Beyond the Cable with Brad Randall

Christopher Sikora, the CRO of Great Plains Communications (GPC), shares how GPC strategically positioned themselves to lean into a data center-driven marketplace.According to Sikora, factors that have propelled GPC to answer the call of changing connectivity demands include a variety of factors. Listen to the full episode to find out why Sikora says competency, a willingness to think differently, financial stability, and company culture play big into GPC's ability to answer the call.

Trent Edwards, the CEO of TAK Broadband, is worried about the future of the workforce in the telecommunications industry."We don't do a good job of making sure that the younger generation understands the opportunity within construction," he said.According to Edwards, many hold assumptions that construction work is unpleasant because it requires working outside in many different conditions."And the people that do that, they want to do that," he said. "They have that in their DNA. It's a respectable and highly looked upon job in my opinion."However, Edwards said the younger generation doesn't think network construction work is sexy. He said the negative perceptions will cause issues down the line, making it hard to recruit talent."We've got to do a better job at promoting that and bringing construction back," he said. "We've got to make it sexy again."

The telecommunications industry gets a bad reputation as being slow to adapt new technologies. It's one that Abhishek Sandhir, the managing director of Sand Technologies' telecommunications division says is not wholly earned.There's a lag between other industries because of the investment required to fund technological transformations, Sandhir said while speaking to Beyond the Cable at Connected Britain.Instead, telecommunications investments are focused on building new infrastructure."That's why you see that lag in adopting the technology because the focus is on maintaining the lead compared to the competitors," he said. "That only comes with investment in the current way of thinking. That's what we're trying to change."

James Page, the CEO of Proactive International PR, said era of buildouts by so-called altnets in the United Kingdom has given way to a new chapter, where investors want their money back.Altnets, a shortened term for smaller alternate network providers, remain buoyant in the UK, despite earlier predictions from some that a consolidation doomsday would arrive. "There is still more investment to come," Page said. "We've been talking for some time in this market about when consolidation was going to particularly hit and how quickly that was going to happen, and that seems to be something that's never quite hit."Earlier fears connected to overbuilds have not necessarily played out either, Page said. "Now when you've got 120, maybe more, altnets and there hasn't been yet that much consolidation, then there is definitely competition between them," he added. "I think that's entirely a good thing."

Few have seen the evolution of connectivity in the UK better than Rahul Puri, the CEO of STL.Speaking to Beyond the Cable this fall at Connected Britain, Puri talked about what's next for STL, which he says leads the way as the UK's largest supplier of fiber and data center solutions."Now we're seeing the next phase of growth, where you're seeing a lot of excitement from hyperscalers, data center players as well coming to the show," he said.To position itself for the next era of connectivity, Puri said STL will remain a company that doesn't provide just standard solutions. "We actually go out and solve for the customer's problems," he said. Part of STL's success, he said, is that the company understands the challenges of their customers.Additionally, with a global manufacturing presence, Puri said STL maintains a unique edge.