Episodes
72
Latest episode
May 2026
Language
EN-US
Welcome to Wavelengths, a podcast with Amphenol Broadband Solutions.
Curt Blades, SVP of Agriculture Services & Forestry at AEM discusses agriculture technology, and rural broadband infrastructure's importance.
Richard Murtha, of Kinetic by Windstream, discusses how broadband networks can be fortified to endure natural disasters.
Bill Major, CEO at FiberLight, discusses the evolving landscape of utilities and broadband partnerships, and how it's the key to modernizing.
Bill O'Donnell and Barry Holt of Amphenol Broadband Solutions, discuss how the telecommunications industry is responding to increased changes.
High-speed internet access is synonymous with economic prosperity, however, the disparity in broadband infrastructure between urban and rural communities has never been more pronounced. As the digital revolution marches on, the divide widens, leaving rural communities deep in the shadows of technological advancement. But this stark reality centers an urgent call to action, spearheaded by initiatives like BEAD funding, which is aimed at revitalizing rural broadband infrastructure. Amidst this backdrop, the critical question looms: How can rural communities navigate the complex maze of broadband expansion to bridge the digital divide effectively?For another insightful episode of Wavelengths, an Amphenol Broadband Solutions podcast, host Daniel Litwin is joined by Brant Carter, Director of Industry Products at Sitetracker. The two unraveled the intricacies of broadband expansion in rural areas. This episode also explored the challenges, opportunities, and innovative strategies pivotal for the successful deployment of rural broadband infrastructure.In this episode, Litwin and Carter delved into:● The current state of rural broadband expansion and the unique challenges rural communities face, from geographical constraints to resource limitations.● Exploring actionable strategies for rural telcos to navigate the complex landscape of broadband deployment.● The Role of BEAD Funding and examining its impact on the rural broadband landscape and how it shapes the future of connectivity in rural America.Brant Carter is the Director of Industry Products at Sitetracker. With a distinguished career at the company, he has a wealth of experience in telecommunications infrastructure. His role includes deploying critical infrastructure across various sectors, managing multi-billion dollar projects globally. This has allowed Carter to be positioned as a leading voice in telecommunications infrastructure.
In a timely and important episode about the deployment and execution of federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding, several telecommunications experts weighed in on the program’s future. With 2023 coming to a close, this conversation about BEAD comes at the right time as it marks a year filled with substantial updates and progress in broadband infrastructure initiatives. The BEAD initiative, part of a broader effort to revitalize and expand broadband infrastructure in the U.S., has seen significant progress over the year. Now, with all states and territories having submitted their BEAD funding proposals, this episode delves into the critical phase of this transformative project. The stakes are high as this funding aims to reshape and improve America's digital landscape.This subsequently raises the question, how effectively are the BEAD funds being managed and allocated, and what are the broader implications for U.S. broadband infrastructure?For a new episode of "Wavelengths," an Amphenol Broadband Solutions podcast, host Daniel Litwin brought together an impressive panel for a major roundtable discussion on BEAD funding. He was joined by Zachary Raley, SVP and Advisor to the CEO of Amphenol, Ben Elkins, CEO of AireBeam, and Diana Goovaerts, Executive Editor, Fierce Telecom and Silverlinings. The episode made a deep dive into the state of BEAD funding, exploring its achievements, challenges, and future trajectory.Several points tackled during the episode included:An evaluation of the successes and obstacles encountered in implementing BEAD funding.Assessing the strategic adequacy of proposals submitted by all 56 states and territories.Insights into the expected long-term effects of BEAD funding on U.S. broadband expansion.Zachary Raley is a seasoned advisor at Amphenol and its SVP. He has a unique perspective on equipment and hardware essential for broadband expansion. Ben Elkins is the CEO of AireBeam and provides an operator's viewpoint and is an expert on the success of the BEAD program in Arizona. Diana Goovaerts offers an editorial lens, discussing the broader context and critical issues surrounding BEAD funding.
