The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch.
Craig:
In an age where our dependence on the internet has never been greater, one innovative company has taken the lead in addressing internet vulnerability. Climate Resilient Internet based in Boston earlier this year announced the world’s first internet service certified for the extremes of climate change. Our guest today has been a technology innovator for decades dating back to his startup Microwave Bypass Systems. One of the earliest tech firms in One Kendall Square, Microwave Bypass launched the very first wireless solution which provided full speed, 10 Mbps access, and more importantly, connecting the first three .com addresses on the internet. The company would go on to innovate teleradiology and distance learning while building the backbone for early regional internet, serving Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is a pleasure to welcome the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Climate Resilient Internet, David Theodore.
Early Internet Connectivity Provider
Craig:
It’s intriguing to me personally, with regard to your phenomenal background in this industry back to the days at One Kendall Square, and it had to be very exciting with the innovation that was going on with your work.
David:
It was very exciting. We were two doors away from Symbolics, which was the world’s first URL and blocks away from others, like Thinking Machines and both Resnick and Newman and MIT. And the air was just bustling, just cracking, buzzing with talk about emerging land standards and ethernet, and where the future was going. It was a very exciting time and I don’t know I just like ideas. Particularly as they’re infused with a sense of mission and something that really moves the needle. And there was a lot of that going on then there’s a lot of that happening now, my first job was MCI Telecommunications and of course they built the first competitive microwave networks. I moved to Washington, fought AT&T. And when the Federal Government broke up AT&T it opened up a floodgate of opportunity and to be a part of that was amazing.
And there are companies in our industry today, like RF Elements who are doing incredibly innovative things that are about fantastic ideas that are really improving the industry. It’s really exciting thing if you can be part of that kind of action, just much more than a job.
Climate Resilient Internet
Craig:
When you listen to the name of your company it’s pretty obvious what the focus is. And with regard to any application where fiber is involved as a delivery, part of the infrastructure for the internet, you can have a single point of failure. And today you’re talking about mission critical situations for companies, for governments and with all of the demand, it’s a huge issue.
David:
Did you just say fiber is a single point of failure? I believe you may be the second person to go to that third rail. It’s interesting because I think that for decades, users have been really comfortable with fiber and over time, a lot of wireless was phased out because users had the perception and rightly so in many cases that wireless bandwidth would get tapped out, they would outgrow it. Over time there was just this kind of complacency or wishful thinking, where you go to an enterprise user, a huge hospital, for instance, and they’re exclusively on fiber. And when you talk to them about backup, they say that they’re all set -they’ve got diverse fiber, diverse data centers, and redundancy and different entryways North and South.
Fiber a Single Point of Failure
David:
All of this is effective against the things that people think about that take the internet down or that take cabling down – like backhoes, squirrels, traffic accidents and random hits like that. But for wide-scale weather events, fiber is absolutely a single point of failure and the fiber people hate to hear that. But the thing is that I love fiber. I mean, there wouldn’t be a wireless industry without fiber, but we have to be honest because we’re seeing it frequently now.
Craig:
It doesn’t take too much from Mother Nature to wreak havoc and then it takes a long time in many cases to get service back up and running.
David:
That’s an excellent point and a lot of people miss that. They’re thinking like this is a solution for the eye of the storm and they want to have discussions about attenuation during the storm, or what’s going to happen when we’re having four inches of rain an hour, that kind of thing. The bigger aspect of this is the aftermath because the next morning after a major storm, there’s debris everywhere, trees are falling over, there’s water everywhere and it could take days or weeks for service to come back up. So that’s a huge point.
Building Resilient Infrastructure
Craig:
We’ve had conversations in the past with providers in the islands, in the aftermath of hurricanes and the ability to be agile with regard to recovery. In many cases, they have to use solar power to power, their efforts, that sort of thing, with regard to your organization, Climate Resilient Internet, how did you approach this concept? And at what point did the wheels start turning?
David:
I went through a period that lasted some years where I was feeling kind of depressed about our industry, seeing it really as a race to the bottom. Our job is to provide more and more bandwidth seemingly for less and less money. And a lot of people haven’t really wanted to pay for quality that really goes into a good wireless installation. And about 4 ½ years ago, I started to go to climate conferences and made some friends in Boston who were part of that community. I sat in on some forums and started to focus on the conversations that people were having about resilience, about climate resilience. And I’m hearing about unbelievable numbers. I mean, hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars that are going to be impacted by extreme weather and the money that’s going to be put into building resilient infrastructure.
Data Vulnerability
David:
And I listened to world-leading experts from all different sectors, energy, transportation, water sanitation, you name it. And they talked about different challenges. And they’re talking about seawalls and gray and green infrastructure moving mechanical and electrical rooms to higher floors and four years into going to all of these forums and conferences. No one was bringing up data vulnerability. They were talking about vulnerability of all kinds of infrastructure, but data underlies everything today. And you can’t, for instance, be a hospital without access to the internet and to cloud data. And you can’t run a lot of different businesses or government functions without access to data. After sitting and listening and realizing what this missing piece is, I can see how it connected to what I’ve been doing my whole life. And I thought back about my experiences, and the experience of my experiences of many of my friends who’ve provided true carrier class microwave radio equipment and installed it to best practices.
