US-headquartered broadband infrastructure provider Casa Systems is targeting opportunities with NBN and other major telco players in Australia, focused particularly on small cells and distributed, multi-access tech architecture, via its local partnership with C-Cor. Casa CEO Jerry Guo spoke exclusively to CommsDay on a visit to Australia along with C-Cor MD John Goddard.

As revealed by CommsDay, Melbourne-based telco equipment supplier C-Cor officially announced its ANZ-exclusive alliance with Casa in January this year after splitting with previous vendor partner Arris – one of NBN’s HFC suppliers and a direct rival to Casa. For Guo, ever-increasing and “insatiable” demand for bandwidth in Australia plus a trend towards fixed-mobile network convergence make the local market an interesting proposition.

“When we look at broadband infrastructure, we see three segments. We see the cable side of broadband infrastructure [such as] cable modems and CMTS converged cable access platforms; we see telco broadband infrastructure, optical and DSLAM; and the third segment is mobile. And we see that all three are actually converging,” he said.

“We as a company are providing solutions in all three segments and especially for the convergence of all broadband infrastructure, HFC, optical, and mobile networks. We are playing in cable infrastructure and optical routing infrastructure as well as small cells, picocells and 5G cells going forward [plus] the packet core side: the core networks which aggregate and control all the access networks.”

Casa and C-Cor believe there could still be opportunities in the NBN HFC supply chain, particularly with the forthcoming upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1, a technology in which Casa positions itself as a market leader. But they are particularly focused on the possibility of helping NBN expand its fixed wireless network via small cell deployment at the network edge.

“In fixed wireless infrastructure, there are opportunities with a company like NBN; it’s got that fixed wireless mandate, it can’t go mobile, but it does hold 2.3GHz [spectrum] and 3.4-3.7GHz as well. Clearly, there are opportunities there for it to… transform that fixed wireless network into a small-cell fixed wireless network,” said Goddard.  

“Part of that driver for that expansion [would be] the fact that their core customers, [such as] Telstra and Optus and Vodafone I guess, are currently expanding their mobile networks and their fixed mobile networks into small cell structures, particularly Telstra… we could see a situation where the other operators are competing against NBN for customers with a mobile infrastructure.”

However, the two companies are not restricting their overtures to NBN; they are also talking to other local fixed and wireless players, some of which are potential competitors to the national network.
“The opportunities we see in general [with] fixed broadband operators, not necessarily NBN specifically,” said Guo, “are that when they push the node closer, fibre deeper, we [can] basically build a hardware platform – a digital node – which can act as an HFC node, which can act as a 5G cell –”
“– but can also host DSL, can also host optics –” put in Goddard
“– so for some business services or new builds, they could put an optical line terminal in that digital node to provide optical service. It’s really about HFC, optical, as well as 5G or 4.5G cells going forwards,” finished the Casa CEO. “We can [also] help the mobile operators to extend their coverage or provide densification of their network by putting the cells into areas that macrocells do not cover well. So it’s both a fixed wireless opportunity as well as a mobile wireless opportunity.”

Guo’s trip to Australia has provided him and Goddard with the opportunity to engage in person with a range of potential customers. “We’re talking to all the big guys, the major players; all the major telcos, and the Tier 2s,” noted Goddard. “We’ve got a leading provider of ultra-broadband technology [in Casa], and the local supplier – us – with the feet on the ground, the local knowledge, the understanding of the deployment methods and methodologies [with] the capacity to customise product if required for localisation.”

Petroc Wilton