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.
Mark Campagna, the CEO of gaiia, says ISPs who don't adopt software technology offerings that can help enhance efficiencies may face extinction. In this episode of Beyond the Cable, Campagna talks about how technology is evolving to help ISPs offer great customer service, something he says is a massive differentiator in a crowded marketplace.
In this episode, Kate Grutzmacher, who manages community partnerships with Blue Stream Fiber as a senior vice president, joins us to discuss Houston, which is one of the fastest markets in the nation with respect to multifamily communities."When we were looking at expansion markets, we looked at Houston very hard," Grutzmacher said on a recent episode of Beyond the Cable.Houston's quick growth was a main catalyst for Blue Stream Fiber's investments in the Houston area, according to Grutzmacher.She said Houston presented a wonderful opportunity to Blue Stream Fiber, with a great market share that was available."So, it's an expanding market," she said. "It's not stopping. If anyone spends any time in Houston, the traffic is a telltale sign."
Adlane Fellah, the chief researcher for Maravedis, says the MDU connectivity market has become attractive for companies seeking to disrupt incumbent vendors. Speaking to Beyond the Cable at Broadband Communities Summit last month in Houston, Fellah says he sees a big opportunity for brownfield deployments in the coming months and years. He said his company, a boutique research firm that provides insight on the evolution of wireless infrastructure, is also keenly interested the potential for conversions between fixed and mobile services.He said collaboration between virtual network operators (VNOs) and managed service providers (MSPs) are something we could see more of in the future.
Kevin McGuire, a VP of broadband policy at Great Plains Communications (GPC), says 2025 is a big year for broadband. We caught up with Kevin on Day 1 of the Broadband Communities Summit last month in Houston to discuss GPC's ongoing efforts to expand their footprint to additional unserved and underserved locations.
Chris Curtin, the president of Ubiquity's smart buildings division, says Ubiquity is making a big play for MDU brownfield communities that have been passed over by other providers.By partnering with ISPs that possess their own fiber backhaul, Curtin said Ubiquity is able to put together an economic profile that benefits multiple parties, including MDU owners/operators, and their ISP partners."By partnering with these ISPs we're able to put together an economic profile," Curtin said. As a result, Curtin said their ISP partners are able to grow, MDU owners get fiber, "and then we also benefit for our shareholders."
Jeff Johnson, who leads Quantum Fiber's Connected Communities teams, says the importance of pre-planning evaluations before fiber-to-the-unit or premises builds cannot be understated. He said Quantum Fiber's sales engineers are highly involved in the process, identifying the best solutions for a given property.Once plans are set, Johnson said Quantum Fiber's construction teams take over to ensure agreed upon plans are implemented.In addition, Johnson talked about why high-speed internet connectivity for MDUs is a smart long-term investment, offering property owners access to potential revenue sharing opportunities and property value increases.Disclaimer from Quantum Fiber:All content is for informational purposes only, may require user’s additional research, and is provided “as is” without any warranty, condition of any kind (express or implied), or guarantee of outcome or results. Use of this content is at user’s own risk. All third-party company and product or service names referenced in this article are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with Quantum Fiber. If Quantum Fiber products and offerings are referenced in the content, they are accurate as of the date of issue. Quantum Fiber services are not available everywhere. Quantum Fiber service usually means 100% fiber-optic network to your location but, in limited circumstances, Quantum Fiber may need to deploy alternative technologies coupled with a non-fiber connection from a certain point (usually the curb) to your location in order to provide the advertised download speeds. ©2024 Q Fiber, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Quantum, Quantum Fiber and Quantum Fiber Internet are trademarks of Quantum Wireless LLC and used under license to Q Fiber, LLC.
Ripple Fiber has made some big moves lately, including the completion of a strategic merger with Hyperfiber and debt capacity increase to $350 million. We sat down with Greg Wilson, the ISP's CEO, at Fiber Connect in Nashville, to discuss what's next for Ribble Fiber.
