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.
ISPs that can't spot what parts of their network are delivering subpar experiences for customers will face higher churn, said Dan Siemon, the CPO and one of the co-founders of Preseem.
Siemon, joining the latest episode of Beyond the Cable, said the vast majority of customers will leave after negative experiences.
"Maybe they'll complain once," he said. "But often they're just going to leave."
Siemon said ISPs that are relying on customer complaints to identify problems are probably "already too late."
Similarly, ISPs who don't streamline operations will also be at a severe disadvantage, Siemon said.
He compared searching for problems without data driven insights to looking for a needle in a haystack.
"Ultimately that just means higher operations costs," he said.
Meanwhile, Preseem's platforms, designed for second and third tier ISPs who don't have huge marketing budgets, allow network providers to maximize operational efficiencies, providing actionable, data-driven insights.
Staffing issues have been persistent for the telecom industry, as Heather Moyer, the CEO of HNM Systems, knows all too well.
Moyer said she believes the industry at large has a branding problem and needs to adjust to appeal to younger prospects.
"We need to kind of rebrand ourselves from kind of the salty crew construction folks to emerging talent and recognizing that we are in a technology industry," she said. "And why we don't lead with that, I will never know."
Moyer, however, is doing her part to position the industry for future success. Her brainchild, an AI and machine learning workflow automation application (in the beta phase) called Recruit Code, is being utilized by HNM Systems, a professional services provider.
As the CEO of HNM Systems, Moyer scaled HNM Systems to achieve 25× revenue growth in just a few years, according to Recruit Code's website.
Now, Recruit Code is poised to bolster HNM Systems' growth even further.
According to Moyer, Recruit Code is part of a new era, in which workforce development consultants leverage AI to maximize positive impacts for clients.
Legacy configure price quote (CPQ) systems cause headaches for ISPs, but the right CPQ system can be a game changer for ISPs on the margins.
We spoke with Sean Casey, the SVP of product management at CSG, on a recent episode of Beyond the Cable about how the right CPQ solution can make or break an ISP's bottom line. Casey said traditional CPQ systems just don't provide the type of support needed when it comes to provisioning and management service level agreements (SLAs).
He said automation and rapid enablement is key to customer satisfaction.
"The traditional CPQ systems just don't provide that," Casey added.
Rob Chambers, the Managing Director of Total Telecom, says Connected Britian has evolved with the growth of the market in the United Kingdom.
"What started as being a conversation purely about fiber rollout has now moved on to a more complete discussion about connectivity and what people do with it," he said, speaking to Beyond the Cable in London.
Similar to Total Telecom's U.S. events, like Connected America and Broadband Communities Summit, the event is technology agnostic.
However, while the United Kingdom's connectivity market may be in some more advanced stages than the U.S., Chambers said it's not all ahead of the curve.
As a vendor in the business support systems (BSS) space, Ryan O'Hanlon said MDS Global has built a diverse portfolio of customers, including BT and Virgin Media O2.
O'Hanlon, the VP of global sales for MDS Global, said mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are also included among MDS Global's customers.
His comments came during a recent appearance on the Beyond the Cable podcast at Connected Britain.
"Customers like iD Mobile, who are fast growing, we've been with them since day one," he said, adding that iD Mobile has grown to over 2 million subscribers to date.
Additionally, O'Hanlon said MDS Global supports the Mobile Virtual Network Enabler (MVNE) platform in South Africa. Similarly, O'Hanlon said the MVNE platform supports a multitude of verticals, including an agricultural MVNO and digital media brands.
MVNE was founded "with the vision of becoming Africa's leading Mobile Virtual Services Enablement partner," according to MVNE's website.
Also, O'Hanlon said MDS Global is focused on supporting who want to be able to scale quickly.
He added that MDS Global strives to support customers who want to innovate.
"The way to innovate is to bring other types of packages in," O'Hanlon said, referencing a speaker at Connected Britain earlier who discussed selling security services to end users.
"By doing that, that introduces another metric into the mix," he said.
