In this new Broadband Pulse podcast, we talked to Jared Sonne, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Astound West Region.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

In this latest issue of Building Broadband, we’re tracking new broadband deployments from various providers.

Today, we’re breaking the summary into two parts—highlighting builds for the weeks ending January 16 and January 9.

For the week of January 16, we’re tracking deployments from Comcast, Dobson Fiber, Glo Fiber, Spectrum, STELLAR Broadband and Ziply Fiber.

Then, for the week of January 8, we tracked deployments from Burlington Telecom, Comcast, Fybe, GoNetspeed, Ripple Fiber and Spectrum.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

Unlike previous generations of Wi-Fi that focused on speed, the upcoming Wi-Fi 8 standard (IEEE 802.11bn) focuses on enabling Ultra High Reliability (UHR), consistency, and lower latency in real-world, interference-prone environments.

Broadcom is taking on the Wi-Fi 8 opportunity full force. As AI reshapes how data moves, Broadcom is taking on Wi-Fi 8 with its recently launched BCM4918 Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) and two new dual-band Wi-Fi 8 devices, the BCM6714 and BCM6719.

In this episode, we talked to two key members of Broadcom’s Wi-Fi group about how it is addressing the emerging Wi-Fi 8 opportunity:

In this episode, we talked two key members of Broadcom’s Wi-Fi group:

Chris Szymanski, director of product marketing for the Wireless Broadband Communications for Broadcom

And Kevin Narimatsu, associate director of product marketing for Wireless Broadband Communications at Broadcom

Here's a timeline of the interview's key moments:

Opening | 0:00

Host introduction of guests | 0:03

Broadcom’s CES perspective | 0:44 Szymanski shares his views about the show’s Wi-Fi trends.

Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 8 ecosystem | 2:12 Narimatsu talks about Broadcom’s new Wi-Fi 8 chips: the BCM 6719 and the BCM 6714.

The AI factor | 3:53 Szymanski discusses how AI is impacting next-gen Wi-Fi.

Enterprise Wi-Fi trends | 7:10 Szymanski discusses how to deliver seamless Wi-Fi performance for enterprises.

Broadcom’s multi-band Wi-Fi support | 11:18 Narimatsu explains that integrating multiple bands enables it to offer a platform at a similar cost point to Wi-Fi 7.

Addressing vertical markets | 12:19 Szymanski addresses how Broadcom licenses its Wi-Fi technology for other adjacent markets like automotive.

Addressing cost-sensitive Wi-Fi markets | 14:29 Narimatsu sees opportunities for Broadcom to accommodate the unique broadband market dynamics in Europe and other regions.

Final thoughts and closing |16:37 Szymanski and Narimatsu provide their final thoughts about their new Wi-Fi platforms and how the market will continue to evolve.

About our guests

Chris Szymanski, director of product marketing for the Wireless Broadband Communications for Broadcom Christopher Szymanski is Director of Product Marketing for Broadcom Inc.’s Mobile Connectivity Division, with a focus on technology strategy, spectrum policy, regulatory affairs, and standards development. Mr. Szymanski serves as Director on the Wi-Fi Alliance Board and the Dynamic Spectrum Alliance Board. Prior to taking on this role, Mr. Szymanski served as Global Trade Compliance Officer, Director of Global Regulatory Affairs, and Secretary of the Political Activity Committee (PAC) for Broadcom Corporation. Before joining Broadcom, Szymanski lived in China for over four years, serving in a compliance and government relations role for a semiconductor foundry. For the last three of those years in China, he also served as co-chair of the Export Compliance Working Group (ECWG) of the American Chamber of Commerce to improve the U.S.-China high-tech trade relationship. Prior to working in China, Szymanski served on Capitol Hill for Congressman Don Manzullo, the House Committee on Small Business, and the U.S.-China Interparliamentary Exchange, advising on manufacturing, trade, and defense policies and accompanying and hosting official delegations to and from China. Szymanski received his master’s in business administration (MBA) from the Washington University Olin School of Business, with a focus on leadership in China.

And

Kevin Narimatsu, associate director of product marketing for Wireless Broadband Communications at Broadcom Narimatsu leads Broadcom’s business development and product marketing team focused on the WLAN retail and service-provider router and OTT video streaming markets. During his tenure at Broadcom, he also served as the associate director of business development for Japan and as the Cisco account manager. Earlier in his career, he held sales and engineering roles at Vitesse Semiconductor and LSI Logic. Narimatsu holds a bachelor’s degree, Electrical Engineering and Economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

In this Building Broadband episode of Broadband Pulse, we're tracking new broadband deployments from Comcast, Digital C, Intrepid Fiber Networks, Optimum, Shentel, STELLAR Broadband, and Wyyered Fiber.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

As the demands from AI have created new bandwidth expectations, the Optical Interoperability Forum (OIF) realizes that it has to respond to new demands for industry interoperability in near real time. This was reflected in the OIF’s Next Generation CEI-448G Framework Document, released at its recent Q4 2025 Technical and MA&E Committees Meeting. OIF’s CEI-448G Framework Document defines the application spaces, technical challenges and potential solution paths for electrical interfaces operating at 448 Gbps per lane.

