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In Today’s Issue

Jason’s Industry Insights, The Podcast

Episode 6 - Managing Broadband Performance Anxiety. Michael McCallen, CEO/Founder, Cheetah Networks

Broadband testing isn’t as simple as checking upload and download speeds. In this episode, I speak with Michael McCallen, CEO of Cheetah Networks, about the biggest challenges in broadband performance testing, why traditional methods often fall short and how they solve the problem with a home-grown Canadian solution.

We explore the role of automated devices in testing, community engagement, privacy concerns, the need for high-quality data to improve broadband services and the importance of community involvement in addressing connectivity issues.

Forget what you think you know about "Speed Tests" and have a listen on your podcast player of choice, or on SPOTIFY or APPLE

What’s Happening On Earth?

🇨🇦 Canadian Telecommunications Market Report 2025 - The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is pleased to present the 2025 Canadian Telecommunications Market Report (CTMR).

My Take: All the cool data that shows how Tier 1 bought all the TPIA subscribers 😉 and the convergence of pricing driven by Tier 1 tactics. Look at that graph.

DZS files for chapter 7 protection - It is with utmost disappointment that we share that DZS was unable to secure the necessary working capital from either its current lender or any prospective lenders to sustain the business going forward.

My Take: I don’t think this came as a shock to anyone, other than Chapter 7 versus Chapter 11. Anyway, what’s the real issue or DZS customers? Reuse of existing ONTs? Cap-and-grow strategies with new OSS integrations? The feeding frenzy shall ensue. I’ve already seen posts from Cienna promising ONT integration. I’m sure the 3rd party market will be flooded with enough hardware to keep DZS operators in business for a while as they figure out what to do next. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, perhaps — net of s/w issues that won’t get fixed unless someone takes over sustaining engineering.

Feinman sounds alarm following departure as director of BEAD - Yesterday, in an interview with Feinman published on the Financial Times website, Feinman suggested that he was pressured by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick to increase the role of low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite coverage in the BEAD Program above other considerations.

My Take: Did you know that “Teslers” have “Computer” in them?

Director of rural broadband program exits with a warning about shift to ‘worse’ satellite internet - The new administration seems to want to make changes that ignore the clear direction laid out by Congress, reduce the number of American homes and businesses that get fiber connections, and increase the number that get satellite connections.

My Take: The battle rages on..

🇨🇦 Claire Anderson to the Spectrum Summit 2025 - Access to wireless frequency ranges, or spectrum as we have come to call it, is critical to any telecommunications service provider. Access to spectrum helps a company provide its customers with reliable and clear wireless services. So it only makes sense that as more and more Indigenous-led companies and community groups look to improve connectivity in their communities, they are increasingly interested in spectrum management and access to this vital resource.

My Take: Nothing to add here. It’s a transcript of her speech.

🇨🇦 BCE warns trade war will add to wireless challenges - Canada’s largest telecom company by revenue warned that a prolonged trade war will drag on economic growth, which was already hampered by a drop in domestic immigration targets.

My Take: I just want my dividend :)

Nvidia GTC: Top telco takeaways: AI-RAN, 6G, AI factories and cute robots - Because the emerging generation of robots and other AI applications will require massive amounts of data, Nvidia is working with telcos and networking vendors to transform networks to meet those requirements — using AI to serve AI.

My Take: All all the fiber providers are rushing to build to support this as well. Anyway, lots of discussion around AI-RAN and whether it’s a “thing” or not. GPUs are power-hungry, and some have security concerns.

CommScope Ruckus imagines a Wi-Fi-first, 5G private network world - CommScope subsidiary Ruckus says it is ready to move into private 5G networks for certain mission-critical applications soon, even as it leverages AI to improve Wi-Fi performance for everyday enterprise tasks.

My Take: Not if Nokia has anything to say about it. See the next article.

‘A thrill to be chased’ – Nokia takes back direct ‘control’ of private 5G push - It says something about the sense of opportunity in the private 5G space, perhaps, that Nokia, the most restless and innovative agitator-brand in the vendor market, can post a record quarter (“double-digit growth, globally”) and extend its lead at the top, and yet still be frustrated it is not going faster.

My Take: Lots of ongoing things in this space. Just don’t hear much about it, especially in Canada.

Corning wants to cut copper out of the data center - We’ve heard ad nauseam about the need for fiber connectivity between data centers to support hyperscaler AI growth. But there is still plenty of copper wiring lurking within data centers, presenting a ripe opportunity for optical vendors like Corning.

