EPB started installing the first parts of its smart grid in 2009, leveraging an investment in fiber optics to ultimately connect 1,200 automated switches across its electrical plant along with over 200,000 smart meters across its 600 square-mile Chattanooga, Tennessee, service area. In its 15 years of operations, the smart grid delivered considerable benefits to EPB customers, including a 50-60% annual decrease in outage minutes that translated to up to $55 million in savings per year by helping them avoid spoilage of food, lost productivity due to the shutdown of equipment and ecommerce, and other negative impacts.
Fiber for Breakfast Week 28: Intelligent Oversight: How AI is Changing BEAD Compliance The BEAD program is designed to close…
Fiber for Breakfast Week 27: Optical Fiber and Cable Market Outlook: The Role of Hollow-Core and Multicore Fiber The fiber industry has been through several…
One of the ill-kept secrets of the data center world is the expanding construction and ownership of fiber to connect geographic sites. While building fiber miles is more expensive up front, owning a long-term asset with distinct control of the operating environment and costs for 30 or more years is a significant advantage, while also providing the opportunity for additional revenue through leasing dark and lit fiber to third parties.
One of the ill-kept secrets of the data center world is the expanding construction and ownership of fiber to connect geographic sites. While building fiber miles is more expensive up front, owning a long-term asset with distinct control of the operating environment and costs for 30 or more years is a significant advantage, while also providing the opportunity for additional revenue through leasing dark and lit fiber to third parties.
Mastering the complexities of quantum to move it from lab bench to commercial deployment is not for the faint-hearted, but everyone from determined startups to telecommunications equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 service providers are working to develop the building blocks for real world use. Companies have been able to build stand-alone quantum sensors and quantum computers, but connecting and networking them together, especially at long distances, is a challenge that is just now starting to show steady progress.
The quest for useful and productive Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an all-consuming vision for the data center industry that is driving unprecedented scale and construction and coining new terms such as neoclouds as well as new currency in the form of tokens. Building better, faster, and more efficient facilities to house hundreds of thousands of GPUs under one roof is pushing the networking and fiber industries to pack more fiber into servers, racks, buildings, and networks to train the next generations of AI models at a rate that few could have imagined or envisioned five years ago.
Fiber for Breakfast Week 20: Delivering the Nighttime Sky with Fiber Most conversations about broadband focus on speed, access, or…
Keynote Address: Building the Nervous System of a Thinking Economy Good morning, As some of you might know, I spent…
General Sessions Day 2: Building Momentum, Scaling Smarter, and Looking Ahead Energy remained high throughout Tuesday’s general sessions, as speakers…
Fiber Connect 2026: Day 1 Highlights from the General Sessions The first day of general sessions at Fiber Connect 2026…
Fiber for Breakfast Week 19: Fiber in the Fast Lane: Powering the Autonomous Future For years, autonomous vehicles were framed…