Beyond the Cable with Brad Randall

Maz Khan, the president of Vitalis Smart Communities, says the term smart community is thrown around too loosely nowadays. "Somebody puts up a Nest thermostat and some sort of smart lock and all of a sudden it's a smart community," he said, while appearing on Beyond the Cable as a recent guest. "Well, that's not it."Khan said he believes connectivity is the foundation of any smart community."You can put all the gadgets you want," he said, "but if you don't have a network that can support it, all you've done is just frustrate the residents and the tenants who are living in that building or community."Khan said a truly smart community is one where systems and solutions work together in full integration to make the lives of residents easier. Similarly, he said AI offers lots of potential to enhance the smart community model. He argued, however, that without the foundation of solid connectivity communities will miss out on the benefits of AI."I want to look at connectivity as a basis and then build the layers on top," he said.

Connectivity is a key part of decision making when renters are considering where to live, according to Elizabeth Parks, the president and CMO of Parks Associates.Parks joined Ilan Eframian, a VP from Xfinity Communities, on Beyond the Cable to discuss some of the insights revealed in recent research by Parks Associates, which closely studies the broadband and multifamily markets.

Requirements asking providers to submit written statements pledging not to take additional subsidies to complete and operate BEAD projects have had a chilling effect, according to Bree Maki, the director of Minnesota's office of broadband development.Maki made the comments in her recent appearance on Beyond the Cable, a Broadband Communities podcast.She said providers using subsidies from the Universal Service Fund have been most hesitant to participate in the government's $42.45 billion broadband spend, known as the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program."There's just a level of uncertainty," she said, referencing the announcement from Arielle Roth last November directing states to obtain the written statements.

Ezee Fiber has grown rapidly in recent years, with aggressive expansion efforts in markets like Houston, New Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest.The fiber internet provider's CEO, Matt Marino, recently joined Beyond the Cable—a Broadband Communities podcast—to discuss the company's quickly expanding footprint and talked strategy.Marino said a sense of urgency is incredibly important. "This is a highly competitive business, it is a highly complicated business," he said, adding that there are lots of moving parts that need to be tracked and managed.

Jon Carlson, a senior vice president of business development at Ibex, explains why everyone wins with a healthy ISP ecosystem, not just the corporations. "Yes, success for those tier two and tier three (ISPs) is super important for those organizations, for those companies," he said, appearing on a recent episode of Beyond the Cable. "But it's really super important for the populations that their servicing, who just have not had the access that they deserve."In this interview, Carlson shares some of his takes about how smaller ISPs can meet the challenge of growth. As he says, "it's the mechanics of the day to day that actually allows growth to happen." Find out what he means here, in Part 1 of his appearance on Beyond the Cable, a Broadband Communities Summit podcast.Learn more about Broadband Communities Summit at bbcmag.com/summit.

Christopher Sikora, the CRO of Great Plains Communications (GPC), shares how GPC strategically positioned themselves to lean into a data center-driven marketplace.According to Sikora, factors that have propelled GPC to answer the call of changing connectivity demands include a variety of factors. Listen to the full episode to find out why Sikora says competency, a willingness to think differently, financial stability, and company culture play big into GPC's ability to answer the call.

Trent Edwards, the CEO of TAK Broadband, is worried about the future of the workforce in the telecommunications industry."We don't do a good job of making sure that the younger generation understands the opportunity within construction," he said.According to Edwards, many hold assumptions that construction work is unpleasant because it requires working outside in many different conditions."And the people that do that, they want to do that," he said. "They have that in their DNA. It's a respectable and highly looked upon job in my opinion."However, Edwards said the younger generation doesn't think network construction work is sexy. He said the negative perceptions will cause issues down the line, making it hard to recruit talent."We've got to do a better job at promoting that and bringing construction back," he said. "We've got to make it sexy again."

The telecommunications industry gets a bad reputation as being slow to adapt new technologies. It's one that Abhishek Sandhir, the managing director of Sand Technologies' telecommunications division says is not wholly earned.There's a lag between other industries because of the investment required to fund technological transformations, Sandhir said while speaking to Beyond the Cable at Connected Britain.Instead, telecommunications investments are focused on building new infrastructure."That's why you see that lag in adopting the technology because the focus is on maintaining the lead compared to the competitors," he said. "That only comes with investment in the current way of thinking. That's what we're trying to change."

