As we wind down through the end of 2024, it’s a good time to reflect on the year and look forward to 2025. The following year will likely be one of the opportunities and challenges.
Of course, one question is how the new presidential administration will affect programs like the CHIPS ACT and the Broadband, Equity and Access Deployment (BEAD). These programs affect the vendor community and the service providers deploying services.
While speculation will likely continue to mount around how President Trump may shape telecom policy by adding his appointees to the FCC and governing how BEAD money gets doled out, the demand to raise the optical and broadband bar remains healthy.
As Mattias Fridstrom, Arelion's chief technology evangelist, said in his column, service providers will face various challenges, including a volatile economic climate. This will drive them to make thoughtful decisions about their optical deployments.
AI is at the top of the minds of optical industry players. A recent Dell’Oro report forecast a double-digit compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in coherent optical transceiver shipments for the next five years, surpassing over five million cumulative shipments.
Enabling the automation of business services is no less critical. The MEF’s Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO) APIs will accelerate Network as a Service (NaaS) for businesses and carriers with greater agility and automated functions.
Broadband players may want a piece of the BEAD pie, but they are acting today. Leveraging ARPA funding and other sources, communities are laying the groundwork for new next-gen middle-mile and last-mile networks.
Take the Alabama Fiber Network. As a statewide middle mile network, AFN will provide onramps to other providers in local communities building rural broadband networks.
Meanwhile, Pierce County, Washington, struck a public-private partnership with Astound Broadband to equip its community with fiber-based broadband.
So, while the new presidential administration will likely drive different perspectives, the need for new connections shows there's motivation to address growing network demands.
These trends and more are featured in the Winter 2024 print magazine issue of Lightwave+BTR.
.
About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
