SCTE® LiveLearning for Professionals Webinar™ Series: Priming the Pump for Next-Gen PON

As operators add more fiber lines to their legacy HFC plant, or in some cases even overbuild their old plant with fiber networks, they are turning more and more to GPON, EPON and XGS-PON technology to expand their bandwidth capacity and deliver faster data speeds and other more advanced services. How is cable's evolution to fiber and next-gen versions of PON going? What speed bumps is the industry hitting? How can cablecos mix and match DOCSIS and PON services?

This webinar will address these questions and more.

Speakers:

Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading
Alan covers the cable, fiber, broadband, and IP video markets for Heavy Reading. In particular, he tracks new cable, broadband, and video technologies and standards, such as DOCSIS 4.0, FTTP, DAA, XGS-PON, 10G EPON, streaming video, network virtualization, business services, Wi-Fi 6, and ATSC 3.0.

With a strong background in both business journalism and technology research, Alan has covered the cable, telecom, broadband, media, and consumer electronics markets as an editor and analyst for more than 30 years, including the past 17 years for Light and Heavy Reading. A New York City native, Alan is now based in Ontario, Canada.

Paul Rodrigues, SCTE, Director, Field Education
Paul has over 30 years of experience in telecommunications and has worked for multiple industry leaders, including AT&T and Comcast. He joined the SCTE in 2017. He leads a team that designs, develops, and implements SCTE training programs and certifications. These programs leverage interactive technologies, including 3D simulations, eBooks, and games, to improve the learner experience and retention.

Throughout his career, Paul has had many positions in the industry, including Information Technology, Management, and Learning and Development. Before joining SCTE, he was a part of the Comcast University team as a Sr. Technical Trainer. He was responsible for developing and delivering training programs for multiple departments, including technical operations, leadership, sales, and workforce management.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology degree from Kean University. He is also a Certified Wireless Network Trainer for the CWNP and holds the CWS, CWT, CWNA, CWAP, CWISA, and CWDP certifications. His other certifications include the CompTIA Network +, Security +, Six Sigma, and the Comcast Sr. Trainer.

Katie Espeseth, Vice President, New Products
Katie Espeseth joined EPB in 2004 and serves as Vice President of New Products. Her responsibilities include the continued development of the fiber optics system, long term business planning and the development of new products and services. She was instrumental in the rollout of our fiber optics division and now leads our efforts in developing wholesale Broadband Services.

She serves as a Board Member of National Content and Technology Cooperative (NCTC). Espeseth holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She has more than 30 years of marketing and telecommunications experience including Mid-Atlantic Regional Controller with AT&T and marketing with the now former Bell South.

Douglas Blue, Business Development, North America, Fixed Networks, Nokia

Doug Blue has over 20 years of leadership experience in sales, marketing, and business development, almost exclusively focused on fiber-to-the-home technologies and infrastructure.

Doug currently leads business development activities within North America for Nokia’s Fixed Networks. Before joining Nokia, Doug was Director of Field Marketing at Calix, responsible for developing and executing go-to-market activities for the cable market segment. Prior to Calix, Doug served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Atlantic Engineering Group, where he assisted municipalities and electrical cooperatives with developing Gigabit FTTH business plans, network design and construction.  Doug has also held positions with CommScope, Alloptic, OFS and Alcatel.

Doug is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and possesses a bachelor’s degree from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA.

Rich Loveland, Director of Product Line Management, Vecima
Rich Loveland is Director of Product Line Management for Vecima’s Passive Optical Networking (PON) for fiber-to-the-premises products. With more than 35 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Rich has held various marketing, product management, business development and engineering roles at Ciena, Ipitek, Pliant Systems Inc., Nortel Networks, Nokia (Formerly Alcatel-Lucent) and now Vecima Networks Inc. Most recently, in his role at Vecima, Rich has been focusing on PON solutions for the MSO market space, including hub and remote based products that easily integrate into the MSO operational support systems. In addition, he has also been focusing on interoperability with various ONU vendors to ensure customers have adequate choices for their ONUs.

Richard Rommes, Vice President, Access Networks Solutions and Strategy, Harmonic
As Vice President of Access Networks Solutions and Strategy at Harmonic, Richard Rommes is committed to bringing multigigabit network solutions and services to subscribers everywhere. With more than 20 years of experience as a business development and engineering professional in the cable access and network industry, Rommes has a long history of successfully working with tier-one and tier-two service providers on everything from pre- and post-DOCSIS cable modem deployments to modern disaggregated access, FTTH and PON networks.