David:
We talk about how we had links that have withstood superstorm Sandy and every storm since. I’m not saying all of them do, but we know that the technology is capable of doing that. And so it was really just a matter of connecting the dots. Wireless can be like data lifeboats for the internet, and it’s not, this isn’t a typical backup proposition. We’re talking new best practices for the telecom industry worldwide.
Craig:
I love that the lifeboat analogy. When we look at the mission for your organization, part of the equation is raising the awareness of internet vulnerability. When we look at the next component of the mission for climate resilient, it’s providing that certified internet resilience. Talk a little bit about the certification.
David:
Certification is important because a lot of this ability to be resilient has to do with using the right hardware and installing to the very best practices and the problem with the fixed wireless industry, or one of the problems is that we really don’t have certifications. And so, consequently, we have a very high percentage of fixed wireless installations in the world that are pretty crappy but also quite a lot of them are magnificent and never go down.
David:
All the years that I’ve been selling this solution, you hear anecdotally from customers, when you sit down with them, “Oh, my friend had a link and it went down in wind and it went down and rain and this happened, and that happened.” 35 years into this, or how many years I’ve been at it. I’m still hearing the same objections. I want to help put a stop to that. By certifying the solution, we’re essentially guaranteeing that it’s going to do what we say. We can move past the same old objections that we keep hearing and change the conversation to just, “How much bandwidth do you need?”
Best Practices for Telecommunications
Craig:
Part of that equation with regard to educating the populace on the challenges is being able to continually hone a best practices approach for telecommunications organizations in this current age. Many times, that transition out of the comfort zone doesn’t come easily and you sort of have to be the guy that says, “Okay, the king has no clothes.” You got to get busy and address this because it is something that will not get better. It will only get worse due to the vulnerability of infrastructure but there must be challenges as you spread this word.
David:
Let’s look at the Wireless Internet Service Providers. I don’t think that we’re going to have a problem convincing those folks. In fact, I think we are the comfort zone. I think we are the comfort zone because what we’re doing is going to give them the ability to strut their stuff. If they’ve been trained, if they have higher capabilities, if they’ve invested in adequate resources and they’re good with support, then they’re finally going to get paid for that. They’re not going to have to keep delivering their best for less and less money. Our proposition to people who are passionate about the business is let’s go and prove what we can do. And I think for WISPs and this may not be a great thing to say, but they’re stuck in this whole concept of providing service to far-flung places closing the digital divide, connecting the unconnected all of that kind of stuff.
David:
It’s great. It’s a noble mission. I don’t want to say, “Well, we shouldn’t do that”, but at the same time major carriers have been paid to do that forever. And they haven’t done the job that they were supposed to do. Now it’s incumbent on smaller providers who have scant resources by comparison to do the work they don’t want to do because there’s no money in it. So, now we have a WISP providing service 27 miles out to a rural home so that they can get a $70 a month ARPU. So I think that this is an opportunity for WISPs to graduate to the enterprise opportunity, to be able to go anywhere. I mean, even in dense metropolitan areas where you have incumbent providers and with a certified resilient service, be able to play in that market and kill it. So I think from the provider standpoint, it’s just a matter of getting them to sit down and listen long enough. And once they do, they’re on board.
WISPs Perfectly Positioned
Craig:
I do agree with you that WISPs are uniquely positioned, to address getting connectivity to places that sorely need it. And with regard to the component of making their infrastructure climate resilient, then that is something that is only going to be a positive for everyone involved in the conversation. I’m curious about the mindset that comes with improving an industry so substantially. Obviously, you have been very personally involved in pushing innovation for decades in this industry. And I would assume that you view this particular effort as one of the most important that you’ve been involved in. Would I be correct?
David:
I would say this is the most important. In the beginning, I forget, but it’s something like there were only 3000 websites by 1994, so in the beginning, in our first seven or eight years, maybe 10 years, we had, according to the Aberdeen group, upwards of 75% of the worldwide market, but the market was very, very small. And also the data was not hypercritical. People were just really getting on the internet and figuring out how to use it. And there were very few applications, but the difference is today, of course it’s not 3000 websites, it’s like billions or… And data, particularly, with the migration to the cloud has become increasingly more critical and critical organizations, large corporations, enterprises, government agencies, they’re ever more tethered to data.
David:
Here we find ourselves at a time where just as data has become so incredibly important, now we have extreme weather ratcheting up and we’re having greater incidences of wild and extreme weather closer together. As data has become more vital now it’s increasingly vulnerable and something needs to be done. It’s crazy that this is the digital age and we still see pictures of people on their rooftop with cardboard signs needing help because everything we’ve ever invented that’s electronic doesn’t work when you need it the most.
