The wireless landscape is transforming before our eyes as major players consolidate, edge computing pushes boundaries, and questions of affordability continue to challenge our assumptions about connectivity. Charter's $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications is reshaping the competitive landscape, combining Charter's 10+ million mobile subscribers with Cox's commercial fiber and managed IT operations. This merger represents just one piece of the ongoing consolidation puzzle that's redefining who controls our digital infrastructure.
Meanwhile, American Tower is quietly revolutionizing edge computing by installing data centers at the base of cellular towers. This strategic placement brings processing power dramatically closer to users, reducing latency and enabling AI applications to function at the network edge rather than in distant centralized facilities. The initiative mirrors similar efforts by Comcast to push computing capabilities as close to consumers as possible without actually placing hardware in homes.
The affordability conversation has taken center stage as definitions of "affordable internet" vary dramatically across different communities. During a panel at NetworkX 2025, we explored how a $50 monthly service that might seem reasonable in some areas represents an entire food budget for families in economically challenged regions like South Texas. This reality check forces us to reconsider how we approach the digital divide, especially as BEAD funding faces reductions and programs providing mobile hotspots to students get cut.
Starlink's expansion continues with a new $10 monthly plan launching in India, potentially disrupting the market while raising questions about regulatory surcharges and sustainability. Simultaneously, the FCC investigation into EchoStar has sparked controversy about spectrum allocation politics, with implications for competition and rural connectivity.
Technology innovations continue at a rapid pace, with Google partnering with X-Real and Warby Parker for new AR glasses, while AWS surprisingly discontinues its private 5G offering announced in 2021. These developments showcase the constant evolution of wireless technology and the sometimes unpredictable paths innovation takes.
Want to discuss these developments in person? I'll be at several upcoming industry events, including Fiber Connect in Nashville, MeterUp in San Francisco, Juniper's AI Native Now during Cisco Live, and WLPC Prague. These gatherings offer perfect opportunities to explore how these industry shifts will affect our connected future. What technologies or trends are you most excited about as we navigate this evolving landscape?
Meter provides turn-key internet infrastructure for businesses.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up everybody.
Happy Saturday.
This is Drew Lentz, theWireless Nerd, and this is the
Waves Podcast.
It is May 31st 2025.
It's been a heck of a two weeks.
We've had a lot of fun.
I've been out in the fielddoing some stuff.
I came home with like ascratchy throat and a sinus
thing going on, but whatevs, man, that's what happens, right?
Yeah, it's been a busy week.
(00:23):
There's a lot of thingshappening in the industry right
now A lot of movement, a lot ofconsolidation, which is pretty
crazy Stuff that's happeningeverywhere, and some events that
are coming up.
Some new events, some oldevents, wico man.
It's rare for me to get FOMO, Ifeel like, but I do have FOMO
from not being at any of theWICO events so far.
I haven't had the opportunityto make one out yet, but
(00:44):
Nashville looked like it waspretty awesome.
Hopefully we've got one comingup soon in the Austin-San
Antonio area.
If you're in the Austin-SanAntonio area and you'd like a
WICO event, please bug PeterMcKenzie and let him know, or
bug me and I'll bug him for you.
Either way, great to seeeverybody coming together.
There's been some really coolimages coming out of that.
Everybody you know, I feel like.
In fact, every time there's oneof those events, my LinkedIn
(01:08):
feed just blows up with all thepeople that are out there having
a good time not including me,but that's okay, it happens so
happy to see everybody outhaving a good time at those
White Coat events, anyway.
So let's jump into it.
There's been a couple thingsthat happened.
The last podcast I cut was lastweek and then published again
(01:35):
or published at the beginning ofthis week, so this one.
Let me go back and talk aboutsome of the things I did before.
It was really really neat to bea part of that in Dallas in the
Irving Convention Center, theLas Colinas Event Center there
in Dallas, Got to go to a hockeygame and see the Stars and the
Edmonton Oilers, courtesy ofWi-Fi Stan.
Wi-fi Stan went out and said hey, you know what?
We're going to have some fun.
And Stu from Ekahau and I wentand got to go take a look at
(01:59):
what was going on with thehockey game.
It was great to see.
I don't know if the series isover yet, but I think it's
pretty close.
Um, that was fun.
It was great to run into somany people.
There were faces at that eventthat I haven't seen in so long.
Shonda miller, who's now withjma wireless.
Jody nicewanger, who's over atradwin.
I got to see fletch, michaelfletcher.
Fletch, who I was at meta with,is now back over at ruckus.
(02:21):
Jason balkham over at RuckusGreat to see so many people just
from way back in the day in theindustry still doing incredible
things.
And I got the opportunity tospeak on a panel, which was
really good.
You know me, I love to talk,but what was funny is it seems
like the word of the day right,this was an interesting.
Adlane did a write-up and hetalked about WGC America's
(02:45):
Network X, a taco filled with AI, convergence and APIs.
You know, fitting for the stateof Texas he put on there.
It felt like a technology tacowhere all of these things came
together, and it really was.
I mean, there was a lot of talkof AI and convergence and the
ability for APIs to work northand south and east and west,
even if you will.
And there was such a great talkthat was done by one of the
(03:07):
gentlemen from Comcast talkingabout the way that they're
integrating AI components andcompute components into the
actual pedestal, how they showedoff this device that goes
inside the pedestal to runcompute for AI and all these
other incredible things there asclose to the home as you can
(03:29):
possibly get.
And that was really cool to seeabout the advancements that
they're making, not just inconnectivity, not just in
latency, not just in the L4Sstuff, but also in speed,
obviously, but with movementinto the AI component and how
they're adding compute to it.
That was pretty neat.
One of the articles that Iwanted to talk to also was this
one coming at you from LightReading Lots of good, hey, lots
(03:51):
of good reporting from LightReading coming out in the last
couple of weeks.
I got to say I try and monitorall the channels but man, light
Reading is just killing it rightnow and this was interesting to
read.
Along the same regard, americanTower is building edge sites in
North Carolina, so they justdid this ribbon cutting in
Raleigh, which is one of Tech'stop cities.
(04:12):
It's been great.
I've gotten to spend a coupledays in Raleigh, a couple days
in Charlotte just in the lastfew weeks and it's such a
vibrant area out there, so manythings happening in the
Carolinas, just very, very cool.
But this is one of those things,and so what they're doing in
this article is an Americantower, the first American tower
data center.
(04:32):
So they're looking at puttingAmerican tower who traditionally
leases space or rent space onthese towers that they own or
that they lease throughout theworld or at least in the United
States.
They've always just been placeswhere people can come and set
up shop and put their equipmentup on the tower.
They charge a monthly fee.
If you don't know how that'scalculated, they basically
charge on the size of theantenna, the wind load and then
(04:55):
the vertical height associatedwith it.
So if you ever need to do atower lease, that's more or less
part of the formula that theydo and then power draw and
everything else.
But now American Tower is movinginto the small data center
business it looks like byputting these small data centers
at the base of their tower.
So when your cell phone or yourdevice connects up now it's
able to process a lot of thatstuff locally.
(05:15):
In the same regard is whatComcast is doing trying to push
it as close to the edge aspossible, without actually
putting it in your house,because that was a conversation
that they had last year at theWBA show and at Wi-Fi.
Now they talked about that,about what can they do to
actually bring compute for AIinto your home.
Well, now they're saying, look,let's get it all the way out to
the edge, because that's aplace that they control.
(05:35):
So American Tower says our edgedata centers address the
requirements by using existingdigital network infrastructure
to extend computing beyondtoday's centralized data center
footprint to create a moredistributed, consistent and
interoperable edge computingexperience.
No pictures, but the raleighdata center is located at the
base of an existing cellulartower enabling to support
(05:56):
wireless and wireline.
Oh, look, here's a full pressrelease.
It says I wonder if they've gotphotos.
There you go.
There's a little ribbon cuttingaction going on.
Let's allow some cookies.
Pretty cool, look at that.
It's like copy pasta from thisthing.
There we go.
So there you go, man, anAmerican tower data center.
How is that going to change thegame?
Right?
How is that going to affect youand I and what we do on a daily
(06:17):
basis, day-to-day basis, usingour devices?
Well, if you move it closer tothe edge now, it's close to all
of us, you know.
Uh, decrease in in latency,ability to do things faster, get
more bang for your buck out ofyour mobile carrier pretty,
pretty cool.
Um, speaking of mobile carriers, this was.
This was an interesting read.
Um, let me see if I can find ithere.
(06:40):
The verizon executive says forthe mvs.
Mvno stands for Mobile VirtualNetwork Operator.
So what an MVNO is.
An MVNO is like if I want tostart a cell phone company
called Drew's Cell Phone Company, the wireless nerd cell phone
company, what I can do is I canreach out to existing operators
(07:00):
like Verizon, t-mobile, at&t,some of these bigger MNOs.
Mobile network operators reachout to these mobile network
operators and say hey, I want topay you a bulk rate to resell
your services and I want to setup a contract so that I can
offer it using your existinginfrastructure, using your tower
, using your radios, yourantennas, everything else.
I'm just a virtual networkoperator that runs on top of
(07:22):
your network.
That's what an MVNO is, andthere's lots of MVNOs that are
out there.
Cricket's one of them, boost isone, but now Boost has some of
their own infrastructure.
Any of the cable carriers areMVNOs.
So Charter Spectrum, throughCharter, the Xfinity Mobile,
these are MVNOs.
And so Verizon is the MNO, themobile network operator, not the
(07:43):
mobile virtual network operator.
The MNO here is saying hey, Ithink cable MVNOs, I think that
they've peaked, he says.
He says I think they've peaked.
Frank Bulbin said during aninvestor event on Wednesday that
(08:06):
the port ratios have steadilydeclined, improving against the
mobile offerings for US cableoperators.
The port ratio is how manydevices move from the mobile
network operator to the mobilevirtual network operator.
