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In Today’s Issue

The Podcast

Episode 12 - "Beaming Through the Impossible: Attochron’s Laser Quest to Solve the Last Mile. Tom Chaffee Founder, CEO Attochron FSOC, and Jim Olson, SVP Sales & Marketing, Attochron Carrier-Grade FSO Comms™."

What if the biggest challenge in high-speed connectivity wasn’t digging trenches or laying fiber, but simply getting through a mile of air?

In this episode, I sit down with Tom Chaffee and Jim Olson from Attochron, a team on a decades-long mission to finally solve the “last mile” problem with a technology that’s left an entire industry skeptical: free space optics.

With stories of failed startups, laser breakthroughs inspired by lightning research, and a crash course in why “fog” isn’t the real enemy, this conversation pulls back the curtain on what it takes to disrupt telecom dogma.

From the skepticism of venture capitalists to the promise of carrier-grade connections delivered by femtosecond lasers, you’ll get a front-row seat to the innovation and persistence of bringing a moonshot idea to market.

Will Attochron finally break the curse that’s haunted free space optics for decades?

Tune in to find out how the third leg of connectivity is being built - not with wire, but with light.

Search for the Jason's Industry Insights podcast on your player of choice, or listen on Spotify.

Make sure to follow, like and share the podvast with those who you think would enjoy listening to this, and other content!

Watch the full video, including bonus explainer content on the Jason’s Industry Insights YouTube Channel.

What’s Happening On Earth?

Can AI boost the telco top line? - For the telecom sector, AI is often discussed in the context of efficiency improvement and automated processes, but can it also be a catalyst for revenue growth? That’s one of the questions we asked as part of an industry survey conducted in late March and early April, the results of which were published in our recent DSP Leaders Report, Telcos & AI.

My Take: Read the article to get the report. Opportunities and action aren’t the same. Everyone is focused on OPEX reduction with AI. What are the new AI inspired, backed, integrated services?

🇨🇦 Bell Canada and National Indigenous Connectivity Inc. to advance broadband and wireless access for rural and remote First Nations Communities - Bell Canada and National Indigenous Connectivity Inc. (NICI) today announced a new Reconciliation Agreement with the shared goal to advance connectivity in rural and remote First Nations communities.

My Take: Yes, of course. Let’s see what comes of it!

Tilson blames AT&T's Gigapower for bankruptcy - AT&T's Gigapower JV with Blackrock 'unilaterally took a series of actions that ultimately led to the filing of these Chapter 11 cases,' network-construction firm Tilson wrote in its bankruptcy filing.

My Take: What a mess. Why did they just cancel their contract?

Fiber Broadband Association Report Calls for Urgent Redesign of Middle Mile Networks - Today at Fiber Connect 2025, the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) today announced a new research paper, “Middle Mile Networks: The Backbone and Highway to Affordable Broadband Innovation.” The paper reveals middle mile networks have been built using outdated assumptions about household bandwidth needs, and to meet modern broadband demands they require designs based on real-world trends rather than diluted averages. With billions in federal broadband infrastructure funding now available, the report urges decision-makers to prioritize middle mile development to close the digital divide once and for all.

My Take: Middle-mile is a problem. Affordable and available middle-mile is a problem.

Verizon exec on cable MVNOs: 'I think they've peaked' - A top Verizon executive offered some insights into the company's MVNO agreements with Comcast and Charter. And he suggested the rise of cable in mobile has reached its zenith.

My Take: Nice little business arrangement they’ve crafted. They win either way, it seems.

The Telecom Industry’s Accelerating Meltdown - The U.S. telecommunications industry is in turmoil, and the pace of this meltdown is nothing short of breathtaking. The so-called “smartest guys in the room” are dropping like flies, and every move seems to trigger a domino effect of bankruptcies, missed payments, and fire sales.

My Take: “termination for convenience”. The giants don’t care. They just want what they want.

