GFiber's John Keib: 'Service is our core product'GFiber's John Keib: 'Service is our core product'

Light Reading spoke with John Keib, GFiber's chief technology and product officer, about enhancing the customer experience, upgrading to XGS-PON and deploying a 25-Gig PON overlay.

At a Glance

  • Keib hits on some of his top priorities, including service-level enhancements and network upgrade activity (00:50)
  • Keib shares more details on the aims of GFiber's new personalized home network quality score (02:20)
  • An update on GFiber's XGS-PON network rollout and the deployment of a 25-Gig PON overlay (05:00)

Amplifying points made during his Network X Americas keynote chat earlier in the day, John Keib, GFiber's chief technology and product officer, spelled out some of his top priorities.

While broadband speeds always remain key, enhancing and managing the subscriber experience has also taken a lofty spot on the list.

"For us, service is our core product," Keib explained on the sidelines of last week's show in Irving, Texas. "On the service side, we're spending a lot of time … reinforcing whether customers really feel and appreciate the speed that we're offering in the home."

Some of that activity focuses on gradual shift to Wi-Fi 7 technology. But another big initiative is GFiber's new personalized home network quality score that will be displayed on GFiber's customer app.

As Keib describes it, the resulting score customers see is part of a multi-faceted program that starts when a GFiber installer sets up service in the customer's home and includes more than a dozen metrics. Two core metrics involve the use of TR-143 to measure the network speed to the router and the RSSI [Received Signal Strength Indicator] level, which measures performance from the router to the Wi-Fi extenders in the home.

"We really think it's a hardening of the network in the home and that, ultimately, customers will learn to appreciate that over time as they add more modern devices."

Another top priority is GFiber's buildout of XGS-PON infrastructure and its ongoing support of widespread symmetrical, multi-gigabit speeds, up to 8 Gbit/s. GFiber is also pushing ahead with a 25-Gig PON overlay that will underpin the company's new 20Gbit/s offering.

Keib also noted that GFiber remains bullish about Webpass, its fixed wireless access product, and is exploring ways to evolve that into a multi-gigabit platform.

Here's a snapshot of what was discussed (click the closed captioning button in the player for a lightly edited transcript):

  • Keib hits on some of his top priorities, including service-level enhancements and network upgrade activity (00:50)

  • Keib shares more details on the aims of GFiber's new personalized home network quality score (02:20)

  • An update on GFiber's XGS-PON network rollout and the deployment of a 25-Gig PON overlay (05:00)

  • Why delivering speeds of 25 Gbit/s (and beyond) fits into GFiber's long-term planning based on anticipated use cases (08:23)

  • How Webpass, GFiber's fixed wireless platform, fits strategically into the company's tech portfolio (11:35)

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Network X

About the Authors

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

Pierre Landriau

Video Producer and BBQ Expert, Light Reading

Pierre Landriau, a.k.a. "Le French Producer Extraordinaire," knows his way around B2B video marketing after working at three major UK publishing companies: Haymarket, UBM and now Informa. Pierre edits and produces all of Light Reading's podcasts, maintains that he's listed on IMBD, and claims he once wormed his way into MTV for a day or two.

Pierre is based in London and can be reached at [email protected].

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