Light Reading Podcasts

Rob Mello, the head of strategy and transformation in the Americas for Orange Business Services, joins the podcast to discuss the carrier's use of the cloud when deploying security services to enterprise customers. He discusses the relationship between the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and Zero Trust Security and whether the two are mutually exclusive. He also talks about what industries are benefiting from SASE now and how global enterprises are benefiting from the platform.Orange Business Services and several other global network operators were featured during Light Reading's Service Provider Security Strategies for the Enterprise Symposium on Tuesday, December 15. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special sponsored podcast episode, we speak with Scott Lawrence from CSG's Experiences Practice division. His job focuses on coaching companies to make decisions that can help them evolve and improve the way customers experience their products and services. Lawrence discusses how and when digital transformations are effective, how companies should measure success and the art of creating a culture that values constant improvement. This podcast is sponsored by CSG. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner connected with Plume CEO Fahri Diner to get caught up on all things related to the management and security of the smart home. As part of that discussion, they chat about the drivers of the vendor's latest deployment milestone – 20 million "active" households worldwide that have been fueled by an average increase of 1 million activations per month thus far through 2020.They also dig into the role of open source in smart home deployments and how Plume's recent acquisition of Walleye Networks fits in with the company's broader tech and services portfolio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rita Marty, VP of Emerging Services Security Architecture for AT&T, joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss 5G security."We're taking all the learnings from LTE and 3G and applying it to 5G so we don't have the same problems day one," says Marty. "One thing that's unique about 5G is that it's designed with security in mind from day one." AT&T is also working closely with the standards organization 3GPP to develop the "5G security posture," explains Marty.As 5G is being deployed nationwide, AT&T will continue to work on improving security for previous mobile generations. "You want to continue to harden the legacy networks like 3G and LTE," says Marty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Iain joined the podcast back in August to talk about open RAN's potential in the telco space, particularly as the UK government imposes a ban on using Huawei equipment. On this episode, we talk about what we've learned about open RAN since then, whether or not the technology is living up to the hype; and what's in store for open RAN in telecom next year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Open RAN Ecosystem Symposium starts up again on Thursday, Dec. 10 and will feature open RAN discussions, case studies, cautionary tales and service provider perspectives. The symposium is moderated and chaired by Gabriel Brown, Principal Analyst, Mobile Networks & 5G, Heavy Reading. In our discussion, Brown tackles where exactly service providers can find savings by using open RAN, and we add some context to the discussion of whether general-purpose O-RAN kit is actually less expensive than what is on offer, at scale, from big vendors like Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mauricio Sanchez, research director for Dell'Oro, joins the Light Reading podcast to clarify the definition of Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) and explain what this new trend means for the future of the SD-WAN market."We see SASE as the intersection of networking and security in a cloud-delivered vehicle or solution," explains Sanchez. He adds that this trend has been a long time coming as the industry has been pursuing the goal of "a single control panel that an administrator can look at and control the network experience and the security policy in their environment." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cogent Communications CEO Dave Schaeffer founded his company in 1999 to sell symmetrical, low-cost, Internet connectivity to businesses. That whole time he's said some variation of the same thing about Cogent – he knows it's a commodity business and it's much simpler that way."Look, we don't sell things that people don't want," Schaeffer told Light Reading in 2018. "We only sell things people want, and we sell it cheaper. It's not really complicated."Now Cogent operates in 47 countries, connects to nearly 1,300 data centers and is constantly building one of the most interconnected, high-capacity Internet backbones in the world. In this podcast, we talk about why companies are still buying huge amounts of bandwidth even when their offices aren't full of people. We also cover the significance of Cogent's recent traffic growth – close to early pandemic levels – and how that underscores the trends we're seeing in the consumer video streaming market (and why that growth will keep on going). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Brett Lindsey, CEO of Everstream, joins Light Reading's Phil Harvey and Kelsey Ziser on the podcast to discuss the company's strategy around building fiber networks in the Midwest. Lindsey also addresses how Everstream competes with incumbent telcos such as AT&T, and how the pandemic has impacted the construction of new fiber buildouts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner has been keeping us up to date on the much-talked-about Starlink satellite service from SpaceX, as well as other satellite competitors in the field like HughesNet and Viasat.He's here today to talk more about the difference between these players, recent developments in the satellite broadband space and why they matter and what's likely to happen next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roopa Honnachari, industry director for Frost & Sullivan, joins Light Reading's Phil Harvey and Kelsey Ziser on the podcast to explain how COVID-19 impacted growth in the SD-WAN and cloud services markets, plus her forecasts for growth over the next few years. Honnachari also discusses why telcos are bundling in a number of security features and enterprise business services with their managed SD-WAN platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Light Reading podcast welcomes Steve Vogelsang, the CTO of IP and optical networks at Nokia. Nokia is also our podcast sponsor for the month.In this episode, we discuss how the pandemic is affecting the evolution of service provider networks and whether 5G deployments are fundamentally changed because of the difficulties presented in logistics and other factors. Vogelsang also discusses other aspects of the service provider network evolution, including cloud migrations, software-as-a-service and how massive machine-type communications (mMTCs) will require a new kind of flexibility from network operators. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin Dunne, Director of Research Services for Vertical Systems Group, joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss the state of fiber deployments and the SD-WAN market during the pandemic. Dunne sheds light on how organizations like MEF are helping standardize SD-WAN and she gives a ballpark prediction of how the SD-WAN market will grow in 2021. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Iain Morris joins us to talk about convergence and consolidation amongst European telcos. France's Orange recently took a controlling stake in Telekom Romania Communications (TRC), and Iain will shed some light on what this deal means for the individual telcos and the industry at large. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MNJ Executive VP Ben Niernberg returns to the podcast to talk about how simplifying unified communications in the enterprise is even critical during the pandemic. Niernberg also offers advice on how enterprises can secure the edge of their networks and how they can navigate the crowded market of security and SD-WAN vendors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heavy Reading's Sterling Perrin and Light Reading's Phil Harvey recapped the recent 5G Transport & Networking Strategies symposium and they discussed network slicing in transport networks, how Verizon is handling its 5G traffic and how the increasing importance of edge computing is shaping optical networking technologies and spending.Perrin said that it's important to think about what network slicing means in the transport network, where "you have to define both quality of service and network separation." There's a lot of work left to be done here, he said, as the radio and wireline sides of the network still haven't worked together enough to make network slicing happen yet in a commercial way. The timing is getting tight, too, because a lot of the services that 5G monetization depends on require network slicing.In edge computing, Perrin said the symposium discussions revealed more "solidity" around where the edge is needed inside of cities and where it's not. A few years ago, there was a discussion about needing edge computing capabilities at every cell tower. Now what matters more than sprawling buildouts is the latency required by the network, Perrin said. In many cases, data centers and colocation facilities – important not just because of where they are but also their proximity to cloud providers – will get the job done. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sue Graham Johnston, president of 128 Technology, joins Light Reading's Phil Harvey and Kelsey Ziser on the podcast to discuss the company's technology approach to networking and how that led to its announced acquisition by Juniper Networks. Johnston explains how 128 aims to build a session-aware network and how that improves user experience as well as enterprise security. Johnston also offers advice on how Women in Comms can network virtually, and how to adjust to the "new normal" of work-life balance as the line between work and personal lives blurs from the COVID-19 remote working boom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser talks with Vonage's Jay Patel about unified communications customer use cases. They cover Domino's Pizza and Siemens and talk about how both companies are using Vonage's Voice and Video APIs. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Infinera's Tim Doiron discusses open networking and Infinera's role in a recent Telecom Infra Project deployment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Telia Carrier VP and Chief Evangelist Mattias Fridstrom joins the podcast to discuss new trends in network and traffic patterns as Internet usage is changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fridstrom also provides insight into how and where Telia Carrier is expanding its fiber network, and how that approach differs in the Americas vs. Europe. Also, Fridstrom shares Telia Carrier's approach to SD-WAN and why the company chose to enter that market. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Mike Dano about a recent request for information issued by the US Department of Defense that may or may not further the Trump administration's apparent interest in a nationalized 5G network.We also talk about Rivada, what role the company is playing in all of this, and why it matters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Juniper CTO Raj Yavatkar joins the Light Reading podcast to discuss Juniper's strategy to use machine learning and AI to help customers build "self-driving" enterprise networks. The acquisition of Mist Systems brought that capability to Wi-Fi access points, he explains. Once Juniper completes its acquisition of 128 Technology, it can improve on its AI-driven approach to its SD-WAN and WAN assurance offerings, too. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Phil Harvey and Heavy Reading's Gabriel Brown recap the 5G Ecosystem Digital Symposium and discuss the state of the industry when it comes to telecom 5G deployments, and what is likely to happen next.Brown starts off by recalling the service provider keynote delivered October 19 by Telecom Italia's Giovanni Romano. The Italian 5G ecosystem has been looking beyond the smartphone from the very beginning, Brown said and, as a result, both TIM and other operators have done a lot of work on advanced use cases for 5G. As 5G is deployed around the world, operators will want to keep an eye on TIM and how it got a head start on building 5G apps and services for vertical industries.Private networks and 5GIn the second part of the discussion, Brown recaps the second part of the symposium, which occurred on October 21, and featured keynotes and panels on private networks. One of the day's highlights was an update from Catherine Gull, head of Business Development at Three Private Networks, the operator that has built a private network for London's Heathrow Airport.Apple's 5G introThe discussion wraps up with a summary of some reasons why Apple put so much emphasis on 5G during its launch event for the iPhone 12 on October 16. Brown said there is a responsibility Apple has to the whole telecom ecosystem to deliver a new generation of handsets on a predictable schedule. If Apple waited too late to put out a 5G product, the telecom industry would be in a world of hurt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Iain Morris and Kelsey Ziser discuss highlights from last week's BBWF event, including an update from Telefonica CTO Enrique Blanco on the operator's efforts around fiber buildouts, both in Spain and South America. In addition, Morris and Ziser discuss women in comms sessions on new career opportunities around 5G deployments, closing the gender gap in telecom and building relationships with mentors. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Boingo's SVP of global strategy and emerging businesses, Mike Zeto, joins the podcast to discuss the opportunities in building private networks and how the pandemic is accelerating the need for some buildouts. Zeto explains how, even when built for enterprises, those networks and the capacity they bring can help service providers accomplish their goals as well. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we're talking with Light Reading's Kelsey Ziser about recent product updates in the SD-WAN market to reflect the need for stronger security in the age of remote work.Kelsey is here to tell us more about what she's hearing from SD-WAN players about these service updates, what this shift in focus means for industry competition, and what we can expect to happen next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Alan Breznick and Jeff Baumgartner recap the highlights from last week's Cable Next-Gen Digital Symposium, which wrapped up Thursday, October 8. The cable aces provide an update on the challenges and opportunities of utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities in cable architectures. Breznick and Baumgartner also discuss progress made on DOCSIS 4.0, momentum around Remote MAC-PHY, different approaches to distributed access architecture and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we are once again joined by Sean Obrey from Avast for a discussion on cybersecurity. This time we talk about how artificial intelligence is being used to improve security for service providers. This leads to a discussion about Avast's Smart Life platform and what sets it apart from earlier generations of security products and what those differences will mean for service provider partners and their customers.This podcast episode is sponsored by Avast, a global leader in digital security and family safety solutions for network operators and their customers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading's Alan Breznick and Jeff Baumgartner discuss the highlights of the Cable Next-Gen Digital Symposium on Tuesday, Oct. 6. While the pandemic appeared to slow the growth of cable business services in the second quarter, industry experts forecast expansion for business services in the third quarter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we're talking with Light Reading's Mike Dano about Starlink, the satellite broadband service from SpaceX.SpaceX continues to launch Starlink satellites as it preps for its commercial debut. And just this week, Elon Musk suggested in a Tweet that he expects to take Starlink public in a few years. Mike is here to talk more about Starlink, what we know about the satellite service so far and how it may (or may not) disrupt the broadband industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Radware's CTO, David Aviv, and VP of strategy, Mike O'Malley, discuss security concerns that companies have as they get ready for 5G and endeavor to protect applications and services in their data centers, edge networks and cloud deployments. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading editors Mike Dano and Phil Harvey recount some of the highlights of a busy, busy event discussing all things 5G. Standalone 5G stood alone as the big thing to watch in the coming months. We discuss remarks from execs at T-Mobile, AT&T, Telus and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the "What's the Story?" podcast, we're talking with Light Reading's Jeff Baumgartner about Altice USA.Jeff recently wrote about discussions between Altice USA, Rogers and Cogeco regarding Altice's efforts to acquire Cogeco, but sell its Canadian assets to Rogers – discussions that have now resulted in an exchange of dramatic letters between the companies.Jeff is here to tell us more about those developments between the companies, what Altice's momentum in the US means for the telecom industry at large, and what's likely to happen next. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this overview of what's happening in the 5G market, Omdia Principal Analyst & Practice Leader Dario Talmesio discusses the 5G deployments to date, the biggest enterprise vertical opportunities and how Apple's products will kickstart 5G consumer acceptance. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The most advanced 5G features anticipated by network operators, like network slicing, will require OSS systems to be modernized and expanded, says Omdia Principal Analyst James Crawshaw.