As the global race to 6G heats up, telecom providers, governments, and tech companies are investing billions to advance the next generation of hyperconnected infrastructure. European operators urge regulators to release more spectrum to stay competitive, while U.S. programs like the USDA's ReConnect have funneled over $1 billion into rural fiber backhaul. Meanwhile, companies like NVIDIA, T-Mobile, and Cisco are developing AI-native 6G stacks, embedding intelligence into every layer of the network. The stakes are enormous: success could enable real-time autonomous vehicles, remote surgeries, and city-scale sensor networks.But with so many threads to weave together—from fiber backhaul to AI-driven edge compute—the critical question emerges: How do we build a wireless ecosystem capable of supporting the demands of tomorrow's hyperconnected world?On this episode of Wavelengths by Amphenol Broadband Solutions, host Daniel Litwin sits down with Swarun Kumar, the Sathaye Family Foundation Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and Director of the WiTech Lab. Their conversation explores the cutting-edge research reshaping wireless protocols, powering low-energy IoT devices, and bridging the long-standing gaps between infrastructure and application development.Key discussion points include:The future of low-power IoT: enabling decade-long battery life for tiny, inexpensive sensors across industries from smart homes to healthcare.Why the industry's obsession with "Gs" may soon end, as software-driven networks evolve continuously rather than in rigid generational jumps.The urgent need for tighter integration between fiber and wireless infrastructure, plus how AI-driven edge compute will transform aggregation points into intelligent network hubs.Swarun Kumar is the Sathaye Family Foundation Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and leads the WiTech Lab, which pioneers next-gen wireless protocols, resilient edge architectures, and AI-powered resource orchestration. Prior to CMU, Kumar earned his PhD from MIT, specializing in Wi-Fi, cellular, and IoT communications. His interdisciplinary work is helping industries across healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing push wireless innovation from academic research into real-world deployment.
In this episode of Wavelengths, the Amphenol Broadband Solutions podcast, host Daniel Litwin continues the European broadband deep dive with Carsten Engelke, Director of Technology at ANGA, and Dr. Anthony Basham, VP of Active Products for the EMEA region at Netceed and President of SCTE, focusing on one of the most critical—and often underestimated—dimensions of next-generation networks: resilience.As fiber cements its role as the backbone of Europe’s digital infrastructure, the conversation shifts beyond deployment and into durability. These networks are no longer just conduits for internet access—they underpin emergency services, energy systems, national security, and the broader digital economy. That shift raises the stakes: building fast networks is no longer enough. They must also be secure, resilient, interoperable, and adaptable to future technological change.Engelke and Basham explore how resilience must be designed into fiber networks from the outset—not retrofitted later—and why that requires a holistic approach spanning physical infrastructure, cybersecurity, AI-driven operations, workforce readiness, and global standards alignment. From network detection systems to autonomous maintenance, from interoperability gaps to lifecycle planning, this episode examines what it truly means to build broadband infrastructure that can stand the test of time. Key Discussion Highlights:• Fiber as Critical National Infrastructure: The conversation underscores that fiber networks now support far more than connectivity—they are foundational to public services, emergency response, energy systems, and national economies. This elevates resilience and security from optional considerations to core design requirements.• Resilience Requires a Holistic Approach: Basham emphasizes that resilience cannot be solved with a single technology or policy. It must integrate physical infrastructure protection, power redundancy, cybersecurity, supply chain integrity, and workforce preparedness into one cohesive strategy.• Cybersecurity Pressure Is Rising Fast: With increasing geopolitical tensions and regulatory frameworks like the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act and Cybersecurity Act, operators face growing pressure to implement advanced monitoring, detection, and response systems—often driven as much by compliance as by operational necessity.• AI and Network Detection Are Becoming Essential: As network traffic complexity grows beyond human-scale analysis, tools like Network Detection and Response (NDR) systems, machine learning, and behavioral analytics are becoming critical for identifying anomalies, threats, and performance issues in real time.• The Role—and Limits—of Automation: While AI enables proactive maintenance, self-healing networks, and smarter deployment planning, both guests stress that human expertise remains essential. Engineers will still design architectures, interpret edge cases, and make strategic decisions—AI acts as an augmentation layer, not a replacement.• Workforce Transformation and Training Challenges: As networks become more software-driven and AI-assisted, the industry must rethink how technicians are trained. Future roles will require a blend of traditional field skills and digital intelligence—making global, standardized training frameworks more important than ever.• Interoperability and Standards Are Still Gaps: The discussion highlights ongoing fragmentation across vendors and systems, particularly in fiber environments. Without stronger global standards and interoperability, operators risk increased complexity, higher costs, and slower adoption.• Designing for Long Life vs. Fast Rollout: A key tension emerges between speed and durability. Rapid fiber deployment has often prioritized rollout velocity over long-term resilience, but future networks must balance both—building passive infrastructure for decades-long endurance while allowing active components to evolve.• Lifecycle Thinking and Circularity: Sustainability plays a growing role in resilience strategy. Operators must plan for equipment reuse, replacement cycles, and energy efficiency—treating networks as long-term systems rather than one-time builds.• Global Coordination and Standardization: Both guests stress the importance of aligning European efforts with global standards bodies and international partners. Broadband infrastructure must operate seamlessly across borders, making interoperability and shared frameworks essential.This episode brings the European broadband conversation full circle—moving from deployment strategy to long-term viability. It highlights a critical shift in industry thinking: success will not be defined solely by how quickly fiber is rolled out, but by how well those networks can adapt, endure, and operate securely in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
