What We’re Looking Forward to at Metro Connect 2024

Capacity Media’s Metro Connect 2024 takes place Feb. 26-28 at Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor. While all three days have great programming for those concerned about higher-capacity broadband, I’m going to be particularly interested in several sessions on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

These are the sessions focused on BEAD, BEAD funding, the alleged sin of “overbuilding,” and open access. These are topics abundantly covered by Broadband Breakfast, and here in the broadband community.

I’ll talk a bit about the sessions below, but first, about Metro Connect USA: This event unites leadership teams across the U.S. fiber market, including metro, lit, dark fiber, long-haul, subsea, fiber to the home, and fixed wireless access, as well as data centers, cloud providers, wireless communications infrastructure providers, and their investors.

These topics have been covered frequently at Digital Infrastructure Investment, including last December’s Summit, in sessions on open access and the data center marketplace.

Return on investment for BEAD

In one session on delivering on the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, Windstream Holdings Paul Sunu and CostQuest Associates James Stegeman will be leading the session on:

• How we can maximize the ROI from the BEAD funding during deployments

• The challenges when deploying, from the state of existing infrastructure to ensuring geographical diversity

• The role of played by technologies such as MDU/bulk managed WiFi in meeting connectivity objectives and its applicability in less densely populated areas.

Immediately following, @Philip James Macres of Klein Law Group, Kerry Vaughn of Calix, Robert Napor of JLA Advisors, Brian Daniels of Zayo Group, @David Strauss of Broadband Success Partners will be joined by @Veneeth lyengar, the executive director of Connect Louisiana, in a session on ensuring the success of your BEAD application. Specifically:

• The role of governmental funding in enhancing connectivity for all and the role of private funding in driving deployments forward.

• How operators can take advantage of federal programs to upgrade and expand their networks

• How state broadband offices are assessing BEAD applications and how applicants can boost their chances.

Open access and ‘overbuilding’

Traditional telecom investors tend to freak out of the fear of “overbuilding” – which, of course, is simply another work for bringing competition to the marketplace. A session on Lumos CEO Brian Stading, Ziply Fiber CEO Harold Zeitz, James Henry of the Bank Street Group, Garrett Baker of Lazard, plus Jonathan Restivo of Citywide Fiber and Gregory Wilson of Ripple Fiber will consider “balancing demand for FTTH” with “mitigating the threat of overbuilding”:

• The challenges facing operators, from permitting to talent and the steps your business can take to mitigate them

• How competition and overbuild are altering the business cases of individual operators. And how are incumbent and cable operators responding to changes in the market?

• How leading executives see the sector evolving over the next 3-5 years, especially the likelihood of consolidation and the potential of open access

Perhaps most illuminating will be the debate on “How open access revolutionizing connectivity” with @Ben Bawtree-Jobson, CEO of SiFi Networks, @Kimberly McKinley, Chief Marketing Officer on UTOPIA Fiber (P.S. - See the interview with Kim here in the broadband community), Robert Thomson, CEO of Underline, Jamie Earp, CEO of Ubiquity, Keith Ponton of Arcadia and Joe Hickey of PomeGran":

• The evolution of open access in the US and what lessons can be learned from other regions

• The advantages to all stakeholders from end users to operators and ISPs

• How open access can support broader digitisation efforts from smart cities to telemedicine

BEAD’s impact on open access

While there are many more topics to consider at Metro Connect, my go to take-aways will be at the intersection of these two sets of topics: How will BEAD be most effectively deployed, and what impact, if any, will these developments in the deployment of fiber have on open access here in the U.S.?

What are your thoughts @Stuart van der Veen, @Will Gibson, @Tom Jaskiewicz @Chuck Beavers, and others?