VETRO Blog

Welcome to VETRO’s Network News! We compile cool tidbits of fiber network and connectivity news from around the web to end your week on a high note.

Assessing the Landscape

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. 

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.

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?

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the ITW Telecommunications Week conference in Atlanta, GA. One of the major topics from the show was the announcement of a consortium of telecommunication companies and software companies converging to develop a blockchain solution that will create a "frictionless" payment settlement process across the telecommunications sector.

Mountain Connect is known for fresh content. This year’s event in Keystone Colorado was no exception, focused on municipal broadband, community development, wireless and fixed wireless, and emerging technologies. The most common theme was how to leverage existing infrastructure, increase efficiency, and lower cost to provide high-speed broadband to rural areas.