Light Reading Podcasts

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MWCLA 21: The Light Reading Recap Nov 01, 2021

Show notes

Light Reading editor Kelsey Ziser, Jeff Baumgartner and Mike Dano join Phil Harvey for recap of some of the issues that were covered and smothered at Mobile World Congress Los Angeles. The gang takes a big picture view of the digital divide, talks about open RAN's progress in the industry and why Rakuten Symphony is so controversial (and innovative). We also cover the alarming disconnect between the massive job growth and economic development constantly promised by 5G, all while the industry providing 5G is shrinking, automating and getting smaller every week. Did the Clear app work well enough to avoid long vaccination check-in lines? Is there a 5G killer app on the horizon? Is it too early to talk about 6G? Watch and listen for a few answers and a few laughs during this roundtable recap. This episode was recorded on Oct. 27 in Los Angeles; the video version is available on our website, along with the show notes.

Rakuten's Tareq Amin: Conducting Symphony but changing the music Oct 29, 2021

Show notes

LOS ANGELES – MWC LA – This week Rakuten Symphony released a reference architecture for a distributed RAN node and cell site transport device called Symware. Rakuten's not getting in the hardware business, its execs said. But it is trying to standardize certain network components so it can tightly control costs and speed up software-based innovation. The multipurpose edge appliance, built with hardware from Intel and carrier routing software from Juniper Networks, combines cell site routing and "a containerized Distributed Unit on a single general-purpose server platform," the company said. In this video interview, we discuss Rakuten's motivation behind building network equipment designs for 5G networks and how this fits in with its overall network-as-a-service vision. "We believe this could be a big game-changer, and how operators consume products," said Tareq Amin, CEO of Rakuten Symphony. "And, you know, we have an audacious goal to cut the total cost of ownership to north of 45% from what they pay today." Also in the interview, we cover the telco industry's reaction to Rakuten's platform play – its desire to take what it has learned from its carrier business in Japan to the rest of the world via its platform and network-as-a-service offerings. The Rakuten approach is at once giving carriers a way forward in cloud-native, open RAN networks and it is ruffling feathers in the network equipment space. "I really think that the hardware margins are really unreasonable – very, very unreasonable," Amin said. "And you know, when you look at, not just in the United States, you know, many companies across the world today, they are struggling to justify the financial investment for 5G, right? And if you really want to ask, 'Why is that?' " [Ed. note: Despite what he said around the 00:27 mark, Phil knows it's October and not August. He's still thinking about summer vacation.]

The Divide: Dr. Dominique Harrison on achieving digital equity in the Black Rural South Oct 28, 2021

Show notes

On this episode, Dr. Dominique Harrison, director of the Technology Policy Program at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, joins to discuss her recent research into the digital divide in the Black Rural South showing that 38% of Black residents in the region lack Internet service at home compared to 23% of white residents. We discuss the causes of digital inequality in these communities, and how the $65 billion broadband bill in Congress does and does not respond to these issues. Read the full report here.

The Divide: How LUS Fiber makes the muni model work in Lafayette, Louisiana Oct 21, 2021

Show notes

On this episode, we hear from Ryan Meche, director of LUS Fiber, a municipal fiber provider in Lafayette, Louisiana. LUS Fiber emerged from Lafayette Utilities System (LUS), the city's provider of electric, water and wastewater for nearly 125 years. Today LUS Fiber serves about 25,000 customers in the city of Lafayette. We discuss why Lafayette chose a municipal broadband model, how it's funded and how it functions differently as a public utility. We also discuss the company's plans to expand, pending support from an NTIA grant.

The Divide: What Viasat's Evan Dixon wants DC to know about satellite broadband Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

Evan Dixon, president of global fixed broadband at Viasat, joins the podcast to discuss the company's role in tackling the digital divide in the US and abroad. He also talks about how Viasat's forthcoming ViaSat-3 will change how and where the company delivers service, and he pushes back on arguments from the fiber industry that satellite isn't "future proof."