During this podcast, we talked to two optical industry veterans about OIF’s recent CEI documents and its expectations for OIF’s first quarter 2026 Technical and MA&E Committees meeting at the OFC show in March:

Nathan Tracy, President of OIF

And

Cathy Liu, board member of OIF

Here's a timeline of the interview's key moments:

Opening | 0:00

Host introduction of guests | 0:03

Update on recent OIF activities | 0:30 Nathan Tracy and Kathy Liu address the OIF’s new CEI 448G framework.

Focus on interoperability | 2:00 How AI/ML has created the hardest data rate jump it has ever faced.

OIF’s February Q1 meeting | 6:20 Tracy and Liu give a preview of the OIF’s upcoming quarterly meeting and a preview of OFC activities.

Coherent optics | 10:24 How the OIF can deliver value by creating coherent optic standards recommendations for shorter lengths, including in campus or building settings.

The Data Center Interconnect (DCI) opportunity |14:25 The OIF is helping its membership address the hyperscale and AI compute needs.

Final thoughts/closing | 16:30 Tracy and Liu give their final thoughts about OIF's activities at their upcoming meeting and the OFC trade show in March.

About our guests

Nathan Tracy, President of OIF Nathan Tracy currently serves as OIF’s President on the Board of Directors. Over the past 13 years, he has also served OIF as vice president of marketing, co-chair of the market awareness and education (MA&E) committee, technical committee chair, and technical committee vice chair. As a technologist on the system architecture team for the Digital Data Networks business unit at TE Connectivity (TE), he is responsible for driving standards activities and working with key customers to enable new system architecture. Tracy has more than 30 years of experience in technology development, marketing, and business development for TE, with a focus on RF/microwave and high-speed signaling technologies for the networking, telecom, wireless, automotive, and defense markets. He is also an active member of other industry standards and associations. He is currently a regular attendee and contributor to IEEE 802.3 and the Ethernet Alliance. Additionally, he is active in several industry MSAs and forums, where he has held leadership roles.

And Cathy Liu, board member of OIF Cathy Liu, distinguished Engineer, currently leads Broadcom’s SerDes architecture and modeling group. Since 2002, she has been working on high-speed transceiver solutions. Previously, she developed read channel and mobile digital TV receiver solutions. She specializes in signal processing, FEC, and modeling for high-speed optical and electrical transceiver solutions, has published numerous journal and conference papers, and holds over 20 U.S. patents. She currently serves as the vice president of the board director of Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF), a member of the board of advisors for the department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE) of University of California at Davis, a member of Signal Integrity Journal editorial advisory board, and the co-chair of the DesignCon technical track of high speed signal processing, equalization and coding. She received the DesignCon 2021 Engineer of the Year award. She earned her B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University in China and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Hawaii.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

Founded in 2023 in Houston, Texas, by Carter Old and SDC Capital Partners, Lyte Fiber focuses on delivering fiber-based broadband in Texas and beyond. Old, a former US Navy officer, has extensive experience in developing new approaches to broadband delivery and financial expertise across various industry segments. Lyte Fiber is not Old's first fiber rodeo. Before co-founding Lyte Fiber, he co-founded Tachus, which fellow fiber broadband provider Ezee Fiber recently acquired.

Lyte offers both residential and business internet service plans supported by an XGS-PON access network capable of delivering up to 10 Gbps. Today, Lyte Fiber serves nine Texas communities and plans to expand further in the coming year. Old acknowledged that while the fiber broadband industry is “really competitive,” there’s a big opportunity to address underserved communities with fiber-based broadband services.

Here's a timeline of the interview's key moments:

Opening | 0.00

Host introduction of guests | 0:03

Founding Lyte Fiber | 0:18 Old discusses how he worked with SDC Capital to form his latest startup.

Network expansion | 3:13 How Lyte Fiber has prioritized fiber builds in underserved communities.

Engaging with communities | 5:35 Lyte Fiber focuses on leading first with building long-term relationships.

Fiber’s community impact | 8:02 How the presence of fiber-based broadband makes a community more attractive for existing and new residents.

Underserved communities | 11:43 Old addresses the challenges of bringing fiber to underserved communities.

Community permitting | 13:12 As it moves to get fiber lit in 15 markets, permitting is an all-hands-on-deck effort.

Navigating the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program (BEAD) Program | 15:11 The state of Texas recently awarded Lyte Fiber $142 million to connect seven communities.

The broadband M&A wave |18:41 Lyte Fiber is actively evaluating potential opportunities.