As it explains right there,porting is when you move a
number from one carrier serviceto another.
It's called a port.
Now they're probably, even ifthey don't disclose it, starting
to incur some churn.
He says so, is it starting toincur some churn?
He says so, not shots fired,but I mean he's saying hey,
maybe, maybe they've peaked outa little bit.
(08:28):
And that's again back to lightreading fantastic reporting this
from their podcast, talkingabout what the implications of
the Charter and Cox merger is$34.5 billion merger they have
(08:51):
on here and what that means, notonly as consumers, but what
that deal actually looks like.
So one of the things I waskeenly interested in was what's
happening with their managedservice provider service.
Obviously near and dear to myheart is, as you all know, or if
you don't know, I spent a lotof time over at Comcast Business
, spent five years over there inour managed service provider
(09:12):
business, so I got to know thatspace pretty well and it looks
like it's moving over One of thethings.
Right here it says Cox'sEnterprise contributing to the
residential, but where is it?
The news of the 34.5 billiondollar merger will see charter
acquire cox's commercial fiberand managed it and cloud
business.
(09:32):
So there you go.
So charter is rolling up cox'sstuff, it's coming into them.
Um, that's not, don't get wrong, that's not a good thing or a
bad thing, I don't.
I don't know if it's a goodthing or a bad thing.
I think it's great.
Charter's got a great.
They've got got great mobilemanaged service offering.
So did Cox.
So that's going to see someconsolidation there.
And then the fiber providerservice is going to roll in.
(09:53):
Segura is rolling in,rapidscale is rolling in Lots of
things that are happening onthe business side of this.
Now what does that mean for usin the wireless space?
It means that now, instead ofbeing able to sell the Cox and
the Charter now in the wirelessspace, you're going to have one
mega group to go with.
So from a playing fieldperspective, you've got Comcast
(10:13):
business offering their MSP,you've got Charter offering
their MSP.
Combined with all the otherMSPs that are out there, it
pulls a number of MSPs, you knownational MSPs, these big
monster, monolithic MSPs.
It brings that number downfewer.
Now what does that mean overall?
It means you know less peopleto sell more equipment to, so
(10:37):
probably see some consolidationthere happening.
Obviously, from an equipmentperspective.
I don't know what Cox usesversus Charter uses.
I don't have any insight intothat.
But you can imagine if one usesvendor A and one uses vendor B,
now those might combine.
So look for sales forecastsfrom those vendors to come out
and see how this merger isaffecting it.
Now, from a business perspectiveand an end-user operator
(10:57):
service perspective, I'm aCharter subscriber, I'm a
Spectrum subscriber down here inSouth Texas.
That's a carrier that we get.
I don't know if there'sanything bonus or added that
we're going to get because ofthe acquisition, but it's a big
deal.
It changes the landscape inthat space, especially if you
look at what we were justtalking about, those MVNOs.
Now Cox, which only had I thinkit even calls out in here Cox
(11:21):
only had 200 000 subscribers totheir mvno.
Meanwhile charter countsroughly 10.39 million.
So they just increased their uh, their mobile lines a little
bit, uh, kind of fascinating.
So we'll see where that goes.
We'll definitely see where itgoes.
There's, you know, theconsolidation there, the
consolidation with some of thesefiber providers being gobbled
(11:43):
up by t-mobile and by Verizon.
There's this consolidation playthat's coming out in the space
as more people try and stack upmore services.
So pretty interesting.
Let's see what else we gotgoing on.
Oh man, there's just there's alot happening, you know, in In
regard to that I guess I'll talkabout this real quick is in
(12:04):
regard to less choices forconsumers, if you will, or not.
Less choices, maybe the samechoices because, depending on
where you are, that's who yourincumbent provider was.
It's just switching names.
It's not like Cox is going togrow their footprint because
they were acquired by charter.
It's still going to be the samefootprint.
That's there.
And one of the things that cameup that I had a great
(12:24):
conversation with it was thepanel that I got to sit on at
NetworkX this year.
Well, at WBA Global Congressand NetworkX was our panel was
about community connectivity andwhat that looks like in 2025.
What are lessons learned fromthe last few years?
What's the kind of the state ofthe industry right now and
where is it going to go in thenext few years, if you will, and
(12:55):
in retrospect I walked awayfrom the panel.
I was like man I probablysounded pretty sour when I was
talking about that Becausethere's a dose of reality that
you get, living in South Texas,in one of the most economically
challenged areas of the UnitedStates, where you understand
what affordability really isdown here for the people that it
States, where you understandwhat affordability really is
down here for the people that itmatters most to, because
affordability in South Texas andaffordability in Los Angeles
and affordability in New Yorkand affordability in Omaha,
(13:18):
those all mean completelydifferent things.
But you can't say that you'recreating a service that's
affordable for Omaha andexpected to work in West Laco,
texas, right?
You can't create an affordableprogram you know in Pacific
Palisades and expect it to workin San Juan.
You know like it just doesn'twork.
It's not the same.
And so you got to be carefulwhen you're talking about
(13:40):
community plays and what worksand what doesn't, because
sometimes it works in one areabut it might not really work in
another.
And how does this all affecteverything?
You know?
One of the questions that cameout was asking about satellite
services, about low-earthorbiting satellite services, and
does that level the playingfield for individuals to be able
to get high-speed internetaccess at a lower cost.
(14:01):
And Al, who was sitting besideme great, great guy man, go home
Like such a wealth ofinformation to my right-hand
side.
It was incredible to just siton the stage with him.
You know what he was talkingabout.
Was you know, now that there'slow-earth orbiting satellite
services covering the majorityof North America and now
covering all these differentparts of the world which we'll
(14:22):
talk about in just a second?
Does that mean that there'slower cost of internet access?
And in some cases it may betrue, where there's incumbent
carriers or incumbent providerswhere they can drive that cost
down to be in a competitivelandscape.
But when you talk about areasthat are truly rural and truly
economically challenged, there'sno competition out there.
So there's no incentive forsomeone to come in and say you
(14:45):
know what, we're going to do itfor $5 a month or $10 a month or
something that truly isaffordable for the unique group
of people that live in that area.
So it's kind of tough.
You can set up a satelliteservice and say, great, you guys
don't have any options, sowe're going to cover you.
It's $50 a month.
Not realizing that $50 a monthis the entire household budget
(15:08):
for food for the month.
Because that's kind of what welive in in South Texas.
You can't pop up and say youknow what, just run fiber to
everybody's house or provideconnectivity in some way where
people have to pay for it andexpect it to work, because
that's just not the reality ofthe community that I live in.
$5 a month is sometimes stilltoo expensive for people for
connectivity when your son ordaughter gets it at school
already or they can go to someplace that has it.
(15:30):
So when you start to talk aboutcommunity challenges,
affordability to me is still thenumber one thing that comes out
.
And so, while there's a lot ofmovement in the space to provide
more services, better services,faster services, combinations
of Cox and Charter 5G trying todo its thing, low-earth orbiting
satellites to do their thing,you still got to keep in mind
(15:50):
the people that need it the most, are the people that can afford
it the least, and that is avery key factor in talking about
bridging the digital divide,especially in this day and age
where bead funding has now beenlargely withdrawn.
There's a lot of people tryingto get in the presidency here in
the United States saying, hey,man, follow through with this,
please Don't just pull thefunding.
(16:11):
But that's kind of the statethat we're living in and I
talked about this last time whenyou remove the ability for kids
to take home mobile hotspotsfrom the carriers, now you're in
this situation where there'sreally no way to get internet
access into those communities,situation where there's really
no way to get internet accessinto those communities.
Now, speaking of one of thecommunities that's popping up,
(16:32):
that was really cool to see andthis is just.
This is pretty.
Let's see here.
This is pretty new.
This May 30th this fromyesterday Starlink to launch in
India with disruptive $10 permonth plans.
That's pretty awesome, right,you talk about a service that's
needed and that's usable andthis could really help out in an
(16:55):
area that needs it for $10 amonth.
Now is the $10 a month going tobe all in its $840 in Indian
currency, but is $10 in thataffordable area?
I don't know.
I don't live there, it's not myneighborhood, so I'm not sure.
But there is one thing that'sin here where it says the Telcom
(17:15):
Regulatory Authority of Indiais believed to propose an
additional surcharge of $5.84per urban customer, which could
raise the overall cost ofsatellite-based services.
So maybe Starlink does it for$10, plus that $5.84 per urban
customer, which could raise theoverall cost of satellite-based
services.
So maybe Starlink does it for$10, plus that $5.84 in there.
Additionally, satellite serviceproviders like Starlink may
have to shell out 4% of theiradjusted gross revenue and an 8%
(17:37):
license fee to offer commercialservices a minimum annual
spectrum charge of $41 per block.
So part of me is like, hey,they're getting this right.
You know, part of me in the USis like, hey, they're getting
this right.
Part of me in the US is like,hey, I don't want to pay all
this extra stuff.
But part of me is looking atthis, going, hey, man, that's a
(17:57):
model that's going to make sense.
I feel like for India to beable to get some revenue off of
what's happening in this.
So I don't know if it's rightor wrong, I just know that I
look at that and go, well,that's cool, it's going to
increase the cost of service,but it's also going to make it
sustainable for the country.
So we'll see what happens.
We'll see what happens.
It's exciting to know thatthey're coming out of the gate
with a $10 per month plan.
Now, that $10 per month plan.
I don't know what is includedin it.
(18:20):
Let's see if we look in hereand it shows us a little bit
more.
We've jumped now over to theEconomic Times industry
newspaper.
Let's go ahead and cancel thatoffer, and I don't see it in
here.
I don't see if that's what'sinvolved in it.
(18:41):
It doesn't say if it's one gig,10 gig.
It doesn't say what theaggregated throughput of any of
that is, but I'm sure that it'ssomething so great to see some
movement that's happening there.