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Omdia Senior Analyst Pablo Tomasi says 5G won't be the main technology in private networks for a few years, but the 5G discussions in some verticals are moving the needle on planning and purchasing.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heavy Reading's Gabriel Brown discusses how O-RAN is gathering momentum in 5G networks and why that matters. He also weighs in on operator moves to embrace standalone 5G, and what's holding some of them back.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Max Silber, VP of Mobility and IoT for MetTel, discusses the service provider's IoT strategy for assisting the City of Phoenix in meeting its goal of becoming a zero-waste city by 2050. MetTel has worked with the city to provide automated vehicle location services via IoT-connected devices that monitor fuel usage, route efficiency, scheduling maintenance and more. In addition, Silber explains how MetTel used IoT technology to ensure driver safety, improve vehicle idle management, GPS tracking, Geo-fencing capabilities and provide other services for Brosnan Security's fleet of trucks.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the "What's the Story?" podcast, we're talking with Omdia principal analyst James Crawshaw about operations support systems (OSS). Omdia has a new report out about the OSS market, projecting that OSS will see 6.5% growth in 2021. James is here to talk more about what's driving that growth, what the evolution of OSS and the role of cloud in that evolution means for the industry at large, and what is likely to happen next in terms of mergers and acquisitions.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Network operators need to protect devices wherever they're at and Avast's Sean Obrey discusses how that can be done at the network level in a way that leads to solid user adoption, and better overall reporting and analytics. This podcast episode is sponsored by Avast, a global leader in digital security and family safety solutions for network operators and their customers.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Light Reading podcast veteran Prof. Nick Feamster from the University of Chicago shares how teachers can successfully adapt to online teaching, provides an update on his research on network usage and performance during COVID-19, and discusses the challenge municipalities face in providing Internet access to historically underserved areas.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Optics is a key technology pillar for modern networking and the cost of optics is becoming a larger part of the overall networking capex equation. Cisco wanted to control its fate in optics and Bill Gartner, Cisco SVP/GM optical systems and optics group, explains how the company did it. The Executive Spotlight Q&A is a sponsored Light Reading audio production.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

CommScope's Morgan Kurk and Dave Wright join the podcast to discuss challenges service providers face in delivering rural broadband services, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, they explain how the Universal Service Fund can support programs to address rural connectivity, and how CommScope is working with service providers to close the digital divide.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the "What's the Story?" podcast we're talking with Light Reading's Editor, Phil Harvey about the US vs. China trade war and how TikTok has been caught in the middle. Phil recaps a recent policy move by the Chinese government that looks to be aimed at delaying the sale of TikTok's US operations. The pressure is building and time is running out as the Trump administration has said the company needs to sell its US business soon or face a ban on its service. Phil catches us up on TikTok's whirlwind month, why it matters, and what's likely to happen next. This podcast was recorded on Monday, August 31.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bart Spriester, General Manager, Content & Streaming Providers, Comcast Technology Solutions joins the podcast to discuss the consumer and industry trends shaping streaming technology today. We also talk about how media and entertainment companies are evolving their technology stack to stay competitive.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This Executive Spotlight Q&A features John Maddison, the CMO & EVP of products at Fortinet. Maddison discusses SASE, the secure access service edge, and what problems SASE solves for enterprises and service providers. He details what a full SASE deployment should look like and how it relates to Secure SD-WAN. The Executive Spotlight Q&A is a sponsored Light Reading audio production.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the "What's the Story?" podcast we're talking with Paula Gilbert, editor of Connecting Africa, Light Reading's sister site. Paula has been reporting on the mobile money industry in Africa, including new partnerships between telcos and banks, the pandemic's impact on the sector and more. She's here to tell us more about the mobile money industry in Africa, how it's evolving, why it matters, and what's likely to happen next.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Omdia analyst Jaimie Lenderman discusses cable operator efforts to reimagine their networks as less centralized, with more intelligence at the edge. Are those efforts being sidelined by the pandemic?Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BT Security's Kevin Brown joins the podcast to discuss remote working in a pandemic, including all the risks, the changes and advantages the "new normal" has for service providers. We'll also cover BT's concept of a "human firewall" and how companies can prioritize their security approach based on people, not technology.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're talking with Light Reading's Mike Dano about 5G spectrum. Mike's been keeping us up to date on the FCC's CBRS auction, and the forthcoming C-band spectrum auction scheduled for December.Sign up today for the Light Reading newsletter. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.