Cisco's Robin Olds on fiber funding, supply challenges and automation

NASHVILLE – Fiber Connect 2022 – Robin Olds, business development manager at Cisco, joined Light Reading to discuss opportunities for the company and industry at large as the US ramps up federal funding for fiber deployment.

With $65 billion in new broadband funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), most of which is encouraged to go toward building fiber networks, "it's really just an unprecedented time to bridge the digital divide, and to basically empower an inclusive future for all," said Olds.

Here are just a few topics covered in this video:

• Why the federal government's "fiber focus" matters (00:57)
• Emerging technologies accelerating fiber expansion (02:10)
• Contending with middle mile deployment and supply chain challenges (03:50)
• What Cisco has learned through its Broadband Innovation Center (05:30)

Related stories and links:

• US government kicks off $45B in broadband funding
• Cisco: Demand strong amid component shortages, price hikes
• Cisco siphons $20M into Rural Broadband Innovation Center
• Four forces driving 1-Gig as 'new global standard' – report

— Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Senior Editor, Light Reading; and Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, Broadband World News