At SCTE Cable-Tec Expo 2022 (Sept. 19-22), Plume, a specialist in SaaS platforms for communications service providers (CSPs), announced a strategic partnership with SamKnows to deliver a testing and reporting platform for CSPs deploying Plume’s cloud services and leveraging the OpenSync open-source framework. The new partnership provides an end-to-end and fully automated solution for Connected America Fund (CAF) and Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) testing for all OpenSync deployments, simplifying the current process CSPs must take to obtain, analyze, and report data to comply with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) regulatory requirements and secure funding.
SamKnows’ software collects and translates data into a common language that can be shared between CSPs and government regulators. By choosing OpenSync-integrated Consumer Premises Equipment (CPE) combined with Plume’s SaaS Experience Management Platform, service providers can immediately benefit from SamKnows’ CAF latency testing and RDOF speed testing solutions, the partners maintain. Such testing is a mandatory and legal requirement in the U.S., and similar policies are being adopted by governments worldwide to ensure that CSPs of all sizes comply with technical and performance requirements necessary to obtain federal broadband development subsidies.
As further noted by Plume and SamKnows, prior to their announced partnership, CSPs had to manually run their own performance tests in multiple markets, wasting valuable time and resources deciphering and reporting complicated data. Now together, Plume and SamKnows expand the functional capabilities of OpenSync-integrated CPE to make the process more efficient and effortless to complete, contends a joint statement from the companies. The SamKnows router agent automatically analyzes data and seamlessly helps guide customers without having a device deployment process to manage.
Together, Plume and SamKnows say they now offer "a superior and cost-effective joint solution that is completely automated and actionable, provides robust analysis and reporting, eliminates time-consuming processes that are potentially prone to error, and ensures customers are always compliant with performance testing requirements."
The companies revealed that Hardy Telecommunications of Moorefield, West Virginia was the first company to leverage the combined Plume-SamKnows testing solution.
QUOTES
“As a recipient of A-CAM funding our main concern was finding a simple and effective way of conducting the FCC-required speed tests without investing in CAPEX and OPEX. Plume and SamKnows worked closely with us, providing a detailed report that we simply uploaded to meet our FCC obligations. It's taken a huge burden off our shoulders and allowed us to breathe easier; their support and responsiveness are helping us to provide an optimal broadband experience.” -- Derek Barr, assistant general manager at Hardy Telecommunications
“Our partnership with SamKnows is vital to our existing and future CSP customers as they navigate and remain compliant with the FCC performance testing requirements for the Connect America Fund, Rural Digital Opportunity Fund and the forthcoming Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) programs. Integrating SamKnows removes the challenging prospect of meeting performance testing requirements but more importantly, removes the need for our customers to develop their own testing solution while significantly reducing truck rolls to remain compliant with random testing locations.” -- Liem Vo, Chief OpenSync and hardware officer, Plume
"The USAC CAF and RDOF reporting requirements mirror the FCC’s Measuring Broadband America measurement methodology, also a SamKnows program. With this integration, CSPs can focus on improving the internet, rather than worrying about compliance.” -- Alex Hynes, senior technical account manager at SamKnows