Getting Real

Horizon is an aggressive CSP with a fiber-forward plan to serve more businesses, carriers and residential customers throughout Ohio and the greater Midwest region.

Below are some short takeaways from our Executive Insights interview with Jim Capuano, Horizon’s CEO. 

On fiber deployment realities:
"The amount of construction that is underway, not to mention what is coming down the pipe with the additional federal money that has been approved, is going to tax every service provider. The likely inflation of construction cost will be interesting. I believe that the ability to deploy the networks is going to be limited by make-ready costs, the municipality’s ability to approve permits, the availability of construction contractors, as well as the ability to find a source for additional people to add to the job market."

On network complexity:
"My experience is that the complexity of the networks is often too high, and it is largely driven by the skill sets present in the engineering teams. For instance, the methods used to build-out networks are typically based on where the engineering team began their careers…."

On vendor relationships:
"Another factor in decision-making is vendor roadmaps. We need to know going in that the vendor is going to keep making investments into the platform. R&D dollars show their level of commitment. It’s also fair to point out that as the vendors roll out new cards and features, the cost for the previous cards typically comes down. We’ve tracked the rollout cost of 1G, 10G, and 100G optics, and found that with each step there was a significant reduction in the cost of the previous technology." 

Horizon’s CEO doesn’t pull any punches when describing the challenges you all face day in and day out. They can be daunting, but not unsolvable if you embrace Einstein’s approach: If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.

Undoubtedly, preparation has great value to problem-solving. So, schedule a 10-minute break each day to read, listen, and learn how your fellow readers solve some of their network transformation problems. They may not have all of the answers but they could inspire a new thought about how to approach what’s currently getting in your way.

Email Sharon at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @svollman and LinkedIn @SharonVollman. Visit www.isemag.com/contribute for more information on submitting an article to ISE Magazine in print, digital and online.