Light Reading Podcasts

Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA – The Rural Broadband Association, joins the podcast to discuss the challenges facing rural providers when it comes to network deployment and upkeep, and how federal funds from the Biden administration's infrastructure law can best be spent to close the digital divide in the most-underserved areas of the country.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pablo Tomasi, principal analyst of private networks for Omdia, joins the podcast to share key findings from his latest report, "2022 Trends to Watch: Private Networks and the Shadow of 5G." Tomasi explains that while the topic of 5G may give service providers a "marketing hook" when discussing private network options with enterprise customers, 4G LTE offers all the razzle dazzle enterprises need in the near term.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Frane, VP of product management for Windstream Enterprise, is back on the podcast to provide his forecast for enterprise trends in 2022 such as cybersecurity, SASE, zero trust access, SD-WAN and more. Frane also discusses how enterprise culture must adjust to the needs of the distributed workforce, and is hopeful that the industry will better understand the "acronym soup" around managed services for enterprises so operators' customers can better customize the networking and security services they need.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Dano, editorial director of 5G & mobile strategies for Light Reading, joins the podcast to discuss why AT&T and Verizon are delaying their deployment of 5G networks on the C-band spectrum, the broader industry implications of that delay and what to expect next.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the podcast this week we present an interview recorded on December 28, just before we took a short New Year's Day break. Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner and Phil Harvey talked to the Consumer Technology Association's Sayon Deb about the metaverse, the evolution of consumer electronics and where service provider networks fit in. As Deb was just about to pack his bags for CES 2022 in Las Vegas, we got his thoughts on why the metaverse is important for businesses and consumers and what kinds of experiences it could unlock now and in the next few years. Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading Senior Editor Jeff Baumgartner joins the podcast to explain the competitive challenges that virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs) are facing as the market becomes more saturated. In addition, vMVPDs face some of the same challenges that their cable counterparts have grappled with for years: YouTubeTV recently warned subscribers that Disney-owned channels may go dark if the companies can't reach a pricing agreement.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Broadband and telehealth consultant Craig Settles joins the podcast to discuss the details of the $65 billion broadband bill, how monopolies have held the US back from closing its digital divide and why getting the rules around implementation right with this latest batch of funding is crucial to serving communities in need.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bruce Snell, VP of security strategy and transformation at NTT Security, returns to the podcast to provide an update on the Log4j vulnerability, potential security threats to the supply chain and highlights from NTT's Global Threat Intelligence Center Monthly Report for December. Snell covers some of the biggest cybersecurity trends of 2021 and has advice for how organizations can better manage and secure their data.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Dehus, director of information security and threat intelligence for Lumen Technologies, joins the podcast to share the key findings from the operator's Q3 DDoS report, and his predictions for DDoS trends in Q4. In addition, Dehus explains why multi-vector DDoS attacks were more common than single-vector, why voice and VoIP attacks are on the rise and which verticals were hit the hardest by bad actors.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jai Thattil, director of strategic marketing for Juniper Networks, joins the podcast to discuss Juniper's work in the open RAN space, why the networking company has partnered with Intel and Rakuten on O-RAN, updates on standards for the technology and his predictions for new O-RAN developments in 2022.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MetTel CTO Ed Fox returns to the podcast for an update on enterprise interest in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) trend that brings together networking and security services. Fox explains how MetTel's own approach to SASE has evolved and which components are key to any SASE service, such as Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). In addition, Fox shares how the service provider is working with customers making the shift from copper wire networks to fiber, cellular and VOIP networks.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Bolton, president of the Fiber Broadband Association, returns to the podcast to discuss how the fiber industry's advocacy efforts are changing as the US federal government implements its $65 billion broadband bill. We also discuss FBA's forthcoming fiber optic technician training program, broadband mapping woes at the FCC and more.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rik Turner, principal analyst of emerging technologies at Omdia, is back on the podcast to explain how cloud permissions management (CPM) can help service providers and enterprises take a zero-trust approach to cloud access. CPM is a process by which organizations can identify and catalogue "all extant permissions, then recommend how and where they might be reined in to minimize the organization's attack surface," Turner explained in a report published this August. During the podcast, Turner discusses how CPM addresses issues such as permission sprawl and orphan accounts, and how organizations can take a more proactive approach to managed cloud access permissions.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Alan Breznick joins the podcast to provide a preview of what attendees can expect to learn at the 15th annual Cable Next-Gen Business Services Digital Symposium on Thursday, Dec. 9. Register for the event here.