Unlocking broadband investment: The power of municipal demand - As municipalities across the United States look to close the digital divide and futureproof their infrastructure, an increasingly effective strategy is emerging: segmented ownership of broadband networks, with municipalities building part of a network and acting as anchor tenants. This model can unlock private funding, deliver long-term returns, and ensure equitable, sustainable broadband access.

My Take: How about they just enable the process and expedite permits and the like? Having said that, there are many examples north of the border where municpalities invest in infrastructure - including only conduit - as an asset to monetize, in some way.

UTOPIA Fiber completes citywide Bountiful City project in Utah - The project, which collected opposition from “a dark money organization,” was completed nearly a full year ahead of schedule, Timmerman said at Fiber Connect.

 My Take: Everyone was afraid of the big, bad, open access network. Incumbent protectionism.. or perhaps entitlement?

Op-Ed: The Intelligent Area Network is here - The successor to the LAN, WAN and MAN is IAN — the Intelligent Area Network. Vendors are developing AI architectures that decouple the concept of networking from geography and scale — and help drive revenue. I’m calling on the industry to help build a complete understanding of the new Intelligent Area Network market

My Take: Isn’t this was application-aware networks were supposed to do? Y’know, edge devices that understood workload and acted accordingly? Does it need a new name?

US gov't 'does not know best' when delivering broadband dollars: SHLB exec director - It’s not just BEAD delays we have to worry about. The Universal Service Fund (USF) is also stuck in limbo and the federal government has no clue how to handle all the funding involved, according to Joseph Wender, executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition.

My Take: And why is that? Poor advisors? Hidden agendas?

Telcos indulge in magical thinking as they ponder barriers to growth - Becoming AI and cloud native are tricky transitions for telcos, especially as they still often struggle with the basics of their existing operations.

My Take: I’m not sure this article really says anything, about anything.

🇨🇦 Rogers claims first 5G-A deployment in Canada - Canadian telco Rogers Communications has started to deploy Ericsson 5G Advanced (5G-A) technology on its national network, claiming to be the first carrier in Canada to launch such technology.

My Take: Cool IoT and network slicing applications!

🇨🇦 Ericsson deploys Canada-made indoor 5G solution - In a national first, Ericsson today announced the launch of its Ottawa-developed Indoor Fusion 8828 5G solution. This state-of-the-art, compact 5G indoor solution seamlessly combines radio and baseband functionalities into one unit, revolutionizing indoor wireless connectivity to provide enhanced wireless coverage for consumers.

My Take: I always thought this was already a thing. Apparently is a revolution.

🇨🇦 Adam Scott to the Canadian Telecom Summit - I received the invitation to speak at this event the exact same day that I received my Long Service Award for 25 years in the public service. And I thought, “well this is too perfect, I’ll call my speech ‘Looking back on a quarter century of telecommunications policy.’” And I’ll weave together anecdotes from my 25-year career with key moments in telecommunications policy to write a nice little speech that perfectly aligns with the 25-year history of this conference.

My Take: “Eight years later, more than 95% of Canada, 78% of rural households, and around 60% of homes in the Territories and on Reserves have access to 50/10 Internet. And through an array of investments, innovations, and a whole-of-government effort, we are on track to meet our goal of 100% of the country by 2030”. That last 5% will take 95% of the effort.. And more money.

Verizon CTO: We’re on the cusp of ‘another smartphone moment’ - “You remember when we were very busy rolling out 3G and then a smartphone [the iPhone] happened to us and we weren't ready? I think there is another one of these coming. New devices, new form factors” are about to go mainstream, “wearables, glasses, you name it – socially acceptable, thin, light [devices that will] enable new AI use cases,” noted Tenorio during his co-host opening address.

My Take: Smart phone moment. DC moment. Everyone can see it all coming a mile away. No excuses.

Why fiber construction is a hot mess right now - “Anyone who thinks a fiber business is a technology business is sorely mistaken,” said Greg Wilson, founder and CEO of Ripple Fiber. It’s more of a construction business, where any large project faces challenges with labor, permitting, regulation snags and the like.

