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In this latest Broadband Pulse podcast, we talked with Mo Steinman, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Lightelligence.
About our guest
About the Podcast
In this podcast, we're highlighting the upcoming Data Center Insights event.
On July 15 and 16, Lightwave will join several of its “sister” media outlets to host an online conference-style event titled Data Center Insights. Comprising 11 technical sessions, the event will be broadcast from 11:00 am to 3:30 pm EDT each day.
The full agenda, available at https://endeavor.swoogo.com/DataCenterInsights2026, reflects the breadth of these outlets’ audiences and coverage areas.
Sean Buckley, Editor in Chief of Lightwave will host the panel: Testing High-Density Fiber Links: Best Practices for VSFF, and 400G+ Networks on Wednesday, July 15 at 1:30 ET.
Joining Lightwave on this panel will be Jim Davis, Product Application Specialist from Fluke Networks.
About the Podcast
When the FCC voted last fall to strip hotspot and school bus Wi-Fi from the E-Rate program, Mission Telecom responded swiftly – growing its network of partners and launching new services to ensure vulnerable communities were not left behind. The service provider recently reached a key milestone: it connected 20,000 families and impacted 50,000 lives.
But it’s not stopping there. Through its Project: Volume Up, Mission is now providing a nationwide initiative designed to help public libraries launch or expand hotspot lending programs in their communities. Volume Up brings together hardware, nationwide 4G and 5G coverage, and nonprofit pricing into a single, ready-to-launch solution – so libraries can quickly get hotspot programs up and running.
Partnerships are a big focus. Mission Telecom established partnerships with nonprofits, including CACRC, to close the digital divide by providing affordable computers to Louisiana families who need them most, and it launched the RESPOND Kit – a portable hotspot and broadband solution designed to keep communities connected before, during, and after natural disasters.
In this new Broadband Pulse podcast, we talked with Mark Colwell, director of broadband operations at Mission Telecom, about how its new offering will make schools' and libraries' budgets whole after the E-Rate cuts.
Here's a timeline of the interview's key moments:
Opening | 0:00
Host's introduction of guests | 0:03
Mission’s progress | 0:21
Service partnerships | 1:11
FCC's proposed childhood E-Rate service usage protections | 2:50
Mission Telecom’s Volume Up program | 4:52
Belen Public Library | 6:39
Capital Area Corporate Recycling Council (CACRC) device refurbishment | 9:12
Navigating the BEAD broadband program | 12:01
Mission bolsters its board of directors | 13:29
Final thoughts/Closing | 14:55
Meet our guest:
About the Podcast
Fort Collins Connexion, a municipal broadband utility that was created by and for the community, has as its sole purpose to improve life and business in Fort Collins, Colorado through what it says is better, more affordable internet. Connexion offers affordably priced symmetrical multi-gig service with no long-term contracts. In addition to residential broadband, Connexion offers competitive phone and TV services. Also, Connexion has become a key source of broadband and enhanced services for local businesses.
Joining other Colorado communities like Longmont, Montrose, Boulder and Yuma County, Connexion’s emergence is the result of a Colorado State effort to enable local governments to become broadband providers. Signed into law in 2023, Colorado’s Senate Bill 23-183 repealed the restrictive Senate Bill 05-152. Previously, the 2005 law prohibited most local governments from entering the broadband market or using municipal funds for infrastructure without a local voter referendum. SB 23-183 explicitly eliminates this requirement, allowing cities, towns, and counties to deploy advanced communication services directly.
Helping to lead the service charge for Fort Collins Connexion is Josh Hales, Senior Manager of Broadband Sales. When the Broadband Pulse caught up with Hales, who has been with Connexion for four years, he said the effect is clear: incumbent cable and telcos are now responding with new broadband options.
Opening/introduction | 0:03
Fort Collins’ Connexion fiber focus | 0:24
Broadband evolution | 2:52
Incumbent provider’s response | 4:43
Gigabit speed subscriber adoption | 7:06
Voice and video services | 9:29
Community services | 11:48
PON technology evolution | 14:09
Business services growth | 16:00
Greenfield housing developments | 20:09
Final thoughts | 21:55
About our guest
About the Podcast
Broadcom is addressing the emergence of 50G PON and fixed wireless access (FWA) with a series of new products and partnerships aimed at helping service providers ensure users experience sound quality of service (quality of service) on their broadband and wireless connections.
While still emerging, the transition to 50G PON delivers the massive network headroom and deterministic latency required for the next era of broadband. According to Market Intelo, the 50G PON market was valued at $3.2 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $18.6 billion by 2034, growing at a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.6% from 2026 to 2034. However, Dell’Oro notes that as services transition from GPON to XGS-PON, the focus has shifted from 10G speeds to reducing latency. The research firm notes that this “approach is fundamentally reshaping PON roadmaps, pushing large-scale 50G PON adoption out by 3-5 years as operators instead invest in XGS-PON enhancements that deliver immediate quality improvements.”
Nevertheless, Broadcom is moving forward with its 50G plans. The silicon vendor recently debuted its 50G ITU-PON home gateway system-on-chip (SoC), featuring an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) and native Wi-Fi 8 compatibility. It also enhanced its Wi-Fi 8 portfolio with a new trio of highly integrated SoC devices. On the fixed wireless access (FWA) front, Broadcom has partnered with Samsung Electronics to develop a new, cost-optimized reference platform featuring the Samsung B1320 5G Modem and Broadcom BCM6776 Wi-Fi 8 SoC. This platform unifies 3GPP Release 17 connectivity with the emerging Wi-Fi 8 (IEEE 802.11bn) standard.
