Beyond the Cable with Brad Randall

Service providers should begin offering tiered levels of service to customers based on quality of service, according to Robin Olds, a senior business development manager at Cisco Systems.
Speaking on our Beyond the Cable podcast at Connected America, Olds said service providers could be doing a lot more, like offering network slicing and lanes of performance traffic across their network that they can monetize.
He elaborated on that, pointing to current ISP pricing structures that are largely based on bandwidth speeds.
"Latency, jitter, packet loss, these are all things that they need to consider," he said. "Additionally, they need to consider offering AI edge services to their enterprise accounts."

With a playbook adapted for an efficient rollout in the US market, agnoss CEO Christian Breidenbach-Kaack says the level of services agnoss can offer to multi-dwelling units offers clear advantages as a one-stop shop for network design, construction, operation, and maintenance. 
The company, which has roots in Germany, is known worldwide for developi. Additionally, the company's name is a play on words, short for "agnostic networks," according to their company website.
Speaking on Beyond the Cable, a Broadband Communities podcast, at Connected America last month, Breidenbach-Kaack said some of the lessons they've learned from Europe can help provide return on investment for fiber-to-the-unit.

In this episode we sit down with representatives of GFiber and KIVO, a dynamic pricing platform for telecom operators from PlektonLabs that won Startup of the Year at Connected America.
Both interviews, captured from Connected America, dive into separate topics, including the nature of dynamic pricing, and how it can help telco operators.
Tony Byrnes, head of new build expansion for GFiber, also uses the chance to dispel a myth about AI and its benefit, or lack thereof, when it comes to speeding up fiber deployments.

Tracy Doaks, the president and CEO of MCNC, says North Carolina has something special with the North Carolina Research and Education Network.
Originally from Virginia, Doaks said the network, which is operated and managed by MCNC, gives tremendous benefits to smaller, mid-sized, and minority institutions in North Carolina.
She said larger institutions can often afford to have their own networks for researchers. However, she added that having a shared network infrastructure has been great to make sure others share in the benefits.
Also, by being a middle-mile operator, she said MCNC is able to provide smaller telecoms in the state with the opportunity to lease fiber for use in rural areas. She said rural medical centers also run on their telehealth network.
"The larger incumbents aren't interested in those areas because the density is so low," she said. "So, that's been a real benefit to North Carolina, to have someone like an MCNC to be able to supply that type of connectivity."
Now, she says MCNC is positioning themselves to handle the ongoing data center boom. Hear that and details about MCNC's new partnership with an electric co-op by listening to the full episode.

Smart security systems that protect residential communities are features that should be accessible to residents of all income brackets, according to Sandy Jack, Assa Abloy's VP of strategic relations.
Jack made the comments during her recent spot on Beyond the Cable with Brad Randall, a Broadband Communities podcast.
"I think that the people that are most underserved, which would be the working force, workforce housing, student housing, those are the folks that really need it more," she said.
Nowadays, peace of mind like that offered by Vingcard, an electronic lock and safety security system solution offered under Assa Abloy's umbrella, is essential to ensure happy and safe living environments in hotels and multifamily properties, Jack says.
"When you think about the night nurse that comes home at 3 in the morning, can we make sure that she is safe and secure?" Jack asked. "The police officer that has to go out to our neighborhoods but leave their family alone, how are they safe and secure?"