Icotera’s Vision for Smarter, Faster, Greener Broadband

Q1: The industry is buzzing about Wi-Fi 7. From your perspective, how does it change the game compared to Wi-Fi 6 — especially when it comes to coverage and real-world performance?

Wi-Fi 7 is definitely a step change from Wi-Fi 6, so let’s take those two questions in isolation as they have different impacts.

Wi-Fi coverage
Many consumers would expect that with the latest iteration of Wi-Fi technology that there would be an increase in Wi-Fi coverage from Wi-Fi 7 to Wi-Fi 6 but potentially the reverse could be possible – let me explain why.

Wi-Fi 7 includes three different Wi-Fi frequencies compared to the two that Wi-Fi 6 had.
Wi-Fi 6 has 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, where Wi-Fi 7 also has the 6Ghz band

As we move up the frequency spectrum the distance a Wi-Fi signal can reach actually reduces due to the RF characteristics of the radio wave. The higher frequencies are more attenuated by items physically blocking it like walls and humans, so by adding the 6Ghz frequency you are not gaining any further Wi-Fi coverage

One other important factor affecting Wi-Fi coverage is the number of antennas present as extra antennas can be used for beam forming feedback which provides additional Wi-Fi coverage in some scenarios

In a Wi-Fi 7 router with a physical constraint on how many physical antennas can be installed there is potentially less antennas in place for this positive gain. This is why a compromise for Broadband services up to 2.5Gbps with excellent Wi-Fi coverage can be a Wi-Fi 6 router, like our class beating i488x series which has 8×8 5Ghz antennas, providing high performance with great Wi-Fi coverage

Throughput
Where Wi-Fi 7 really does improve upon Wi-Fi 6 is raw throughput.

The benefit of the 6Ghz frequency band is it can allow much higher throughput (speed) to and from your router, with theoretical rates of up to 20+Gbps, compared to the theoretical max of 9Gbps for Wi-Fi 6.

Bear in mind this high rate is dependent on a number of key factors
– Distance from the router,
– Number of antennas in the router
– Number of antennas in the client device
– Having a Wi-Fi 7 client device
– Availability of 6Ghz spectrum (in the UK and EU its currently limited)

So, adding all those up, if you have a Wi-Fi 7 device (laptop/phone) and you are near the router and the router is configured to have the widest available frequency available, you are going to get blistering fast speeds, but bear in mind that now the bottleneck may well be your Internet connection, which at the highest end of current Broadband packages is around 5Gb

Q2: Sustainability is becoming a key theme in broadband infrastructure. How do you see the industry evolving in this area, and what is Icotera’s approach?

Sustainability is definitely front and centre for many organisations in the EU and UK not necessarily just because of current and upcoming legislation but because of the shift in awareness and responsibility we all feel for reducing our environmental impact

Consumers are leading this shift in expectation so being an ISP that can show that they are working to minimise the environmental impact, can resonate with consumers
Couple this with the fact that many ISPs are funded by equity that has ESG funds in their portfolio

At Icotera ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) we have taken a strategic decision at Senior Management level to fully understand the environmental impact of our probusiness processes and our products.

This has led to us creating EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) for our latest range of products. (For info an EPD is a standardised, independently verified document that provides transparent information on the environmental impact of products throughout their lifecycle.

As part of our focus on the circular economy. we have also designed our latest Wi-Fi routers for ease of refurbishment to prolong the life of the router, potentially giving it a second life, and reducing its lifetime financial and environmental cost)

Q3: What’s unique about Icotera’s approach to ensuring consistent in-home performance compared to other manufacturers?

We have taken two strategies
To not rush to market with early, unproven versions of products, but to work strategically with key hardware and software vendors to design products from the ground up that are high performing, aesthetically pleasing and designed to meet the end customers needs and expectations at a fair price. Some more detail:
We selected Qualcomm as our chipset partner due to a number of reasons, one being the performance and reliability of their products.