My Take: Seems a universals set of problems, although I didn’t think labour was all that much of a problem these days with all the projects either delayed or on hold. Seems like a job for AI - centralize it all and eliminate part of the problem.

STELLAR Broadband launches tech suite at Brighton community - “This community is our first footprint in the city, and it reflects exactly what STELLAR stands for—unmatched connectivity, forward-thinking technology, and a commitment to enhancing everyday life,” Laing said.

My Take: The value-add. Cameras. Community WiFi. 10Gbps Internet.. because, why?

6G: Bridging the digital divide and empowering rural communities - Sixth-generation (6G) wireless technology offers a chance to bridge this divide. Unlike prior generations, 6G aims to deliver high-speed, reliable connectivity to underserved regions. Using advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN), and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), 6G can drive progress in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, essential for overcoming challenges in remote communities.

My Take: Yea, yea. I thought people were still trying to drive value from 5G. I get it, and all that, but I just haven’t dug into it enough to have any strong opinions. All I see online is people shitting all over 6G.

Road traffic operation in a digital age A holistic cross-stakeholder approach - This White Paper describes a solution-based approach, including methods for scalable digital data exchange, services infrastructure and associated processes to govern operations and both the availability and quality of data. It leverages bidirectional communication channels in a connected ecosystem to deliver static, semi-static and near real-time road traffic and road operation information to all kinds of road users, traffic operators, supporting agencies, and to fleet operators.

My Take: See the article to download the paper. See the next article.

Verizon gets on the road to V2X - Verizon Business is launching its first commercial vehicle-to-everything (V2X) platform, signing on Volkswagen, the Arizona Commerce Authority, the Delaware Department of Transportation and Rutgers University as its first customers.

My Take: “This means that the highways of the near future could be dotted with 5.9 GHz radio transceivers that communicate with cellular radios inside your car and update vehicles as they're driving to prevent accidents.”.. Will it make people even worse, distracted drivers, or will it solve traffic congestion and avoid senseless accidents? Maybe they should equip bicycles wth the radios as well. Some issues there to address.

Rural Canada gets FCM attention - “As we’re looking at diversifying rural Canada, I think one of the most important things is access to broadband internet,” says Councillor Cori Ramsay, who attended the AGM. “Access to the connectivity that will be provided is going to drive economic opportunities for our region, and we still have a vast number of areas that are still struggling with connectivity.”

My Take: Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Conference. 2019. I can’t remember where it was, but there was a really big fire truck near our booth. Calix was the only company there having conversations about Rural and Remote Broadband, and it was busy. None of the municipalities knew what to do. We hosted a 15 minute session on why municipal broadband was so important. We were swamped with people wanting more information, tired of waiting for “internet” to “fall from the sky” (at the time, they meant just show up from an incumbent carrier, not Elon).

I left the show after having the same conversations at the CAMA (Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators) conference, knowing there was a need to have many more discussions with many more people about how to solve the problem.

And then Amedeo Bernardi and I ran into each other at a ClearCable Summit event. I told him that we needed a conference focused on Rural and Remote broadband, and suggested I could likely get it funded, in large part, as a marketing engine for Calix.

And so was born the Canadian Rural and Remote Broadband Community Conference, with the 2025 season kicking off next week in Rama, Ontario.

All these years later and FCM finally caught on 😄 I tried.. many times..

What’s Happening In Space?

What’s in Space This Week?

🇨🇦 The Canadian Space Agency remembers Marc Garneau - Former Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Marc Garneau has passed away at the age of 76. Garneau was one of the original six Canadian astronauts selected in December 1983. He launched aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984, as a payload specialist, making history as the first Canadian in space. He flew twice more, on Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1996 and 2000. 

My Take: Very sad. Huge loss for Canada. His story is one to look up.

🇨🇦 Canada and the European Space Agency: A Cooperation Agreement that keeps on delivering - For close to five decades, the Canada–European Space Agency (ESA) Cooperation Agreement has helped propel Canadian innovation beyond borders. And in recent years, that collaboration has gained new momentum – opening doors for more Canadian organizations than ever before and putting Canadian expertise at the heart of bold, international space missions.