Nokia Deepfield CTO: How DDoS attacks are changing Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

Craig Labovitz, CTO for the Nokia Deepfield business, is watching how distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have changed throughout the pandemic and how Internet growth changes the nature of cyberattacks. In this podcast, he talks about how service providers can strategically approach the fight against DDoS threats and attacks and how 5G networks add both bandwidth and breadth of devices to make security even more of a challenge. Finally, he talks about his journey from a startup to top tier vendor, and how making security part of the Internet's infrastructure is the best way forward. "I think the shift you're seeing is the industry is largely recognizing that these are no longer separable – security and networking are one and the same," he said.

Consolidated CEO bets the house on fiber Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

Consolidated CEO all in on fiber over FWA Bob Udell, president and CEO for Consolidated Communications, joins the podcast to provide an update on the service provider's fiber buildout plan and the company's efforts to deliver connectivity to rural areas. In addition, Udell explains why Consolidated is investing in more fiber across its market region of 23 states, instead of fixed wireless access. Consolidated has a five year plan to extend its fiber footprint to reach 1.6 million upgraded locations, and Udell says the company is on track to reach 300,000 new upgraded residential and business locations with 1GB fiber despite global supply chain issues impacting the telecom industry. In regard to supply chain woes, "It's something we have to continue to watch," says Udell. "We see the opportunity to scale more in our build. I think fiber slicers will be the pressure point next." He adds that Consolidated is investing in training programs to educate internally to bring employees up to speed as the operator moves forward with the next phase of its fiber build. "Ultimately, fiber is going to be the best future-proof answer and radio for fixed wireless is always going to be best where you just can't build [fiber] effectively," says Udell about Consolidated's emphasis on fiber versus FWA. There are some mobile or temporary use cases where FWA is best, he says, but for the majority of customers, fiber is more cost-effective for Consolidated to deploy.

The Divide: How broadband impacts public health Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

Dr. Amy Sheon is a digital health equity consultant and president of Public Health Innovators, which provides digital health equity strategy support to healthcare systems, governments and advocacy groups. She joins the podcast to discuss the impact of the digital divide and digital redlining on public health, how health policy and broadband policy need to intersect in order to address this problem and what lessons have been learned thus far about digital equity and public health throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Verizon zeroes in on recovery efforts and network refresh Sep 30, 2021

Show notes

Suzanne Schnaars, senior manager of Network Engineering for Verizon, joins the podcast to discuss her team's work to integrate new technology into Verizon's network, support recovery efforts and lessen the digital divide. "Knowing that the work I'm doing is putting the technology and wireless connectivity out to our country to help those kids learn and help those parents who are working remotely to continue to do their jobs and learn – it's just really important for us to continue to push to close that gap," she says. Schnaars leads a team of project managers tasked with integrating new equipment into Verizon's network, and she explains how scope creep and vendor interoperability are among the challenges her team faces in updating the network. "We're looking at tool integration and making sure that anything we deploy is secure for our customers and our network as well," says Schnaars. "We also have to make sure all those various boxes out there will play well together. There's a lot of vendors out there that interpret software and standards differently so we have to make sure everyone plays well in the sandbox." In addition, Schnaars is active in a number of industry organizations that support STEM education including NAF, EngineeringGirl, Nepris and Built By Girls. She shares her efforts to support students interested in an engineering career path, and her professional advice for moving up in technically challenging positions in the telecom industry.

BT on clearing up the cloudy relationship between telcos and hyperscalers Sep 27, 2021

Show notes

BT Global's Chet Patel joins the podcast for a discussion on how the relationship between telcos and hyperscalers is changing as a result of enterprise demand. As enterprises become more reliant on cloud applications and need help managing their cloud infrastructure, telcos have shifted their focus from providing connectivity where their large customers are located, to where the cloud nodes are located, says Patel. "All the telcos in the world had their networks planned around big customers and big cities. Guess what? We all know where the traffic is going – it's going to these huge cloud nodes," says Patel, Chief Commercial Officer and President, Americas at BT Global. "We've had to move all the highways and network connectivity so it's more connected to cloud nodes, regardless of where customers are." In addition, Patel explains how hyperscalers and telcos can work together to provide customers with the managed services they require. He also discusses BT's own approach to managing cloud infrastructure and how the service provider is supporting customers that need access to both public and private cloud applications.

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