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Research scientist Shibaji Chakraborty explains how space weather phenomena, including solar storms and coronal mass ejections, can induce geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) in the metallic power cables that run alongside fiber optics to power repeaters on the ocean floor. The discussion covers the specific vulnerabilities of cable sections on continental shelves, historical examples of major storms, and the complex factors influencing the likelihood and geographic extent of such disruptions. The episode concludes by highlighting current mitigation efforts, significant research gaps, and the crucial need for industry collaboration to gather data and refine modeling capabilities.
Tony O’Sullivan, CEO of RETN, joins Greg to discuss network resiliency. They address how providers can build networks that withstand outages, whether from someone who forgot to call the utility company or an anchor dragging on the seafloor. The episode covers: Why it's crucial to have a transparent provider willing to share information about their network when they can, including the physical locations of fiber routes and who their upstream providers are. The importance of planning routes to avo...
In our final episode of this special podcast series about undersea cables, we're exploring the rapidly evolving technology of using fiber optic cables as remote sensors. We welcome Mark Englund, CEO of Fibersense. Mark explains the fascinating world of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), and how this emerging technology is turning existing fiber optic cables into sentient, continuous sensors. We explore: How this is transforming the cable industry, providing unparalleled real-time protection by ...
Today's bonus podcast welcomes Tim Urban, author of the blog Wait But Why (https://waitbutwhy.com/) and the book "What's Our Problem?" For a change of pace, this episode focuses on what happens *on* the consumer internet, not just the underlying technology and business of the web. You'll quickly see that Tim is an astute observer of human trends, with a wealth of insight on how the internet has complicated communication and contributed to humans' tendency to fall into tribalism. Host Greg Bryan ...
Where do operators physically place their submarine cables, and why does that matter? Even among those familiar with the undersea cable market, many don't give much thought to where precisely the cables lie on the seafloor and what factors determine this geography. Today's guest knows a thing or two about how it gets done. We welcome James Porter, Cable Route Engineer at Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN). James spends his days studying maps to route submarine cables, ensuring ease of maintenance ...
When submarine cables hit the mainstream media, it might be because something has gone wrong. Especially when faults lead to a bottleneck that slows down or, in rare cases, even stops internet traffic for some people. Our guests today presented a paper at SubOptic 25 detailing their study on global submarine cable maintenance and recommendations for the industry. Mike Constable, Principal at Infra-Analytics, and Alan Mauldin, Research Director here at TeleGeography, joined the pod to discuss the...
Let's talk about keeping submarine cables secure. Ferris Adi, Chief Information Security Officer at Trans Americas Fiber System (https://transamericasfiber.com/), joins to discuss specific threats to submarine cables and how best to build resiliency against them. We also cover various regulatory and compliance issues that submarine cable operators face when landing in different countries, as well as geopolitical threats to cable systems. 🎧 Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeograph...
We're kicking off a brand new mini-series all about *submarine cables.* To start off the series, we couldn't think of a better guest than Senior Research Analyst Lane Burdette, an expert (and nerd) when it comes to cables. She and host Greg Bryan discuss the economics of submarine cables. The conversation covers: A refresher on the cables themselves, and all of the components that go into building them and lighting them for data transmission service. The costs of these elements and how to constr...
Joining us today is FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington. Commissioner Simington has served on the Commission since late 2020. He brings a diverse background to the role, including experience with the NTIA. The Commissioner and Host Greg Bryan cover several key issues facing the FCC: 👉 Several issues surrounding spectrum allocation and use. We talk about how FWA and LEO fit in spectrum plans, CBRS, unlicensed spectrum, and, of course, a bit on spectrum auctions. 👉 BIL and broadband development an...
We welcome Michael Martin, formerly a global network and security architect at McKinsey. Michael has extensive experience in the enterprise network space. We get his take on the industry's state of implementation of network automation among enterprises. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research
Dennis Thankachan, Co-Founder and CEO of Lightyear (https://lightyear.ai/), is back on the pod. We discuss Lightyear's State of Connectivity Report (https://lightyear.ai/ebooks/lightyears-state-of-connectivity-2025), which dovetails with the topics we research here at TeleGeography. It may be a perfect companion to our State of the Network effort. (https://www2.telegeography.com/download-state-of-the-network) Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast ...
We haven't been getting enough fiber here at TeleGeography Explains the Internet, but we're about to change that. We welcome Todd Chapman, a veteran in fiber development. Todd walks us through the ins and outs of Layer 0 of the physical infrastructure underlying data transmission. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research...
Our next guest is Fahim Sabir, Director of Digital Solutions at Colt. What is NaaS? Fahim joined us to clarify the often confusing world of Network as a Service (NaaS). We discuss Fahim's definition of NaaS and a breakdown of why it's important in the market. We also discuss the back end, examining what the carrier ecosystem needs to accomplish to make customer-facing NaaS a reality. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https:...
As the year ends, a few teammates joined us on the podcast to review the major telecom events of the past 12 months and chat about what we might anticipate in 2025. Some highlights 👇 ⛓️💥 Analyst Lane Burdette joins the show to review some of the most headline-grabbing trends (https://blog.telegeography.com/what-to-know-about-submarine-cable-breaks) we saw in the submarine cable world. ☁️ While cables keep the continents connected, Principal Analyst Patrick Christian got on the mic to discuss ...