My Take: Yea. Make this happen. MDA Space, Kepler.. Who else? Make it happen more. Who needs Elon?

🇨🇦 CSA President: Canada’s space industry is open for business - Space engineers wanting to escape political uncertainty in the United States are welcome to come to Canada. That was the message delivered by Canadian Space Agency (CSA) President Lisa Campbell during her keynote speech at the Space Canada Horizons conference today in Ottawa.

My Take: You just can’t bring your Telsar with you.

Japanese company ispace will attempt historic moon landing today - The Resilience lander is currently orbiting the moon as it prepares to land within Mare Frigoris ("Sea of Cold") in the northern hemisphere. The landing is scheduled for Thursday at 3:17 p.m. EDT (1917 GMT; or 4:17 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Friday, June 6), ispace announced today (June 4). This is seven minutes earlier than previously stated, after engineers fine-tuned orbital calculations.

My Take: Resilience spacecraft likely crashed into the moon, Ispace confirms.

Starlink's Pricey New 'Performance' Dish Is Made for Rugged Environments - The $2,000 dish is designed to offer 400Mbps download speeds and withstand harsh conditions and in-motion use. SpaceX is also teasing it'll be capable of gigabit speeds.

My Take: Getting a lot of attention. Quite the engineering accomplishment.

Elon Musk projects SpaceX revenue of about $15.5 billion in 2025 - Elon Musk's SpaceX will record revenue of about $15.5 billion this year, the billionaire said on Tuesday, underscoring the rocket maker's growing dominance in the commercial space sector. The company's commercial revenue from space will exceed NASA's budget of roughly $1.1 billion next year, Musk said in a post on X.

My Take: Where’s the IPO?

Waiting for Faster Starlink? Musk Shares Ambitious Timeline for Next-Gen Satellites - The SpaceX CEO wants to launch 'V3' Starlink satellites within six to nine months, which could translate to faster speeds and better latency. But he's overpromised in the past.

My Take: 10x better than v2. Under 20ms latency. 1Tbps throughput. Reminds be of the six-million dollar man.

Space IPOs are trickling back. What that could mean for Elon Musk’s Starlink.- After a dearth of space-industry IPOs in recent years, there has been a resurgence of activity in 2025, as well as renewed chatter around Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its Starlink satellite-internet constellation.

My Take: Isn’t be more concerned about Teslar these days, and moreso since he and DT aren’t buddies anymore?

Low Altitude, High Stakes: Why VLEO Will Decide Military Superiority - For decades, space dominance was defined by how high and how far nations could go. Modern warfare is changing that equation, bringing the fight closer to Earth. Some of the most critical battles for intelligence, defense and security won’t take place in deep space or Geostationary Orbit (GEO) —they will unfold in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), just 200 to 450 kilometers above the surface.

My Take: ..because it’s quick and easy to replace stuff in VLEO. As they say, bring the fight closer to earth, but far enough away to be in space.

Elon Musk’s Starlink lined up to solve train Wi-Fi rage - Train operators in England and Wales are examining whether the satellite-based internet provider could be used to boost connectivity after a six-month trial of the technology began in Scotland last month.

My Take: Isn’t the Ontario Northland train all Starlink WiFi?

As the EchoStar world turns: Here’s the latest drama - Expect another week of turmoil for EchoStar, which skipped an interest payment that was due Friday because it’s hoping to get relief from the FCC within the next 30 days. The strife comes from an FCC investigation into EchoStar’s compliance with FCC buildout requirements and its use of spectrum licenses, including the 2 GHz band that Elon Musk’s SpaceX wants to get its hands on.

My Take: Try that on your mortgage with the bank and see how it goes.

