In this episode of Fiber for Breakfast, join us as we hear from Mayor William Acee of the Village of Sherburne in Chenango County, New York. Mayor Acee will share how after being the first community between Utica and Binghamton to install an EV charger and in 2008 creating and instituting an Energy Efficiency Program filed with the NYS Public Service Commission, Sherburne has continued to innovate. The town is focused on end-of-year completion of a municipally owned fiber to the home network for approximately 2,000 electric customers. The process has included an ahead-of-schedule timeline and state grant funding. Mayor Acee has been instrumental in pushing for Open Access Municipal Fiber.

Webinar Guest:

William “Bill” Acee has served as Sherburne’s Mayor since 2001. From 1990 and onward, Bill has been involved in local government in Sherburne, NY and from that time he placed emphasis on learning as much as possible about the villages’ municipal electric system. This spanned the 1996 transition from regulated electric markets to the current market model administered by the NY Independent System Operator. Bill was a founding member of the NY Association of Public Power (an association of 13 consumer owned electric utilities which includes Coops and Municipals). In 2017 Bill served ex officio on the board of the American Public Power Association in Washington DC (a national trade group representing over 2000 Municipally Owned Electric Utilities) and chaired their Policy Makers Committee. He completed the Legislator Energy Horizon Institute in Washington, DC in 2018. In 2019 Bill completed the 1-week NY Market Orientation class at the NY Independent System Operator (NYISO) in Rensselaer, NY.

As states examine how to best invest federal funds to deploy broadband in unserved and underserved areas, a new study developed by CTC Technology & Energy analyzed fixed wireless technologies and their suitability for delivering broadband service in various environments. Join us for Fiber for Breakfast and an in-depth conversation analyzing fixed wireless and fiber technology in unserved rural areas. Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Andrew Afflerbach, P.E., will discuss considerations such as long-term impacts of fiber technology through infrastructure and population mapping; realistic cost modeling; and the maintenance, benefits, capacity, and performance of fiber technology.

Webinar Guest:

Andrew Afflerbach, Ph.D., P.E.
CEO and Chief Technology Officer
CTC Technology & Energy

A licensed Professional Engineer, Dr. Andrew Afflerbach specializes in the planning, designing, and implementation oversight of fiber and wireless broadband communications networks, smart cities strategies, and public safety networks. He is an experienced network planner who understands the business and financial implications of various network designs and has delivered strategic technical guidance on wired and wireless communications issues to cities, states, and national governments. As CTC’s Chief Technology Officer, Andrew oversees all technical analysis and engineering work performed by the firm. With over 25 years of broadband experience, Andrew testifies as an expert witness on broadband communications issues and is frequently consulted on critical communications policy issues through technical analyses submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and policymakers.

Appalachian communities see connectivity as key to economic revitalization. Yet today, only 21% of people living in the region’s most distressed counties have high-speed internet connections in their homes. The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is working to change that by investing roughly $30M/year on broadband projects in the region, while also helping communities prepare for the $65B freight train of federal funding heading their way.

In this Fiber for Breakfast, Curtis Hansen, who leads ARC’s broadband work, introduces this unique agency and shares upcoming initiatives to watch.

Webinar Guest:

Curtis Hansen, Broadband Program Manager, Appalachian Regional Commission

Curtis Hansen is a program manager at the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), where he leads the organization’s efforts to close the digital divide by expanding broadband access throughout Appalachia. Curtis has worked as an engineer for over ten years, most recently at an internet service provider where he led broadband planning efforts for fiber and cellular networks in some of the most rural and remote parts of the United States and the Caribbean. In that role, he helped lead the company’s participation in federal broadband funding programs, including RDOF, CAF2, Mobility Fund, E-Rate, ReConnect, and CARES. Prior to his work in rural broadband, Curtis served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force where he was an R&D Program Manager.