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we hear from Harry Crissy and Tom Beresnyak, who work at Penn State Extension: a science-based educational organization run by Penn State University.Harry and Tom both played a key role in creating Pennsylvania's broadband map, which President Biden's nominee for FCC Commissioner Gigi Sohn has called one of the best in the country.We discuss why and how the state made its own broadband map, how it's being used to tackle Pennsylvania's digital divide and what other states can learn from their work.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we talk with Light Reading's Mike Dano about all things spectrum auctions, including the "Andromeda" auction, which just wrapped up with $22 billion in bids. We also get into the subject of broadband mapping and how spectrum could be used to tackle the digital divide.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Alan Breznick joins the podcast to discuss why Altice USA had a change of heart regarding the company's broadband growth strategy. In addition, Breznick provides an update on Altice's Q3 results and a forecast on what to expect from the cable company next year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ICYMI: From our coverage of the Big 5G Event in early September, here's a short interview with Mike Noonen, CEO of MixComm.In this interview with Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser, Noonen explains MixComm's approach to beamforming and how public and private partnerships have played a role in furthering technologies that support 5G mmWave. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the Biden administration's $65 billion broadband bill now signed into law, this week we hear from Mark Buell, regional vice president for North America at the Internet Society, on the impact the legislation will have on the digital divide in the US. (Note: This conversation was recorded just prior to the bill passing in the House. It was officially signed as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on November 15.) We discuss some of the "very good" things in the broadband bill, as well as the "less good" elements – like a lack of specific funding for municipal and community networks. We also discuss the urgency for the FCC to update its "horrendously inaccurate" national broadband map now that so much funding is at stake. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ICYMI: From our coverage of Mobile World Congress Los Angeles in October, here's a short interview with KORE Wireless President and CEO Romil Bahl.Bahl talks to Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser about the challenge of managing IoT devices, and he shares a use case where KORE is working with Dexcom to improve health monitoring systems for diabetes patients. Bahl also discusses KORE’s approach to IoT security in both the device and the network, and he reveals how the company is using eSIM technology to connect IoT devices globally. Making IoT management simpler, he said, is what will help the industry move beyond IoT hype to real use cases. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ICYMI: From our coverage of Mobile World Congress Los Angeles in October, here's a short interview with Federated Wireless CEO Iyad Tarazi. Tarazi talks to Light Reading's Mike Dano about how and why Federated is moving forward an automated frequency controller (AFC) technology that could help support broader usage of the 6GHz band. The 6GHz band currently is set aside for licensed users, including carriers and MVNOs, who have deployed thousands of point-to-point microwave links to backhaul network traffic, the CEO explains. With its new technology, Federated is hoping to help advance the deployment of WiFi 6 and 5G in the US. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Telcos are excitedly deploying 5G and advertising it nonstop during American football games and there's a good reason for that: Making money from consumer 5G is challenging and may take a while.Omdia analyst Nicole McCormick joins the podcast this week to discuss her latest research on 5G pricing and what seems to be catching on with consumers. She's looked at 158 network operators around the globe and has come up with "six basic ways that operators are charging consumers for 5G service."In this podcast we discuss the merits of those various models and talk about a few examples where operators are having success. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the podcast, we hear from James Clark, a fellow with the American Connection Corps (ACC), who is working with Mille Lacs Band tribal leadership to preserve his ancestors' Ojibwe language. Clark, whose name in Ojibwe is Ozaawaanakwad, is one of 50 individuals tapped for a fellowship through ACC, a program spearheaded by Land O'Lakes and Lead for America that supports individuals seeking to improve broadband connectivity and digital inclusion in their communities. We discuss that effort, along with the causes of the digital divide at Mille Lacs and what they and other Indigenous tribes need from policymakers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading Senior Editor Jeff Baumgartner joins the reboot of 'What's the Story?' with an update on the unfolding drama at the Rogers Communications board amid the company's pursuit of a $20.8 billion merger with fellow Canadian cable and mobile operator Shaw Communications. The leadership and control structure of Rogers Communications has been fraught with uncertainty thanks to Succession-style power struggles and politics, family feuds and an unintended phone call that put Rogers CEO Joe Natale on notice that his job was in hot water. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Consolidated CEO all in on fiber over FWABob 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.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.          