Broadband deployment in North America is accelerating, supported by a mix of private investment and emerging federal funding aimed at connecting every home. According to Michelle Hogan, general manager for North America broadband at CommScope, success in this next phase is less about any single product and more about alignment. Service providers and manufacturers need to jointly forecast demand, coordinate supply, and simplify deployment. CommScope’s long-term partnerships with MSOs and telcos position the company to anticipate needs and streamline the full fiber architecture, from terminals and closures to cabinets and pre-engineered cable systems.
Innovation remains key, but Hogan emphasizes that new solutions must reduce complexity in the field. Recent co-developed offerings include Prodigy, a universal hardened connector system designed for speed and flexibility, and HeliARC, a low-fiber-count cable designed in collaboration with electric cooperatives for rural builds. CommScope is also addressing workforce challenges through FTTmaX, a free online fiber deployment certification program, and FAST Track, an outdoor, hands-on training venue in North Carolina. By pairing new technology with workforce development and better planning, CommScope aims to help providers deploy faster, reach further, and do more with less.
James Careless:
Hi, everyone. I'm James Careless, and I'm here today with Michelle Hogan, CommScope's general manager of North America broadband. She's here to talk about the evolution of the broadband industry where service providers are under pressure to deploy faster, reach further, and do more with less. Well, let's dive right in.
Michelle, what trends are currently shaping the broadband industry? And how is CommScope positioned to lead in this evolving landscape?
Michelle Hogan:
Hello, James. Great timing with that question. I just wrapped up our five-year long-range plan. And believe me, as I know the broadband industry success really as we look over the next five years isn't just going to depend on the innovation and technology. I think it's really going to depend on our overall agility. We're going to have to make sure we're aligning our demand with our overall supply readiness. And what I mean by that is that when we look at our service providers, this past year they've been accelerating their fiber deployments. And a lot of this in the past year has been really coming from our private equity investments. But now as we're closing out 2025, thank goodness we are finally seeing some additional government funding being released, and it's becoming a reality so that we truly can connect to every home, hence the importance of making sure that we're all aligned and ready to go.
Specific to CommScope, I believe we are uniquely positioned. Basically, we've grown up with the MSOs and the telcos for, holy smokes, probably 70 years. And we've been working actively with them for what I'm going to call the intersection of demand, making sure that we're forecasting appropriately, and they're forecasting appropriately to us, as well as let's say the overall orchestration of the supply as mentioned.
Long story short, really, net of it is we just want to make sure everybody's ready. It's not just about how much fiber cable, closures, cabinets, hardened terminals, non-hardened terminals, pre-engineered cable. Whatever that final architecture is, it's really going to be about how well everyone is orchestrating everything that goes around that entire solution.
James Careless:
Now, innovation has always been key in broadband. What technologies or solutions is CommScope most excited about right now?
Michelle Hogan:
James, I'd say that innovation is really more of an accelerator, not a dependency. And the root of this innovation really comes from partnering with our customers and the co-development of solutions. There's a few recent examples I'd like to share. Just starting with several client requests that we had coming to us, they wanted to see a reduction in the overall infrastructure. They also wanted to make sure that we had some open-source flexibility within our connectors. With the collaboration coming from our research and development team, we were actually able to bring to market a universal hardened connector system that we call Prodigy. What clients love about Prodigy is it's fast. It's simple. It even has an intuitive little quarter-turn technology for terminals with multi-connectors. And once again, it was just very easy for folks in the field to be able to utilize it.
Shortly thereafter, in co-development with yet another client, we came up with a solution called HeliARC. This, once again, as I mentioned, was another co-developed architecture. However, this one was a bit unique because it came from our electric cooperative providers. They were looking for a low fiber count build. As well, they wanted to make sure they had a reduction in material cost. And once again, infrastructure is always a key for those hard-to-reach rural communities. As we did with Prodigy, we worked with our research and development team, and we came up with a proprietary HeliARCal stranding technique that provided that perfect solution to them.
James, whether we're talking about the code development of a Prodigy, a HeliARC, or even our new pre-engineered cable that's coming out called FTT Express in first quarter of 2026, we're listening to our clients and really trying to help them reduce what is most important. And I think the theme you're going to hear is the complexity in the field.
James Careless:
Finally, what challenges do service providers face today that CommScope is uniquely equipped to help solve?
Michelle Hogan:
Well, workforce development, I have to say, remains one of the most pressing challenges, not just for the service providers, but as a matter of fact, even for the manufacturers. We talked about innovations. And at CommScope, we're not only innovating to reduce the labor demands with new products and solutions, but we're also investing in solutions that we believe should really empower the workforce itself. And this isn't a new concept. It's actually called education. And earlier this year, we developed FTTmaX, or as my marketing organization likes to say, fiber to the max. This is a complimentary online program that provides additional fiber to the home, network deployment, training, certifications, not just for our external clients but as well for our internal employees. However, it is e-learning, and I believe most of us would agree that there's nothing better than hands-on training and experience. And we figured what better way than to provide that next layer of education than an outdoor lab.
With the help of our multiple distribution partners throughout North America, we've actually constructed and built a very unique and interactive venue called the CommScope FAST Track. This is a nice little acronym. We all know in telecommunications we love our acronyms. It stands for the Fiber Architecture Solutions Technology Track. It is a wonderful venue in Catawba, North Carolina, sitting right outside of one of our manufacturing plants. And basically, you can go and follow the light from the cable all the way through the multiple connectivity devices, and it's quite the learning experience.
James, I believe your other comment or question was you highlighted several challenges facing the service providers when it comes down to simplification, and how do we go about making sure that we have continuous collaboration? It really starts with the planning. It starts with making sure, as I tell the sales organization, forecast accuracy. If we don't have forecast accuracy, then it's really hard for us to make sure we've got the right capacity within the manufacturing plants and that we're focused on the right research and development with our new products and portfolio and then ultimately getting through to production and ultimately to delivery and ensuring that we're delivering a high-quality product on time.
I believe most would agree we could be all doing a better job with this overall orchestration. As long as we can turn what most believe to be a very complex environment into a very supporting coordination, we are going to be able to keep up with the demand here within broadband solutions.
James Careless:
Wonderful. Well, Michelle, thanks so much for talking to us today.
Michelle Hogan:
Thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate the collaborative discussion.