There was another article and II found it and I didn't read it.
Let me see if I can look it upreal quick.
Starlink got in trouble inAustralia.
Let me see if I can find it.
They got in trouble becausethey weren't reporting their
(19:03):
drops in intermittent issues andso the government of Australia,
uh, got a little upset withthem for doing what they do.
So that that's happening.
Now this one is a little bitcrazier, right, this is
something that's happening thatwas like man, this is, this is
nuts.
And and I remember years ago Igot to meet Charlie Ergen and he
(19:25):
was a.
He was such a nice dude.
I've never met Elon Musk.
I don't know if he's a nice guyor not.
Never pressed the flesh andshook his hand.
But I did get to meet CharlieErgen one time at a show it was
Wisp America and it was inFlorida, I think it was in
Orlando and he just rolled inand was super down to earth and
a nice guy to talk to andwhatever, and so I've always had
(19:48):
such a cool opinion of him justbecause I got to meet him.
I guess, I don't know, call mejaded in that respect, but he
could be a total prick.
I don't know, I don't know himthat well, but he was nice to me
.
So there's something to be saidfor that.
But in this.
So this popped up which wascrazy and I can't believe that
things like this are actuallyhappening.
(20:08):
But Charlie Ergen is the guywho backs Echo Star and Dish
Network and all that stuff.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right.
So he's doing this thing andall of a sudden the FCC chairman
, brendan Carr, opened aninvestigation into Echo Star and
according to our buddy, mikeDano, who I don't think I still
have ever met, mike in person,but Mike, I do want to meet you.
You do some great writing, man.
(20:29):
According to Mike over here, theoptics are not good.
It's possible that Carr issimply doing the bidding of Elon
Musk.
Musk wants Carr to take the 2gigahertz MSS spectrum away from
Echo Star so that he can giveit to Musk.
Dude what?
I'm not even sure.
I'm not even sure.
(20:50):
I'm not even sure.
This is just what's happening.
I don't want to have an opinion, left or right, or up or down,
but then you read stuff likethis.
It's just so crazy.
So, not surprisingly, echo Star,backed by Charlie Ergen, is
fighting back.
A bunch of Echo Star's partnersand vendors are registering
their support for the companyand its 5g satellite ambitions.
Not surprisingly, a bunch ofother satellite companies are
now asking for echo stars.
(21:11):
Two gigahertz, obviously.
Obviously, if the fcc goes, hey, we're going to take that away
from echo star, let's give it tospacex.
I'm sure there's other peoplegoing.
Well, why don't you give it tome?
Well, why don't you hook me up?
Um in the fcc?
Proceeding on the matter, echostar offered a few tidbits about
its wireless business.
Now this is the crazy part ofthis article.
It's 5G network now supports1.3 million of 7 million subs.
(21:32):
Okay, the remainder sit on AT&Tmobile.
Echostar gained another 88,000wireless subs in April on top of
the company's Boost Mobile wetalked about Boost MVNO, but
also building out their ownthing.
The company's Boost Mobileoffering EchoStar is uniquely an
American success story.
Which it is, man, because ifyou go back in time to MMDS and
LMDS and how satellite came inand totally disrupted the
(21:56):
wireless cable TV industry nowI'm totally aging myself.
This was I remember when thishappened and watching Echo Star
be built and watching orwatching Dish be built, echo
Star be built, watching DirecTVbe you know be assembled.
It was kind of nuts.
But the problem here is that itlooks blatant.
(22:19):
You know Carr's credibilityhere is strained by the blatant
politics surrounding FCC actionsand trump's administration in
general.
First the fcc just approved twotransactions, one by t-mobile,
another by verizon, after twocompanies promised to end their
d and I programs and car hasdescribed it we're not gonna get
into that.
But now they're saying, well,maybe, uh, car appears prepared
(22:40):
to block the paramount skydancedeal over complaints from the
administration.
And so now it's like you've gotthis guy literally standing
right next to the president whojust magically is going to get a
whole bunch of spectrum handedto him by the FCC.
It's just not good lookingoverall.
So how does that affecteverything?
(23:01):
Well, I mean from aconsolidation perspective.
Let's go back to thatconversation about rural
connectivity.
If I've got fewer providers inan area and fewer amounts of
competition, how do we everexpect to connect people who
can't afford service if there'sonly one provider or two
providers being able to go outthere and set their prices where
(23:21):
they are?
You all know me, they are.
You all know me.
I'm a huge proponent forbroadband connectivity, whether
it's through satellite orwhether it's through wireless or
whether it's through Wi-Fi orwhether it's through fiber or
whatever it is.
I'm a huge proponent of it.
And so to think that theadministration is now getting
involved.
And just look at the biggerpicture here, right, you've got
(23:42):
bead funding being stalled out,you've got the ability for kids
to take home hotspots, thecompetition in the marketplace
consolidating, with a lot ofthese mergers that are happening
, but yet there's this oneperson who seems to be getting
extra special love and care toprovide access into those
communities.
(24:03):
Now, listen, if he turns aroundand he goes, hey, now we're
going to use the spectrum andall this stuff so that we can
just provide free internetaccess via Starlink to the
people who need it the most Dude, I will shut my mouth like, by
all means elon, if you'relistening which I know you are,
because elon's a huge fan of thewaves podcast maybe not ever,
but if you're listening and youdecide just to dump free wi-fi
(24:26):
or free internet access oneveryone because you're getting
all these concessions from thegovernment, good on you, bro,
good on you anyway, I don't knowlike.
This is why I stay out ofpolitics, because I just look at
it and there's some things thatjust don't make sense to me.
Anyway, let's see what else wecould talk about other than that
fiber connect 2025.
And now for somethingcompletely different june 1st to
(24:49):
june 4th in nashville, whichmeans it's starting uh, tomorrow
and it runs this week is thefiber connect conference.
Again, fiber connect is aboutconnecting people to the
internet via access deliveredvia fiber.
For a lot of these FISPs, andnow some of the wireless ISPs
are moving over into it this isa big conference to be at.
A lot of the big players aregoing to be there talking about
(25:10):
ways that they can deliverconnectivity.
So if you have plans to be inand around Nashville this week,
please check out FiberConnect.
There's going to be a lot ofpeople there 5,000 attendees.
It looks like in 2024.
But again, these are peoplethat are tuned into this.
Now, speaking of events, let medrop the hint on this one real
(25:32):
quick.
Meter is putting together theirsecond Meter Up event.
This is Tuesday, november 18th.
It's in San Francisco.
Early bird tickets right noware available via registration
$349.
On July 25th that's going to goup to $449.
On the website here it saysthat Meter Up is a gathering for
IT and networking experts,business executives, partners,
(25:54):
industry analysts, blah, blah,blah all these great people.
Here's what I will tell you thatMeterUp is.
It is a great place where a lotof really next, just have a
(26:19):
conversation with your networkin the same language that I'm
talking to you in right now.
They're doing some prettyincredible stuff and they're
doing stuff that stands out fromopen ai, which, oh my god, the
stuff that's coming out withwith, uh, with their new
(26:40):
acquisition not meters, but openai's acquisition anyway.
Um, if you can think about thenext iteration of what your
career looks like and whatnetworking looks like, meter up
is going to be one of thoseplaces that, in five years, I
think, we turn around and go oh,I met that person there and
that's what they were talkingabout, because there's a lot of
(27:01):
really cool next generationconversation happening there.
Now, of course, it is an eventfor a vendor, so if you're
interested in their products andservices and all that stuff,
obviously they'll be there.
Obviously, they're alsosponsors of the show, but that's
not why I'm talking aboutMeterUp.
I mean it's not, but I meanthey can count this towards
their credits.
I guess I don't know.
But the reason I really likedMeterUp last year when I went is
(27:23):
because it stoked conversationthat you're not going to have
anywhere else.
And Cisco Live is happening andit's coming up.
The level of conversation thathas had at MeterUp compared to
the level of conversation atCisco Live.
Cisco Live is like the everyday.
This is how to work with yournetwork.
This is the stuff to do.
There's not a lot of theseconversations that are like
what's going to be happening inthree years from now or five
(27:45):
years from now?
Where is this whole thing going?
It's a lot of people at CiscoLive doing the same thing and
figuring out better ways to doit within the confines of what
the world of Cisco, the world ofsolutions, offers.
But if you want to step out ofthat world.
There's a couple ways you cando it.
One, meterup, is a great way toget together with a bunch of
people.
Hopefully, as it looks rightnow, I'm going to be there, so
(28:07):
I'm excited.
Oh, look, no other conferencegives you such a level of access
and transparency.
It made me believe in theproduct and the people behind it
.
That's a quote that they haveon their website.
Uh, drew lynn's wireless nerd.
I'm glad I saw that.
Um, but this is one place, isit meter up?
But, juniper, as juniper does,you know what they're doing?
Look, I'm just gonna type itand let's see if I can find it
(28:27):
over here.
Juniper, san diego man, you knowthese guys, uh, do the craziest
stuff and it's always funnywhen they do it.
I mean, I feel it's alwaysfunny when they do it.
I mean, I feel like it's funnywhen they do it in Vegas.
But now they're doing the samething in San Diego.
Like I'll never forget thefirst time Juniper did their AI
(28:48):
Native Now conference at thesame time as Cisco Live.
Everyone's coming down theseescalators at the airport in Las
Vegas airport and the entirebaggage claim area was sponsored
by juniper at cisco live.
Like dude, it's.
It's just.
I mean, like it's funny, it'sgood competition.
I'm sure there's people thatare upset by it, but it's, you
know, it's tongue in cheek, likelike it's, it's funny and it's
(29:11):
low-key, you know, kind of cool.
They're doing it again.
And if you want to learn aboutwhat juniper is doing in this
space, obviously they're notgoing to talk about the hp
acquisition.
They can't.
