The idea that fiber is a piece of infrastructure that is so fundamental that it becomes almost a moral obligation was one of the take-aways from a couple of panels moderated by Calix’s Geoff Burke. Burke was the moderator of panels that featured the FCC’s Chief of Strategy, Jonathan Chambers and Kelly Drye Partner, Tom Cohen. The premise is that the bandwidth, reliability and low-latency of fiber is necessary to ensure equality of opportunity – whether in education, ensuring an informed citizenry or more efficient governance.

In the above interview, Burke provides an overview of the very frank and interactive discussion between panelists and operators. The panelists spoke of creative ways to fund new builds in infrastructure-poor areas. The discussion also included ideas for ensuring those operators that already invested in fiber to the home aren’t penalized as rural support structures shift from an operations to a capital-based model. Finally, Geoff explains his atypical attire.

[Note: This video brought to you by Calix. Being part of the filming and editing process for many of their many customer success stories that were on display at the 2015 Calix User Group was an honor and privilege – Thanks, Calix].