As the U.S. prepares to make an unprecedented investment in both energy and broadband infrastructure, it will be important to recognize the role utility pole infrastructure can play. Whether a company chooses to undertake its own broadband deployments or opts to facilitate deployments by others, the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program prioritizes fiber broadband deployments. These deployments can be less costly and completed more quickly if the fiber is run on existing utility poles. However, these poles may require a make-ready process before they can support fiber deployments. In this Fiber for Breakfast, Finley Engineering’s Sean Middleton, Director, Strategy and Operations, will discuss the implications and requirements for utilities, including potential options to leverage federal funding to modernize electric power infrastructure.

Webinar Guest:

Sean Middleton, Director, Strategy and Operations, Finley Engineering, is an accomplished Professional Engineer, with more than 25 years of experience. Sean’s expertise includes electrical engineering, distribution system operations management, design and maintenance of electrical systems, and consulting on many of today’s regulatory and compliance issues. With his background in the development of broadband networks, he helps energy and telecom clients in meeting RUS requirements and standards, staying up to date on legislative funding, providing project management support, wireless, FTTP, and consulting on smart grid initiatives. Sean received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Bradley University and his MBA from the University of Illinois at Springfield. He is a member of the IEEE including the Power, Communication, and Photonic Societies and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). He previously sat on the Cyber Security Member Advisory Group for the Cooperative Research Network (CRN/ NRECA) and serves on the State Board of Professional Engineers for the IL Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

In this Fiber for Breakfast, Ron Westfall, Research Director & Senior Analyst, will share how Futurum Research recently completed a 500+ person survey across the key decision makers of major organizations in partnership with Microsoft to identify workplace engagement and collaboration trends over the past two years. Futurum’s key survey findings included an increasing percentage of current workforces are now primarily REMOTE or work-from-home – i.e., not required to regularly be in an office. This includes that in the post-pandemic era, organization decision makers expect their workforces to become more REMOTE or work-from-home. Of key importance is a significant shift across workspace arrangements with conference rooms and spaces at commercial offices receding and physical restructuring of unused office space picking up pace. Ron will explain how Futurum believes the expansion of WFH/hybrid work and distributed collaboration platform adoption provides significant warrant and validation for the evolving FTTH and fiber build use cases.

Webinar Guest:

Ron Westfall, Research Director & Senior Analyst, Futurum Research

Ron is an experienced research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets. A Senior Analyst and Research Director with Futurum Research, he is a recognized authority at tracking the evolution of and identifying the key disruptive trends within the service enablement ecosystem, including software and services, infrastructure, 5G/IoT, AI/analytics, security, cloud computing, revenue management, and regulatory issues.

Please join us for Fiber for Breakfast titled, “Changing the Fate of Rural Missouri with Fiber Broadband – An Electric Coop with More Broadband Subs Than Electric Members…” on Wednesday, June 29, at 10am EDT with Darren Farnan, General Manager of United Fiber.

The unique thing about United Fiber is that they now have about 24,000 fiber subscribers and its parent company, United Electric, has 7500 members (10,000 meters). They are the only electric cooperative with more fiber subscribers than electric members in the country. Furthermore, they are a small cooperative with one of the lowest customer densities (2.5 meters per mile) in the State of Missouri. Darren will share how they have now built out the bulk of their membership (finishing in the next 12 months) in over 40 communities in Northwest Missouri. Fiber broadband connectivity has changed the future opportunities in their region, along with the future of the Cooperative.

Webinar Guest:

Darren Farnan has worked for United Electric Cooperative since 1994 and serves as the General Manager of United Fiber. Darren has also served in the roles of Chief Development Officer and Energy Services manager for United. Darren led the development and operations of the United Fiber network which has grown to over 3200 miles of fiber, 54 employees, and $25 million in annual revenue since turning up our first fiber customer in 2013. Currently, United Fiber is approaching 25,000 combined residential and commercial fiber customers. Darren received his Bachelor of Science in Business Management (1991), and MBA (1992) from Northwest Missouri State University. Darren served as the Chair for the UTC Utilities Broadband Committee from 2018-2021 and has provided numerous national presentations for the FTTH Council, Calix, and UTC on the United Fiber business. He is involved in many local organizations including economic development and civic organizations throughout the United service area.

