Comcast, Windstream, and numerous other operators investing heavily in fiber deployment as communities across the nation seek to use government subsidies to ensure that their communities attain full broadband coverage.

As such, I see fiber operators prioritizing the adoption of pre-integrated solutions that support a wholesale open integration layer to streamline interworking with a diverse range of service provider partners. Using open APIs, including TM Forum sanctioned and country-defined specifications, can help unify and automate customer interactions, including requests for serviceability checks, service initiation, service upgrades, and other service lifecycle management and assurance queries.

Key Takeaways: Netcracker Targets Fiber Operators with Netcracker Fiber Cloud Solution Launch

From my perspective, fiber operators of all types, including cable operators, telcos, and utilities, are committed to scaling their businesses to meet the swiftly growing demand for full fiber access. I believe the new Fiber Cloud Solution enables Netcracker to augment its extensive cloud OSS/BSS portfolio and cloud deployment experience to counter solutions from top-tier rivals such as Nokia, Amdocs, Ericsson, and Oracle as well as attain differentiation by enabling wholesale fiber operators and their partners to swiftly take advantage of open environments to create compelling fiber-based services.

Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.

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