James Page, the CEO of Proactive International PR, said era of buildouts by so-called altnets in the United Kingdom has given way to a new chapter, where investors want their money back.Altnets, a shortened term for smaller alternate network providers, remain buoyant in the UK, despite earlier predictions from some that a consolidation doomsday would arrive. "There is still more investment to come," Page said. "We've been talking for some time in this market about when consolidation was going to particularly hit and how quickly that was going to happen, and that seems to be something that's never quite hit."Earlier fears connected to overbuilds have not necessarily played out either, Page said. "Now when you've got 120, maybe more, altnets and there hasn't been yet that much consolidation, then there is definitely competition between them," he added. "I think that's entirely a good thing."

Few have seen the evolution of connectivity in the UK better than Rahul Puri, the CEO of STL.Speaking to Beyond the Cable this fall at Connected Britain, Puri talked about what's next for STL, which he says leads the way as the UK's largest supplier of fiber and data center solutions."Now we're seeing the next phase of growth, where you're seeing a lot of excitement from hyperscalers, data center players as well coming to the show," he said.To position itself for the next era of connectivity, Puri said STL will remain a company that doesn't provide just standard solutions. "We actually go out and solve for the customer's problems," he said. Part of STL's success, he said, is that the company understands the challenges of their customers.Additionally, with a global manufacturing presence, Puri said STL maintains a unique edge.

ISPs that can't spot what parts of their network are delivering subpar experiences for customers will face higher churn, said Dan Siemon, the CEO and one of the co-founders of Preseem.Siemon, joining the latest episode of Beyond the Cable, said the vast majority of customers will leave after negative experiences. "Maybe they'll complain once," he said. "But often they're just going to leave."Siemon said ISPs that are relying on customer complaints to identify problems are probably "already too late."Similarly, ISPs who don't streamline operations will also be at a severe disadvantage, Siemon said.He compared searching for problems without data driven insights to looking for a needle in a haystack."Ultimately that just means higher operations costs," he said.Meanwhile, Preseem's platforms, designed for second and third tier ISPs who don't have huge marketing budgets, allow network providers to maximize operational efficiencies, providing actionable, data-driven insights.

Staffing issues have been persistent for the telecom industry, as Heather Moyer, the CEO of HNM Systems, knows all too well.Moyer said she believes the industry at large has a branding problem and needs to adjust to appeal to younger prospects."We need to kind of rebrand ourselves from kind of the salty crew construction folks to emerging talent and recognizing that we are in a technology industry," she said. "And why we don't lead with that, I will never know."Moyer, however, is doing her part to position the industry for future success. Her brainchild, an AI and machine learning workflow automation application (in the beta phase) called Recruit Code, is being utilized by HNM Systems, a professional services provider. As the CEO of HNM Systems, Moyer scaled HNM Systems to achieve 25× revenue growth in just a few years, according to Recruit Code's website.Now, Recruit Code is poised to bolster HNM Systems' growth even further.According to Moyer, Recruit Code is part of a new era, in which workforce development consultants leverage AI to maximize positive impacts for clients.

Legacy configure price quote (CPQ) systems cause headaches for ISPs, but the right CPQ system can be a game changer for ISPs on the margins.We spoke with Sean Casey, the SVP of product management at CSG, on a recent episode of Beyond the Cable about how the right CPQ solution can make or break an ISP's bottom line. Casey said traditional CPQ systems just don't provide the type of support needed when it comes to provisioning and management service level agreements (SLAs).He said automation and rapid enablement is key to customer satisfaction."The traditional CPQ systems just don't provide that," Casey added.

Rob Chambers, the Managing Director of Total Telecom, says Connected Britian has evolved with the growth of the market in the United Kingdom."What started as being a conversation purely about fiber rollout has now moved on to a more complete discussion about connectivity and what people do with it," he said, speaking to Beyond the Cable in London.Similar to Total Telecom's U.S. events, like Connected America and Broadband Communities Summit, the event is technology agnostic. However, while the United Kingdom's connectivity market may be in some more advanced stages than the U.S., Chambers said it's not all ahead of the curve.

