The Divide: Ciena's Steve Alexander on closing the connectivity and digital education gap

This episode features Steve Alexander, CTO at Ciena. He joins the show to discuss the historic levels of funding we're seeing in broadband networks, and what else it will take to close the digital divide. We also discuss how Ciena is preparing for federal funding opportunities, what all of this planned connectivity will mean for service providers and society – and more.

Here are some topics discussed in this episode:

• Ciena's perspective on remaining barriers to universal connectivity (1:37)
• What other initiatives are needed to close the digital divide besides funding (5:08)
• How Ciena is preparing to partner with ISPs on BEAD and other broadband grants by making technology "easy to digest" (9:33)
• Ciena's work with electric co-ops and municipal broadband providers (12:09)
• Advice for community broadband providers competing for broadband grants (14:50)
• How Ciena is thinking about the future of network security and sustainability as broadband deployments ramp up (19:02)
• Where all of this connectivity is taking us and what closing the digital divide means for society and service providers (22:25)

Related stories and links:

• Episode transcript (unedited PDF)
• The Divide: Why Dryden, New York, chose municipal fiber
• Looking ahead: Optical networking's big year
• Ciena and Digital Promise team up with three Atlanta public schools to support students | press release

— Nicole Ferraro, editor, Light Reading, and host of "​​The Divide" podcast.