A typical household in the industrialized world already has several connected devices. For starters, almost everyone who is at least 15 years old has a smartphone and, in most cases, a laptop computer or tablet. Furthermore, many households own a smart TV and one or several smart speakers. Most of these devices connect to the household network using Wi-Fi.
Another connected device, present in almost all households, sends continuous information about power consumption: the smart meter. There are also other smart meters now in use to monitor water usage and gas consumption. These meters can use different wired or wireless connectivity such as powerline communication—in the case of the electricity meter—cellular narrow-band IoT (NB-IoT), or low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) such as LoRaWAN.
FTTX and Broadband Cable are Replacing Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
The digital subscriber line (DSL: originally called the digital subscriber loop) in its different forms — ADSL, Naked DSL, SDSL, VDSL, etc. — has been critical for the massive adoption of Internet connectivity in most markets, especially in the first decade of this century.
As the demand for more speed and the number of connected devices increased, the limitations of DSL started to be more pronounced. For starters, DSL speeds are heavily dependent on the distance to the central telephone exchange because of signal attenuation. Therefore, while the advertised speeds were 30-50 Mbps, most users never experienced that bandwidth. Furthermore, latency over DLS is very high, affecting online gaming, video conferencing, and other speed-dependent applications.
DSL has almost disappeared in many mature markets, especially in densely populated areas, and is being replaced by ultra-fast fiber-optic networks or high-speed coaxial cable. Many households, especially in Europe, are now connected via fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) cables with speeds up to 1 Gbps. In the U.S. and the U.K., where cable TV is predominant and coaxial cables are already present in most homes, technologies such as DOCSIS allow for comparable broadband capacity.
5G Networks and Fixed Wireless Access
As the cost of installing fiber in sparsely populated areas is high, many cellular service providers (CSPs) have been offering fixed wireless access (FWA) over their wireless networks.
For several years, this has been possible using long-term evolution (LTE or 4G) cellular connectivity, as the standard offers high bit-rate broadband mobile service. While this has been successful in bringing some form of broadband to many homes, the limit on the number of connections per cell and the high latency of the network poses severe limitations for high-bandwidth applications such as video streaming, gaming, and video conferencing.
However, the recent arrival of 5G networks offers a new scenario for FWA connectivity. With features such as network slicing and ultra-fast latency, the new radio allows for broadband capacities in the gigabite scale and a massive number of concurrent connections on the same spectrum.
Today, new 5G networks are rapidly deployed in most industrialized countries, mostly in cities. The transition to 5G in rural areas would take some time, but it will significantly improve the current Internet speeds and quality of service in those areas.
Wi-Fi Is Ubiquitous in the New Home
Many years ago, a simple Wi-Fi router using the 2.4 GHz band was enough to provide stable communication to a small number of devices simultaneously. At the time, most people used their laptops and smartphones for essential functions such as Internet browsing or watching YouTube videos.
As many people still used desktop computers at home, those were usually connected using wired ethernet cables to the home router. Old laptops also included ethernet connectivity. Today, it is pretty difficult to find a laptop computer with it.
In recent years, the arrival of new Wi-Fi standards such as Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) has improved the connectivity of millions of devices, offering massive broadband capacity and similar features of cellular networks.
Today, fully integrated Wi-Fi routers connected to fiber or cable Internet offer triple-play services (Internet, phone, and TV) in one box. In many homes, the old telephone line over copper cable (public switched telephone network or PSTN) is a thing of the past.
A New Wave of Connected Appliances Using Different Connectivity Standards
Over the past few years, new connected appliances have arrived in many households: connected refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, alarm systems, smart air conditioners and heaters, etc.
Many of these appliances and other devices use the household Wi-Fi network, but others have additional connectivity. For example, alarm and doorbell systems could also connect using cellular networks—allowing them to contact security services or law enforcement in case of an emergency—and some large appliances use Zigbee to communicate.
Embedded SIMs Enable Cellular Connectivity for Many Home Devices
Many of the latest models of wearables, laptops, tablets, and other small devices now feature cellular connectivity by using an embedded SIM (eSIM). Instead of using a traditional plastic SIM card, the ones usually found in smartphones, eSIMs allow manufacturers to directly put the security module on the main board of their devices, saving power and reducing size. This new technology enables cellular connectivity in smartwatches and other smaller devices.
Additionally, eSIMs are present in many other devices such as smart meters, smoke detectors, new alarm systems, etc. eSIMs also allow manufacturers and service providers to provide cellular carrier credentials over the air (OTA) without direct access to the device.
Furthermore, new cellular standards such as narrow-band IoT (NB-IoT) and LTE-M allow low-power connectivity for low-bandwidth communication, enabling battery-powered devices to function for several months and years without intervention.
Remote Schooling and Working Created Additional Needs for Connectivity
In the past two years, especially in the industrialized world, the largest experiment on remote working has been conducted.
Within days, many organizations had to organize equipment, connectivity, and security for the millions of people who left their usual workplaces and continued working from home. Furthermore, as schools closed during the first year of the pandemic, most children, teenagers, and college students needed additional devices and uncompromised connectivity to continue attending classes, exams, and other activities.
Suddenly, a basic broadband connection for a typical household was not enough to accommodate the needs of the new paradigm. ISPs, CSPs, and other technology companies took up the task and opportunity to improve their networks and services for the unique situation.
While there were many challenges and problems during the first few months of the lockdowns, most people could cope with the situation, and existing networks proved to be up to the task.
Consumers Should Be Aware of all the Different Connectivity Present in Their Homes
While in most cases the number of connected devices and the way they communicate are something most consumers are not concerned with, they need to understand that their homes are now packed with different connections to and from other devices and companies.
All those systems constantly gather information about the household, its inhabitants, and their use of different appliances, utilities, and technologies. Understanding its implications and how they can protect themselves against potential privacy abuse and security threats is crucial for the consumer of the 21st century.