He 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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's editors are in the middle of judging the 2021 Leading Lights Awards and this is the third and final episode in a three-part podcast series discussing the Leading Lights finalists. On this podcast, Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser, Fiona Graham and Iain Morris discuss trends they're seeing, what's happening in the awards categories that they're judging and what they've learned from the contest entries as they dig in and prepare to announce this year's winners.The categories covered in this podcast include:Company of the Year (Public) Outstanding Digital Enablement VendorOutstanding Test & Measurement VendorOutstanding Use Case: Service Provider AI/AutomationOutstanding Use Case: Service Provider IoT Person of the YearBest Deal Maker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Open RAN is a truly different network architecture and over the next five years, those RAN sites will be able to perform functions that traditional RAN won't be able to do, according to Mavenir's EVP and CMO, Stefano Cantarelli.He also talks about the deployment at Dish Network and the challenges of building completely new networks. Cantarelli said Dish's approach is a fresh one, especially its decision to use AWS and the public cloud as a core part of its strategy. He expects that even brownfield networks will be able to discover technology lessons from Dish as that operator starts turning on 5G services. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vodafone's chief network officer, Andrea Donà, said the way to the 5G future is to first make sure you radically simplify and take care of legacy networks and services.Donà says that telcos need to "try and expose some of those inherent inbuilt functions within the network and start exposing them in a standard API interface-able way so that we can create new revenue streams."He continued: "We need to try and bring technology together so that we stimulate that new innovation because just playing simple connectivity play is not going to be enough. For the future, we need to try and elevate our technology and our network in a way that creates and sparks new, innovative business cases, new revenue streams, so we can thrive in the future."This interview was recorded at the 5G World show in London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are definitely reasons to be upbeat about the trajectory of 5G, according to Dario Talmesio, Omdia's research director for service provider strategy and regulation. This is especially true if you consider that "real" 5G – 5G standalone – doesn't exist yet in most places, yet service providers are still growing their topline with 5G services from their consumer businesses. A lot of service providers still seem behind the curve on finding business models to take full advantage of 5G, the analyst said. "I think we are very much in proof of concept, type of mode, we are in implementation mode. There are obviously important examples in the market. But in terms of how to commercialize it – or what commercial models are going to be – then it is probably too early," Talmesio said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

New, improved 5G radios and other products are starting to make a difference in service provider deployments, according to Gabriel Brown, Heavy Reading principal analyst covering mobile network infrastructure and technologies.Brown cited the second generation of 5G networking products and the move to use more 5G spectrum in the mid and lower spectrum bands as reasons that 5G service is improving, both in speeds and coverage, compared to the first weeks of 5G rollouts in Europe."Clearly, these new products are a lot better," Brown said. "So now as operators invest, they're getting a much more kind of material, capable, massive MIMO product for midband. So that's going to give them more confidence and it's going to be kind of steady build out."That steady buildout and improvement is starting to show up for consumers. "I would say, if you get a 5G icon, in general, you're going to get a very good service," Brown said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's editors are in the middle of judging the 2021 Leading Lights Awards and this is the second in a three-part podcast series discussing the Leading Lights finalists. On this podcast, Light Reading's Phil Harvey, Jeff Baumgartner and Alan Breznick discuss trends they're seeing, what's happening in the awards categories that they're judging and what they've learned from the contest entries as they dig in and prepare to announce this year's winners.The categories covered in this podcast include:Best New Cable Tech Product or ServiceBest New Cloud Product or Service (Network Operator)Best New Video/Media Product or Service Most Innovative Service Provider Cloud StrategyOutstanding Use Case: Customer ExperienceOutstanding Use Case: Private Wireless Networks Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anand Shah, director of Technology and Architecture for Verizon, joins the podcast to share insight into industry progress for deploying network slicing, private networks and Open RAN. "[Open RAN] increases your competition and definitely decreases costs for us, so we're all in there whenever we can save some on costs" says Shah. "The more vendors you include in any formula and the more equipment you include, the harder that equation gets to solve. And it's not that we can't solve it, we can solve it."In addition to the challenge of coordinating with multiple vendors and technologies for Open RAN, Shah explains how service providers also have to consider enterprise customer's needs for network slicing and private networks. He also addresses the debate around whether an enterprise using a private network also needs network slicing. While AR, VR and robotics applications generate the most buzz, Shah says many of those private network use cases are several years out. Currently, computer vision is one of the most widely used private network use cases, he explains. "Right now, it's pretty simple. One of the biggest use cases are getting their computer vision or camera uplink feeds into a local MEC or a cloud compute -- wherever it is, on-prem or off-prem, etc. Computer vision seems to be a big use case," says Shah.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The goal of the Cisco Rural Broadband Innovation Center is to provide service providers of any size with access to testing the same level of technologies that support broadband access, says Robin Olds, a business development manager for Cisco's Americas Service Provider group, who joined in on the Light Reading podcast with Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal analyst of ZK Research. The $20 million Center was launched in mid-June under the umbrella of Cisco's Country Digital Acceleration program and will focus on delivering high-speed Internet access to rural areas to lessen the digital divide.