In this latest podcast, we talked with Chris Szymanski, director of product marketing for Wireless Broadband Communications at Broadcom, about its latest 50G and FWA developments.
Here’s a timeline for the interview:
Opening/Introduction | 0:03
50G PON market | 0:30
50G deployment strategies| 2:41
Broadcom’s new BCM 68850 50G platform | 3:21
A path from the CO optical line terminal to the network edge | 4:48
Pairing 50G PON with Wi-Fi 8 | 5:48
Wi-Fi 8’s streamlined approach requirements | 8:41
Consolidating silicon elements | 10:26
Broadcom and Samsung’s Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) partnership | 11:40
Unifying 3GPP’s Release 17 connectivity and the Wi-Fi 8 standard |12:43
Final thoughts/closing |13:37
About our guest
Chris Szymanski, director of product marketing for the Wireless Broadband Communications for Broadcom
About the Podcast
Debra Freitas, CEO of Light Source Communications (LSC), has a simple view of its role as a dark fiber provider: a primary hyperscale and data-center resource on a growth path. LSC is a carrier-neutral, customer-agnostic provider focused on designing, building, and operating custom dark fiber infrastructure purpose-built to deliver capacity for GPU-dense clusters, minimal latency for real-time processing, and diversity to ensure network resilience.
The dark fiber provider’s metro rings in Phoenix, Tulsa, Las Vegas, Kansas City and Indianapolis, as well as its long-haul route linking Tulsa and St. Louis, are delivering connectivity to support hyperscalers, neoclouds, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and other High-Performance Computing (HPC) applications.
Growth is clearly a priority for LSC. In April, LSC announced its latest dark fiber route, bridging Amarillo, Texas, with Oklahoma City, Stillwater, and Tulsa, Oklahoma — the third new dark fiber build LSC has commenced this year. Construction is currently underway on dark fiber networks in Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tulsa. Additionally, in June, LSC completed a 35-mile ring in Kansas City.
Broadband Pulse recently caught up with Freitas to discuss how Light Source Communications is building new fiber routes based on customer demand and how dark fiber can transform the surrounding communities where data centers are located.
Here’s a timeline for the interview:
Opening/Introduction | 0:00
LSC’s dark fiber | 0:39
Prioritizing fiber builds | 3:03
Regulatory/permitting challenges | 4:50
Competitive differentiation | 7:36
Enterprise service opportunities | 8:42
Smart city potential | 10:03
Workforce issues | 10:17
Working with ISPs |12:42
Network maintenance and co-location services | 13:53
Final thoughts/closing | 15:52
About our guest
About the Podcast
In the third and final episode of the Fiber Connect 2026 show-daily podcast, we're chronicling the last day and wrap-up of the Fiber Connect 2026 trade show.
Here’s a breakdown of the episode’s key moments:
0:00 Opening/Introduction
0:13 | New market research
1:30 | Fidium’s Fiber Drive
2:27 | Quantum and AI
4:07 | Keynote
4:38 | Final panel
5:14 | Wrap up and Closing
About the Podcast
In the second episode of the Fiber Connect 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show.
Here’s a breakdown of the episode’s key moments:
0:00 Opening/Introduction
0:50 Florida’s broadband promise
1:16 Editor’s panels
1:36 FBA’s Fiber Feud
2:15 Broadband Forum’s QoE effort
3:01 MCNC’s Tracy Doaks, president and CEO of MCNC
4:06 Fiber Broadband Association’s (FBA) annual awards program
4:48 ISE’s Connect the Unconnected Award
6:29 Closing
About the Podcast
In the first episode of the Fiber Connect 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show.
Here’s a breakdown of the episode’s key moments:
0.00 Opening
0:47 Editor’s panels
1:33 Broadband Forum activities
1:50 Broadband Forum CEO
3:08 FBA research
4:40 Workforce development
5:32 New fiber broadband products
7:20 Fiber Broadband 2026 Coverage page
7:43 Closing
About the Podcast
If you want a broad look at the evolution of today’s optical networking industry, look no further than Lawrence Gasman, president of CIR.
In this latest episode, the Broadband Pulse sat down with Gasman, who has been conducting forecasts on enterprise computing, telecommunications, optical components since the late 1970s when he founded the firm. One of his latest pursuits has been quantum technology.
During our time together, we talked about his view of the OFC trade show, co-packaged optics, quantum computing, data center powering issues, optical M&A and, of course, AI.
Key moments in this episode
0:00 Opening
0:24 Introduction of our guest
0:30 CIR background
3:36 OFC 2026
6:39 Co-packaged optics potential
10:05 Community data center battles
16:28 The M&A Factor
18:38 Quantum technology
About our guest
Lawrence Gasman has been widely quoted in leading industry publications and has written numerous articles and four books on technology markets and technology policy. He is a frequent speaker at major industry events, including the Optical Fiber Communication Conference (OFC) and conferences organized by Inside Quantum Technology. He has also helped organize IQT conference programs and has presented in webinars hosted by Lightwaveonline and other industry organizations. In addition to his work as an analyst and author, Gasman has testified before the U.S. Congress and has advised the White House on technology and industry policy issues. Gasman holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Manchester and advanced degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the London Business School. He lives near Richmond, Virginia, with his wife Cynthia, a university professor. He travels widely and has delivered talks and consulting engagements across North America, Europe, and Asia.
About the Podcast
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