Cameron Rake

I am so excited to see activity like this! Inexpensive, reliable, and safe energy sources will be the foundation of this next generation of technology. We know AI is going to be a major area of power consumption as more and more adoption occurs. Preparing for this will only make that growth more smooth, and using existing facilities will speed this process significantly while reducing costs. This isn't a "build it and they will come" situation, it is a "revitalize it because AI is already on the way". I look forward to seeing how this project progresses.

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We spend a lot of time talking about redundancy at the datacenter (UPS, backup gens, dual power feeds, etc). But there's a blind spot that I don't think is getting enough attention today: The natural gas grid itself. As we begin to see more natural gas island-mode datacenters being deployed in Texas, the natural gas grid becomes a potential single point of failure. Below is another example of natural gas grid equipment utilizing our fully redundant engine starting system. At SENS, we are addressing redundancy from source to server. #NaturalGas #EnergyResilience #EngineStarting #SENS #Texas

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Are We In the Midst of a Race to the Bottom in Telecom Construction, or Am I Missing Something? I want to ask an honest question to the people who live and breathe broadband construction. From where I sit, the telecom construction ecosystem looks increasingly strained. Operators often award work to the lowest bidder, even when the pricing seems unsustainably low. Contractors take the work anyway, knowing change orders will eventually follow. It feels like a cycle that pushes everyone toward thinner margins and higher risk. But I am fully open to being wrong. That is why I am asking. Here is what I see: Many construction firms operate with razor thin margins. They carry most of the risk. They finance payroll long before invoices are paid. In some cases, a single delayed payment can create real financial pressure. Even companies with private equity backing have shown vulnerability. Trueline grew quickly through acquisitions but ultimately collapsed under cash flow pressure. Tilson sought Chapter 11 protection after a major contract loss created a financial ripple effect. At the same time, the available labor force is extremely limited. There are only so many experienced drill crews, splicers, linemen, QC techs, and construction managers. Hiring and training take time and real investment. Yet BEAD will dramatically increase demand almost overnight. Taken together, it raises questions for me: Are we headed for labor shortages, contractor instability, and pressure on quality? Are we unintentionally setting up a race to the bottom? Or are there safeguards, strategies, or perspectives I am not considering? I have my own view, but I am posting this because I want to hear from people across the industry. Those on the construction side. Those on the operator side. Those managing programs, permitting, QA, finance, and field operations. What am I missing? How are construction companies protecting themselves? How are operators ensuring long-term stability? And how is the industry preparing for BEAD without overwhelming the very workforce that makes it possible? I am genuinely interested in hearing the perspectives of others who see this from different angles. #Broadband #Construction #Telecom #FTTH #BEAD #Infrastructure #Labor #Leadership #OpenQuestion

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One thing I’m seeing again in utility and broadband environments is how much tribal knowledge still drives day-to-day operations. There are incredibly smart people on these teams and the collaboration is real. Engineers jump on calls, share screens, pull each other into impromptu troubleshooting sessions, and work problems together in real time. The issue isn’t effort or intelligence. The issue is that very little of it gets formally captured. Over time, you start seeing network drift. One person becomes the “routing person.” Another owns transport. Another understands one specific provisioning workflow or software release behavior. Eventually certain parts of the network can only be operated or troubleshot by one or two people. That works until someone leaves, retires, changes roles, or simply isn’t available when something breaks at 2 AM. What management teams are really trying to solve isn’t just operational efficiency. They’re trying to reduce dependency risk and stop recreating the wheel every time knowledge walks out the door. Documentation, operational process, release management, workflow standardization, and lifecycle tracking sound boring until you realize how much operational stability depends on them. Another thing that stands out is how often operators become an unofficial extension of OEM R&D. Vendors push new software loads and features into production environments, and these operators end up discovering the edge cases, bugs, and interoperability issues in the field. That dynamic has existed forever. I saw it years ago at Motorola and later again at Ciena. None of this is new. What is useful, though, is revisiting these environments again and being reminded of how operations actually work in the real world versus how they look in slide decks. It’s easy to forget lessons you learned years ago until you walk back into the field and see the exact same patterns repeating themselves under different logos and newer technology. Technology changes. Operational physics usually don’t. #utility #broadband #networkoperations #telecom #fiber #operations #digitalinfrastructure #leadership

