Light Reading Podcasts

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.

Last week's telecom news highlights included a piece of good news for TikTok users in the US, a big bet on BT's fiber rollout from French telecom giant Altice and Starlink's plans to provide in-flight Wi-Fi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from Ben Edmond, founder and CEO of Connected2Fiber, a cloud platform that allows fiber providers and MSOs to plan and monetize service routes; and Mel Wagner, CEO of INDATEL, a nationwide network of 700-plus rural broadband operators, and a client of Connected2Fiber.We discuss the work their companies are doing in rural America to accelerate broadband rollout, the challenges rural operators face with deployment and monetization – including current year-long delays in getting fiber materials – what policy decisions would benefit rural ISPs tasked with building broadband to the hardest-to-reach areas, and why it's crucial to fund middle-mile deployments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week's news highlights included a look at big telco job numbers (they're dropping), Huawei's software strategy and T-Mobile's plans to connect rural America. This podcast first appeared, in video form, on Informa Tech's executive community, The Network. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from community leader Ini Augustine, founder of Project Nandi: a program that provides devices, technical support and broadband assistance to local families in Minnesota's Twin Cities. Project Nandi was launched in 2020 following the onset of COVID-19 to help prevent Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian students from being left behind by remote learning.We recorded our conversation shortly before the first anniversary of the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and shortly after another Black man, Daunte Wright, was fatally shot by police during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.She and I discuss how her community's digital divide was worsened by the coinciding crises of the pandemic and police violence, why solutions like Project Nandi to address broadband inequity are necessary (though extremely hard to get funded), her plans to start a community fiber project and her message to legislators working on broadband bills in Washington, DC.Donations to support Project Nandi are being accepted here: https://www.givemn.org/organization/Project-Nandi Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from Washington State Representative Drew Hansen, who has served the 23rd district since 2011. He is the lead sponsor of the Public Broadband Act, a recently passed law in Washington that effectively reverses a prior state law banning municipal broadband.We discuss the digital divide in Washington and why the Public Broadband Act was necessary, the difficulty (and "nonsense") he and his colleagues faced in getting it passed, what the next steps are once the law officially takes effect in July and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we hear from Cheri Beranek, president and CEO of Clearfield, a company that designs, manufactures and distributes fiber optic management products.We discuss how Clearfield creates its products to be scalable and cost effective for service providers, how the company is preparing for what she calls a forthcoming "fiber bubble" amidst labor and supply shortages, whether or not it's realistic to deploy fiber everywhere in the United States – and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tom Wlodkowski, VP of accessibility for Comcast, joins the podcast to share how he got started in the accessibility field and explains the evolution of Comcast's Voice Guidance system on Xfinity X1 and the development of the Xfinity X1 Adaptive Remote."In 2014, we launched the industry's first accessible set-top box experience for people who are blind or visual impaired on our X1 platform and we called that Service Voice Guidance. Think of it as a screen reader inside of a box, even though it's in the cloud because X1 is all cloud-based," says Wlodkowski. "Voice guidance, once it's enabled, reads all of the UI (user interface) elements as you navigate with the remote control using the D-pad (directional pad)."Previously, visually impaired users were limited to scrolling up and down on channels, and features that most people take for granted were inaccessible to them, adds Wlodkowski. The Voice Guidance capability provides visually impaired users with the ability to now "navigate TV listings, schedule and play back DVR recordings, navigate on-demand content and control settings such as parental controls," explains Wlodkowski.The end result of adding more accessibility features to content platforms extends beyond those with disabilities, says Wlodkowski. Closed captioning is one feature that everyone can benefit from, such as when an actor is difficult to understand or sound mixing muddles dialogue."When you build an inclusive product, you end up building a better product for everyone," says Wlodkowski. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

IBM's Bill Lambertson and Lumen Technologies' Dave Shacochis join the podcast to discuss the distributed cloud and how it supports the delivery of edge computing resources to enterprises."The distributed cloud allows you to bring down a whole set of public cloud capabilities and SRE [site reliability engineering] support on-premise or in your location of choice," explains Lambertson.Lumen recently deployed IBM Cloud Satellite, IBM's distributed cloud service, across 180,000 of the service provider's global edge locations. Shacochis and Lambertson share several use cases for how this deployment could help enterprise customers, such as providing video analytics to improve worker safety measures in manufacturing and distribution centers."The integration and use case we tested was more facility and worker-safety based. Hard-hat detection is one of the computer vision algorithms that IBM software already knows how to plug-in and detect," says Shacochis. "Avoid one accident and the whole system pays for itself in many ways." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.