In this episode of Wavelengths, the Amphenol Broadband Solutions podcast, host Daniel Litwin continues his exploration of Europe’s broadband transformation with returning guest Carsten Engelke, Director of Technology at ANGA, joined by Dr. Anthony Basham, VP of Active Products for the EMEA region at Netceed and President of SCTE.As Europe pushes toward a gigabit future, the path forward is proving far more complex than a simple fiber rollout. Operators across the region are balancing political pressure for universal high-speed connectivity with the commercial realities of legacy infrastructure, fragmented regulatory regimes, uneven investment models, and the ongoing challenge of convincing customers to migrate from networks that still function “well enough.” At the same time, sustainability, interoperability, cybersecurity, and life-cycle planning are becoming just as important as raw speed.Engelke and Basham bring two complementary vantage points to this conversation—one rooted in the operator and policy conversations shaping Europe’s rollout, and the other grounded in product strategy, standards, and the practical realities of deployment across the EMEA region. Together, they unpack why Europe’s broadband market is moving in multiple directions at once, what hybrid network coexistence means in practice, and why the future of broadband in Europe will depend as much on coordination and standards as on fiber itself.Key Discussion Highlights:• Europe Is Not One Broadband Story: Basham makes clear that Europe’s fiber market is not progressing in a single unified direction. Instead, it is evolving across multiple national markets at different speeds, shaped by distinct regulatory frameworks, infrastructure legacies, and investment strategies—from mature Nordic and UK deployments to slower-moving markets still working through transition hurdles.• Build Phase vs. Execution Phase: The guests describe Europe as being both in build mode and in a more difficult execution phase. While fiber deployment itself is progressing, the challenge now is less about proving the technology and more about persuading customers, operators, and investors to make the leap from still-functional legacy systems to next-generation networks.• Policy Ambition vs. Commercial Reality: A central theme of the conversation is the tension between Europe’s political ambition for universal gigabit access and the real-world economics of making that happen. Governments can define targets and fund strategic deployments, but operators still have to justify return on investment, pace network upgrades responsibly, and manage the realities of labor, construction, and customer demand.• The Hybrid Network Reality: Europe’s broadband present remains deeply hybrid—blending legacy copper, DOCSIS, coax, fixed wireless, mobile, and multiple PON architectures alongside new FTTH deployments. Rather than a clean “old-to-new” shift, the market is living through a long coexistence period where multiple technologies must be supported, operated, and monetized in parallel.• Why Interoperability Matters More Than Ever: Engelke argues that one of fiber’s missing ingredients is the kind of interoperability discipline that helped DOCSIS scale successfully. Without more standardized, broadly usable equipment and cross-vendor compatibility—especially at the customer premises level—Europe risks slowing adoption and increasing complexity for operators and end users alike.• Sustainability and Circularity as Long-Term Design Principles: Basham emphasizes that Europe is not trying to build a network for the next decade, but for the next several decades. That makes sustainability, circularity, and life-cycle thinking essential—from passive optical infrastructure longevity to the recovery, refurbishment, and replacement strategy for CPEs, ONTs, and other active electronics.• Legacy Switch-Offs Will Be a Major Inflection Point: One of the clearest accelerants for fiber adoption will be the eventual switch-off of copper networks. As long as legacy services continue working, migration pressure stays muted. But once those systems are retired, markets will be forced to adopt new infrastructure more decisively.• AI, Automation, and Proactive Network Operations: The discussion also highlights how AI can help operators not just manage future fiber networks, but build and maintain them more intelligently—from route planning during construction to proactive maintenance and customer support once services are live. The opportunity, they argue, is to design automation and resilience into the network from the start rather than layering it onto legacy systems later.• The Goal Is Clear, but the Path Is Not Simple: Both guests agree that Europe’s destination is not in question: fiber-based, resilient, secure, long-life connectivity. The real challenge is managing the transition without destabilizing the legacy networks millions still rely on today, while aligning operators, policymakers, suppliers, and investors around a more coordinated path forward. This episode expands the earlier conversation on Europe’s fiber future by widening the lens beyond deployment alone. It shows a market in transition—one where technological readiness is no longer the biggest barrier, but where standards, timing, policy alignment, and customer migration will define how quickly Europe reaches its broadband ambitions.
