Dodging the coax infrastructure in favor of FTTH XGS-PON is a bold move. Zachary Cronauer (Head of Fiber Initiatives at Blue Ridge Communications) is explaining in this interview how they are doing it and why they are so successful.

In this episode of the Become Fiberminded podcast, you will get intriguing insights into the mind of a cable operator.
Blue Ridge has an existing Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) network. This means, their end-customer are being served broadband through DOCSIS. The coax infrastructure however is limited in what it can provide in terms of bandwidth. Plus as we all know, fiber is the future!
Therefore the move towards FTTH based approach is understandable and welcomed.😉
Interestingly enough Zac and his team are going for a 1:96 split ratio leveraging XGS-PON. Zac is explaining in this episode, where the splitters are located, and how they deploy the network. He is also sharing how they made sure, that the technology migration is as smooth as possible.

Show notes and more can be found at https://fiberminded.com/episode10

Proper fiber cleaning has one of the biggest influences on optical performance. So how do use these fiber cleaners? Do I always need to clean the fiber connector end face? Is a newly bought fiber patch cord clean or not?
This and more will be discussed with Brian Teague from Senko in this episode of the Become Fiberminded Podcast.
Brian is also explaining what Senko drove to start developing these very small form factor connector systems (VSFF) like the CS and SN and what else they have in the pipeline and when we will finally see the self-cleaning connector. With these new connector systems, new challenges for the fiber technician are starting to pop up and Brian will address these as well.

Show notes and more can be found at https://fiberminded.com/episode9

Nielsen's law states that network connection speeds for high-end home users would increase 50% per year, or double every 21 months. How can the different parts of the network keep up with this trend?
In this episode of the Become Fiberminded podcast Vincent Sleiffer is discussing with us, what the latest trends and technologies in 5G, data center interconnect and other network areas are. This includes auto wavelength tuning SFPs (G.metro), which enables a cost-effective and flexible 5G deployment for the operators.
We will also cover different modulation formats with the pros and cons and also give an outlook into next-generation transceivers like the 400G ZR+ and why everyone is buzzing around this topic.
Last but not least Vincent is giving us his unique perspective on hollow-core fiber on which he did his Ph.D. thesis.

Show notes and more at https://fiberminded.com/episode8

Building and planning a small-scale fiber-optic network is no small feat. Jared Mauch is explaining in this episode of the Become Fiberminded podcast his process in getting started and becoming his own fiber internet provider while still working at his day job.
 
Jared also sharing with us, how desperate some of the folks in his area are for fiber broadband access. Which in turn is quite understandable seeing, that broadband access has become crucial for so many services.
Jared is also explaining the high-level steps into becoming your own fiber internet provider and it may be easier than you think; at least for the US folks ;-)
Last but not least we chat about which cost-effective equipment to use and discuss the benefits of different architectures and that once again proper documentation is key.

Show notes and more at https://fiberminded.com/episode7

Automated fiber planning is relying on clean input data. But how do we get there?
What are ways to increase data accuracy and make better business decisions?

Building and planning a valuable fiber-optic network is no small feat. Raf is confirming in this episode of the Become Fiberminded podcast, that choosing to save time and money in the design process is one of the worst ideas possible. But actually, how can you actually make smarter business decisions and let the planners focus on things that matter? Automation is the key. However, this automation is near useless without input data, which is all digital. One way to get better input data for fiber planning is the usage of LIDAR ( Light Detection and Ranging), which allows for auto data cleaning. Raf mentioned in this episode, that with LIDAR they are able to differentiate the ground if it's either cobblestone or sand automatically, which makes a big difference in the overall built-out cost and also bill of material. Now imagine you could feed all this data into your fiber planning tool to get the best cost-optimized solution.

Show note and more: https://fiberminded.com/episode6

Changing the business at a 180° angle is certainly challenging. And this is exactly what Ryan is discussing with us. In this episode of Become Fiberminded we will go through the process and lessons learned when moving away from the wireless world to full fiber deployment. We are discussing the mindset shift, which happened to them when going from a wireless OPEX model to a predominantly CAPEX fiber business case model.

Ryan will also share their process in doing site surveys and that the postcard might not be the best medium to gauge the interest for fiber connection in a particular area. At this point, Ryan and his team are capable to predict, the future fiber takeup rate with very good accuracy.
 
To scale their business, Surf Broadband recently secured additional funding and Ryan is sharing with us, how they use their fiber network as an asset to scale the business model and that protecting this asset is critical.

 Last but not least I asked Ryan if he sees SpaceX Starlink as competition and his answer might surprise you.

Show notes and more: https://fiberminded.com/episode5

 Talking to someone who has worked his way up in fiber testing and did experience everything himself is truly a blessing. Kevin dropped some real gold nuggets during our conversation. We discussed the most common problems inside an optical fiber network. Following this introduction, we went deep on the fiber fault-finding part covering the best practices but also including some ninja tactics like changing the index of refraction to match the distance of a section. This will get you ahead and enable you to find also the not so obvious problems. Kevin is also giving you a step-by-step guide on fiber acceptance testing including the generation of the close-out package. In the end, we are also discussing the future of testing and the comeback of polarization mode dispersion (PMD).

Show notes and more at fiberminded.com/episode4

#3  Lucas Mays is a Product Manager for field fusion splicers and accessories at AFL. He has previous optics industry experience both in the field as a splicer and installer and as an engineer working in product development and R&D on fusion splicing.

Lucas Mays is sharing within this episode of Become Fiberminded, how you can achieve the perfect splice. We will go into details, what equipment is needed for it and how the different splicing alignment technologies will influence the fusion splice outcome. We are also going to deep dive into splicing ribbon fiber and other single-mode fiber types together.

Last but not least, the best practices while splicing will also be investigated.
So make sure to listen to this value bomb from Lucas Mays. 

Show notes and more at fiberminded.com/episode3