Light Reading Podcasts

This episode features John Putnam, director of UniCity – the smart city division at Cincinnati Bell, now known as Altafiber. We discuss UniCity's 3,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots and how the division engages partners on providing connectivity and digital training services across its service areas in Northern Kentucky, and Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner joins the podcast with a recap of the NAB show in Las Vegas. During the show, Jeff says there were discussions around the ATSC 3.0 standard for broadcast TV, latency concerns for live TV and streaming services, and he was able to attend an 8K video demo.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yellowstone Fiber, a nonprofit open access fiber network, broke ground in March to deliver fiber throughout the city of Bozeman, Montana. Formerly known as Bozeman Fiber, Yellowstone Fiber is now operating in partnership with Utopia Fiber, an open access network based in Utah. Greg Metzger, CEO of Yellowstone Fiber, and Kim McKinley, CMO and deputy director of Utopia Fiber, join the podcast to discuss their partnership in Bozeman, and where the open access model works best in the US.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Iain Morris joins the podcast to discuss Elon Musk's offer to buy Twitter for $43 billion. Morris explains Musk's potential motives behind purchasing Twitter, what it might look like if he goes through with taking ownership of the social media outlet, and what impact that could have on Twitter's future revenues and profits.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we hear from Sam Pratt, CEO of Render Networks, a provider of geospatial network construction technology. Founded in Australia, Render is primarily focused on building networks in the US and is currently active across 12 states. We discuss Render's recent announcement that its network construction technology has helped connect over 1 million premises to fiber – and what that milestone says about the industry's evolution on using digital tools in the field. We also get into funding initiatives and how the US federal effort to close the digital divide differs from Australia's.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Mike Dano joins the podcast to discuss his trip to the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) show, why T-Mobile had a presence at a show typically attended by Tier 2 operators and why smaller carriers are investing in 5G. He also explains what these smaller service providers have planned for funding from the federal government's infrastructure deal, and why they're showing a growing interest in utilizing public clouds.Related posts:Small US carriers march toward 5GTelecom's lobbying associations shift attention to the statesFraud could drag down Biden's broadband ambitions – reportSign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Basil Alwan, CEO of Tarana Wireless, joins the podcast to discuss Tarana's approach to fixed wireless access (FWA) and why its technology is unique. Alwan, a startup veteran who most recently ran Nokia's IP/Optical business, also weighs in on how Tarana's gear can help lessen the digital divide and why some of the company's customers are having WTF moments about FWA.In our conversation, we cover how and why Alwan became CEO at Tarana, a company that has been around since 2009, but only really started turning heads in the broader telecom market about a year ago. Alwan discusses how Tarana transitioned from handling small cell backhaul to building a novel broadband solution for service providers of all sizes, Tarana's G1 platform.He goes on to talk about the costs that service providers should consider when deploying traditional fixed wireless and line-of-sight cellular technologies. Finally, he reveals how Tarana Wireless is working with service providers and other channel partners and how the company's latest funding round has changed things.In March, Tarana announced that it had closed a $170 million round at a $1 billion valuation and was on track to "deliver over $100 million of revenue in 2022, from a customer base that has exploded to more than 120 service providers."Here's how the conversation unfolded:How Basil Alwan became CEO of Tarana Wireless (01:26)Tarana Wireless's work in the small cell market (04:55)Market opportunities for FWA and line-of-sight technologies (07:06)Key regions where FWA can lessen the digital divide and the cost to service providers for homes passed (09:18)Digging into Tarana's latest funding round and growth prospects (12:03)How Tarana is going to market and how service providers are stepping up (13:24)A real WTF moment for one of Tarana's customers (21:33)What changes when your company becomes a unicorn? (29:25)Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim catches up with Light Reading just a couple of months following Juniper's acquisition of WiteSand, a pioneer of cloud-native, zero-trust network access control solutions. In the podcast, we discuss what that string of buzzwords means and why the acquisition fits in nicely with Mist Systems, which brought a wireless LAN to Juniper, along with the ability to use AI to make network operations easier.Here are a few things covered in this podcast episode:Juniper's acquisition strategy and how it's paying off (01:44)What Juniper looks for in an acquisition target (07:17)Juniper's focus on enterprise customers (11:29)Why Juniper loves the O-RAN opportunity (15:46)Can Juniper make the right bets while so much is changing in the network? (20:26)Moving service providers to "experience first" networking (23:46)Data is precious but coffee is better (26:05)Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we hear from Matt Polka, CEO of ACA Connects, a trade association representing small and midsize independent service providers since 1993. We discuss broadband access in the service areas represented by ACA Connects, as well as a recent letter Polka sent to the NTIA's Alan Davidson regarding the final rules for the NTIA's $42.45 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (or BEAD) grant program.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we hear from Rhode Island State Representative Deborah Ruggiero. Rep. Ruggiero made some news when Cox Communications announced that it would invest $120 million to build fiber and expand its network in the state – prompting the representative and her colleagues to release a statement about the incumbent's years of underinvestment. She joins the podcast to discuss the state of broadband access in the state of Rhode Island, what's holding up progress and why she is fighting to pass a bill that would establish a broadband council at the state level.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.