Join us for Fiber for Breakfast with Omdia’s Julie Kunstler and Jaimie Lenderman as they sit down with FBA’s Gary Bolton to chat all things Fiber Connect 2022. They will be discussing the hottest topics, key insights, and biggest takeaways from what lived up to be the biggest Fiber Connect yet.

Webinar Guests:

Julie Kunstler is Chief Analyst within Omdia’s Broadband Access Intelligence Service. Julie has several decades of experience in the communications components, equipment, and software industry. She is responsible for market analysis of wireline and wireless broadband access technologies and networks, focusing on developing technologies such as next-gen PON. Prior to joining Omdia, Julie served as VP Business Development for Teknovus, focusing on FTTX deployments in Asia-Pacific, OEM agreements with major equipment vendors, corporate strategy, analyst relationships, business planning, and fund raising. Before Teknovus, Julie served as co-founder and general partner for Portview Communications Partners, a VC fund focusing on investments in early-stage communications technology companies.

Jaimie Lenderman is a Principal Analyst and Research Manager at Omdia covering the Broadband Access Intelligence Service. Jaimie provides insight to key audiences and ecosystem players. Reports include quarterly market share trackers, forecasts, next-gen technology analysis and business strategy, and specialized consulting projects. Jaimie’s research areas include fiber, copper, cable, and fixed wireless access technologies. She has worked in the telecoms industry for over seven years. Prior to joining Ovum, now Omdia, in 2017 Jaimie was a broadband infrastructure and customer premise equipment analyst at IHS Markit. She previously held roles in the public policy and construction sectors. Jaimie’s research findings and thought leadership have been published in key filings for prominent regulatory bodies, including the FCC and the EU. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Montana State University.

How did 1G become the global standard for broadband? In this Fiber for Breakfast, Jaimie Lenderman, Principal Analyst, Broadband Access Intelligence Service at Omdia, a global technology market research firm, will discuss this question and the results of an Omdia study around wireline broadband offerings. What’s more, Jaimie will break down the drivers behind this trend in the North America.

Webinar Guest:

Jaimie Lenderman is a Principal Analyst and Research Manager at Omdia covering the Broadband Access Intelligence Service. Jaimie provides insight to key audiences and ecosystem players. Reports include quarterly market share trackers, forecasts, next-gen technology analysis and business strategy, and specialized consulting projects.

Jaimie’s research areas include fiber, copper, cable, and fixed wireless access technologies. She has worked in the telecoms industry for over seven years. Prior to joining Ovum, now Omdia, in 2017 Jaimie was a broadband infrastructure and customer premise equipment analyst at IHS Markit. She previously held roles in the public policy and construction sectors. Jaimie’s research findings and thought leadership have been published in key filings for prominent regulatory bodies, including the FCC and the EU. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Montana State University.

In this Fiber for Breakfast, Peggy Schaffer, Executive Director of ConnectMaine Authority, will discuss securing $28 million in NTIA grant money and key partnerships she has made for the benefit of her state and its residents. The NTIA Broadband Infrastructure grant was built on a history of community engagement, sophisticated data and targeting, and collaborations with industry partners. This webinar will highlight how Maine is building on this successful model as it develops its strategy for Capital Projects funds, BEAD, Middle Mile and DEA programs.

Webinar Guest:

Peggy Shaffer is the Executive Director of the ConnectME Authority, Maine’s program to expand broadband to unserved areas of the state. As Director, Peggy does all the normal things a director does including budgets, grant processes, and public outreach. Critical to Maine’s program is understanding the continually changing landscape of broadband and creating strategies to meet those challenges. State programs are a continuous process improvement effort. This past year Peggy has led ConnectMaine in developing a Verification and Validation process for infrastructure grants, a Broadband Intelligence Platform, and a structure to support communities in the development of Broadband Utility Districts and a successful application to the NTIA Broadband Infrastructure Program. Prior to joining ConnectME, Peggy was the Small Business Advocate in the Secretary of State’s office and served as the Co-chair for the Maine Broadband Coalition. Using her 20 years of political work from serving as the lobbyist for the Department of Economic and Community Development as well as Chief of Staff in the Maine State Senate, Peggy brings an understanding that this work requires multiple strategies to be successful, including a good sense of humor.