In this episode of Wavelengths, the Amphenol Broadband Solutions podcast, host Daniel Litwin sits down with Charles Dillard and Marion Nowosatko—both Training Managers at Amphenol Broadband Solutions—to share a practical, modern playbook for building broadband training programs that scale.As networks modernize faster than teams can absorb new tools, workflows, and expectations, training has shifted from a support function to a strategic advantage. Customers demand first-visit resolution, fiber footprints continue to expand, and field teams are expected to master evolving toolchains without slowing production. In this conversation, Dillard and Nowosatko break down how top operators treat training like an internal product—blending in-house capability with vendor partnerships, leveraging third-party certifications, and designing learning formats that actually stick.Drawing on decades of field and curriculum experience, the guests outline what works today across bench training, guided field time, micro-learnings, and structured mentorship—plus how to balance hands-on realism with the need for consistency at scale.Key Discussion Highlights:• Build vs. Buy for Training Programs: Dillard and Nowosatko explain why in-house training sends an immediate signal of investment in employee growth while enabling tighter alignment to company-specific specs, processes, and quality standards—something off-the-shelf vendor training often can’t fully deliver.• When a Blended Model Makes Sense: Rather than treating it as “either/or,” the discussion frames internal and external training as complementary—especially when vendors can cover specialized equipment while internal teams focus on installation practices, troubleshooting workflows, and the real-world standards technicians are held to.• Partnering with Manufacturers the Right Way: The guests emphasize treating manufacturer relationships as true partnerships—not just product sales—where training is part of ensuring equipment performs correctly in the field. They highlight practical delivery methods like tech-meeting drop-ins, short-form micro-learning videos, and on-site field support that reinforces learning after initial rollout.• Why Third-Party Certifications Matter More Now: Certifications are positioned as both a workforce motivator and a transferable industry signal. For technicians, credentials provide recognition and career mobility; for employers, they reduce hiring risk by validating baseline knowledge and discipline. The guests stress the value of pairing certifications with meaningful recognition programs.• Designing Hands-On Labs That Are Realistic and Affordable: To make hands-on training feasible, they recommend leveraging vendor equipment support, repurposing retired or nonfunctional field gear for mockups, and standardizing lab builds so training stays consistent across locations—even when replicated nationally.• E-Learning That Actually Works at Scale: The episode makes the case that e-learning is essential for standardizing safety, theory, and specs across geographies—especially for dispersed teams. The guests advocate for e-learning that teaches techs how to find answers (not just memorize them), and for using digital modules as refreshers long after initial training.• Structuring On-the-Job Training Without Killing Productivity: A standout operational tip: flip the ride-along dynamic by placing new hires into production quickly so the seasoned technician assists on the new hire’s assigned jobs. This reduces metric pressure on mentors and creates more intentional coaching rather than passive shadowing.• How to Think About True Blended Learning: The conversation closes by encouraging operators to bucket training into what must be hands-on versus what can be standardized digitally. Meeting learners where they are—especially younger, device-native techs—means building lightweight, mobile-accessible micro-learnings that fit into field downtime without forcing a return to the classroom.This episode delivers a practical checklist for operators building training programs in 2026 and beyond—where the goal isn’t just knowledge transfer, but repeatable, scalable performance in the field.
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