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THE
INCOMPAS SHOW
I
APRIL 3 - 5, 2017
www.bekapublishing.comDAY
1
T
he INCOMPAS Spring 2017 keynote
presentation will touch on infrastructure
spending trends, such as fiber as the
mission-critical asset in the communication
ecosystem, how communication towers and
data centers evolved into the REITs they are
today and how fiber will
follow the same trajec-
tory, the resulting finan-
cial challenges facing
fiber companies and
options available to fiber
company financing.
The address will
be delivered by Kenny
Gunderman, president
and CEO, Uniti Group,
who will also share the
Uniti story and the inno-
vative alternatives Uniti
provides to the industry. He has 18 years of
investment banking and private equity experi-
ence and is focused on expanding and diversi-
fying Uniti’s real-estate portfolio.
Gunderman previously served as the
co-head of investment banking at Stephens
Inc., where he advised on many of the firm’s
notable investment banking and private equity
transactions and specifically focused on tele-
communications services. Prior to that, he was
a member of the telecom investment banking
group at Lehman Brothers, where he advised
on various transactions and financings totaling
more than $125 billion.
p
West Issues Update
on Hypercube
Integration
W
est Corp. is updating the industry on its
integration efforts with Hypercube, which
it acquired five years ago.
Prior to acquiring Hypercube, West was purely an
enterprise player, serving Fortune 1,000 companies
and other businesses with communications, confer-
encing, public safety and customer contact solu-
tions. The addition of Hypercube thrust West into
the wholesale arena as the operator of a carrier-
grade network with CLEC certifications nationwide.
West said that it has leveraged its IP network
capabilities to serve its retail business, while
continuing to meet the needs of its wholesale
customer base. The company underwent extensive
realignment in 2016 and emerged as a more unified
organization with a clearly defined framework for
how to cross-sell its product portfolio.
The Telecom Services division, retaining all of the
network assets and talent formerly held by Hypercube,
maintained its wholesale operations and licenses
and for the past few years has been the underlying
carrier for the majority of West’s toll free and termina-
tion traffic—both domestic and international. Later this
year, West will launch wholesale international toll-free
and termination service.
“With a focus on making improvements that
would add value for its customers, West has
maximized its vertical market expansion strategy
to deliver a diverse portfolio that serves multiple
communication needs,” the company said.
p
LightRiver Technologies
Collaborates with
Industry Leaders on
Telecom Infra Project
L
ightRiver Technologies has joined the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).
Co-founded by Facebook and operators such as Deutsche Telekom
and SK Telecom, TIP is an engineering-focused initiative driven by
operators, infrastructure providers, systems integrators and other technology
companies that aim to reimagine the traditional approach to building and
deploying telecom network infrastructure.
TIP brings together leading industry innovators to collaborate on the
development of new technologies and rethink approaches to deploying network
architectures that leverage advances in the technology and an open approach
to development.
The group’s initial focus areas include access, backhaul and core, plus
management. The project groups within these areas leverage the engineering
and operation expertise of members to address pressing industry needs,
including connecting the unconnected or underserved populations, and
augmenting the development of new technologies like 5G, which will pave
the way for better connectivity and richer services.
LightRiver will contribute its expertise in developing and deploying packet
optical technologies and solutions, with initial focus in system integration
and site optimization, solutions integration and open optical packet transport.
“We are delighted to join TIP and look forward to collaborating with optical
industry leaders, of every type, to expand the future of optical networks,” said
Mike Jonas, president of Global Customer Operations at LightRiver. “As a
systems integrator member that has built its business around providing network
operators a vendor neutral choice in technology selection, we believe our
perspective will add value to the TIP and its mission to rapidly expand network
deployments needed to meet the aggressive growth in global data demand.”
p
Keynote to Address Infrastructure Builds
PROGRAM NOTE
What:
Keynote: The Challenge of Building
and Financing the Exploding Demand
for Communication Infrastructure
When:
9:30 a.m. in the HUB.
Who:
Kenny Gunderman, President & CEO,
Uniti Group Inc.
Kenny Gunderman
President and CEO,
Uniti Group