Our latest guest is Vinay Prabhu, Director of Product Management at Graphiant. He joins us to discuss the intricacies of moving data around the globe. Vinay outlines why you should think about your data in motion and what Graphiant is doing to ensure its safe passage, particularly as AI becomes prevalent. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-re...
Our guest today is Rutger Bevaart, CEO and Co-founder of GNX. Rutger has a deep history in the telecom industry and founded GNX to streamline internet sourcing, which is undoubtedly a pain point for many listeners. We discuss the shift away from MPLS and toward the internet and how that transition can bring many benefits to an enterprise; however, it also comes with complexity and new challenges, especially in sourcing and managing internet links worldwide. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography...
Our guest today is Marcel Stadler, Product Manager of SD-WAN at Open Systems. Marcel joins our semi-annual conversation on SD-WAN; he outlines how managed SD-WAN providers like Open Systems approach these issues with their enterprise customers. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research
Where are we building data centers? Why? What markets are primed for interconnectivity glory? Which ones are getting left in the dust? We've heard these questions repeatedly, so we did what any reasonable telecom data provider would do: we developed an interactive tool to rank the world's best-connected and fastest-growing cities, scoring them on a scale of 0 to 100 across nine key categories. This week's guest is resident data center expert Jon Hjembo. He explains how we developed the Market Co...
We're back on the AI beat, specifically looking at how it can support corporate network automation. Our guest today is Jamie Pugh, CTO at Globalgig. Jamie joined the show to ponder automation and discuss enterprise network orchestration in the era of an increasingly complex WAN. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research...
We had to do an AI episode of the pod. For that, we welcome Michael Wynston, Director of Network and Security Architecture at Fiserv. He's here to help us understand how AI is developing as a network management tool. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research
For our next episode, we look to the sky. Our guest is Sal Salamone, Managing Editor of Network Computing magazine. Sal joins to discuss the emerging market for direct-to-device satellite communications. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research
TeleGeography Explains the Internet examines U.S. telecom law. Greg is joined by Jeff Long, a private practice attorney with broad experience in the data center and telecom industry. Podcast HQ: https://www2.telegeography.com/telegeography-explains-the-internet-podcast TeleGeography Blog: https://blog.telegeography.com/ Our Research: https://www2.telegeography.com/en/our-research
Over the past five weeks, we've endeavored to explain precisely how data moves around the world, covering: What is the Internet? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-the-internet What is a Transport Network? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-a-transport-network What Are Data Centers? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-are-data-centers What is the Cloud? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-the-cloud Today, we answer our final, lingering question: What is a WAN? Brianna Boudreau, TeleGe...
You may have heard a popular saying: There is no cloud, only other people’s computers. To explain how it works, Senior Research Manager Patrick Christian joins us to talk cloud. We explain what it means to get something "as-a-service," hyperscalers, CDNs, and how companies get to the cloud. More from this series: What is the Internet? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-the-internet What is a Transport Network? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-a-transport-network What Are Data Centers? ...
How and where do networks meet and exchange traffic with each other? How do they access their destinations? Senior Research Manager Jon Hjembo helps us understand data center types, their defining features, and what happens inside these facilities. We discussed who owns these structures and how their geography informs how the internet works. More from this series: What is the Internet? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-the-internet What is a Transport Network? https://blog.telegeography.com...
We explore the physical transport networks behind this seemingly invisible, omnipresent information superhighway. And we get a little help from TeleGeography's own Paul Brodsky, Peter Wood, and Lane Burdette. More from this series: What is the Internet? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-the-internet What Are Data Centers? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-are-data-centers What is the Cloud? https://blog.telegeography.com/what-is-the-cloud What is a WAN? https://blog.telegeography.com/what...
What is the internet? Simply put, the internet is a network of computers. Computers can only understand two things: on and off. Everything that we do on the internet is in binary—a series of 1s and 0s representing on and off—which gives instructions to your computer to do all the amazing things it does. This means that the very bottom of the internet is a system for sending those 1s and 0s over wires (or spectrum in some cases). Whatever you do on the internet—email, videos, chats—the informatio...
Drawing upon his vast expertise in the Wi-Fi space, Tiago Rodrigues, President and CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), joins us in defining the key issues in the wireless LAN. This episode considers Wi-Fi 6, 6E, and 7 developments, OpenRoaming™ that allows seamless connection across different Wi-Fi networks, and Wi-Fi’s role in emerging solutions like NaaS. We also discuss the digital divide and how to best use the limited resource of spectrum to ensure connectivity in our increasingly...
Today we welcome Nokia's Paul Unbehagen to the pod. Paul has a deep history in the networking world, so he approaches his role at Nokia—NE Americas CTO—from the perspective of a network engineer. Although our main topics this week are enterprise cloud and right-sizing cloud utilization, we use those as a springboard into many topics circling the state of the network in 2023. We touch on the history of the enterprise’s move into the cloud and why some companies have reevaluated their cloud strate...
We welcome SmartCIC CEO Toby Forman to the show. Toby has a global perspective on the development of fixed wireless access (FWA) and its potential as a disruptive technology in the enterprise connectivity space. After nailing down a solid definition of FWA in the market today, we run through the factors to consider when deploying FWA. Toby explains what Cellsmart—a division of SmartCIC focused on FWA—does for service providers and enterprises interested in going through this process. Next, Toby ...