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📡 Dead zones shouldn't stop your business. Over 500,000 square miles in the U.S. have zero wireless coverage—nearly twice the size of Texas. That’s a massive blind spot for businesses that need to stay connected wherever they operate. T-Satellite is closing that gap. ✅ 650+ satellites in orbit ✅ Supports 75%+ of existing phones ✅ Seamless connectivity—no pointing, pairing, or configuring Your teams, assets, and operations stay online—in real time—even in the most remote locations. Meanwhile, Verizon and AT&T are just getting started, with limited device support and a clunky user experience. If your business depends on connectivity, you shouldn’t have to wait. #BusinessConnectivity #TSatellite #RemoteWork #EnterpriseMobility #NoDeadZones #TMobileforBusiness https://lnkd.in/gs25dEf4

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The satellite dish on your roof will be gone by 2030. And honestly? That's the most exciting thing to happen to broadcast engineering in decades. I work in this industry. I see it from the inside. Here's why the future of broadcast is absolutely brilliant 👇 1. Cloud Headend = Freedom for Engineers Old way: → Massive physical facility → Servers crash at 2AM → You drive to the headend to fix it New way: → Everything on AWS or Azure → Fix it from your laptop → Scale a new channel in minutes — not months I already work with AWS. What used to take a full server room now fits on one dashboard. This is not a threat. This is a superpower. 2. Virtual STB = Better Experience for Everyone Physical STB problems we deal with today: ❌ Box overheats and crashes ❌ Subscriber waits 3 days for technician ❌ Firmware update bricks the device Virtual STB on Smart TV: ✅ Update pushed like a mobile app ✅ Zero hardware failure ✅ Subscriber gets new features overnight 23 million subscribers getting a better experience. That's why I come to work. 3. AI-Powered Monitoring = Engineers Sleep Better** Right now someone watches dashboards at 3AM. Every alert. Every night. With AI monitoring: → System detects anomaly before it becomes an outage → Auto-heals 80% of issues instantly → Engineer focuses on innovation — not firefighting I spent years responding to alerts manually. AI giving that time back to engineers is not a replacement. It's respect for our expertise. 4. Low Latency Streaming = Live Sports Gets Better Current DTH satellite delay: 2–4 seconds Next-gen IP streaming target: under 1 second Imagine watching live cricket with zero delay between the stadium and your screen. Your neighbour with cable can't spoil the wicket before you see it on TV. That's the world broadcast engineers are building. 5.Starlink + OTT = Broadcast Reaches Everyone Right now: → Remote villages have no DTH coverage → No cable. No internet. No content. With Starlink and cloud streaming: → Every village gets gigabit internet from space → Every home gets access to live cricket, news, education → Content becomes a fundamental right — not a luxury Broadcast technology will connect the last billion people on earth. That is genuinely one of the most powerful things any engineer can be part of. Skills that make you the future: ✅ AWS Elemental / Azure Media Services ✅ HLS, DASH, CMAF streaming protocols ✅ DRM and content protection ✅ Python automation ✅ AI-assisted stream monitoring ✅ DVB fundamentals — still the backbone of everything I started with a satellite dish and a set-top box. Now I'm building infrastructure that will stream live cricket to every corner of India. The technology is changing. The mission is the same. Deliver content. Reliably. At scale. This is the golden age of broadcast engineering. And we are right in the middle of it. Are you excited about where this industry is heading? What technology are you most looking forward to? 👇