My Take: Of course. Makes sense. We covered low-power LED optics in an earlier issue of the newsletter.

Hazardous waters lie ahead for the broadband equipment market - Rough waters lie ahead for the broadband access equipment market, as increased low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite deployments – along with global economic uncertainty – try to steer the ship astray. According to Dell’Oro Group VP Jeff Heynen, “there will certainly be a small shift from PON OLT and ONT spend to Starlink and Kuiper dishes and home routers.”

My Take: Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, the next inflection point will be 50G PON.

Democratic Commissioner Starks to Step Down from FCC - Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks plans to resign from his seat on the commission this spring, Starks said in a statement on Tuesday. Starks did not provide a reason for his departure, but said he sent a letter to President Trump and Sen. Chuck Schumer, minority leader of the Senate. 

My Take: We can all draw our own conclusions..

Optimism could kill the data center boom - 497. That’s the number of known data center projects in the global pipeline, according to Synergy Research Group. And there could be plenty more on the way given hyperscalers have announced plans to spend upwards of $315 billion expanding their cloud capacity in 2025 alone. More often than not, though, these projects are delayed, which means sorely needed compute power might not become available as fast as expected. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

My Take: 497? Does that include edge DCs? A lack of compute power? See the AI section below.

Consumer Perspectives on Internet Service Providers - Changing customer expectations are impacting interest in service bundles, with more price-sensitive consumers willing to go without in the search for the best deal. It is likely that 2025 will see an intensification of these trends, especially if the Universal Service Fund is impacted.

My Take: So many studies that call out price over everything.

What’s Happening In Space?

What’s in Space This Week?

Join us in April for this great discussion!

Watch how SpaceX makes 15,000 Starlink satellite internet kits a day (video) - SpaceX recently posted a video on X that offers a glimpse at how these kits are made in the company's factory outside of Austin, Texas. The video shows a few close-ups of the factory floor, where machines manufacture components for the standard Starlink kit on what looks like automated sections of the assembly line.

My Take: Very cool video. Very cool technology.

Starlink Imposes Dramatic Speed Cap for Those on Priority Plans - The satellite internet service imposes a 1Mbps speed cap for Priority customers who exceed their monthly data allotment. It's likely intended to get business customers to pay more.

My Take: Of course it is. Listen to Episode #4 of the Podcast.

Elon Musk’s expanding Starlink footprint across the government is dangerous - The New York Times reports that Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service has been implemented at the White House complex as Starlink’s footprint expands across the federal government. Seems pretty dangerous considering that Musk appears to have the ability to turn the terminals off at will, a prospect that gained attention when he openly pondered how Ukraine would fare in defending itself from Russia’s invasion if the Starlink terminals it’s using were turned off.

My Take: Yep.

Europe tries to fix its plumbing — and leave Starlink behind - Many governments outside the US do not want to rely on Elon Musk’s satellite company

My Take: Yep. They don’t want Tesla’s, either. Poor Elon.

Project Kuiper facing regulatory deadline - On March 11th, Kuiper updated the Federal Communications Commission with a small reduction of the constellation’s number of craft to be orbited. Kuiper now says it only wants 7,736 satellites, down 38 from its earlier plan.

My Take: Launch capacity. That’s the SpaceX advantage as a vertically integrated provider at this point.

Cavero Execs Talk Quantum Future in the Space Sector - What impact could quantum technologies have on the space sector? There are a number of new companies looking to play in this space.

My Take: It’s dizzying technology.

🇨🇦 NordSpace Unveils SHARP Program for Canadian Defense - NordSpace, the Ontario-based space tech startup, is establishing the Supersonic and Hypersonic Applications Research Platform (SHARP), which aims to grow the country’s hypersonic capabilities with three new products.

My Take: NordSpace is also building Spaceport Canada, which will be cool to see! Either way, sovereign defence things = good.

LoRaWAN NTN IoT: Pioneering Global Connectivity with Satellite Innovation - The Internet of Things (IoT) is entering a transformative era as non-terrestrial network (NTN) satellite technology bridges connectivity gaps in remote and underserved regions. In a recent LoRa Alliance® webinar, industry leaders EchoStar Mobile, Lacuna Space, and Plan-S showcased how LoRaWAN—the leading low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) technology—is unlocking scalable, cost-effective satellite IoT solutions across low Earth orbit (LEO), medium Earth orbit (MEO), and geostationary orbit (GEO).

