VETRO Blog

At the moment, the biggest trend to report from here in the US is social distancing and “flattening the curve” of coronavirus cases. Social distancing can be difficult and isolating, but good broadband (and a Netflix subscription) really takes the edge off. The team at VETRO FiberMap is committed to ensuring that our customers have everything they need to operate while the coronavirus is in full swing, so it’s business as usual from our home offices. One thing we can’t do, however, is attend our usual stack of trade shows. Yet, while time does seem to disappear these days, it was just a few weeks ago that our team exhibited at TechAdvantage in the legendary city of New Orleans. VETRO FiberMap CEO Will Mitchell attended along with Stewart Linsmith and Nick Roy from our sales team, and they picked up on a few noteworthy trends in the electric cooperative world. 

Bradley Hemphill, a longtime VETRO FiberMap user and telecom industry veteran, brings global strategy and deep technical acumen to VETRO FiberMap’s growing team.

Introducing: The Plan Estimation Tool

The Plan Estimation Tool (PET) is a collection of new features that offer a comprehensive overview of the material and labor costs associated with a fiber network build. Click here for a quick introductory video.

This past week was Digital Inclusion Week, which raises awareness about the inequality of internet access. According to the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, the campaign works to ensure "all individuals and communities have the information technology capacity needed for full participation in our society, democracy and economy." The digital inclusion gap largely occurs in more rural communities, where connectivity can be especially scarce, and census data inaccuracies result in less federal support for network infrastructure improvements.

According to Cisco, the number of global internet connected devices is estimated to hit 50 billion in 2020. This demand, coupled with an increasingly competitive telecommunication industry, is forcing internet service providers (ISPs) to reduce subscription prices and continuously find better ways of optimizing and automating operational processes to support faster adoption.

VETRO FiberMap is pleased to announce the availability of their Geospatial Wrecking Crew (GWC), an in-house concierge GIS services group handling mapping data conversion jobs for network design engineers and fiber management platform users.

VETRO FiberMap is proud to be included in Broadband Communities (BBC) Magazine’s list of the Top 100 FTTH companies for the third year in a row. BBC is a respected industry voice, and a convener of municipalities and other community broadband stakeholders striving to build a fiber connected world. We’re excited to continue to work alongside this organization and participate in their events. Their efforts are part of an overall groundswell of new broadband activity in communities, spurred by collaboration, new owner-operator models, and increased political support for broadband funding.

Bottom line, we need better broadband

The world increasingly depends on connectivity in daily life; in emergency response, access to education, agriculture and communication, to name a few. We choose where we live and work based on connectivity, so why is it so hard to get everyone on the grid?