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week's telecom news highlights included a look at the wild valuation ride of social media and messaging platform Discord as it recently rejected a $12 billion takeover bid and then a $500 million funding round. We also review the latest info on 3G network shutdown dates for the big US carriers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we hear from Sam Sanders, founder CEO of Uprise Fiber. Uprise was launched two years ago on the West Coast by a group of telecom industry vets eager to use their expertise to provide communities with a new, better, and more affordable Internet option. We discuss how Uprise addresses typical problems people have with their ISPs, as well as the company's model of partnering with developers and leveraging existing fiber, and how Uprise seeks to build digital equity into broadband deployments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Windstream CMO Mike Flannery joins the podcast to discuss why enterprises didn't deploy SD-WAN as widely as the industry anticipated they would at the start of the pandemic. Flannery explains how concerns around cost and ease of use stalled SD-WAN deployments for remote workers, but the tide is changing as remote access tools improve and enterprises budget for a long-term distributed workforce. "Organizations still had quite a bit of their overhead tied up in physical locations and networking services," explains Flannery. "Investment in a home-based SD-WAN would have been a materially additive cost at a time when business revenues were under pressure as a result of the pandemic."In addition, Flannery shares insights on whether customers are on board with and fully comprehend SASE, the networking and security convergence trend recently coined by Gartner. He also explains which industries have been more bullish about readily adopting SASE and SD-WAN. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's editors are in the middle of judging the 2021 Leading Lights Awards and this is the first in a three-part podcast series discussing the Leading Lights finalists. On this podcast, Light Reading's Phil Harvey, Kelsey Ziser and Mike Dano discuss trends they're seeing, what's happening in the awards categories that they're judging and what they've learned from the contest entries as they dig in and prepare to announce this year's winners.The categories covered in this podcast include:Best New Open RAN ProductMost Innovative Hybrid Networking StrategyMost Innovative SD-WAN Product/Service EvolutionOutstanding Use Case: Service Provider Security (can include SD-WAN)Best New 5G Core ProductMost Innovative 4G/5G Business ServiceMost Innovative 4G/5G Consumer ServiceOutstanding Use Case: Edge ComputingBest New Optical Networking/IP ProductCompany of the Year (Private)The Light Reading Hall of FameOutstanding Optical/IP Networking Components Vendor Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marc Price, CTO of Matrixx Software, joins the podcast to explain how operators can rethink traditional mobile pricing models for 5G services. Price recently spoke at Light Reading's BIG 5G Event to discuss new monetization opportunities and the benefits of an open cloud-native network core for 5G.Price explains how Matrixx is supporting Visible, the MVNO run by Verizon, and why that approach fits a growing market that wants customer service on completely different terms. "It's much more like the Amazon experience. As customers procure a service or want a new feature … it's all done directly through the phone and the service," Price said.Price also recounts Matrixx's work with Australian service provider Telstra on digital billing services. "Telstra uses Matrixx for the lion share of [Australian] customers, and because of the real-time experience, they realize that there's no reason to separate pre-paid and post-paid customers," said Price. This shift has improved the customer experience, reduced the number of calls to customer service and thereby saved Telstra money, he said. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner and Mike Dano join Phil Harvey to recap the Big 5G Event and discuss what has happened lately with in-person events, what seems to be working well as folks start traveling more and how things could be just a little bit better in these "new normal" times. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The private wireless networking trend has been a hot-button issue in the global wireless industry for months now. The notion, after all, is tantalizing: What if software and equipment vendors could sell their networking wares to enterprises, utilities, ports and other such customers in addition to wireless network operators? Already, some vendors believe the space is showing signs of maturity. "Private 5G is really taking off," said Todd Krautkremer, CMO of private networking equipment vendor Cradlepoint. Ericsson acquired the company last year in a $1.1 billion deal. Krautkremer explained that the sector is growing in part because of the new business models available to potential customers, specifically the "as a service" model. It allows schools, government agencies and other private 5G networking customers to pay for their networking needs under an "as you need it," Netflix-style model, rather than buying the network outright as one might a DVD. "People want the value of private 5G but they don't want to build a mini carrier network," Krautkremer explained. "They want it to act a lot like Wi-Fi does in the enterprise." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Massimo Peselli, SVP of Global Enterprise for Verizon Business, provides insight into how the pandemic has changed the way "enterprises consume the network." "Over the last 18 months we developed this concept of network-as-a-service, which is our response to cloudification of the application," says Peselli. "It's basically a concept where customers are consuming the network on a consumption-based model." Peselli explains how customers can utilize Verizon's cloud to reduce the hardware needed to support their network operations, and how 5G is advancing the network-as-a-service approach. This interview was recorded at the Big 5G Event in Denver. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.