My Take: Why do you need LoRaWAN if you have NTN IoT? I must read more. Maybe it uses existing LR-FHSS.

Crew-9 returns from space station - A Crew Dragon spacecraft returned four people from the International Space Station March 18, including two NASA astronauts whose extended stay became entangled in sensationalism and political controversy.

My Take: If you live under a rock, this is news.

Cruise Operators Navigate Customers’ Insatiable Demand for Bandwidth - Cruise passengers will “consume as much as you give them,” said Guillermo Muniz, COO of OmniAccess, a connectivity provider for the cruise and high-end yacht market. Muniz compared the largest cruise ships to cities, with as many as 10,000 passengers.

My Take: It’s like the breakfast buffet. What did they expect? 

SpaceX CFO Johnsen Says Starlink is ‘Enterprise-Quality,’ Favors Adding Guarantees - Johnsen said he sees the current level of service as enterprise-grade. “We have an amazing service that’s enterprise-quality right now, I think it’s just a matter of communicating it differently to the enterprise folks,” Johnsen told Via Satellite.

My Take: Yea, and everyone else. Maybe define “Enterprise Quality” and define the SLA.

🇨🇦 The best internet provider in Quebec was revealed — and Starlink flopped hard - The latest ranking of Canadian and Quebec internet providers is out, and while homegrown companies like Bell, Telus and EBOX are crushing it on speed and reliability, Elon Musk's Starlink is... not doing so hot.

My Take: Well, EBOX Is Bell.. and Telus is using Bell’s fiber, so that’s not really a fair comparison, and Starlink isn’t fiber, and the Quebec Government is evaluating their future with Starlink, so you do the math.

Comtech weighs troposcatter technology for drone swarm C2 - Satellite communications (satcom) development company Comtech is looking to leverage its latest troposcatter radio platform as a viable method for drone swarm command-and-control (C2), company officials told Janes .

My Take: So this is kinda cool. Scattering in the troposphere provides a solution to line-of-sight communication issues. Drone swarm command-and-control. Sounds cool. I guess Amazon could use this make sure my packages arrive at my house.

How Satellite Tech Can Enable Stronger Fire and Public Safety Response - The evolving relationship between satellite tech providers and fire departments and other organizations that combat wildfires is even more relevant after the devastating fires in California earlier this year.

The first FireSat satellite has launched to help detect smaller wildfires earlier. - The first satellite for the FireSat constellation officially made contact with Earth. This satellite is the first of more than 50 in a first-of-its-kind constellation designed to use AI to detect and track wildfires as small as a classroom (roughly 5x5 meters).

My Take: That’s how.

Use Starlink for Backup or Weekend Travel - As a former Starlink subscriber, it seems they want me back. I received this email from the folks at Starlink;

My Take: Roam and Mobility? It almost makes me want to get a mobile panel to play with, and then I remember that I have a ridiculous 200Gb on my mobile plan. Yes, I know, but where would I use it? Tether here, tether there.. Tether everywhere. Perhaps Dr. Seuss needs to write a new book.

Direct To Device

Vodafone Idea in talks with Starlink, Amazon Kuiper for satcom partnership amid  -  “We are in conversations with partners and will share an update at an appropriate time”

My Take: Of course.

AST SpaceMobile and the problem of delivering broadband from space - AST has launched six of these satellites so far. But analysts like Mobile Experts' Joe Madden aren’t convinced adding just a few dozen more will be enough to provide global coverage.  

My Take: Yea, this has already been modelled. Need more than that for consistence in coverage.

Verizon Expands Satellite Texting Capabilities for Select Android Phones - Verizon is expanding texting capabilities for Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 smartphones that allow customers with these phones to send text messages to any other customer device via satellite. 

My Take: Must be something special about that Samsung SnapDragon processor.

Charter and Comcast Launch Satellite Connectivity for Mobile Devices - Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) today announced that their respective mobile businesses, Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile, have launched satellite-based services through a collaboration with Skylo, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) service provider.

My Take: I followed the trail of links and found that I can get an “Anytime Upgrade” to the newest device. KInda cool. Anyway, this is all just SOS and SMS stuff for now, using dedicated MSS Spectrum and GEO-based satellites.

What’s Happening SubSea?