Wireline network operators, generally assisted by government funding, are beginning to extend their broadband services beyond metro areas, and potentially into outright rural areas. This extension of their networks beyond the reach of the edge central offices of the metro network will create a new network segment – the middle mile network, sometimes called the second-mile network. This new network segment will raise new networking challenges as it carries a mix of services that were previously served by separate networks that were terminated in a metro central office; any special network treatment was performed in the access network, not transport. In addition, vendors are introducing new (and sometimes novel) optical transport formats to minimize costs in this new network environment. This complexity in the aggregation network calls for network design and control specific to this new second mile network. Join us for Fiber for Breakfast with Rick Talbot, Principal Analyst at ACG Research, to learn more.

Guest Bio:

Rick Talbot, Principal Analyst at ACG Research, for the Intelligent Optical Networking and 5G RAN xHaul practices, combines expertise in network access, transport (particularly optical networking) and switching technologies, including Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and a deep understanding of the telecommunications industry competitive landscape, business (and regulatory) issues and economic trends to provide a comprehensive view of the industry. He gained this broad experience in over 40 years of technical marketing and sales engineering roles at network systems vendors as well as network architecture design roles at service providers.

Rick holds an MBA degree from Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor of Engineering science degree from Trinity University. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The fiber network market continues to burn hot for digital infrastructure investors as well as service providers seeking capital to fund upgrades and expansions. No matter where you sit in the ecosystem, the observations and insights of Broadband Success Partners will be an eye-opener. Having completed over 30 technical due diligence projects, Jack Burton and David Strauss of Broadband Success Partners will share what they’ve seen and, in some cases, wished they hadn’t. Their document analyses, management interviews and physical inspections of a wide variety of networks have yielded a vast and valuable volume of dos and don’ts. While a good number of the assets they’ve investigated pass with flying colors, others do not. The red and yellow flags they’ve uncovered are proof positive that present and potential network owners and stakeholders should not take anything for granted.

Guest Bios:

David Strauss and Jack Burton co-founded Broadband Success Partners – a consultancy focused on the technology and operations needs of digital infrastructure investors and service providers. Clients include Alinda, Antin, CBRE Caledon, GI Partners, Grain, I Squared, Macquarie, Post Road Group, American Broadband and Surf Broadband.

David has authored research-based reports on Edge Computing and Network Automation for Ciena as well as a report on Managed Wi-Fi for Calix. Previously, David designed and executed the first go-to-market plan for Comcast Business’ Metro Ethernet services.

Jack has completed over 30 network due diligence evaluations. Jack has also authored numerous white papers for clients such as Adtran, Calix, Ciena, Corning and Vecima. Previously, Jack was Senior Director of Systems Engineering for Altice USA and Cablevision Systems. His projects included Voice Over IP, Business Services, Advanced Access Networks, and Optical Transport.

The Covid pandemic has spurred changes across many industries and U.S. businesses have implemented new technologies to meet these new challenges. Please join us for Fiber for Breakfast with Independence Research founder and principal analyst, Matt Davis, who will share recent survey findings that analyze which telecom and IT technologies saw the biggest changes as we enter the “new normal”. The study examines core telecom services including broadband, managed WiFi, internet back-up and unified communications in addition to IT services ranging from E-Commerce to Cybersecurity.

Guest Bio:

Matt Davis is the founder and principal analyst at Independence Research LLC. where his research is focused on technology, telecom and broadband internet services, with a focus on U.S. fiber technology deployment.

Before forming Independence Research in 2016, Matt founded the Broadband Access Technology practice at Yankee Group focusing on the deployment of broadband services worldwide. In 2006, Matt joined IDC, where he led the Consumer and SMB research practices focusing on service provider telecom and internet strategy.