We added High Quality FEMs which provide enhanced Wi-Fi amplification to improve Wi-Fi signal and coverage
Making the router aesthetically pleasing, that will blend in with modern homes means consumers are more likely to not hide them away behind obstacles, thus improving their Wi-Fi performance

We are flexible in our discussions with ISPs and Network Operators, preferring to work in a collaborative way to find the right product that fits their needs. This may include working together on future roadmap features and/or specific hardware variants

Q4: Multi-gigabit access networks are rolling out fast. What do you see as the key opportunities and challenges for ISPs in supporting these high-speed deployments?

With the investment by Governments around the world to stimulate the Broadband market to encourage Full Fibre Broadband direct to the home (FTTH) the option of Gigabit and Multi-Gigabit Broadband options are now possible.

Couple this with the increasing trend for migration from GPON (1Gbps) to XGS-PON (10Gbps) at the Fibre Termination layer

For speeds greater than 1Gb making sure the router has the WAN port available to support this is the 1st step.
For many (some) having a 2.5Gbps WAN port will suffice as this allows ISPs to offer Broadband packages at a maximum throughput of approx. 2.3Gbps, which may be adequate for many.

For those that want to go over the 2.5Gbps limit then it makes sense for the router to have a 10Gb WAN port now or in the future.

Making sure the Wi-Fi performance can match the WAN port speed is also important when looking at multi-gigabit connections, so having a router designed for high throughput is crucial. In both Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 this means ensuring there are multiple antennas on the 5Ghz and 6Ghz bands, a minimum of 4 per band is advised, as not all Wi-Fi is built for performance

Q5: There’s growing excitement around PRPL and containerized applications. How do you see open platforms changing the role of the CPE for ISPs?

ISPs are increasingly keen to move away from proprietary Operating Systems which forces lock-in to certain functions and features. prplOS is a software project that is collaborative with many stakeholders (including Icotera) taking part to make sure that the software on routers is as open and feature rich as possible, providing an option for the ISPs to be able to properly differentiate between their competitors by offering custom add on, value added services via the use of containerised applications.

This will improve end customer experience, reducing churn, increasing stickiness whilst also providing potential revenue streams for ISPs. Improving wallet share and ARPU, when the trend on ARPU has been constantly downward in recent years

Couple this with the knowledge that a large number of vendors and suppliers have an active interest in ensuring that the OS is high performing and fully interoperable with the chipset vendors, means that prplOS is a great choice for ISPs moving forward

Q6: What is Icotera’s unique selling point in the market?

We use high quality products that have been designed to give the best performance at the right cost – cutting corners on price at the beginning will lead to overall higher costs over the life of the product as more support calls will be taken
Get it right 1st time, by employing thoughtful and considered design to the launch of products, focusing on what will drive real value for ISPs, not just feature addition with no real benefit

We choose to partner with companies that match our ethos and customer centric approach. This may be chipset vendors like Qualcomm, or key software solution providers like prpl and Airties to our choice of key Value Add Partners in each country, Euroroute in Ireland and the UK being one of those trusted partners

A focus on the environmental impact of our operations and how we can minimise this across the life of our products
Finally, by talking to and engaging with our customers and prospects to understand exactly what it is they want and working with them to achieve this, whether this be a custom product, branding or marketing assistance, it’s about a partnership between us and the customer

Q7: If you could give ISPs one piece of advice as they prepare for Wi-Fi 7 and multi-gig rollouts, what would it be?

Understand exactly what your target market are focused on rather than what us in the industry think is relevant – we can sometime get tunnel focused

Understand the changes between Wi-Fi 6 and 7. It’s not a simple as the newer version is going to give a better customer experience

Research the differences between chipset manufacturers and antenna configurations – it can make a big difference. Many products may be marketed as Wi-Fi 7 but with less antennas so the performance will be worse than a comparable option with more antennas
Test, test, test