INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
If you could speak to your younger self, what would you say? I would say speak up because I didn’t. I didn’t go outside the realm of my own little world, and I didn’t even know to do that to be truthful. No one tells you these things. It was 18 years before I joined an association and did things outside of my company. I assumed hard work would be noticed. I thought keeping my head down was enough. It’s not. I was involved in major international initiatives, system builds, strategic launches — but I didn’t always frame my role clearly. I didn’t advocate for myself. Women often wait to be invited. I’d tell my younger self: lift your head. Tell your story. Articulate your value. And don’t wait 18 years to step outside your bubble. Finally, where do you see yourself in five years? Ideally? Retired — and evangelising for the industry. This sector gave me an extraordinary career. It gave me friendships, travel, growth, purpose. If I can spend the next chapter helping tell broadband’s story — across the Atlantic, across generations — I’d be honoured. What first attracted you to the broadband industry, and how did you get into the business? I didn’t have a master plan, if I’m honest. At college I chose subjects I enjoyed – English Literature, maths, physics – a real mix. I was always curious about how things worked, so I went on to study mechanical engineering at university. After graduating (and a bit of travelling), I applied for around 50 graduate schemes. I had a few offers – including one with a space research company building robots for the moon – but I ended up choosing Virgin Media. My dad gave me some very practical advice: “Everyone’s always going to need TV and internet,” he said. That logic stuck. It felt like a stable, future-proof industry – and he was right.
revenue, cost savings or efficiency. How did you save the company money? How did you generate revenue? How did you make someone’s job easier? That framing isn’t intuitive for everyone, especially if you’ve spent your career in large corporate structures where you don’t see the full financial picture. I now describe my work less as ‘marketing’ and more as ‘customer success.’ Marketing sounds like spending money, but customer success sounds like driving value and retention. Companies should be hosting sessions on how to articulate ROI. Weekly reports should reflect business outcomes, not just completed tasks. When women understand how to frame their impact, they advance faster. Do you think broadband gets the recognition it deserves? Not even close. Streaming, cloud, AI; none of it exists without the foundational work of broadband pioneers. Without DOCSIS or hybrid fibre-coax networks. Or the early engineers who built scalable infrastructure decades ago. We created the foundation, yet the headlines celebrate the platforms built on top of it. One of my long-term dreams is to help elevate those foundational stories — globally, not just in the US. There are pioneers across Europe and Latin America who deserve recognition too. engineering. Rotating through various departments, including Transmission Planning and Systems Engineering, she landed a permanent role as a Senior Engineer in the Transmission Engineering Team at Virgin Media O2. Leaving in 2017 she joined Corning Optical Communications as a key account manager, responsible for one of EMEA’s largest telecommunication providers. Since 2023 she has been working alongside the UK account team at VIAVI optical communications. As a co-opted member of the SCTE Executive since 2011 and an elected member since 2013 when she also won SCTE Member of the Year, Laura has supported the Society’s training initiatives such as the technician open days, SCTE® Presents conferences and generally helped raise the profile of the Society and its benefits within the industry.
Over time, I’ve realised that while excellence is non-negotiable, perfection is not required. And we must allow ourselves the same grace others receive automatically. Do you think the industry has progressed in terms of inclusion? Cable has progressed significantly. Telco, in my experience, has been further behind. When I attended International Telecom Week, I heard conversations about women still being expected to bring coffee and doughnuts to meetings — conversations cable had 15 years ago. That surprised me. In cable, we’ve made real strides. That doesn’t mean we’re finished. People still tend to hire who they’re comfortable with — people who look like them, think like them, share their background. But the progress is visible. Retention, however, remains a challenge. We can recruit women — but are we keeping them? Are we helping them translate their contributions into business value? What needs to change to better support women in broadband? We need to teach impact language. Every role whether technical, marketing, operational, should be framed in terms of
Laura Baskeyfield Building Broadband, Backing Women Laura Baskeyfield joined Virgin Media in 2011 on its engineering graduate scheme, after graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in mechanical
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MARCH 2026 Volume 48 No.1
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