I'm sure that a lot of themwish they knew what was going on
.
Uh, I'm sure a lot of themwould love to share what's going
on or what the future means,but they're going to be talking
about their ai components.
Um, as uh sudhir mentioned,it's the best conference
(29:34):
happening that week in San Diego, according to Sudhir.
And if you know him, if you'veseen him at WLPC, if you've had
the chance to meet him, you knowexactly the look on his face
when he said that.
But this is going to be reallycool because if you go to AI
Native Now which I'm going to bethere, of course I'm like you
got to go.
They have such a good time.
It's during Cisco Live, so youknow you got to go.
(29:55):
They have such a good time.
It's during Cisco Live, soyou're already going to be in
town probably, if you make yourway over to the AI Native Now
event, pay close attention towhat they're doing.
The registration is open now.
It's June 10th and 11th, soit's in about 10 days.
Go here and listen to theirstory and listen to what their
view of AI is.
(30:19):
Cisco, I'm sure, is doing somesessions on AI at Cisco Live
Nothing as big and as bold andas published as what's happening
at Juniper or what's happeningat Meter.
But if you pay attention tothis session and then you show
up in November to Meter Up,there's a story that's coming
along about AI.
That is really incredible andthe way that it's going to
change what we do, how we do it,when we do it, where we do it,
(30:41):
how it gets done and what thelevel of interaction from us to
our networks are.
So I would strongly encourageyou, do the AI Now thing, do the
meter up thing If you're goingto Cisco Live.
I'm sure, if I look it up, letme see here.
If I look up cisco live 2025 ai, let's see, cisco live begins
(31:05):
in eight days.
Cisco live well, that's 2024.
Okay, ai powered innovation, thecisco live hub this just tells
me that it's open again.
See, you see what I'm saying,like there's, there's, there's
the party, which the party'sgreat, but there's nothing big
and bold talking about what'shappening with cisco ai, in
regards to cisco live and, and Isee that as kind of a miss,
(31:29):
because not just because of thebuzzword component of it, but
just because, like it's goteverybody's mind share right now
and you scroll and you look andyou know, obviously my google
is probably a because of thebuzzword component of it, but
just because, like it's goteverybody's mindshare right now,
and you scroll and you look andyou know, obviously my Google
is probably a little bitdifferent than your Google, but
there's nothing that's reallycalling it out, you know.
So.
So I'm curious to see whatthose are.
I'm curious if you've got asession that you're going to to
learn more about the way thatCisco is implementing AI.
(31:53):
I would love to read more aboutit because, as of right now,
there's two big voices that arereally shouting One's Meter and
the other is Juniper and,depending on your circles, those
are the two that are making alot of sense.
So those are a couple of eventsthat are coming up.
Obviously, high-tech is comingup also.
If you're in the hospitalityindustry, check this one out man
.
It's been so long since I'vebeen to Indianapolis and so I'm
(32:16):
kind of looking forward to it,because it's been a really long
time since I've been there.
The Indiana Convention CenterJune 16th through 19th so,
following Cisco Live, this ispopping up.
Produced by HFTP and all theseguys.
This is a really, really funone.
If you have anything to do withhospitality, or if you want to
learn more about hospitality, orif you just live in
Indianapolis and you want to gocheck out some nerd stuff, let
me know if you need a pass.
(32:37):
I don't know if I have anypasses or not, but I mean, I've
never had a problem getting intoshows, so there's always where
there's a will, there's a way.
But if you're looking to go,this is a really cool event that
shows you what's happening inthe hospitality industry.
And part of me is just a nerdthat likes to go to high tech,
because I like live in hotels.
Basically, I'm about to hittitanium or whatever.
On on Marriott, I've diamond.
(32:59):
On Hilton, I love my Hiltondiamond status.
You know it's.
It's great and I feel like Ilive in these places.
So, uh, it's great to see whatnew, innovative things are being
talked about at high tech andwho's adopting them and what
they're doing with it, what myexperience as an end user is in
these properties and how that'sgoing to change.
That's what keeps me comingback to high tech.
I've had the opportunity to goa number of times and this year
(33:22):
I don't know what the trends areyet, so looking forward to
seeing what the trends are athigh tech 2025.
That's happening inIndianapolis and then coming up
real soon.
Right around the corner is WLPCPrague.
So you all know, you alreadyknow wlpc prog.
So you, you all know, youalready know.
Um, in talking about prog, Idon't want to talk about one of
(33:43):
the things that keith and I uhthe plan that we hatched, and
eva santos was standing rightbeside us when we're sitting
there going, oh my god, weshould totally do this.
That would be awesome, uh, sowe'll see, but just know that,
as it looks right now, there'sgoing to be an awesome part of
wlpc prog.
Uh, everything is is awesomethere, but there's going to be a
session there that is going tobe unique and fun and and uh, it
(34:06):
should be really, really cool,really cool based on what we
were doing at uh network x.
So if you go back you look whatI was doing.
Network x, it might tease youout a little bit and see what's
going on there.
But WLPC Prague is coming upsoon and it's going to be a who
banger, if you will.
It's going to be a good oldtime.
Um, what else is happening?
All right, let's go through thetabs.
Ready Google teams up with Xreal Warby Parker.
(34:29):
Okay, normally I won't getexcited about this, but, dude, I
can't tell you how much I lovemy Ray-Ban Metaglasses.
I love them.
I love them because I take themon vacation and I take videos
of my kids skiing and I waswearing them when I jumped off a
boat and I had to throw themback at the boat.
They're so cool, man, and I'vehad such a good time with them.
And now this conversation istaking place, which is cool.
(34:57):
Now, x-real has been a greatexhibitor at CES For the last
couple years.
I've been there and theirs is astandout, keep in mind.
What's different about theirsis they have a little cable that
runs down and plugs into adevice plugs into a phone or
into a device.
So they're not the same as themeta Ray-Ban glasses.
They're a little bit different,but they're partnering with
Warby Parker now, which is agood move, in my opinion, in the
(35:21):
right direction, so that it'ssomething that people are used
to and comfortable with on theirface, but now adding XR.
So Android XR is going to be onthere, which is going to allow
you to do all kinds of differentstuff.
All kinds of different stuff,multi-modal AI.
It says when this goes, I don'tknow, but things like the
ability to translate in realtime, things like the ability to
see stats about sports teamsand everything else as you're
(35:41):
watching the game Hopefullysomeday.
What I want is the ability towalk through a conference, have
these glasses on and it be ableto tell me when I look at
someone, pop up their LinkedInprofile and show me who they are
and how I know them, because Iget to meet so many incredible
people and the first thing I dois I go back to LinkedIn and I'm
like how many connections do wehave?
Who am I talking to?
I want to see that happen inreal time in glasses.
So glad to see that that'shappening between these two
(36:04):
organizations.
All right, aws kills private 5Goffering the computer with
carriers.
This was big news when it brokethe original conversation about
AWS saying, hey, we're going togo in and we're going to
install a 5G service, private 5Gservice for you, and there's no
upfront fee, or maybe a smallupfront fee, but it's based on
utilization and what you'redoing with it.
Now AWS has said they are nolonger selling the private 5G
(36:26):
offering that was announced in2021.
Again, mike Dano, mike, one ofthese days we're going to hang
out man, but they're still goingto continue to offer the
integrated private wireless onAWS program.
So we don't know.
They're getting rid of this one.
More information about that onLight Reading.
But 5G man, is 5G really a thing?
Like?
Is it happening?
It seems like it's still justwaiting for its ultimate moment.
(36:54):
For private 5G to just dosomething great Because it is
great.
It's like the coolest thing I'mtrying to think of, like a
household appliance that's likeprivate 5G to just do something
great Because it is great.
It's like the coolest thing I'mtrying to think of, like a
household appliance that's likeprivate 5G.
It's the coolest thing for whenyou're going to use it.
But when are you actually goingto use it?
I don't know.
Check this out.
Speaking of random things, thislaser breakthrough can read
text on a page from a mile away.
Dude, what I don't know.
(37:18):
I don't know where that look.
This is nuts.
I don't know where this comesinto play, but I thought it was
cool so I clicked on it.
Lidar is great for cars.
Oh, this is fast.
I'm not going to try this, but,um, you can permanently damage
your camera if you take apicture of lidar.
So if you're watching that,that waymo cruise by and you
snap a picture of its lidar unit, check out what's happening on
your, on your sensor.
Man, this is a picture thatthat shows all these different
(37:40):
little color variations that popup.
Um, if you take a picture ofthese, uh, lidar sensors, so be
warned, don't say I didn't tellyou.
Uh, we already talked about thetaco happening at wgc america.
We talked about that, the thebuy local option for iphone,
threatening, uh, threatening ahuge tariff on on apple iphones
(38:00):
if they're not manufactured inthe united states.
Dude, do you know what it takesto put those phones together?
Anyway, that's what we gotgoing on.
Don't forget about meter up.
Um, that's happening.
What else do we have going on?
I think that's it.
That that's the run of show.
That's everything that we gotfor waves on this May 31st
edition Next week.
Let's see home next week.
(38:21):
And then I get to do an event.
I'm going out to set up theWorld Surfing League at Trestles
in San Clemente, california.
Now, trestles is cool becausethat's where the Olympics when
they come to LA.
The Summer Olympic surfingcompetition is going to be held
at Trestle, so I get to go outthere and help set up with Iro
for the WSL.
So we're going to have a reallygood time, very similar to what
(38:42):
I did on North Shore of Hawaii,this time in Southern
California.
And then, leading into that,I'm going to leave there and go
down to Cisco Live.
So if you're at Cisco Live,come see me.
Totally going to crash Alexis'shappy hour and go bug those
guys and say hi.
Also, there's some dance movesthat I think I want to learn
from her.
Maybe contribute to that'scoming up.
(39:03):
What else I just did?
Nascar.
I got to go to a NASCAR race.
