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Creating a Digital Twin to Improve the Real-World Fiber Build
At Fiber Connect 2025, TKI’s President and CEO, Thomas Köhler, explained its approach for scanning and documenting a fiber project build. Using a combination of the iPhone’s software, camera, and lidar, combined with their highly accurate GPS tool, they capture the physical data in digital form. TKI’s software creates a digital twin. This enables managers…
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The Best Telecom Entrance Ever – #FiberConnect24
What do a Big Dog Chopper and Fiber to the Home have in common? The answer is Jimmy Todd, the CEO/General Manager of Nex-Tech. In 2024, Todd also served as the Chair of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA).1 His entrance at the FBA’s Fiber Connect conference on the chopper was impressive and, perhaps, the best…
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The Blender Theory Driving Fiber Deployment
A hybrid model of fiber deployment that takes advantage of the density of urban pockets to help spread the costs to serve rural communities is altafiber’s approach to solving the digital divide. In the above interview, altafiber’s Director of Government Affairs and Business Development, Rob Shema, describes this so-called blender theory as a way to…
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Economic Impact of FTTH at the Household and Regional Level
Professors Brian Whitacre and Roberto Gallardo analyze the significance of fiber broadband in housing markets and regional economies. Whitacre’s study found a 1-1.5% housing price premium in areas with fiber access across Texas, Iowa, and Minnesota. This increase could potentially elevate rural housing values nationwide by $36.9 billion. Gallardo’s preliminary research in Indiana suggests that…
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Common Sense Communications About Communications
“The connection to the community and rural areas is kind of what’s always been important to me,” states Jimmy Todd, CEO/General Manager of Nex-Tech in Lenora, Kansas. Todd, who is also the incoming chair of the Fiber Broadband Association reflects on a fiber journey that began for his cooperative in 1996. In the above interview,…
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The Intersection of People and Technology – #FiberConnect2023
A Background of Innovation Chattanooga is famous for having the first community-wide fiber optic network. Its industry leadership has continued throughout the years with increasing speeds of a gigabit and, now, symmetrical connections up to 25 gigabits. The city-owned EPB fiber optic utility is at the center of a technology ecosystem. A recent example of…