O'Hanlon also praised PXC, or PlatformX Communications, which has a strategic partnership MDS Global.
"They've got an aggregated platform," he said. "And just hearing the (PXC) team speak this morning around how they're looking to sell that last mile as part of their package."
Joel Ogren, the CEO and founder of Assured Communications, says building partnerships with tribal communities is about listening and understanding history from different perspectives.
With a lengthy career that includes years spent working with the Pacific Islander community in Hawaii, Ogren has now applied his relationship-building skills to build lasting partnerships in Washington State.
Namely, Assured Communications has a partnership with Toptana Technologies, which is owned by the Quinault Indian Nation.
In his approach to building partnerships with tribal communities, Ogren said he signifies up front that he wants to earn the right to be considered a trusted partner.
"It's important to me," he said. "We're going to do it with integrity and an open approach to the work that we do."
Credentials and experience also matter, he said, adding that demonstrating the ability to deliver on a project is key.
He also said Assured's success would not be possible without the company's highly qualified team of professionals.
"They understand this, they have those same values that help drive me," Ogren said. "The ability to address the digital divide, they see the value of what we can do for these economies."
John Duncan is the Connected Places Lead for Greater Manchester, which encompasses the largest metropolitan area in Northern England.
Recently, at Connected Britain in London, Duncan appeared on Beyond the Cable, a Broadband Communities podcast, to discuss Greater Manchester's cutting-edge work to better connect the area's nearly 3 million residents.
Leading strategic policy initiatives for Greater Manchester, Duncan said he works extensively with fiber and mobile providers to make sure network investments are filling inclusion gaps.
The digital infrastructure in Greater Manchester has also laid the foundation for economic growth, Duncan said.
As such, Duncan said Greater Manchester's new strategy to become a "growth zone" for AI has become a big focus of his lately.
Multifamily properties that aren't meeting the connectivity needs of residents remains a major gap in 2025, but it's one that Ed Wolff, the CEO of Aerwave, hopes to help fill.
As a symbol of Aerwave's recent success, the company took home the trophy for Multifamily Partner of the Year at the 2025 Broadband Communities Awards in Houston.
Wolff said Aerwave was honored to receive the recognition, which he believes is a testament to Aerwave's resident-experience driven mentality.
"We have the good fortune of working with 30% of the NMHC 50," Wolff said.
Looking ahead, Wolff said he believes Aerwave is well positioned for continued growth and success in the managed Wi-Fi space.
Abby Crawford, a podcasting and marketing specialist with FiberCom Engineering, is the host of Field Notes - a podcast that introduces her audience to public and private sector leaders in the communications industry.
Through her role, Crawford said she gets to lead the storytelling efforts of FiberCom Engineering, a telecom engineering firm.
Crawford said one of her missions is to elevate voices that she thinks are often overlooked in broadband, energy, and infrastructure.
"I just get to ask them real questions about the work that they're doing," Crawford said. "And I get to just share why it matters."
Ebony Cooksey says NextLink Internet has made it their mission to expand service to rural America, especially in the Heartland. As they expand, beyond fixed wireless to fiber, she said the ISP is focused on deploying "the right tool for the toolkit," depending on the needs of individual communities.
In her job, Cooksey said she deals with local officials who are very interested in enhancing economic opportunity.
"They know that broadband is the way to improve economic development and healthcare, and educational outcomes for those communities," she said.
As part of NextLink Internet's strategy, Cooksey said the company also makes a point to be sensitive to "non-deployment concerns" in rural communities.
"Some of the folks are struggling," she added. "And we want to help to improve that."
A new Digital Empowerment Center, run by NextLink Internet in Seward, Nebraska, is part of the company's strategy. The center gives assistance with basic digital skills, covering everything from online banking to how to send emails.
According to Cooksey, the storefront in Seward used for Nextlink Internet's Digital Empowerment Center was previously empty."We're really trying to get to those digital skills," she said, while praising Nextlink Internet's partnership with Microsoft Airband.