East African Subsea Cable Crisis - Capacity Shortage - The East Africa capacity shortage is real and chronic. A cable serving the East Coast recently upgraded its network, but sold almost everything before the upgrade was complete

My Take: A crisis? Seems like an opportunity.

Enabling AI

Anthropic CEO says spies are after $100M AI secrets in a ‘few lines of code’ - Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei is worried that spies, likely from China, are getting their hands on costly “algorithmic secrets” from the U.S.’s top AI companies — and he wants the U.S. government to step in.

My Take: If it walks like a duck, and all that.

🇨🇦 TELUS to launch Canada's leading Sovereign AI Factory, powered by NVIDIA to drive the nation's AI future - TELUS, in collaboration with NVIDIA, announced today that it plans to build Canada’s leading Sovereign AI Factory — a powerful and super-secure facility that will give Canadian businesses and researchers access to cutting-edge technology — helping them develop smarter AI products, streamline operations and stay competitive in a fast-changing world. It provides the supercomputers and software needed to train AI while keeping data safe within Canada’s borders.

My Take: Build it in space. We’ve chatted about that. See the Podcast, Episode #5. StarCloud.

Zoom debuts new agentic AI skills and agents for Zoom AI Companion - Zoom is elevating AI Companion across its entire platform through AI agentic skills, agents, and models to deliver high-quality results, help users improve productivity, and strengthen relationships. 

My Take: And you look at tools like Pickle where your “likeness” attends the meetings.. Maybe we’ll get to the point where the avatars can all just be agentic and have a meeting with each other without any people actually having to attend meetings! And then, as in the next article, we can fire all the people and just have bots run things. Who needs people, anyways?

DOGE Is Replacing Fired Workers With a Chatbot - Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are attempting to enact what some experts have called the “largest job cut in American history“—but don’t worry, these geniuses have a solution to pick up the significant amount of slack caused by letting go of tens of thousands of domain experts and civil servants all at once: a chatbot.

My Take: I’m sure it will be just fine.

OpenAI to start testing ChatGPT connectors for Google Drive and Slack - OpenAI plans to start beta testing a new feature called ChatGPT Connectors, according to a document viewed by TechCrunch. ChatGPT Connectors will allow ChatGPT Team subscribers to link workspace Google Drive and Slack accounts to ChatGPT so the chatbot can answer questions informed by files, presentations, spreadsheets, and Slack conversations across those accounts.

My Take: This would be good. A different sort of RAG, I’d suggest.

AI is 'underhyped,' says Nvidia's telecom chief - For all the hoopla surrounding artificial intelligence, Nvidia SVP Ronnie Vasishta says the technology is "underhyped.". "We're three years into a new cycle and the opportunity for AI is it will touch every part of every industry," Vasishta said in an interview with Fierce at Mobile World Congress in early March.

My Take: Perhaps we should make sure it’s not always a solution looking for a problem.

Blackwell Ultra, Vera Rubin, and Feynman are Nvidia’s next GPUs - Perhaps the most significant is Vera Rubin. Vera Rubin, which is set to be released in the second half of 2026, will feature tens of gigabytes of memory and a custom Nvidia-designed CPU called Vera. Vera Rubin delivers substantial performance uplifts compared to its predecessor, Grace Blackwell, Nvidia claims, particularly on AI inferencing and training tasks.

My Take: Where do they come up with these names? If we believe what comes out of China, it seems they’re way ahead.

Nvidia CEO Huang says chipmaker well positioned for shift in AI - "The amount of computation we need as a result of agentic AI, as a result of reasoning, is easily 100 times more than we thought we needed this time last year," he said, referring to autonomous AI agents that require little human intervention for routine tasks.

My Take: What’s he going to say? It’s all hype? There’s more capacity than demand? The bubble will burst?

Nvidia, GM announce deal for AI, factories and next-gen vehicles - The companies on Tuesday announced that the new initiatives include building custom artificial intelligence systems using Nvidia compute platforms, including “Omniverse with Cosmos,” for optimizing GM’s factory planning and robotics.

My Take: So when someone wants to bring industry, manufacturing and jobs back to the US, he’s talking about jobs for robots?

Realizing the Generative AI Opportunity: Embracing Change to Create Business Value - There is a great deal of expectation around how generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) will substantially transform businesses and create value.

Download the full report at the link above!

