19 DECEMBER, 2020Ken Paker, TDS Telecom's CTO, started at the company one year after its internet service provider business began. Prior to that, TDS was strictly a phone company and owned about one hundred small, individual telcos. The challenge then was moving from a voice-centric to a broadband-centric business. The task since has been keeping the network evolving at the rapid pace of technology.How did you transition the company from the older technology to fiber?Once dedicated broadband technology arrived, shortly after Dial-Up, we had to make the transition to more centralized operations in order to mitigate costs--we were essentially having to manage 100 different network evolutions simultaneously. Engineering teams from all over the country were consolidated, and I worked to institute various processes around technology integration. Internet technology was evolving every three to five years, and we had to keep adjusting. At the same time, we had to think about how the network was going to change over time. The challenge lay in understanding how short-term trade-offs would potentially affect long-term benefits. This brings us to the latest groundbreaking internet technology: Fiber. This is cost-heavy on the front end, which makes this a particularly long-term play--but it's How Technology Dictates GrowthFROM PHONE TO FIBER: CXO NSIGHTSBY KEN PAKER, CTO, TDS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LLC
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