I've never been to a NASCARrace.
We set up Wi-Fi in the pit atNASCAR.
I did a whole video on it.
If you check my LinkedIn, youcan see that video.
It was the most insaneinterference area that I've ever
seen.
That was pretty crazy.
I have another music.
I've got a music festivalcoming up that I'll be doing in
Southampton June I want to say21st.
(39:25):
So if you happen to be in theNew York City area and you want
to see a really good DJ themusic that was playing at the
beginning Anyway, if you want tosee some cool stuff, I'm going
to be out there doing that, yeah, man.
But other than that, catch meon the road, catch me outside.
See you all soon.
Thanks for listening to theWaves Podcast.
(39:46):
Don't forget to check outwhat's happening with Meter Up.
We appreciate their sponsorshipof the show.
Make sure you look into what'shappening.
I'm about to do a whole episodeon what's happening with Helium
, one of our other kind andwonderful sponsors, to see
what's going on with them.
And, yeah, stay tuned and wewill see you all next week.
Until then, have a wonderfulweek, see ya.
What's up everybody.
Happy Saturday.
This is Drew Lentz, theWireless Nerd, and this is the
Waves Podcast.
It is May 31st 2025.
It's been a heck of a two weeks.
We've had a lot of fun.
I've been out in the fielddoing some stuff.
I came home with like ascratchy throat and a sinus
thing going on, but whatevs, man, that's what happens, right?
Yeah, it's been a busy week.
(00:23):
There's a lot of thingshappening in the industry right
now A lot of movement, a lot ofconsolidation, which is pretty
crazy Stuff that's happeningeverywhere, and some events that
are coming up.
Some new events, some oldevents, wico man.
It's rare for me to get FOMO, Ifeel like, but I do have FOMO
from not being at any of theWICO events so far.
I haven't had the opportunityto make one out yet, but
(00:44):
Nashville looked like it waspretty awesome.
Hopefully we've got one comingup soon in the Austin-San
Antonio area.
If you're in the Austin-SanAntonio area and you'd like a
WICO event, please bug PeterMcKenzie and let him know, or
bug me and I'll bug him for you.
Either way, great to seeeverybody coming together.
There's been some really coolimages coming out of that.
Everybody you know, I feel like.
In fact, every time there's oneof those events, my LinkedIn
(01:08):
feed just blows up with all thepeople that are out there having
a good time not including me,but that's okay, it happens so
happy to see everybody outhaving a good time at those
White Coat events, anyway.
So let's jump into it.
There's been a couple thingsthat happened.
The last podcast I cut was lastweek and then published again
(01:35):
or published at the beginning ofthis week, so this one.
Let me go back and talk aboutsome of the things I did before.
It was really really neat to bea part of that in Dallas in the
Irving Convention Center, theLas Colinas Event Center there
in Dallas, Got to go to a hockeygame and see the Stars and the
Edmonton Oilers, courtesy ofWi-Fi Stan.
Wi-fi Stan went out and said hey, you know what?
We're going to have some fun.
And Stu from Ekahau and I wentand got to go take a look at
(01:59):
what was going on with thehockey game.
It was great to see.
I don't know if the series isover yet, but I think it's
pretty close.
Um, that was fun.
It was great to run into somany people.
There were faces at that eventthat I haven't seen in so long.
Shonda miller, who's now withjma wireless.
Jody nicewanger, who's over atradwin.
I got to see fletch, michaelfletcher.
Fletch, who I was at meta with,is now back over at ruckus.
(02:21):
Jason balkham over at RuckusGreat to see so many people just
from way back in the day in theindustry still doing incredible
things.
And I got the opportunity tospeak on a panel, which was
really good.
You know me, I love to talk,but what was funny is it seems
like the word of the day right,this was an interesting.
Adlane did a write-up and hetalked about WGC America's
(02:45):
Network X, a taco filled with AI, convergence and APIs.
You know, fitting for the stateof Texas he put on there.
It felt like a technology tacowhere all of these things came
together, and it really was.
I mean, there was a lot of talkof AI and convergence and the
ability for APIs to work northand south and east and west,
even if you will.
And there was such a great talkthat was done by one of the
(03:07):
gentlemen from Comcast talkingabout the way that they're
integrating AI components andcompute components into the
actual pedestal, how they showedoff this device that goes
inside the pedestal to runcompute for AI and all these
other incredible things there asclose to the home as you can
(03:29):
possibly get.
And that was really cool to seeabout the advancements that
they're making, not just inconnectivity, not just in
latency, not just in the L4Sstuff, but also in speed,
obviously, but with movementinto the AI component and how
they're adding compute to it.
That was pretty neat.
One of the articles that Iwanted to talk to also was this
one coming at you from LightReading Lots of good, hey, lots
(03:51):
of good reporting from LightReading coming out in the last
couple of weeks.
I got to say I try and monitorall the channels but man, light
Reading is just killing it rightnow and this was interesting to
read.
Along the same regard, americanTower is building edge sites in
North Carolina, so they justdid this ribbon cutting in
Raleigh, which is one of Tech'stop cities.
(04:12):
It's been great.
I've gotten to spend a coupledays in Raleigh, a couple days
in Charlotte just in the lastfew weeks and it's such a
vibrant area out there, so manythings happening in the
Carolinas, just very, very cool.
But this is one of those things,and so what they're doing in
this article is an Americantower, the first American tower
data center.
(04:32):
So they're looking at puttingAmerican tower who traditionally
leases space or rent space onthese towers that they own or
that they lease throughout theworld or at least in the United
States.
They've always just been placeswhere people can come and set
up shop and put their equipmentup on the tower.
They charge a monthly fee.
If you don't know how that'scalculated, they basically
charge on the size of theantenna, the wind load and then
(04:55):
the vertical height associatedwith it.
So if you ever need to do atower lease, that's more or less
part of the formula that theydo and then power draw and
everything else.
But now American Tower is movinginto the small data center
business it looks like byputting these small data centers
at the base of their tower.
So when your cell phone or yourdevice connects up now it's
able to process a lot of thatstuff locally.
(05:15):
In the same regard is whatComcast is doing trying to push
it as close to the edge aspossible, without actually
putting it in your house,because that was a conversation
that they had last year at theWBA show and at Wi-Fi.
Now they talked about that,about what can they do to
actually bring compute for AIinto your home.
Well, now they're saying, look,let's get it all the way out to
the edge, because that's aplace that they control.
(05:35):
So American Tower says our edgedata centers address the
requirements by using existingdigital network infrastructure
to extend computing beyondtoday's centralized data center
footprint to create a moredistributed, consistent and
interoperable edge computingexperience.
No pictures, but the raleighdata center is located at the
base of an existing cellulartower enabling to support
(05:56):
wireless and wireline.
Oh, look, here's a full pressrelease.
It says I wonder if they've gotphotos.
There you go.
There's a little ribbon cuttingaction going on.
Let's allow some cookies.
Pretty cool, look at that.
It's like copy pasta from thisthing.
There we go.
So there you go, man, anAmerican tower data center.
How is that going to change thegame?
Right?
How is that going to affect youand I and what we do on a daily
(06:17):
basis, day-to-day basis, usingour devices?
Well, if you move it closer tothe edge now, it's close to all
of us, you know.
Uh, decrease in in latency,ability to do things faster, get
more bang for your buck out ofyour mobile carrier pretty,
pretty cool.
Um, speaking of mobile carriers, this was.
This was an interesting read.
Um, let me see if I can find ithere.
(06:40):
The verizon executive says forthe mvs.
Mvno stands for Mobile VirtualNetwork Operator.
So what an MVNO is.
An MVNO is like if I want tostart a cell phone company
called Drew's Cell Phone Company, the wireless nerd cell phone
company, what I can do is I canreach out to existing operators
(07:00):
like Verizon, t-mobile, at&t,some of these bigger MNOs.
Mobile network operators reachout to these mobile network
operators and say hey, I want topay you a bulk rate to resell
your services and I want to setup a contract so that I can
offer it using your existinginfrastructure, using your tower
, using your radios, yourantennas, everything else.
I'm just a virtual networkoperator that runs on top of
(07:22):
your network.
That's what an MVNO is, andthere's lots of MVNOs that are
out there.
Cricket's one of them, boost isone, but now Boost has some of
their own infrastructure.
Any of the cable carriers areMVNOs.
So Charter Spectrum, throughCharter, the Xfinity Mobile,
these are MVNOs.
And so Verizon is the MNO, themobile network operator, not the
(07:43):
mobile virtual network operator.
The MNO here is saying hey, Ithink cable MVNOs, I think that
they've peaked, he says.
He says I think they've peaked.
Frank Bulbin said during aninvestor event on Wednesday that
(08:06):
the port ratios have steadilydeclined, improving against the
mobile offerings for US cableoperators.
The port ratio is how manydevices move from the mobile
network operator to the mobilevirtual network operator.
As it explains right there,porting is when you move a
number from one carrier serviceto another.
It's called a port.
Now they're probably, even ifthey don't disclose it, starting
to incur some churn.
He says so, is it starting toincur some churn?
He says so, not shots fired,but I mean he's saying hey,
maybe, maybe they've peaked outa little bit.
(08:28):
And that's again back to lightreading fantastic reporting this
from their podcast, talkingabout what the implications of
the Charter and Cox merger is$34.5 billion merger they have
(08:51):
on here and what that means, notonly as consumers, but what
that deal actually looks like.
So one of the things I waskeenly interested in was what's
happening with their managedservice provider service.
Obviously near and dear to myheart is, as you all know, or if
you don't know, I spent a lotof time over at Comcast Business
, spent five years over there inour managed service provider
(09:12):
business, so I got to know thatspace pretty well and it looks
like it's moving over One of thethings.
Right here it says Cox'sEnterprise contributing to the
residential, but where is it?
