Five Questions for OpenVault CEO Mark Trudeau

Broadband analytics leader says flat-rate broadband plans with no data limits have been fueling usage.

Preview: Mark Trudeau, founder and CEO of OpenVault, leads a company that provides broadband analytics and software tools to Internet service providers worldwide. The firm offers products aimed at optimizing network performance, boosting revenue and improving customer satisfaction and also supplies market data on residential and business usage trends. Trudeau, who describes himself as a data geek, has spent more than a decade growing OpenVault from a startup into a global provider of broadband technology and SaaS solutions with employees and customers across multiple regions. Ahead of this week’s TechExpo25 in Washington, D.C., Trudeau took a few questions about the latest broadband trends.

PB: Broadband usage in the U.S. has consistently climbed, with peak demand surging during major events and work-from-home shifts. What are the most striking consumption patterns OpenVault has tracked recently?

MT: Growth continues to accelerate in two categories that are important to network performance — the upstream and by “power users” of 1 GB or more per month. We’re also watching a new phenomenon of quarter-over-quarter growth in the first half of the year, when seasonal slowdowns traditionally have occurred. The continued rise in overall monthly consumption toward 700 GB per subscriber is important as a baseline metric for the industry, but our broadband management solutions also give us visibility into upstream and power usage trends that can have an operational impact on our customers.