China launches Tianwen-2 mission to sample near Earth asteroid - Tianwen-2 is now in a transfer orbit, headed for the 40 to 100-meter-diameter near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (2016 HO3). It is expected to rendezvous with the small, rocky body around July 2026, spending seven months studying the near Earth object and collecting samples. The samples are expected to be returned to Earth in late 2027.

My Take: Mmmm hmmm.

Seventh and Eighth O3b mPOWER Satellites to Start Delivering Connectivity Services - Featuring redesigned payload power modules, the seventh and eighth O3b mPOWER satellites are bolstering the capabilities of SES’s second-generation medium earth orbit (MEO) system, supporting the delivery of high throughput and predictable low latency services at scale. To date, SES has launched eight out of 13 O3b mPOWER high-throughput and low-latency satellites. The next O3b mPOWER launch is scheduled for summer 2025. 

My Take: 👍

Starlink to launch in India with disruptive $10 per month plans – report - Starlink is seeking to reach 10 million users in India by offering services for just $10 per month, a move that could hamper the growth of the 5G FWA market.

My Take: The term “loss leader” comes to mind.

Quvia sees aero following cruise with multiple connectivity providers - Quvia has deep visibility into how LEO, multi-orbit, multi-network, and multi-band connections are shaping the passenger experience on cruise liners. The firm’s AI-powered Grid platform seamlessly blends connectivity on ships across multiple providers, orbits and networks, allowing all available bandwidth to be consolidated into a single pipe, whether LEO, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), or geostationary (GEO) satcom, 5G, LTE, fiber, microwave, and Wi-Fi.

My Take: Seems they’ve got it all.

Direct To Device

What? No D2D news this week? Nothing jumped out at me as new and exciting this week.

Enabling AI

NotebookLM is adding a new way to share your own notebooks publicly.- Many people who use NotebookLM already share their notebooks with classmates, coworkers, students and friends. Today, we're making sharing and curation easier — with public links.

My Take: NotebookLM is a cool tool. I’ve never felt compelled to share anything, though.. Yet..

McKinsey Taps AI to Build PowerPoints and Draft Proposals, But Says Young Consultants Are Still Safe - The global consulting powerhouse despite concerns about technological disruption, maintains a reassuring stance, emphasizing that AI will augment rather than replace human expertise—particularly for junior consultants whose strategic thinking and client engagement skills remain irreplaceable.

My Take: Right. Until they’re not.

Luca Guadagnino to Direct True-Life OpenAI Movie ‘Artificial’ for Amazon MGM - Guadagnino is in talks to direct Artificial, a recounting of the tumultuous period at artificial intelligence company OpenAI in 2023 that saw CEO Sam Altman fired and rehired in a matter of days.

My Take: Created completely with VEO 3

ChatGPT introduces meeting recording and connectors for Google Drive, Box, and more - OpenAI’s ChatGPT is adding new features for business users, including integrations with different cloud services, meeting recordings, and MCP connection support for connecting to tools for deep research.

My Take: The tools I like, but not yet using, are the ones that listen in on calls and make suggestions and drive real-time insights about the calls. MCP just opens up a whole new world. Imagine being in a meeting and suggesting something like “ok, I’ll send that proposal to John”.. and then it just happens..

Meta’s Automating 90% of Risk Assessments, ‘Creating Higher Risks’ Says Former Exec - Internal documents first obtained by NPR reveal that up to 90% of Meta’s risk assessments are expected to be automated. Previously, specialized teams evaluated how updates could impact user privacy, harm minors, or facilitate the spread of misinformation. Under the new system, the responsibility for these assessments will largely be transferred to AI technologies.

My Take: Risk assessing risk. Sounds like a great plan. Guardrails be damned.

Corning sees AI turning the corner on co-packaged optics - Data centers are increasingly straining under artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled data loads that are over powering the physical infrastructure put in place to handle more modest expectations, a scenario that fiber builder Corning thinks is about to hit an inflection point that will pave the way for a long-awaited shift away from legacy connection methods and toward co-packaged optics (CPO).

My Take: Everyone forget about all the fiber needed for data centre construction.

