Uncertainty

This is an awkward time to be writing this column. At the time of writing, the town next to us has been devastated by a wildfire. AI developers are discovering that it hallucinates, creating misinformation, so some projects are being cancelled. Data centers are claiming they will run on nuclear fusion, or if that doesn’t work, small nuclear reactors, restart Three Mile Island or burn coal. The new administration is expected to make major changes in broadband programs, upend the economy with tariffs, remake the government bureaucracy, and who knows what else.

FOA Certifies 100,000 Fiber Optic Techs

What’s the FOA? That might be the question you are asking yourself. Or thinking that’s a lot of fiber techs; it is about equal to the total U.S. workforce according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The Fiber Optic Association (FOA) was founded 30 years ago by those in the industry who were training fiber optic techs to create certification programs. The Internet was just taking off and the need for a trained fiber optic workforce made the current deficit look easy to fill (it is). FOA has been quietly working behind the scenes since its founding to develop a competent fiber optic workforce through education, certification and standards, a competent workforce capable of building the world's fiber optic communications networks.

About 90% of those FOA certified techs have been trained by the FOA worldwide network of approved training organizations, taught by FOA certified instructors. The others have been certified directly by FOA based on their experience in the field.

FOA works with service providers, contractors, governments and industry to develop its certification standards to meet their needs and keep them up to date. The FOA partners, schools and technical advisors are from around the world, making the FOA a truly international professional organization.

To support the FOA certification programs, it has developed the world’s largest knowledge base in fiber optics, online and printed, used millions of times annually.

Someone once described FOA as “the biggest little professional organization you never heard of.”

On to the other topics in mind right now.

Disasters, an up Close and Personal View

On January 7th at 11 AM we had a Zoom meeting with one of the FOA’s largest training partners. After the meeting, we went walking in our neighborhood. This is what we saw from the corner of our block, looking to the Northwest (see Photo 1).

A quick check of the news told us that a wildfire had started in the Santa Monica Mountains just North of Pacific Palisades, California, our neighboring town. The fire was less than 5 miles from us. With gale force winds and very low humidity, the fire grew incredibly fast in the dry brush in the mountains and quickly reached the town, igniting houses and buildings in its path.

At 5 PM the fire was now about 3 miles away and we were in an evacuation warning area. We went to Santa Monica’s oceanside park a few blocks away where we could see this cloud of smoke from the fire as it burned its way to the coast (see Photo 2).

If you want to see something really frightening, here is the view from our balcony at midnight (see Photo 3).

It’s hard to sleep with that view out your windows and the air filled with smoke, so we evacuated for a couple of days. Fortunately for us, the fire was stopped before it got to our neighborhood, but the evacuation zones were just blocks away.

I’ll assume you have seen news photos and videos of the destruction in Pacific Palisades. More than 5,000 homes and buildings were destroyed. You probably know that wildfire started simultaneously in Altadena, north of Los Angeles, with similar devastation.

We’ve written a lot about preparing for disasters (ISE Magazine March/April 2024), but this wildfire made apparent to everyone the importance of timely and effective communications. The most important notification is a warning to those who must evacuate immediately, wildfires move so fast. The second issue was communication with first responders fighting the fires.

The intensity of these wildfires is hard to imagine. Photos of houses burning in the Palisades fire showed aerial cables on fire. Power and communications were lost. Can you plan for that? 

What Will Change With the Change in Administration?

I’m writing this on the day of the inauguration. The last four years have seen unprecedented focus on investment in infrastructure, much created in the recovery from the pandemic. One goal was to bring broadband to unserved and underserved areas. The programs promoted fiber-to-the-home and created whole new methods of distributing grants that proved to be very time consuming, such that the new administration will take over before funds have been distributed. With the plans to change the government, will that proceed?

The incoming administration includes some who question the current broadband funding programs and/or promote other means of providing broadband than fiber, low earth orbit (LEO) satellites in particular. LEO satellites were awarded significant funds for rural broadband in the beginning, but they were later rejected in favor of fiber. That is already starting to change.