Broadband Pulse

When the FCC voted last fall to strip hotspot and school bus Wi-Fi from the E-Rate program, Mission Telecom responded swiftly – growing its network of partners and launching new services to ensure vulnerable communities were not left behind. The service provider recently reached a key milestone: it connected 20,000 families and impacted 50,000 lives.

But it’s not stopping there. Through its Project: Volume Up, Miss...

Fort Collins Connexion, a municipal broadband utility that was created by and for the community, has as its sole purpose to improve life and business in Fort Collins, Colorado through what it says is better, more affordable internet. Connexion offers affordably priced symmetrical multi-gig service with no long-term contracts. In addition to residential broadband, Connexion offers competitive phone and TV services.&nb...

Broadcom is addressing the emergence of 50G PON and fixed wireless access (FWA) with a series of new products and partnerships aimed at helping service providers ensure users experience sound quality of service (quality of service) on their broadband and wireless connections.

While still emerging, the transition to 50G PON delivers the massive network headroom and deterministic latency required for the next era of broadband. Accord...

Debra Freitas, CEO of Light Source Communications (LSC), has a simple view of its role as a dark fiber provider: a primary hyperscale and data-center resource on a growth path. LSC is a carrier-neutral, customer-agnostic provider focused on designing, building, and operating custom dark fiber infrastructure purpose-built to deliver capacity for GPU-dense clusters, minimal latency for real-time processing, and diversity to ensure ne...

In the third and final episode of the Fiber Connect 2026 show-daily podcast, we're chronicling the last day and wrap-up of the Fiber Connect 2026 trade show.

Here’s a breakdown of the episode’s key moments:

0:00 Opening/Introduction

0:13 | New market research Fiber Broadband Association research highlights the requirements for fiber broadband in precision agriculture.

1:30 | Fidium’s Fiber Drive Sarah Da...

In the second episode of the Fiber Connect 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show. 

Here’s a breakdown of the episode’s key moments:

0:00    Opening/Introduction

0:50    Florida’s broadband promise Leo Garcia, Director of the Florida Commerce Office of Broadband, opened the second day of Fiber Connect, highlighting Florida’s progress in...

In the first episode of the Fiber Connect 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show. 

Here’s a breakdown of the episode’s key moments:

0.00    Opening

0:47    Editor’s panels Our colleague Hayden Beeson, editor of ISE, and I moderated panels during the first day of the show: Common Construction Roadblocks and How to Avoid Them and Edge Compute and Di...

If you want a broad look at the evolution of today’s optical networking industry, look no further than Lawrence Gasman, president of CIR.

In this latest episode, the Broadband Pulse sat down with Gasman, who has been conducting forecasts on enterprise computing, telecommunications, optical components since the late 1970s when he founded the firm. One of his latest pursuits has been quantum technology.

During our time together...

In this new Broadband Pulse podcast, we talked with Matt Langman, SVP and general manager of infrastructure solutions at Phononic. 

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/podcasts and click on our podcast site at w...

Wireless network operators are in an ongoing evolution. Traditional wireless operators are expanding their 5G footprints while exploring new converged wireline/wireless bundles. They are also facing new competition from cable companies that are getting very involved in building out wireless network services to complement broadband.

At the same time, Tier 1 wireless operators like Verizon are finding other avenues to enhance their r...

Whether the focus is on enhancing a network foothold in additional markets, expanding an existing product line, or refocusing on serving a market segment such as fiber-based broadband, vendors and service providers actively pursued new M&A deals to meet these goals.  

PwC noted in its Media and telecommunications: US Deals 2026 outlook that in the second half of 2025, M&A activity “saw a marked uptick”...

In this podcast, we spoke with Amit Thakar, vice president of signal integrity product marketing at Semtech, about the shift from DSP-based to linear optical architectures and other issues.

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.lightwa...

Since it was founded in 1998, LightRiver has made a name for itself in its ability to consult, commission, automate, and optimize multi-vendor, multi-generational and software-controlled networks. One of the company’s recent highlights is its Prism software product. Prism simplifies the complexities of multi-vendor, multi-generation networks, empowering stakeholders to streamline operations and make informed decisions for fut...

Lightwave’s 21st Diamond Technology Reviews will again recognize innovation in broadband communications, video transmission, and related technologies, featuring a new wave of technologies to address the drive toward 10G and beyond networks.

As a new version of the DTR awards, we will not only likely see a crop of innovations in back office, fiber, software, testing, video distribution, Wi-Fi, and other areas, but we’re ...

In the third and final episode of the OFC 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show. 

During the third day, we looked at various issues, including: 

• Improving research workflows
• AI’s role in the optical network
• Corning’s new fiber, cable and connectivity solutions
• Legrand’s Chroma Link fiber cabling solution
• Semtech’s new copper and fiber data center innovations
• OFC&rs...

In the second episode of the OFC 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show. 

During the second day, we looked at various issues, including: 

• Rising data center CapEx
• Ciena, Cisco and Nokia unveil new multi-rail optical solutions
• Lightwave’s event: Scaling the AI Data Center: Optical Technologies Redefining Data Center Interconnection

Tune in each day during OFC 2026 for more insig...

In the first episode of the OFC 2026 show daily podcast, we're tracking key trends during the show. 

During the first day, we looked at various issues, including: 

• OIF and Ethernet Alliance's interoperability efforts
• The new Optical Scale-up Consortium
• Optica's Optica Executive Forum
• Celebrating the 2026 Lightwave Innovation Reviews Honorees

Tune in each day during OFC 2026 for more insights on the optical indu...

Broadcom is taking on the 400-Gig-per-lane optical PAM-for-DSP challenge with its Taurus BCM 83640, optimized for 1.6-T transceiver solutions. 

The 400 gigabit-per-lane (400G/lane) optical PAM-4 DSP is the next-generation technology for high-speed data center connectivity, designed to double the throughput per optical lane compared to current 200G/lane solutions. This advancement is critical for AI infrastructure, enablin...

Upstream traffic on DOCSIS and fiber-based broadband networks continues to rise. The OpenVault Broadband Insights (OVBI) fourth quarter report revealed that investments in higher-speed upstream network plant can pay dividends for fiber and DOCSIS broadband providers. One of the key findings in OVBI’s fourth quarter report was that fiber broadband users consumed more upstream bandwidth than those on a DOCSIS network. As a firs...