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With much of the wireless networks consolidating over the years its hard to understand where the industry is headed. This article shakes up the industry even more. It seems great for the consumer but not great for the overall Cellular/Mobile Broadband/FWA industry. What are your thoughts on this and how do you think this will impact you and your industry? Based on this article on lightreading.com... Comcast is on track to break another record for mobile line additions in Q3 2025, thanks to its free mobile line promotion. While its home broadband business has faced subscriber losses, the company is pivoting with bold changes: simplified national pricing, no data caps, and long-term price locks. These moves aim to reduce churn and build customer trust. 2025 is being positioned as an "investment year," with financial gains expected to materialize in 2026 as promotional mobile users transition to paid plans. Comcast is also upgrading its network via "Project Genesis," deploying DOCSIS 4.0 for symmetrical multi-gig speeds to stay competitive against fiber and fixed wireless access (FWA), which continues to pressure the lower end of the market. Source: https://lnkd.in/grrfAyCd

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Colorado has been approved for $420.6 million in federal BEAD funding, accelerating broadband expansion across rural and underserved communities. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/dF7wNWq3 #IPInfusion #BEAD #OpenNetworking

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Hot take: AT&T might be the most underrated telecom story right now. Everyone talks about T-Mobile's 5G push. But AT&T has been quietly stacking fiber wins for 8 years straight, over 30M locations and counting. Fiber isn't flashy. But it's future-proof in a way fixed wireless can't match. Higher bandwidth ceiling, better latency, no spectrum congestion. As AI and cloud keep scaling, that infrastructure gap becomes a real moat. They're still behind on subscribers (~120M vs Verizon's 146.9M), but subscriber count doesn't tell the whole story. Who's building the better foundation for the next decade? I'd argue A Disagree? Would love to hear the counter.

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The Broadcom Cloud Report exposes the shocking lack of financial predictability in public cloud, with 94% reporting some level of waste. 90% value Private Cloud’s financial predictability. Get the data to build a better budget. Download the FREE Cloud Reset Report: https://lnkd.in/e5D3EDSH Get in touch: https://lnkd.in/ec8GkQJk #CloudCost #FinOps #CloudWaste

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📢 Proud moment for Lumen Technologies at Metro Connect Fall! Rob Ward, SVP of Network Engineering, joined industry leaders to discuss how we’re scaling networks to meet the explosive demand from AI.   As AI transforms industries, Lumen is building the infrastructure to support it—adding 34 million intercity fiber miles by 2028 and expanding high-speed, low-latency connectivity across 70+ data centers in 16 metro areas.    💡 Lumen is the trusted network for AI, enabling enterprises to move data faster, train models smarter, and innovate without limits. From 400G uplinks to multi-cloud onramps, we’re powering the future of digital transformation.   The future of AI-ready networks is here—learn more about how Lumen is building it: https://bit.ly/4nRuCBY.   #PartnerProgram #TrustedNetwork #DigitalTransformation #MetroConnect

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What should we expect for new fiber development and the data center boom in 2026? While we're seeing a lot of fiber development along new and established routes between data centers, what we're NOT going to see is all of those new fiber pairs being lit at once. Customer requirements differ, but generally, hyperscalers and AI companies tend to want dark fiber built out to their sites for them to manage as needed. We're seeing 400G waves as the norm, with 800G available and 1.6 terabytes on the way. Catch the full TeleGeography Explains the Internet podcast episode to learn about key transport networks trends for this year: https://hubs.ly/Q03Z6Vhx0

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ST Engineering iDirect is partnering with leading Mexican connectivity provider Aitelecom to deploy our next-generation Intuition satellite ground system across Mexico. Together, we're enabling faster network deployment, stronger disaster resilience, and expanded access to reliable digital services, supporting the country’s push toward inclusive digital connectivity. Learn more:

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I’ve interviewed dozens of telecom engineers over 13 years. The best ones always surprised me. Not because of their technical answers. Because of what they asked me back. The average candidate asks about salary, growth, and team size. The exceptional ones ask about the hardest problem the team hasn’t solved yet. That one question tells me everything. It tells me they’re not looking for a comfortable seat. They’re looking for a real problem. In telecom, the real problems are never in the job description. They’re in the gap between what the monitoring dashboard shows and what the network is actually doing. They’re in the vendor call where everyone agrees the issue is resolved but you know it isn’t. They’re in the client escalation at 11 PM that the SLA doesn’t technically cover but your reputation does. The engineers who find those problems exciting — not exhausting — are the ones who build careers that compound. I wasn’t the smartest engineer in the room. I was just the one who stayed curious when the problem got uncomfortable. That’s still the only edge that matters. What question do you always ask in an interview — and what does the answer tell you? #Telecom #Hiring #TechLeadership #CareerGrowth #NetworkEngineering #SIP #SBC #NOC #CPaaS #Engineering #PersonalStory #FutureOfTelecom #LinkedInIndia #Curiosity #GrowthMindset

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Rural and tribal connectivity is accelerating in Oklahoma. Nokia is proud to partner with Centranet to deliver lightning-fast broadband—and this All Access with Andy Garcia video shows the real community impact, featuring David Eckard, Head of Strategy for Fixed Networks, where David reminds us about the advantages of fiber broadband. Know more: https://lnkd.in/g35ECXf7

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Today’s service call reminder: broadband troubleshooting is not always just light levels, routers, and speed tests. Sometimes you crawl under a house expecting to find a fiber issue… and instead find the unofficial crawlspace security guard. 🐍 This guy was large enough that I’m pretty sure he needed his own account number and static IP. Huge credit to the field teams who go into crawlspaces, attics, mud, heat, cold, and apparently snake territory to keep customers connected. There is no training video that fully prepares you for this part of the job. Sprout Fiber: delivering fast fiber internet… and occasionally negotiating right-of-way with wildlife. RevNet Technologies NRECA Fiber Broadband Association Sprout Fiber Internet Cullman Electric Cooperative #FiberInternet #Broadband #FieldTechs #ServiceCall #TelecomLife #SproutFiber #RuralBroadband #NotInTheJobDescription

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A Verizon rep can tell you a phone won’t activate… and still be wrong. 📱 This came up with one of our clients a while back, and it’s a perfect example of how the process matters just as much as the data itself. They had several e-commerce customers call into Verizon, only to be told that the devices they had just purchased couldn’t be activated. Naturally, that creates concern… returns… and a lot of unnecessary friction. The interesting part? The phones were completely fine. Here’s what was actually happening - Verizon doesn’t rely on a single method when checking an IMEI. There are two different layers, and they answer two very different questions. The first looks at the Initial Activation Policy — essentially what the device was originally intended for when it left the manufacturer. If that result shows something like “US Reseller Flex Policy,” it can trigger a red flag, even if the phone is perfectly usable today. The second method pushes the device through a mock activation process, checking what’s known as the Next Tether Policy. This reflects the device’s current status — in other words, whether it can actually be activated right now. Where things went sideways - In this case, the Verizon reps were only using the first check, so they were seeing a “Red X”… and stopping there. Had they gone one step further and used the second method, the devices would have passed without issue. Why this matters - This kind of situation leads to: - Customers being told devices won’t work when they actually will - Good inventory being questioned - Unnecessary returns and lost confidence All because the wrong lens was used to evaluate the device. The takeaway - Sometimes wireless wisdom is understanding that where a phone started isn’t nearly as important as where it stands today. Knowing how a device is being checked can make all the difference. 😎 👉 If you’ve ever run into something like this — or have a question that doesn’t quite add up — drop it below. Always happy to dig in. #WirelessWisdomTuesdays #IMEI #Verizon #Telecom #MobileDevices #DeviceData #SecondaryMarket

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