She said for some folks, digital skills may just mean being able to see photos of their grandkids online and no longer being socially isolated.
Mark Campagna, the CEO of gaiia, says ISPs who don't adopt software technology offerings that can help enhance efficiencies may face extinction. In this episode of Beyond the Cable, Campagna talks about how technology is evolving to help ISPs offer great customer service, something he says is a massive differentiator in a crowded marketplace.
In this episode, Kate Grutzmacher, who manages community partnerships with Blue Stream Fiber as a senior vice president, joins us to discuss Houston, which is one of the fastest markets in the nation with respect to multifamily communities.
"When we were looking at expansion markets, we looked at Houston very hard," Grutzmacher said on a recent episode of Beyond the Cable.
Houston's quick growth was a main catalyst for Blue Stream Fiber's investments in the Houston area, according to Grutzmacher.
She said Houston presented a wonderful opportunity to Blue Stream Fiber, with a great market share that was available.
"So, it's an expanding market," she said. "It's not stopping. If anyone spends any time in Houston, the traffic is a telltale sign."
Adlane Fellah, the chief researcher for Maravedis, says the MDU connectivity market has become attractive for companies seeking to disrupt incumbent vendors.
Speaking to Beyond the Cable at Broadband Communities Summit last month in Houston, Fellah says he sees a big opportunity for brownfield deployments in the coming months and years. He said his company, a boutique research firm that provides insight on the evolution of wireless infrastructure, is also keenly interested the potential for conversions between fixed and mobile services.
He said collaboration between virtual network operators (VNOs) and managed service providers (MSPs) are something we could see more of in the future.
Kevin McGuire, a VP of broadband policy at Great Plains Communications (GPC), says 2025 is a big year for broadband. We caught up with Kevin on Day 1 of the Broadband Communities Summit last month in Houston to discuss GPC's ongoing efforts to expand their footprint to additional unserved and underserved locations.
Chris Curtin, the president of Ubiquity's smart buildings division, says Ubiquity is making a big play for MDU brownfield communities that have been passed over by other providers.
By partnering with ISPs that possess their own fiber backhaul, Curtin said Ubiquity is able to put together an economic profile that benefits multiple parties, including MDU owners/operators, and their ISP partners.
"By partnering with these ISPs we're able to put together an economic profile," Curtin said. As a result, Curtin said their ISP partners are able to grow, MDU owners get fiber, "and then we also benefit for our shareholders."
Jeff Johnson, who leads Quantum Fiber's Connected Communities teams, says the importance of pre-planning evaluations before fiber-to-the-unit or premises builds cannot be understated.
He said Quantum Fiber's sales engineers are highly involved in the process, identifying the best solutions for a given property.
Once plans are set, Johnson said Quantum Fiber's construction teams take over to ensure agreed upon plans are implemented.
In addition, Johnson talked about why high-speed internet connectivity for MDUs is a smart long-term investment, offering property owners access to potential revenue sharing opportunities and property value increases.
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Ripple Fiber has made some big moves lately, including the completion of a strategic merger with Hyperfiber and debt capacity increase to $350 million. We sat down with Greg Wilson, the ISP's CEO, at Fiber Connect in Nashville, to discuss what's next for Ribble Fiber.
Fiber is a futureproofed technology that can adapt with innovative breakthroughs, according to Mike Janssen, a senior manager of sales and engineering at Quantum Fiber.
"It's a great investment, it increases your property value," Janssen said.
As a sales engineer, Janssen said his team is responsible for pre-planning work, communicating with customers, and trying to understand technical requirements.
The end result of his work is a tailored solution, designed to fit the needs of individual properties and developments.
In this episode we speak with Felix Dialoiso, a founding partner at Harbor Link Holdings LLC. As we'll find out, Harbor Link is undertaking an ambitious fiber build in the D.C. Metro, Baltimore, and Northern Virginia area. Their network, built for the demands of tomorrow, is 100% underground. Felix explains the complexities that have come with that, and how Harbor Link has managed the checkerboarding of regulations across municipalities within their footprint.