Broadband competition | 20:22 Within Lyte Fiber’s markets, the provider mainly faces competition from cable operators.

Final thoughts/closing | 23:17 Looking ahead, Lyte Fiber will focus on scaling, delivering solid customer service, ensuring network reliability, and addressing each community’s needs.

About our guest

Carter Old is Founder and CEO of Lyte Fiber, LLC, a Texas-based fiber broadband internet company formed in partnership with SDC Capital Partners. Before he founded Lyte, Carter co-founded Tachus, LLC, a Houston-based fiber broadband internet company that he helped build and grow to nearly 160 employees, 70,000+ passed homes, and 20,000+ customers in three and a half years. Under his leadership, Tachus raised over $190 million in total debt and equity capital. While at Tachus, he and his business partner were named finalists for the 2022 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Central South Awards. In addition to his fiber broadband experience, Old was the co-founder of OmniEarth, an Earth intelligence and analytics company based in Arlington, VA. He also worked at Fieldstone Partners, where he served as Senior Vice President and COO and co-led Fieldstone’s space and ground infrastructure business areas.

Earlier, Old served on active duty for four years as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy. He was initially the First Lieutenant and then the Naval Infantry Officer for USS BULKELEY (DDG 84) on his first tour, and then the Operations Officer for MCM CREW LEADER on his second tour. He attended the University of Texas at Austin on a Navy ROTC scholarship and graduated with a B.A. in Government. He also has an M.B.A. from UT-Austin.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

In this latest issue of Building Broadband, we’re tracking new broadband deployments from Bluepeak, Cajun Broadband, Comcast, Ezee Fiber, Fidium, Ripple Fiber, Surf Internet and Ziply.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.

Arelion enhances its European reach while carving out a position in the ever-evolving enterprise services market.

As chief evangelist at Arelion, Mattias Fridström is passionate about networking. A nearly 30-year veteran of the service provider, Fridström not only has insights into the networked economy but also into the challenges network providers will face tomorrow in meeting ever-increasing traffic demand and customer quality expectations within the same cost framework. However, his passion is not limited to networks: he has played golf professionally and competed at the national level in football and in in-line hockey (the Swedish name for floorball).

Arelion has continued to evolve since it began building its network in 1993, when its Autonomous System (AS) 1299 was allocated. The provider has continued to grow organically ever since. The service provider’s network now stretches 77,000 km across Europe, North America, and Asia. Customers connect directly to over 2,900 wholesale customers in more than 129 countries. Also, Arelion has over 450 local access partners worldwide. In 2025, the service provider took a significant step to enhance its European network reach by expanding its Baltic network, constructing a fully diverse, high-capacity route between Helsinki and Warsaw. And while Arelion is a well-known wholesale carrier, earlier this year it began to expand into the enterprise services market. Arelion continues to succeed in selling its products to businesses directly and via agents.

In this podcast, we spoke with Fridström about the service provider’s ongoing network expansion and its move to establish a stronger brand foothold in the enterprise services market.

Here's a timeline of the interview's key moments:

Opening | 0.00

Host introduction of guests | 0:03

Arelion’s recent Baltic to Western Europe network route | 0:27 This new network is built to bypass traditionally congested routes, providing resilience for carrier and enterprise customers.

The EU's Connecting Europe Facility 2 (CEF2) program | 2:07 How Arelion is leveraging CEF2 funding to modernize transport networks in underserved areas of Europe, like the Baltics.

Arelion’s European network plans | 3:27 Fridström explains how the Baltic expansion fits into the broader European connectivity trends.

Arelion’s network redundancy approaches | 4:22 How Arelion’s customers value having multiple network paths to data centers and other critical locations.

Approaching data center opportunities | 5:31 Arelion works to provide the best path for extending fiber to new data centers.

Local and regional data centers | 7:03 How new data centers drive Arelion’s network expansion plans.

Arelion’s broad network reach | 8:20 The service provider’s network can accommodate customers with global reach needs.

Serving enterprise customers | 9:23 How Arelion can apply its wholesale service experience to meet business customer needs.

Establishing an enterprise services brand |10:55 Arelion is working to show enterprises that it is a viable provider.

The role of Network as a Service (NaaS) | 12:51 While Arelion's view of NaaS is excellent, it faces several challenges.

AI’s influence | 14:32 How AI-driven traffic influences Arelion’s network planning process.

Looking forward to 2026 |16:36 Arelion sets its course for carrier and enterprise service opportunities.

Final thoughts and closing |18:32 Besides anticipating additional traffic growth, Fridström sees potential upside in the enterprise services market.

About the Podcast In the Lightwave Broadband Pulse podcast, we address key issues affecting the optical and broadband industries. Join us every week for insights from industry leaders on these topics. Visit our website at www.lightwave.com and click on our podcast site at www.broadbandpulse.podbean.com/.