EDITORial
Editor’s Letter
predict the next five years has always been challenging; these days they don’t even want to commit beyond 18 months. That said, the mood is characteristically upbeat, as you’ll read in this issue. It must be something to do with the element of constant change that makes the telecoms industry so resilient; unlike other sectors, there is never any sense it’s all going to come to an end one day. We’ve just returned from the FTTH show in London and saw again and again the vision of clear-eyed, seasoned professionals in this industry who recognise the cyclical nature of business - that the only way is up when things are down. That aided the general pragmatism on display at the FTTH Show this week. We welcome Broadpeak as our newest Corporate member; for many of you Xavier Leclercq is a familiar face and he will be moderating a panel at our next event on June 18, SCTE® Presents: The Changing Face of Streaming – places are limited so make sure you register via https://www.thescte.eu/events/scte- lectures You’ll also see a fantastic, 19 page spread on the most recent event, featuring Julian Clover’s excellent editorial all about The Future of Tech, which took place on March 18. Huge thanks to our good friend Julie Harriss, who has left us for now. We appreciate all your help putting this and previous events together. You will be missed. You’ll hear from the FTTH Council Europe on page 60, who update us on the latest fibre roll out figures, and we have comment on this from Carsten Engelke and Anthony Basham on page 62. We take a deeper dive into this with this issue’s Long Read on page 42, examining the unique telecoms landscape in Finland and the commercial, geographical and political elements that characterise it. A
big thanks to everyone I spoke to for their input, it was fascinating.
Our second instalment celebrating International Women’s Day can be found on page 48, featuring two fabulous, formidable achievers, Patricia Jo Boyers and Tiffany Shurr. Ladies, it was so great working with you on this, thanks again for your time. You’ll also hear from Mike Hewitt of Breakwater Technology on page 70, whose urgent warnings about top-down, bottom-up orchestration of the nation’s energy supplies and usage should be heeded as we charge headlong into a future of AI, data centres and renewable energy. Our Corporate Member Technetix recently announced some excellent, trend-bucking end of year figures so we talked to CEO Paul Broadhurst about what’s happened in the last 12 months and his projections for the future – that’s on page 82. You’ll find this issue packed with technical papers too – we have input on security from Abloy, streaming from Futuresource and hollow core fibre is explored by EXFO – from page 96 onwards. We are full of optimism at the SCTE as we embrace another great week at ANGA COM. Thank you to all our members and sponsors for your continued support, welcome to our newest members (all detailed on page 4) and we look forward to seeing you in person in Cologne!
Melissa Cogavin Broadband Journal SCTE ® , Society for Broadband Professionals melissa@theSCTE.eu www.theSCTE.eu The clocks have gone forward, spring seems to have sprung out there when we weren’t looking; we are almost halfway through 2026 already, preparing for another ANGA COM (where we are Official Magazine Partner), another exceptional Gala Dinner, our summer SCTE ® Presents conference on The Changing Face of Streaming, both in June... and among all that, we are looking around at an industry in flux. Ground-breaking technology developments, an industry still grappling with consolidation and monetisation now the feverish, land-grab, build phase is in almost in the rearview. Mounting losses and network overbuild that characterise Altnets are being swallowed whole, and others are falling sadly into administration. We are a technical journal officially but increasingly chaotic geopolitical events keep barging into our well-ordered sector, demanding our attention, requiring swift pivots and contingency plans, the world seeming a little bit crazier every time I write one of these. Asking executives to
Enjoy the summer.
Melissa Cogavin
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MAY 2026 Volume 48 No.2
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