As a vendor in the business support systems (BSS) space, Ryan O'Hanlon said MDS Global has built a diverse portfolio of customers, including BT and Virgin Media O2. O'Hanlon, the VP of global sales for MDS Global, said mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are also included among MDS Global's customers.His comments came during a recent appearance on the Beyond the Cable podcast at Connected Britain."Customers like iD Mobile, who are fast growing, we've been with them since day one," he said, adding that iD Mobile has grown to over 2 million subscribers to date.Additionally, O'Hanlon said MDS Global supports the Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) platform in South Africa. Similarly, O'Hanlon said the MVNE platform supports a multitude of verticals, including an agricultural MVNO and digital media brands.MVNE was founded "with the vision of becoming Africa's leading Mobile Virtual Services Enablement partner," according to MVNE's website.Also, O'Hanlon said MDS Global is focused on supporting who want to be able to scale quickly.He added that MDS Global strives to support customers who want to innovate."The way to innovate is to bring other types of packages in," O'Hanlon said, referencing a speaker at Connected Britain earlier who discussed selling security services to end users."By doing that, that introduces another metric into the mix," he said.O'Hanlon also praised PXC, or PlatformX Communications, which has a strategic partnership MDS Global."They've got an aggregated platform," he said. "And just hearing the (PXC) team speak this morning around how they're looking to sell that last mile as part of their package."

Joel Ogren, the CEO and founder of Assured Communications, says building partnerships with tribal communities is about listening and understanding history from different perspectives.With a lengthy career that includes years spent working with the Pacific Islander community in Hawaii, Ogren has now applied his relationship-building skills to build lasting partnerships in Washington State.Namely, Assured Communications has a partnership with Toptana Technologies, which is owned by the Quinault Indian Nation. In his approach to building partnerships with tribal communities, Ogren said he signifies up front that he wants to earn the right to be considered a trusted partner. "It's important to me," he said. "We're going to do it with integrity and an open approach to the work that we do."Credentials and experience also matter, he said, adding that demonstrating the ability to deliver on a project is key. He also said Assured's success would not be possible without the company's highly qualified team of professionals."They understand this, they have those same values that help drive me," Ogren said. "The ability to address the digital divide, they see the value of what we can do for these economies."

John Duncan is the Connected Places Lead for Greater Manchester, which encompasses the largest metropolitan area in Northern England. Recently, at Connected Britain in London, Duncan appeared on Beyond the Cable, a Broadband Communities podcast, to discuss Greater Manchester's cutting-edge work to better connect the area's nearly 3 million residents.Leading strategic policy initiatives for Greater Manchester, Duncan said he works extensively with fiber and mobile providers to make sure network investments are filling inclusion gaps.The digital infrastructure in Greater Manchester has also laid the foundation for economic growth, Duncan said.As such, Duncan said Greater Manchester's new strategy to become a "growth zone" for AI has become a big focus of his lately.

Multifamily properties that aren't meeting the connectivity needs of residents remains a major gap in 2025, but it's one that Ed Wolff, the CEO of Aerwave, hopes to help fill.As a symbol of Aerwave's recent success, the company took home the trophy for Multifamily Partner of the Year at the 2025 Broadband Communities Awards in Houston.Wolff said Aerwave was honored to receive the recognition, which he believes is a testament to Aerwave's resident-experience driven mentality."We have the good fortune of working with 30% of the NMHC 50," Wolff said.Looking ahead, Wolff said he believes Aerwave is well positioned for continued growth and success in the managed Wi-Fi space.

Abby Crawford, a podcasting and marketing specialist with FiberCom Engineering, is the host of Field Notes - a podcast that introduces her audience to public and private sector leaders in the communications industry.Through her role, Crawford said she gets to lead the storytelling efforts of FiberCom Engineering, a telecom engineering firm.Crawford said one of her missions is to elevate voices that she thinks are often overlooked in broadband, energy, and infrastructure. "I just get to ask them real questions about the work that they're doing," Crawford said. "And I get to just share why it matters."

Ebony Cooksey says NextLink Internet has made it their mission to expand service to rural America, especially in the Heartland. As they expand, beyond fixed wireless to fiber, she said the ISP is focused on deploying "the right tool for the toolkit," depending on the needs of individual communities. In her job, Cooksey said she deals with local officials who are very interested in enhancing economic opportunity. "They know that broadband is the way to improve economic development and healthcare, and educational outcomes for those communities," she said. As part of NextLink Internet's strategy, Cooksey said the company also makes a point to be sensitive to "non-deployment concerns" in rural communities."Some of the folks are struggling," she added. "And we want to help to improve that."A new Digital Empowerment Center, run by NextLink Internet in Seward, Nebraska, is part of the company's strategy. The center gives assistance with basic digital skills, covering everything from online banking to how to send emails. According to Cooksey, the storefront in Seward used for Nextlink Internet's Digital Empowerment Center was previously empty."We're really trying to get to those digital skills," she said, while praising Nextlink Internet's partnership with Microsoft Airband.She said for some folks, digital skills may just mean being able to see photos of their grandkids online and no longer being socially isolated.