The news of the 34.5 billiondollar merger will see charter
acquire cox's commercial fiberand managed it and cloud
business.
(09:32):
So there you go.
So charter is rolling up cox'sstuff, it's coming into them.
Um, that's not, don't get wrong, that's not a good thing or a
bad thing, I don't.
I don't know if it's a goodthing or a bad thing.
I think it's great.
Charter's got a great.
They've got got great mobilemanaged service offering.
So did Cox.
So that's going to see someconsolidation there.
And then the fiber providerservice is going to roll in.
(09:53):
Segura is rolling in,rapidscale is rolling in Lots of
things that are happening onthe business side of this.
Now what does that mean for usin the wireless space?
It means that now, instead ofbeing able to sell the Cox and
the Charter now in the wirelessspace, you're going to have one
mega group to go with.
So from a playing fieldperspective, you've got Comcast
(10:13):
business offering their MSP,you've got Charter offering
their MSP.
Combined with all the otherMSPs that are out there, it
pulls a number of MSPs, you knownational MSPs, these big
monster, monolithic MSPs.
It brings that number downfewer.
Now what does that mean overall?
It means you know less peopleto sell more equipment to, so
(10:37):
probably see some consolidationthere happening.
Obviously, from an equipmentperspective.
I don't know what Cox usesversus Charter uses.
I don't have any insight intothat.
But you can imagine if one usesvendor A and one uses vendor B,
now those might combine.
So look for sales forecastsfrom those vendors to come out
and see how this merger isaffecting it.
Now, from a business perspectiveand an end-user operator
(10:57):
service perspective, I'm aCharter subscriber, I'm a
Spectrum subscriber down here inSouth Texas.
That's a carrier that we get.
I don't know if there'sanything bonus or added that
we're going to get because ofthe acquisition, but it's a big
deal.
It changes the landscape inthat space, especially if you
look at what we were justtalking about, those MVNOs.
Now Cox, which only had I thinkit even calls out in here Cox
(11:21):
only had 200 000 subscribers totheir mvno.
Meanwhile charter countsroughly 10.39 million.
So they just increased their uh, their mobile lines a little
bit, uh, kind of fascinating.
So we'll see where that goes.
We'll definitely see where itgoes.
There's, you know, theconsolidation there, the
consolidation with some of thesefiber providers being gobbled
(11:43):
up by t-mobile and by Verizon.
There's this consolidation playthat's coming out in the space
as more people try and stack upmore services.
So pretty interesting.
Let's see what else we gotgoing on.
Oh man, there's just there's alot happening, you know, in In
regard to that I guess I'll talkabout this real quick is in
(12:04):
regard to less choices forconsumers, if you will, or not.
Less choices, maybe the samechoices because, depending on
where you are, that's who yourincumbent provider was.
It's just switching names.
It's not like Cox is going togrow their footprint because
they were acquired by charter.
It's still going to be the samefootprint.
That's there.
And one of the things that cameup that I had a great
(12:24):
conversation with it was thepanel that I got to sit on at
NetworkX this year.
Well, at WBA Global Congressand NetworkX was our panel was
about community connectivity andwhat that looks like in 2025.
What are lessons learned fromthe last few years?
What's the kind of the state ofthe industry right now and
where is it going to go in thenext few years, if you will, and
(12:55):
in retrospect I walked awayfrom the panel.
I was like man I probablysounded pretty sour when I was
talking about that Becausethere's a dose of reality that
you get, living in South Texas,in one of the most economically
challenged areas of the UnitedStates, where you understand
what affordability really isdown here for the people that it
States, where you understandwhat affordability really is
down here for the people that itmatters most to, because
affordability in South Texas andaffordability in Los Angeles
and affordability in New Yorkand affordability in Omaha,
(13:18):
those all mean completelydifferent things.
But you can't say that you'recreating a service that's
affordable for Omaha andexpected to work in West Laco,
texas, right?
You can't create an affordableprogram you know in Pacific
Palisades and expect it to workin San Juan.
You know like it just doesn'twork.
It's not the same.
And so you got to be carefulwhen you're talking about
(13:40):
community plays and what worksand what doesn't, because
sometimes it works in one areabut it might not really work in
another.
And how does this all affecteverything?
You know?
One of the questions that cameout was asking about satellite
services, about low-earthorbiting satellite services, and
does that level the playingfield for individuals to be able
to get high-speed internetaccess at a lower cost.
(14:01):
And Al, who was sitting besideme great, great guy man, go home
Like such a wealth ofinformation to my right-hand
side.
It was incredible to just siton the stage with him.
You know what he was talkingabout.
Was you know, now that there'slow-earth orbiting satellite
services covering the majorityof North America and now
covering all these differentparts of the world which we'll
(14:22):
talk about in just a second?
Does that mean that there'slower cost of internet access?
And in some cases it may betrue, where there's incumbent
carriers or incumbent providerswhere they can drive that cost
down to be in a competitivelandscape.
But when you talk about areasthat are truly rural and truly
economically challenged, there'sno competition out there.
So there's no incentive forsomeone to come in and say you
(14:45):
know what, we're going to do itfor $5 a month or $10 a month or
something that truly isaffordable for the unique group
of people that live in that area.
So it's kind of tough.
You can set up a satelliteservice and say, great, you guys
don't have any options, sowe're going to cover you.
It's $50 a month.
Not realizing that $50 a monthis the entire household budget
(15:08):
for food for the month.
Because that's kind of what welive in in South Texas.
You can't pop up and say youknow what, just run fiber to
everybody's house or provideconnectivity in some way where
people have to pay for it andexpect it to work, because
that's just not the reality ofthe community that I live in.
$5 a month is sometimes stilltoo expensive for people for
connectivity when your son ordaughter gets it at school
already or they can go to someplace that has it.
(15:30):
So when you start to talk aboutcommunity challenges,
affordability to me is still thenumber one thing that comes out
.
And so, while there's a lot ofmovement in the space to provide
more services, better services,faster services, combinations
of Cox and Charter 5G trying todo its thing, low-earth orbiting
satellites to do their thing,you still got to keep in mind
(15:50):
the people that need it the most, are the people that can afford
it the least, and that is avery key factor in talking about
bridging the digital divide,especially in this day and age
where bead funding has now beenlargely withdrawn.
There's a lot of people tryingto get in the presidency here in
the United States saying, hey,man, follow through with this,
please Don't just pull thefunding.
(16:11):
But that's kind of the statethat we're living in and I
talked about this last time whenyou remove the ability for kids
to take home mobile hotspotsfrom the carriers, now you're in
this situation where there'sreally no way to get internet
access into those communities,situation where there's really
no way to get internet accessinto those communities.
Now, speaking of one of thecommunities that's popping up,
(16:32):
that was really cool to see andthis is just.
This is pretty.
Let's see here.
This is pretty new.
This May 30th this fromyesterday Starlink to launch in
India with disruptive $10 permonth plans.
That's pretty awesome, right,you talk about a service that's
needed and that's usable andthis could really help out in an
(16:55):
area that needs it for $10 amonth.
Now is the $10 a month going tobe all in its $840 in Indian
currency, but is $10 in thataffordable area?
I don't know.
I don't live there, it's not myneighborhood, so I'm not sure.
But there is one thing that'sin here where it says the Telcom
(17:15):
Regulatory Authority of Indiais believed to propose an
additional surcharge of $5.84per urban customer, which could
raise the overall cost ofsatellite-based services.
So maybe Starlink does it for$10, plus that $5.84 per urban
customer, which could raise theoverall cost of satellite-based
services.
So maybe Starlink does it for$10, plus that $5.84 in there.
Additionally, satellite serviceproviders like Starlink may
have to shell out 4% of theiradjusted gross revenue and an 8%
(17:37):
license fee to offer commercialservices a minimum annual
spectrum charge of $41 per block.
So part of me is like, hey,they're getting this right.
You know, part of me in the USis like, hey, they're getting
this right.
Part of me in the US is like,hey, I don't want to pay all
this extra stuff.
But part of me is looking atthis, going, hey, man, that's a
(17:57):
model that's going to make sense.
I feel like for India to beable to get some revenue off of
what's happening in this.
So I don't know if it's rightor wrong, I just know that I
look at that and go, well,that's cool, it's going to
increase the cost of service,but it's also going to make it
sustainable for the country.
So we'll see what happens.
We'll see what happens.
It's exciting to know thatthey're coming out of the gate
with a $10 per month plan.
Now, that $10 per month plan.
I don't know what is includedin it.
(18:20):
Let's see if we look in hereand it shows us a little bit
more.
We've jumped now over to theEconomic Times industry
newspaper.
Let's go ahead and cancel thatoffer, and I don't see it in
here.
I don't see if that's what'sinvolved in it.
(18:41):
It doesn't say if it's one gig,10 gig.
It doesn't say what theaggregated throughput of any of
that is, but I'm sure that it'ssomething so great to see some
movement that's happening there.
There was another article and II found it and I didn't read it.
Let me see if I can look it upreal quick.
Starlink got in trouble inAustralia.
Let me see if I can find it.
They got in trouble becausethey weren't reporting their
(19:03):
drops in intermittent issues andso the government of Australia,
uh, got a little upset withthem for doing what they do.
So that that's happening.
Now this one is a little bitcrazier, right, this is
something that's happening thatwas like man, this is, this is
nuts.
And and I remember years ago Igot to meet Charlie Ergen and he
(19:25):
was a.
He was such a nice dude.
I've never met Elon Musk.
I don't know if he's a nice guyor not.
Never pressed the flesh andshook his hand.
But I did get to meet CharlieErgen one time at a show it was
Wisp America and it was inFlorida, I think it was in
Orlando and he just rolled inand was super down to earth and
a nice guy to talk to andwhatever, and so I've always had
(19:48):
such a cool opinion of him justbecause I got to meet him.
I guess, I don't know, call mejaded in that respect, but he
could be a total prick.
