Beyond the Cable with Brad Randall

With a playbook adapted for an efficient rollout in the US market, agnoss CEO Christian Breidenbach-Kaack says the level of services agnoss can offer to multi-dwelling units offers clear advantages as a one-stop shop for network design, construction, operation, and maintenance. The company, which has roots in Germany, is known worldwide for developi. Additionally, the company's name is a play on words, short for "agnostic networks," according to their company website.Speaking on Beyond the Cable, a Broadband Communities podcast, at Connected America last month, Breidenbach-Kaack said some of the lessons they've learned from Europe can help provide return on investment for fiber-to-the-unit.

In this episode we sit down with representatives of GFiber and KIVO, a dynamic pricing platform for telecom operators from PlektonLabs that won Startup of the Year at Connected America.Both interviews, captured from Connected America, dive into separate topics, including the nature of dynamic pricing, and how it can help telco operators. Tony Byrnes, head of new build expansion for GFiber, also uses the chance to dispel a myth about AI and its benefit, or lack thereof, when it comes to speeding up fiber deployments.

Tracy Doaks, the president and CEO of MCNC, says North Carolina has something special with the North Carolina Research and Education Network.Originally from Virginia, Doaks said the network, which is operated and managed by MCNC, gives tremendous benefits to smaller, mid-sized, and minority institutions in North Carolina.She said larger institutions can often afford to have their own networks for researchers. However, she added that having a shared network infrastructure has been great to make sure others share in the benefits.Also, by being a middle-mile operator, she said MCNC is able to provide smaller telecoms in the state with the opportunity to lease fiber for use in rural areas. She said rural medical centers also run on their telehealth network."The larger incumbents aren't interested in those areas because the density is so low," she said. "So, that's been a real benefit to North Carolina, to have someone like an MCNC to be able to supply that type of connectivity."Now, she says MCNC is positioning themselves to handle the ongoing data center boom. Hear that and details about MCNC's new partnership with an electric co-op by listening to the full episode.

Smart security systems that protect residential communities are features that should be accessible to residents of all income brackets, according to Sandy Jack, Assa Abloy's VP of strategic relations.Jack made the comments during her recent spot on Beyond the Cable with Brad Randall, a Broadband Communities podcast."I think that the people that are most underserved, which would be the working force, workforce housing, student housing, those are the folks that really need it more," she said.Nowadays, peace of mind like that offered by Vingcard, an electronic lock and safety security system solution offered under Assa Abloy's umbrella, is essential to ensure happy and safe living environments in hotels and multifamily properties, Jack says."When you think about the night nurse that comes home at 3 in the morning, can we make sure that she is safe and secure?" Jack asked. "The police officer that has to go out to our neighborhoods but leave their family alone, how are they safe and secure?"

Beyond the Cable takes a sneak peek at the agenda for Connected America 2026, which opens next month with a packed two-day program in Texas.Sessions on both days, which reviewed in full on Connected America's website, will highlight a number of topics, including the practical barriers facing deployments: supply chain and labor constraints, regulatory compliance, and the challenge of turning infrastructure into adoption. 

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.

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.

Mike Frane, Nitel's chief product officer, joined a recent episode of Beyond the Cable to discuss how software-defined wide area networks, also known as SD-WANs, have lived up to the hype.

Ben Elkins, the CEO of Utah Broadband, has overseen explosive growth during his tenure at Arizona-based AireBeam. Find out how AireBeam was able to increase fiber subscribers by 375 percent under Elkins' leadership. We also discuss his philosophy towards management in roles at both firms, which are subsidiaries of the Boston Omaha Corporation.

In this episode of Beyond the Cable, we sit down with LiveOak Fiber's Chief Revenue Officer, Steve Smith. He discusses the ISP's growth in the Florida and Georgia region, along with the role that small, rural ISPs can play in the new digital ecosystem. That, plus learn what's next for LiveOak Fiber in 2025.

Rob Laudati, the vice president of product and partnerships at Render Networks, says a whole new world is at the fingertips of network designers when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). Find out how AI is changing the game and addressing some of the challenges facing network construction, like human error and a labor shortage.

Scott Pohlman and Michelle Watson, of Lumen, join Beyond the Cable to discuss Lumen's middle-mile efforts in California and the essential role of the state's middle-mile build. We discuss challenges that make California's middle-mile build unique and how the state is doing their part assist with timely network builds.

Reputational management is an all-encompassing task that serves as a crucial behind-the-scenes element of the telecommunications industry. On this episode of Beyond the Cable, a ⁠BBCMag.com⁠ podcast, we speak with one of the industry's icons, Ilissa Miller of ⁠iMiller Public Relations⁠.

In this episode of the BBCMag.com Beyond the Cable podcast we're joined by Paul Dickinson, of the Fiber Optic Sensing Association (FOSA). Listen as we discuss how fiber optic sensing technology can help ISPs maximize their return on investment. We also dive into the technology's use cases, and planning today can help your bottom line tomorrow. You won't want to miss this one!