It's never too early to plan ahead for the event of the year, the SCTE TechExpo 24. This year's event will be held in Atlanta, GA on September 24-26 at the Georgia World Congress Center. Registration is open on the event website - CLICK HERE to get more information and to register. REMINDER - registration rates increase on May 17th, so get signed up now for the best deal!
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The Affordable Connectivity Program, or ACP, has exhausted the funds allocated to it by Congress, and April was the last month that eligible consumers will receive the monthly subsidy of $30 off their internet bills ($75 in Tribal areas). Despite heavy lobbying from the broadband industry and consumer advocates, Congress has not moved on several bills designed to restore funding to the ACP through the end of 2024. A long-term solution for affordability funding, such as through an expansion of the FCC's Univeral Service Fund (USF) seems even more remote. As the subsidy expires, it's likely that operators will see a wave of disconnects in the coming months as consumers struggle to pay their bills. Some operators have their own affordable tiers for low-income households, which will ease the burden for many.
Our chapter's busy training schedule continues this month. There's still time to register for our Iowa Heartland Safety Day on May 7th, and registration is now open for our XGS-PON trainings on June 4th and 5th. Iowa Heartland Safety Day
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 IAMU - Ankeny XGS-PON Tuesday, June 4, 2024 - Fort Dodge Wednesday, June 5, 2024 - Waterloo Iowa Heartland Member Appreciation Day Tuesday, September 10, 2024 Pinseekers in Tiffin (near Coralville/North Liberty) Registration coming soon! The Iowa Heartland Chapter held its annual Cable Games on March 28th at Stoney Creek Hotel in Johnston. We want to thank all 20 participants in the games for taking a few hours to demonstrate their skills and engage in a bit of friendly competition! All of the participants this year were Mediacom employees. The overall winner was Shawn Stogdill, who also won the Iowa games in a previous year. Trenton Johnson was second overall and Luke Brown came in third. The winners of the individual games were: Cable Splicing - Mathew Watros Fiber Splicing - Mathrew Watros Meter Reading - Tanner Koeff MTDR - Luke Brown Drop Connection - Trenton Johnson OTDR - Shawn Stogdill Cable Jeopardy - Brian Winkler CLICK HERE for a PDF of top three in each category.
Over 80 attendees, vendor representatives, and board members participated in our annual Vendor Day on March 28th, the morning before the Cable Games. It was a great turnout! The Chapter wants to give a huge THANK YOU to the companies who displayed their products and services at this year's event!
For the past several years, the Iowa Heartland SCTE Chapter has had an exhibit at the Iowa Communications Allliance (ICA) Annual Meeting and Expo. The goal is outreach to Iowa's over 100 independent broadband providers to educate them about the opportunities for training and networking at our chapter. This year, Iowa Board members Curtis Dean and Carl Norton manned the booth, distributing SCTE literature and educating attendees about our upcoming trainings.
The Iowa SCTE Board has gotten off to an early start scheduling great in-person trainings for our members this year! Visit our landing page to see the complete list. So far we've been able to nail down details on the following trainings:
The Board has also put together a schedule of other trainings for later in the year, including XGS-PON Deep Dive, Distributed Access, and Fiber Test and Inspection. We're also looking at other topics for virtual trainings and informational sessions. Member Appreciation DayOur first ever chapter Member Appreciation Day is being planned for September 10, 2024 at Pinseekers in Tiffin. We'll spend a couple of hours testing our golfing skills (or in my case, lack thereof) beginning at 3pm followed by dinner and multi-sports simulators. Mark your calendars, and watch your inbox for more information on this fun new event!
There are two standards being used in fiber deployments to provide 10 gigabit upload and download speeds on a shared fiber network. But what are the differences between 10G-EPON and XGS-PON? Kevin Noll with CableLabs breaks it down in this great article on the CableLabs website. It's a quick read and very enlightening.
Here's a friendly reminder to our chapter SCTE members that if you haven't already, please take a moment to renew your SCTE membership. All memberships are on a calendar year basis so unless you renew it may have ended on 12/31/23. SCTE membership opens a world of learning, networking, and training opportunities. Reminder to Mediacom employees: Mediacom is a member of the CableLabs All Access Benefits Program, which means that you can join SCTE for FREE. What a bargain! Just reach out to your supervisor and ask for an application.
SCTE is currently taking reservations for our prestigious Leadership Institute Programs.
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Heartland Headlines E-NewsletterOur Heartland Headlines e-newsletter is sent monthly to subscribers. It's a great way to keep up on what's happening at the Iowa Heartland Chapter and the industry in general!
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