I don't know, I don't know himthat well, but he was nice to me
.
So there's something to be saidfor that.
But in this.
So this popped up which wascrazy and I can't believe that
things like this are actuallyhappening.
(20:08):
But Charlie Ergen is the guywho backs Echo Star and Dish
Network and all that stuff.
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
Right.
So he's doing this thing andall of a sudden the FCC chairman
, brendan Carr, opened aninvestigation into Echo Star and
according to our buddy, mikeDano, who I don't think I still
have ever met, mike in person,but Mike, I do want to meet you.
You do some great writing, man.
(20:29):
According to Mike over here, theoptics are not good.
It's possible that Carr issimply doing the bidding of Elon
Musk.
Musk wants Carr to take the 2gigahertz MSS spectrum away from
Echo Star so that he can giveit to Musk.
Dude what?
I'm not even sure.
I'm not even sure.
(20:50):
I'm not even sure.
This is just what's happening.
I don't want to have an opinion, left or right, or up or down,
but then you read stuff likethis.
It's just so crazy.
So, not surprisingly, echo Star,backed by Charlie Ergen, is
fighting back.
A bunch of Echo Star's partnersand vendors are registering
their support for the companyand its 5g satellite ambitions.
Not surprisingly, a bunch ofother satellite companies are
now asking for echo stars.
(21:11):
Two gigahertz, obviously.
Obviously, if the fcc goes, hey, we're going to take that away
from echo star, let's give it tospacex.
I'm sure there's other peoplegoing.
Well, why don't you give it tome?
Well, why don't you hook me up?
Um in the fcc?
Proceeding on the matter, echostar offered a few tidbits about
its wireless business.
Now this is the crazy part ofthis article.
It's 5G network now supports1.3 million of 7 million subs.
(21:32):
Okay, the remainder sit on AT&Tmobile.
Echostar gained another 88,000wireless subs in April on top of
the company's Boost Mobile wetalked about Boost MVNO, but
also building out their ownthing.
The company's Boost Mobileoffering EchoStar is uniquely an
American success story.
Which it is, man, because ifyou go back in time to MMDS and
LMDS and how satellite came inand totally disrupted the
(21:56):
wireless cable TV industry nowI'm totally aging myself.
This was I remember when thishappened and watching Echo Star
be built and watching orwatching Dish be built, echo
Star be built, watching DirecTVbe you know be assembled.
It was kind of nuts.
But the problem here is that itlooks blatant.
(22:19):
You know Carr's credibilityhere is strained by the blatant
politics surrounding FCC actionsand trump's administration in
general.
First the fcc just approved twotransactions, one by t-mobile,
another by verizon, after twocompanies promised to end their
d and I programs and car hasdescribed it we're not gonna get
into that.
But now they're saying, well,maybe, uh, car appears prepared
(22:40):
to block the paramount skydancedeal over complaints from the
administration.
And so now it's like you've gotthis guy literally standing
right next to the president whojust magically is going to get a
whole bunch of spectrum handedto him by the FCC.
It's just not good lookingoverall.
So how does that affecteverything?
(23:01):
Well, I mean from aconsolidation perspective.
Let's go back to thatconversation about rural
connectivity.
If I've got fewer providers inan area and fewer amounts of
competition, how do we everexpect to connect people who
can't afford service if there'sonly one provider or two
providers being able to go outthere and set their prices where
(23:21):
they are?
You all know me, they are.
You all know me.
I'm a huge proponent forbroadband connectivity, whether
it's through satellite orwhether it's through wireless or
whether it's through Wi-Fi orwhether it's through fiber or
whatever it is.
I'm a huge proponent of it.
And so to think that theadministration is now getting
involved.
And just look at the biggerpicture here, right, you've got
(23:42):
bead funding being stalled out,you've got the ability for kids
to take home hotspots, thecompetition in the marketplace
consolidating, with a lot ofthese mergers that are happening
, but yet there's this oneperson who seems to be getting
extra special love and care toprovide access into those
communities.
(24:03):
Now, listen, if he turns aroundand he goes, hey, now we're
going to use the spectrum andall this stuff so that we can
just provide free internetaccess via Starlink to the
people who need it the most Dude, I will shut my mouth like, by
all means elon, if you'relistening which I know you are,
because elon's a huge fan of thewaves podcast maybe not ever,
but if you're listening and youdecide just to dump free wi-fi
(24:26):
or free internet access oneveryone because you're getting
all these concessions from thegovernment, good on you, bro,
good on you anyway, I don't knowlike.
This is why I stay out ofpolitics, because I just look at
it and there's some things thatjust don't make sense to me.
Anyway, let's see what else wecould talk about other than that
fiber connect 2025.
And now for somethingcompletely different june 1st to
(24:49):
june 4th in nashville, whichmeans it's starting uh, tomorrow
and it runs this week is thefiber connect conference.
Again, fiber connect is aboutconnecting people to the
internet via access deliveredvia fiber.
For a lot of these FISPs, andnow some of the wireless ISPs
are moving over into it this isa big conference to be at.
A lot of the big players aregoing to be there talking about
(25:10):
ways that they can deliverconnectivity.
So if you have plans to be inand around Nashville this week,
please check out FiberConnect.
There's going to be a lot ofpeople there 5,000 attendees.
It looks like in 2024.
But again, these are peoplethat are tuned into this.
Now, speaking of events, let medrop the hint on this one real
(25:32):
quick.
Meter is putting together theirsecond Meter Up event.
This is Tuesday, november 18th.
It's in San Francisco.
Early bird tickets right noware available via registration
$349.
On July 25th that's going to goup to $449.
On the website here it saysthat Meter Up is a gathering for
IT and networking experts,business executives, partners,
(25:54):
industry analysts, blah, blah,blah all these great people.
Here's what I will tell you thatMeterUp is.
It is a great place where a lotof really next, just have a
(26:19):
conversation with your networkin the same language that I'm
talking to you in right now.
They're doing some prettyincredible stuff and they're
doing stuff that stands out fromopen ai, which, oh my god, the
stuff that's coming out withwith, uh, with their new
(26:40):
acquisition not meters, but openai's acquisition anyway.
Um, if you can think about thenext iteration of what your
career looks like and whatnetworking looks like, meter up
is going to be one of thoseplaces that, in five years, I
think, we turn around and go oh,I met that person there and
that's what they were talkingabout, because there's a lot of
(27:01):
really cool next generationconversation happening there.
Now, of course, it is an eventfor a vendor, so if you're
interested in their products andservices and all that stuff,
obviously they'll be there.
Obviously, they're alsosponsors of the show, but that's
not why I'm talking aboutMeterUp.
I mean it's not, but I meanthey can count this towards
their credits.
I guess I don't know.
But the reason I really likedMeterUp last year when I went is
(27:23):
because it stoked conversationthat you're not going to have
anywhere else.
And Cisco Live is happening andit's coming up.
The level of conversation thathas had at MeterUp compared to
the level of conversation atCisco Live.
Cisco Live is like the everyday.
This is how to work with yournetwork.
This is the stuff to do.
There's not a lot of theseconversations that are like
what's going to be happening inthree years from now or five
(27:45):
years from now?
Where is this whole thing going?
It's a lot of people at CiscoLive doing the same thing and
figuring out better ways to doit within the confines of what
the world of Cisco, the world ofsolutions, offers.
But if you want to step out ofthat world.
There's a couple ways you cando it.
One, meterup, is a great way toget together with a bunch of
people.
Hopefully, as it looks rightnow, I'm going to be there, so
(28:07):
I'm excited.
Oh, look, no other conferencegives you such a level of access
and transparency.
It made me believe in theproduct and the people behind it
.
That's a quote that they haveon their website.
Uh, drew lynn's wireless nerd.
I'm glad I saw that.
Um, but this is one place, isit meter up?
But, juniper, as juniper does,you know what they're doing?
Look, I'm just gonna type itand let's see if I can find it
(28:27):
over here.
Juniper, san diego man, you knowthese guys, uh, do the craziest
stuff and it's always funnywhen they do it.
I mean, I feel it's alwaysfunny when they do it.
I mean, I feel like it's funnywhen they do it in Vegas.
But now they're doing the samething in San Diego.
Like I'll never forget thefirst time Juniper did their AI
(28:48):
Native Now conference at thesame time as Cisco Live.
Everyone's coming down theseescalators at the airport in Las
Vegas airport and the entirebaggage claim area was sponsored
by juniper at cisco live.
Like dude, it's.
It's just.
I mean, like it's funny, it'sgood competition.
I'm sure there's people thatare upset by it, but it's, you
know, it's tongue in cheek, likelike it's, it's funny and it's
(29:11):
low-key, you know, kind of cool.
They're doing it again.
And if you want to learn aboutwhat juniper is doing in this
space, obviously they're notgoing to talk about the hp
acquisition.
They can't.
I'm sure that a lot of themwish they knew what was going on
.
Uh, I'm sure a lot of themwould love to share what's going
on or what the future means,but they're going to be talking
about their ai components.
Um, as uh sudhir mentioned,it's the best conference
(29:34):
happening that week in San Diego, according to Sudhir.
And if you know him, if you'veseen him at WLPC, if you've had
the chance to meet him, you knowexactly the look on his face
when he said that.
But this is going to be reallycool because if you go to AI
Native Now which I'm going to bethere, of course I'm like you
got to go.
They have such a good time.
It's during Cisco Live, so youknow you got to go.
(29:55):
They have such a good time.
It's during Cisco Live, soyou're already going to be in
town probably, if you make yourway over to the AI Native Now
event, pay close attention towhat they're doing.
The registration is open now.
It's June 10th and 11th, soit's in about 10 days.
Go here and listen to theirstory and listen to what their
view of AI is.
(30:19):
Cisco, I'm sure, is doing somesessions on AI at Cisco Live
Nothing as big and as bold andas published as what's happening
at Juniper or what's happeningat Meter.
