Light Reading Podcasts

Light Reading's editors are premium targets for PR firms and marketing experts all across the media landscape. But not all story ideas make it from the inbox to the front page.Our roundup of near-miss pitches this time around includes some howlers for Father's Day, a racy tech support scheme and some canned comments about canned wines to watch with your favorite deep-cable dramatic movies.Light Reading's Phil Harvey, Mike Dano, Fiona Graham and Kelsey Ziser have a good-natured discussion about whimsical gift ideas and far-out story pitches, and take a summertime dip into the pool of bad marketing ideas as they review some recent PR pitches that completely struck out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from Matt Dunne, founder and executive director of the Center on Rural Innovation (CORI), a nonprofit action tank that started in 2017 to close the rural opportunity gap for broadband services.We discuss the impact the digital divide has had on the rural US over the past 20+ years and how the Center on Rural Innovation works with communities to help them build out broadband, among other things. In addition, we discuss why rural America does need fiber infrastructure, despite what some industry stakeholders would have you believe, and which state and federal policies are and are not working when it comes to helping rural communities get connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Digital Twins, high fidelity digital mirrors of processes or physical objects, are being used in many industries to optimize business outcomes but remain relatively new in telecommunications and 5G networks.In this podcast, two industry specialists from HERE Technologies describe how this concept can be applied to the design of mobile networks to accelerate new site selection and equipment deployment, reducing costs while boosting operational efficiencies and customer experience.This podcast is sponsored by HERE Technologies. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week's telecom news highlights included a look back at some huge 5G product news for Nokia, a summary of some new cloudy ideas coming from Mobile World Congress, and a summary of what's up at Switzerland's Astrocast – a company launching a network of satellites for IoT connectivity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ray Dolan, chairman and CEO of Cohere Technologies, joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss how Cohere is working with partners such as VMware, Capgemini Engineering and Intel on developing an open RAN platform for Vodafone that improves 5G capacity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from Roger Timmerman, CEO of UTOPIA Fiber, an open access municipal fiber network in the state of Utah, formed by a group of 11 cities in 2004. (UTOPIA stands for Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency.)As an open access network, UTOPIA provides fiber and infrastructure, but not service. Instead, customers can choose from a variety of participating local providers, including Rise Broadband, Veracity Networks, Fibernet and others.We discuss why these cities chose the municipal open access model, how it works and why it works. And we get into the ongoing debate around federal support for municipal networks, and what other municipalities should be prepared for as they embark on building out broadband. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week's telecom news highlights included Viavi's ongoing pursuit of a merger with Exfo, Rakuten's open RAN plan to reveal what it's really paying for telecom gear, and we briefly ponder why Nokia would roll out the red carpet for open RAN developers in Dallas. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from Sarah Armstrong, executive director of the Internet Society Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic organization founded in 2019 to support the Internet Society's vision of an open Internet for everyone, everywhere.The Internet Society Foundation is currently reviewing a round of grant applications from entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, Senegal and Colombia for local digital literacy and Internet adoption initiatives. Winners are eligible for grants of $150,000 each for projects lasting up to 24 months.We discuss the Internet Society Foundation's work to tackle the digital divide and the various challenges to broadband access and adoption around the world, and how the organization is using its "SCILLS" grant program to promote education and economic growth through community-led Internet initiatives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Juniper Networks CEO Rami Rahim joins the podcast to discuss why future 5G services will be virtualized, how AI can improve network performance and what's next for the Apstra and Netrounds acquisitions.The networking company wants to further automate data centers "because the future of 5G services is going to be virtualized, it's going to leverage the distributed telco cloud." Later in the podcast, Rahim discusses 5G as a catalyst for Juniper to heighten its focus on improving performance in WAN transport networks as service providers converge mobile, fixed access, enterprise and residential networks. Find out more about Juniper's M&A history on Light Reading's website and be sure to sign up for the Light Reading Weekly newsletter for the telecom news, analysis and interviews. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Telia Carrier CEO Staffan Göjeryd joins the podcast to explain what its divestment from Telia Group means for the service provider. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.