Fiber is a futureproofed technology that can adapt with innovative breakthroughs, according to Mike Janssen, a senior manager of sales and engineering at Quantum Fiber."It's a great investment, it increases your property value," Janssen said.As a sales engineer, Janssen said his team is responsible for pre-planning work, communicating with customers, and trying to understand technical requirements.The end result of his work is a tailored solution, designed to fit the needs of individual properties and developments.
In this episode we speak with Felix Dialoiso, a founding partner at Harbor Link Holdings LLC. As we'll find out, Harbor Link is undertaking an ambitious fiber build in the D.C. Metro, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia area. Their network, built for the demands of tomorrow, is 100% underground. Felix explains the complexities that have come with that, and how Harbor Link has managed the checkerboarding of regulations across municipalities within their footprint.
Brandon Dinsmore is a tribal outreach and workforce development specialist at the Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. In this episode of Beyond the Cable, Brandon talks to us about how members of tribal communities are being empowered to take the future into their own hands with career paths in telecommunications.
Policy decisions regarding tariffs coming from the White House can have enormous effects on supply chains but, as Total Telecom Editor Harry Baldock explained recently on Beyond the Cable, the dust is still settling regarding the impacts of those decisions. Baldock said it appears folks still don't know how thought out the White House's trade policies are, which is causing anxiety."When it comes to investment for big companies, stability is important," Baldock said. "It's important to know what the economy is potentially going to look like in a few years time."
We caught up with Sachin Gupta, of Centranet, to discuss their milestone in Oklahoma. Recently, Centranet provided one of the fastest connections globally to a pilot member of the Sac and Fox Nation. Nokia later called the achievement the first live commercial trial of 50G PON technology in a tribal nation. In this episode of Beyond the Cable, we discuss what the achievement means for the future of rural and tribal connectivity with Gupta.
The rise of digital infrastructure needs has led telecom workforces to have a unique role in communities across America.As such, telecom workforces often have a unique opportunity to spot the telltale signs of human trafficking, according to Josh Loaiza, of the 3Strands Global Foundation.In this episode, we speak with Loaiza about a 3Strands initiative known as Telecommunications Against Trafficking and Exploitation (TATE), which is activating telecom workforces to fight human trafficking.
We speak with Stephen Rose, the newly named CEO of Render Networks, to discuss AI's potential to streamline deployments, which could lead to big savings for internet service providers (ISPs). Plus, hear Rose's take on why AI doesn't pose a risk as an industry job killer on this episode recorded from the exhibition floor of Connected America 2025 earlier this month in Dallas.
Arbitrary decision making has shaken the confidence of workers at the NTIA, according to Evan Feinman, the former director of the BEAD Program. According to Feinman, who resigned his post on Friday, March 14, that fear hurt the culture within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which advises the president on telecommunications policy. Hear why that, and reviews with seemingly pre-determined outcomes, has left Feinman concerned about the BEAD Program's direction following his departure from government.
In Part 1 of our two-part series of Beyond the Cable from Connected America we interview Kelly Colman, the CEO of a startup named Xenesis, Bob Lamb, the VP of Global Sales at Aprecomm, and Megan Steckly, the CEO of Compudopt.Catch Part 2 of this series on Tuesday, March 25, when we bring you our interviews from Day 2 of Connected America.
Questions are swirling around the future of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program since the administration of President Donald J. Trump has taken the helm. On this episode of Beyond the Cable, Dr. Nathan Smith, the Director of Economics and Policy for Connected Nation, joins us to talk about the future of the BEAD program, which has been the subject of some criticism from Republicans. Hear what Dr. Smith considers BEAD's best political protection and find out what he says broadband providers should and shouldn't be worried about in 2025.
Charles Thomas, the Chief Strategy Officer for Rural Broadband Partners (RBP), says he tells ISPs in rural areas not to view themselves as rural providers. Instead, he asks them to look at urban providers and to examine the resources those entities have. "You want to build that into your location," he says. On this episode of Beyond the Cable, we discuss more strategy, and Thomas' mission to win hearts and minds on behalf of rural broadband, which he says is still viewed as a luxury by some.