But if you pay attention tothis session and then you show
up in November to Meter Up,there's a story that's coming
along about AI.
That is really incredible andthe way that it's going to
change what we do, how we do it,when we do it, where we do it,
(30:41):
how it gets done and what thelevel of interaction from us to
our networks are.
So I would strongly encourageyou, do the AI Now thing, do the
meter up thing If you're goingto Cisco Live.
I'm sure, if I look it up, letme see here.
If I look up cisco live 2025 ai, let's see, cisco live begins
(31:05):
in eight days.
Cisco live well, that's 2024.
Okay, ai powered innovation, thecisco live hub this just tells
me that it's open again.
See, you see what I'm saying,like there's, there's, there's
the party, which the party'sgreat, but there's nothing big
and bold talking about what'shappening with cisco ai, in
regards to cisco live and, and Isee that as kind of a miss,
(31:29):
because not just because of thebuzzword component of it, but
just because, like it's goteverybody's mind share right now
and you scroll and you look andyou know, obviously my google
is probably a because of thebuzzword component of it, but
just because, like it's goteverybody's mindshare right now,
and you scroll and you look andyou know, obviously my Google
is probably a little bitdifferent than your Google, but
there's nothing that's reallycalling it out, you know.
So.
So I'm curious to see whatthose are.
I'm curious if you've got asession that you're going to to
learn more about the way thatCisco is implementing AI.
(31:53):
I would love to read more aboutit because, as of right now,
there's two big voices that arereally shouting One's Meter and
the other is Juniper and,depending on your circles, those
are the two that are making alot of sense.
So those are a couple of eventsthat are coming up.
Obviously, high-tech is comingup also.
If you're in the hospitalityindustry, check this one out man
.
It's been so long since I'vebeen to Indianapolis and so I'm
(32:16):
kind of looking forward to it,because it's been a really long
time since I've been there.
The Indiana Convention CenterJune 16th through 19th so,
following Cisco Live, this ispopping up.
Produced by HFTP and all theseguys.
This is a really, really funone.
If you have anything to do withhospitality, or if you want to
learn more about hospitality, orif you just live in
Indianapolis and you want to gocheck out some nerd stuff, let
me know if you need a pass.
(32:37):
I don't know if I have anypasses or not, but I mean, I've
never had a problem getting intoshows, so there's always where
there's a will, there's a way.
But if you're looking to go,this is a really cool event that
shows you what's happening inthe hospitality industry.
And part of me is just a nerdthat likes to go to high tech,
because I like live in hotels.
Basically, I'm about to hittitanium or whatever.
On on Marriott, I've diamond.
(32:59):
On Hilton, I love my Hiltondiamond status.
You know it's.
It's great and I feel like Ilive in these places.
So, uh, it's great to see whatnew, innovative things are being
talked about at high tech andwho's adopting them and what
they're doing with it, what myexperience as an end user is in
these properties and how that'sgoing to change.
That's what keeps me comingback to high tech.
I've had the opportunity to goa number of times and this year
(33:22):
I don't know what the trends areyet, so looking forward to
seeing what the trends are athigh tech 2025.
That's happening inIndianapolis and then coming up
real soon.
Right around the corner is WLPCPrague.
So you all know, you alreadyknow wlpc prog.
So you, you all know, youalready know.
Um, in talking about prog, Idon't want to talk about one of
(33:43):
the things that keith and I uhthe plan that we hatched, and
eva santos was standing rightbeside us when we're sitting
there going, oh my god, weshould totally do this.
That would be awesome, uh, sowe'll see, but just know that,
as it looks right now, there'sgoing to be an awesome part of
wlpc prog.
Uh, everything is is awesomethere, but there's going to be a
session there that is going tobe unique and fun and and uh, it
(34:06):
should be really, really cool,really cool based on what we
were doing at uh network x.
So if you go back you look whatI was doing.
Network x, it might tease youout a little bit and see what's
going on there.
But WLPC Prague is coming upsoon and it's going to be a who
banger, if you will.
It's going to be a good oldtime.
Um, what else is happening?
All right, let's go through thetabs.
Ready Google teams up with Xreal Warby Parker.
(34:29):
Okay, normally I won't getexcited about this, but, dude, I
can't tell you how much I lovemy Ray-Ban Metaglasses.
I love them.
I love them because I take themon vacation and I take videos
of my kids skiing and I waswearing them when I jumped off a
boat and I had to throw themback at the boat.
They're so cool, man, and I'vehad such a good time with them.
And now this conversation istaking place, which is cool.
(34:57):
Now, x-real has been a greatexhibitor at CES For the last
couple years.
I've been there and theirs is astandout, keep in mind.
What's different about theirsis they have a little cable that
runs down and plugs into adevice plugs into a phone or
into a device.
So they're not the same as themeta Ray-Ban glasses.
They're a little bit different,but they're partnering with
Warby Parker now, which is agood move, in my opinion, in the
(35:21):
right direction, so that it'ssomething that people are used
to and comfortable with on theirface, but now adding XR.
So Android XR is going to be onthere, which is going to allow
you to do all kinds of differentstuff.
All kinds of different stuff,multi-modal AI.
It says when this goes, I don'tknow, but things like the
ability to translate in realtime, things like the ability to
see stats about sports teamsand everything else as you're
(35:41):
watching the game Hopefullysomeday.
What I want is the ability towalk through a conference, have
these glasses on and it be ableto tell me when I look at
someone, pop up their LinkedInprofile and show me who they are
and how I know them, because Iget to meet so many incredible
people and the first thing I dois I go back to LinkedIn and I'm
like how many connections do wehave?
Who am I talking to?
I want to see that happen inreal time in glasses.
So glad to see that that'shappening between these two
(36:04):
organizations.
All right, aws kills private 5Goffering the computer with
carriers.
This was big news when it brokethe original conversation about
AWS saying, hey, we're going togo in and we're going to
install a 5G service, private 5Gservice for you, and there's no
upfront fee, or maybe a smallupfront fee, but it's based on
utilization and what you'redoing with it.
Now AWS has said they are nolonger selling the private 5G
(36:26):
offering that was announced in2021.
Again, mike Dano, mike, one ofthese days we're going to hang
out man, but they're still goingto continue to offer the
integrated private wireless onAWS program.
So we don't know.
They're getting rid of this one.
More information about that onLight Reading.
But 5G man, is 5G really a thing?
Like?
Is it happening?
It seems like it's still justwaiting for its ultimate moment.
(36:54):
For private 5G to just dosomething great Because it is
great.
It's like the coolest thing I'mtrying to think of, like a
household appliance that's likeprivate 5G to just do something
great Because it is great.
It's like the coolest thing I'mtrying to think of, like a
household appliance that's likeprivate 5G.
It's the coolest thing for whenyou're going to use it.
But when are you actually goingto use it?
I don't know.
Check this out.
Speaking of random things, thislaser breakthrough can read
text on a page from a mile away.
Dude, what I don't know.
(37:18):
I don't know where that look.
This is nuts.
I don't know where this comesinto play, but I thought it was
cool so I clicked on it.
Lidar is great for cars.
Oh, this is fast.
I'm not going to try this, but,um, you can permanently damage
your camera if you take apicture of lidar.
So if you're watching that,that waymo cruise by and you
snap a picture of its lidar unit, check out what's happening on
your, on your sensor.
Man, this is a picture thatthat shows all these different
(37:40):
little color variations that popup.
Um, if you take a picture ofthese, uh, lidar sensors, so be
warned, don't say I didn't tellyou.
Uh, we already talked about thetaco happening at wgc america.
We talked about that, the thebuy local option for iphone,
threatening, uh, threatening ahuge tariff on on apple iphones
(38:00):
if they're not manufactured inthe united states.
Dude, do you know what it takesto put those phones together?
Anyway, that's what we gotgoing on.
Don't forget about meter up.
Um, that's happening.
What else do we have going on?
I think that's it.
That that's the run of show.
That's everything that we gotfor waves on this May 31st
edition Next week.
Let's see home next week.
(38:21):
And then I get to do an event.
I'm going out to set up theWorld Surfing League at Trestles
in San Clemente, california.
Now, trestles is cool becausethat's where the Olympics when
they come to LA.
The Summer Olympic surfingcompetition is going to be held
at Trestle, so I get to go outthere and help set up with Iro
for the WSL.
So we're going to have a reallygood time, very similar to what
(38:42):
I did on North Shore of Hawaii,this time in Southern
California.
And then, leading into that,I'm going to leave there and go
down to Cisco Live.
So if you're at Cisco Live,come see me.
Totally going to crash Alexis'shappy hour and go bug those
guys and say hi.
Also, there's some dance movesthat I think I want to learn
from her.
Maybe contribute to that'scoming up.
(39:03):
What else I just did?
Nascar.
I got to go to a NASCAR race.
I've never been to a NASCARrace.
We set up Wi-Fi in the pit atNASCAR.
I did a whole video on it.
If you check my LinkedIn, youcan see that video.
It was the most insaneinterference area that I've ever
seen.
That was pretty crazy.
I have another music.
I've got a music festivalcoming up that I'll be doing in
Southampton June I want to say21st.
(39:25):
So if you happen to be in theNew York City area and you want
to see a really good DJ themusic that was playing at the
beginning Anyway, if you want tosee some cool stuff, I'm going
to be out there doing that, yeah, man.
But other than that, catch meon the road, catch me outside.
See you all soon.
Thanks for listening to theWaves Podcast.
(39:46):
Don't forget to check outwhat's happening with Meter Up.
We appreciate their sponsorshipof the show.
Make sure you look into what'shappening.
I'm about to do a whole episodeon what's happening with Helium
, one of our other kind andwonderful sponsors, to see
what's going on with them.
And, yeah, stay tuned and wewill see you all next week.
Until then, have a wonderfulweek, see ya.
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