The Broadband Forum has formed its Executive Advisory Board (EAB). This new body consists of household-name broadband providers to ensure that future service providers’ investments are addressed and greater value is ultimately delivered to residential and business subscribers.

AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Calix, DZS, Ericsson, Fiber Broadband Association (FBA), FTTH Council Europe, F-Secure, Huawei, Lumen, NBN, Nokia, Orange, and Vodafone were among the companies involved in EAB’s first inaugural meeting.

EAB will be chaired by an experienced independent industry representative elected by the EAB members on a biannual basis. Craig Thomas holds the interim EAB Chair role and Bernd Hesse the EAB Co-Chair role. Executive Industry Advisors will represent industry thought leaders, including operators, vendors, industry associations, and analysts, and be invited to positions on the EAB on a 24-month term.

This initiative will provide the next stage of what the Broadband Forum says will be the next stage of intelligent, services-led broadband will be supported by fixed and wireless industry standards.

“Broadband continues to evolve, but so too does the broadband subscriber. Within the connected home, there is a ’gamer,’ a homeworker, an HD video streamer, an IoT and smart home device user, and each need the relevant service quality and experience,” said Craig Thomas, VP of Business Development and Strategic Marketing at Broadband Forum. “In addition, the current and future advancements in broadband technologies will make broadband infrastructure truly multi-service, and it needs to meet the demands of enterprise, mobile backhaul, and Industrial IoT alike.”

The EAB will advise the Broadband Forum’s Board of Directors to help it and the wider broadband industry gain new insights to pinpoint industry challenges and explore further market opportunities. EAB won’t make decisions but will provide more comprehensive insights and industry direction, critical thinking, and analysis.

“We continue to undergo a paradigm shift from connectivity driven to services-led broadband, but we need investment from the whole industry to increase the value of broadband to end customers,” said Bernd Hesse, BASe Chair and CMO of the Board of Directors at Broadband Forum.

Some of the topics being considered for the agenda could include making broadband truly “multi-service and multi-customer,” application-aware and differentiated broadband, network convergence, security, sustainability, and increased network and service agility with Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning and Software Defined Networking (SDN).