My Take: I don’t have one yet. Need to read it first. It’s sponsored by AWS, so there will be some bias, but it had some interesting tidbits and a first quick pass. Meanwhile, I sat on hold for almost an hour yesterday with my Service Provider - y’know, the one who just eliminated humans for AI?

Introducing next-generation audio models in the API - A new suite of audio models to power voice agents, now available to developers worldwide.

My Take: The scary continues. I wonder if every time I get a phone call, I answer with “hello” and get no reply if my voice is being “harvested”.

Claude can now search the web - You can now use Claude to search the internet to provide more up-to-date and relevant responses. With web search, Claude has access to the latest events and information, boosting its accuracy on tasks that benefit from the most recent data.

My Take: Will have to play with this and see how well it works. Claude seems to provide more natural language outcomes, but I still defer to Perplexity.

This and That!

China achieves quantum supremacy claim with new chip 1 quadrillion times faster than the most powerful supercomputers - This new superconducting prototype quantum processor achieved benchmarking results to rival Google's new Willow QPU.

My Take: Has anyone seen it? 🙂 All I can think of is Trump getting into a red Tesla on the Whitehouse lawn and exclaiming, “Look! It’s all computers!”

'Pregnant' ancient Egyptian mummy with 'cancer' actually wasn't pregnant and didn't have cancer, new study finds - The mummy of a first-century-B.C. individual found in Egypt was not pregnant and did not have cancer, according to a new CT study.

My Take: I wonder if the mummy will file a malpractice claim? Apparently, there was a 4-year debate over this. Hope it didn’t cost much.

Your Amazon Echo will start reporting to Amazon on March 28 - "We are reaching out to let you know that the Alexa feature ‘Do Not Send Voice Recordings’ that you enabled on your supported Echo device(s) will no longer be available beginning March 28, 2025,"

My Take: Big fan of my Echos, but not liking this. I can have them deleted, but everything goes to the cloud.

FTC Asks Court To Reject Challenge To Click-To-Cancel Rules - The Federal Trade Commission is asking a federal appellate court to reject advertising and business organizations' challenge to click-to-cancel rules that aim to let consumers easily terminate recurring subscriptions to newspapers, gyms, and other businesses.

My Take: Consumers should be able to cancel a service as easily as they sign up for it. Says me.

Roku Tests Showing Ads Before the Home Screen Loads - Users in the test group are unimpressed by the video ads, which play automatically. Customers say they will be eager to toss their Roku devices if the ads become permanent.

My Take: I’m tired of ads being weaponized to force people to pay more for a different level of service. Leave me alone and come up with a new lower-priced tier, like NetFlix did. Roku is free (well, you pay for the device) so this seems a little harsh.

Infographic Of The Week

My Take: Looks like maybe Montana should become the 11th Province ;)

Podcast Recommendation

Sales commissions act as a crucial lever to increase revenue and customers. But sometimes those incentives bring unintended consequences. New research identifies eight ways that salespeople across industries cheat or bend the rules to maximize their gain—often at the expense of the company’s bottom line and customer loyalty. Huntsman School of Business professor Timothy Gardner and consultant Colin Wong explain these tactics, like sandbagging, falsifying data, and giving excessive discounts to close deals. The researchers also share how company leaders can audit, correct, and monitor an incentive program—and when they should let some practices slide to maintain productivity and motivation. Gardner and Wong are coauthors of the HBR article “How Salespeople Game the System.”

Listen Here!

Movie/Streaming Recommendation

IMDb: 7.6/10

JMDb: 8.5/10 (8.5 for the second half only. The first 45 minutes was a solid 6/10)

Anora is a gripping and emotional film that tells the story of a young woman trying to find her place in a harsh and unforgiving world. Directed by Sean Baker, the movie follows Anora (Mikey Madison), a Brooklyn stripper who marries Vanya (Mark Eidelshtein), the spoiled son of a wealthy Russian family. What begins as a chance at a better life quickly turns into chaos as Anora faces betrayal, power struggles, and her own sense of identity.

Mikey Madison shines in the lead role, bringing both strength and vulnerability to Anora. Her journey feels raw and real, making it easy to root for her. The film balances moments of humor with heartbreaking drama, keeping viewers hooked throughout. While some scenes feel over-the-top or unrealistic, the story’s emotional core remains strong.

Anora is a messy but powerful film about survival, love, and the cost of chasing dreams.

I had to see what all the Oscar fuss was about!

Until Next Time

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