This and That!

'Unlike anything we have seen before': Astronomers discover mysterious object firing strange signals at Earth every 44 minutes - ASKAP J1832-0911, which is periodically throwing out pulses of radio waves and X-rays, could be a brand-new cosmic object.

My Take: Or it’s the aliens looking for water and blood. We’ve all seen this movie.

What Is Google One, and Should You Subscribe? - If you use Google’s apps and AI, it’s worth looking at this all-inclusive service. We break down the plans and how much they cost.

My Take: Where would we be without subscription models? I’m afraid to add up everything I pay for monthly as part of my tech stack, not even counting entertainment things,

Apple Notes added a key shortcut that unlocks two hidden powers - Apple Notes is easily one of the most powerful apps pre-installed on the iPhone, and recently, Notes added a key shortcut that unlocks two hidden powers in the app: instant conversions and equations.

My Take: Instant conversions? Isn’t that what Google is for?

IDC lowers 2025 forecast for smartphone shipments - International Data Corp. (IDC) has lowered its smartphone forecast to grow just 0.6% in 2025 to 1.24 billion units, down from the 2.3% annual growth it predicted in February. IDC said that the drop is due to high uncertainty, tariff volatility and macro-economic challenges such as inflation and unemployment across many regions leading to a slowdown in consumer spending

My Take: Not to mention the cost of the phone? Anyone else remember when phones used to be free?

Mysterious 'mega-tsunamis' that shook the entire world for 9 days revealed by satellite - A new satellite has captured the first direct evidence of a mysterious nine-day seismic signal that shook the world in 2023.

My Take: “the gigantic waves — one of which measured 650 feet (200 meters) high, or about half the height of the Empire State Building — entered East Greenland's Dickson Fjord and rocked back and forth for nine days in September 2023, sending seismic waves reverberating through the planet's crust.”

And no one got any pictures?

Exclusive: AirPods to get camera control, sleep detection, new gestures, more - Yesterday, 9to5Mac exclusively reported a handful of iOS 26 features that Apple has been working on and may announce on WWDC for its native apps. Today, we are sharing five previously unreported AirPods features that may also be announced as early as Monday, during the keynote.

My Take: I’ll probably end up bying things online that I don’t need by looking at something the wrong way.

Infographic Of The Week

My Take: Canada is #21. The USA isn’t even in the top 25. Must be the tariffs. Sort of depressing, statistically, that in Canada, once you’re over 42 (rounding up), you have less days ahead of you than behind you. My grandmother (my mother’s mother) live to just shy of her 101st birthday. Skews the numbers.

Podcast Recommendation

A Times investigation has found that as Elon Musk became one of President Trump’s closest and most influential advisers, he was juggling an increasingly chaotic personal life and a drug habit far more serious than previously known.

Kirsten Grind and Megan Twohey, two investigative reporters at The New York Times, discuss why those closest to Mr. Musk are finally sounding the alarm.

Listen Here!

Movie/Streaming Recommendation

IMDb: 7.8/10

JMDb: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿/10 (..must be the emotional depth.. )

Apple TV+’s “Your Friends & Neighbors” is a razor-sharp, darkly comic crime drama that cements Jonathan Tropper’s reputation for intelligent, character-driven storytelling.

Jon Hamm delivers a career-highlight performance as Andrew “Coop” Cooper, a disgraced hedge fund manager whose fall from grace is as riveting as it is bleakly funny. After losing his job and marriage, Coop turns to robbing his wealthy Westmont Village neighbors, only to find that their secrets are more dangerous than their valuables. The show’s writing is both taut and unexpectedly witty, balancing slow-burn tension with biting suburban satire.

Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn shine alongside Hamm, with the cast’s chemistry elevating every twist. Visually, the series is lush and purposeful, each scene steeped in the quiet desperation of privilege.

“Your Friends & Neighbors” is a must-watch for fans of prestige drama—gripping, beautifully shot, and brimming with emotional depth.

A Word From Our Partner

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