In this Q&A series, we put key questions to the members of Technetix’ strategic advisory board (SAB) and main board members who generously share their experience, views and wealth of knowledge in their answers.  

With their distinguished careers ranging from global sales and marketing, illustrious halls of fame, investment in mobile banking technology, to holding over 100 patents, our board members give their answers to our next question: 

What trends and/or emerging technologies are impacting our industry the most right now? 

Colin Büchner, MD Chief Network Officer for Liberty Global  

SAB member since 2019 

“There are  number of trends. But the most relevant I think start with the widespread rollout of DOCSIS 4, 5G and fiber networks to allow for higher speeds and lower latency. Then there’s the split of telcos in NetCos and ServCos, and wholesaling NetCo services to increase utilization and value of NetCo assets. Finally, the use of automation and AI will increase to optimize network performance and operations, and reduce the cost to build them.” 

Tony Werner, former CTO Comcast 

Board member since 2024 

“Of course, artificial intelligence will play a big part in moving the evolution of broadband forward. But equally significantly is AI moving deeper into the network and showing up at the edge, including smart storage.” 

Jay Rolls, former CTO Charter Communications 

SAB member since 2019 

“From an evolutionary standpoint, it’s clear that Europe is ahead of the United States in the migration to fiber. There are several reasons for this. Some are geographical, while others stem from how networks have been historically architected in the US. Europe’s higher population density also plays a significant role. Nevertheless, the US is now catching up, and the migration to fiber is accelerating rapidly. 

“I would divide the US market into two categories: the larger public operators and the medium-to-small tier operators. Medium and small operators tend to have more flexibility and are better positioned to pivot towards fiber. This is not the case for large MSOs in the US, who have significant investments in HFC infrastructure. For them, the scale of their operations makes it impractical to simply pivot and replace HFC with fiber within five years. 

“First of all, such a transition would be logistically impossible. Secondly, it would be financially unfeasible. Large, publicly traded operators face additional constraints due to market pressures, which act as financial guardrails, making such a massive overhaul even more challenging.” 

Lorenz Glatz, former CTO Kabel Deutschland 

SAB member since 2019 

“We’re at a junction in our industry in many ways. From my perspective, the battle against the OTT players has been lost for the operators strategically, even if some pockets of the cable industry are still putting up a heroic fight. It implies that broadband is becoming a commodity, very much like electricity or water, and all that matters is cost per bit (per second) – and to some extent availability.  

“In the cable industry in Europe, some operators are overbuilding themselves with fiber, while in North America we have two distinct DOCSIS 4.0 architectures undergoing deployment with FDX and ESD. There are even considerations to add 5G over coax (NRoC) to cable operators’ arsenal. For us at Technetix, this junction is the most impactful.” 

Check back in a few weeks’ time when we ask our SAB about how they think Technetix is positioned to respond to emerging industry trends. 

 Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up to date with news, views, posts and more from Technetix.