Craig:
And quite honestly, this year would be the perfect climate example of just exactly what you’re talking about with more named storms than in the last couple of decades. And anytime that you get into the Greek alphabet to name hurricanes and tropical storms, not a good thing. You mentioned earlier, David, the importance of data and the fact that it underlies everything. And obviously there are those who would look to service level agreements. Okay, well, I’ve got five nines. I’m fine. What do you say to people with that?
David:
Here’s the other third rail thing, aside from fiber as a single point of failure, “five 9s” does not exist in today’s world.
David:
It just doesn’t. You can put it on paper and you can sell it to your customer. It doesn’t mean it’s real. You might have five nines for a year, but if my friends in the climate community are right, the consensus seems to be that pretty much in every region, there’s going to be an ugly weather event whether it’s fires, prolonged heat waves, extreme precipitation. If you want to talk about reliability and availability in five nines, I think you really need to be talking about that over three and five years. I don’t think when we talk about five nines that we mean for six months or for a year. I was deciding to five nines in the eighties and in the nineties, I believed it then, it held then, it’s held, for the most part through time, but I’m not seeing it now. I don’t believe in five nines. I just don’t think it happens. I think that we can restore the idea of five nines, absolutely, by having wireless as an ancillary channel to fiber for these types of events.
Climate Resilient Broadband
Craig:
Well, obviously you’re talking about creating a new value proposition for providers, and I know you and your co-founder Steven Kelly obviously are looking to find a way to allow a comfort level if you will, for providers knowing that they are well prepared to handle whatever comes, whatever mother nature throws at them, I’m really anxious to see how this develops. And I’m curious from your standpoint, if you had a crystal ball, knowing how essential this is, knowing how essential data connectivity is to our existence, in all ways, shapes and forms, how quickly do you see the industry embracing what Climate Resilient Internet is bringing to the table?
David:
It’s happened already. I have talked to many friends in Silicon Valley. I’ve been talking to many WISPs. I’ve been talking to Claud at WISPA. Everyone is on board. This, what we’re doing, is not a company proprietary thing. This isn’t about our market share this isn’t about any vendors market share. This is about increasing the market size for the entire industry. I haven’t talked to anyone who is opposed to this. Ultimately what we need is we need a lot of voices to help in the awareness campaign. Ultimately when people hear that they don’t need to lose mission critical internet access, then the clock will be ticking. The onus will be on them to act, to do something, to protect the public and to protect their corporate profits and all of that. I have had some pushback from fiber vendors, but again, when they give me time and they listen and we get to talk about it, they’re on board as well. Wireless people love fiber. I mean, we push fiber all the time. We’re always buying fiber.
Fiber and Wireless Need to Work Together
David:
I think the pendulum needs to go back the other way, a little bit where, or at least let’s say fiber people need to show the wireless side a little love. Fiber people need to get used to the idea that, well, first and foremost, we’re not competing with them. We’re not taking anything away from fiber, right? Fiber vendors should be able to go to their critical accounts and where they see that that account is in a flood plain or in some kind of vulnerable situation. And particularly where the data is hyper-critical they should feel comfortable saying, “You know what? We’re all set with fiber and let’s bring in a certified resilient internet to protect you from those random and rare cases where you may lose fiber connectivity.” We want to get fiber people to understand when to call this in as well. They can make money off of it. Everyone can make money off of it.
Craig:
The bottom line is, and I go back to part of your mission statement from the company standpoint, the third bullet point, looking to continually hone best practices for telecommunications and that’s all encompassing. I want to make sure that anyone who would love to know more about Climate Resilient Internet knows how to get in touch with you. What’s the best way?
David:
Our website is climateresilientinternet.com. We’ve got a couple of videos, a white paper, and a lot of good information. It’s a straightforward site. I’m happy to talk to anybody and everybody, and I can be emailed at david@resilientinternet.com. I’m on LinkedIn, and easy to reach there. Anybody who’s interested should definitely contact me. There’s a lot going on, and people are going to be hearing a lot of news in the near future.
$4B to Protect Critical Broadband Infrastructure
David:
What’s really interesting about this that I haven’t mentioned is that it’s tough being a wireless provider. It’s hard to get respect, particularly from enterprise users, big CIO’s, everybody loves fiber that kind of thing. So I had my time in the Valley where I knocked on doors until my knuckles were raw. And they said, “Who are you? What do you want to sell us? We don’t need that. We’re all set.” Well, when you call somebody and say, you’re providing Climate Resilient Internet, it’s incredible, the response you get. I have met with all the top department heads at the city of Boston, up to the mayor’s office and his chief of staff. I went to talk to the speaker of the House of Representatives for the State of Massachusetts, between the governor and the speaker. They’re making upwards of $4 billion available for climate resilience.
David:
They saw me because I’m talking about climate resilience and policy makers and C-level level executives worldwide are really focused on that. This is something that really grabs people’s attention. They understand what it is and they understand that they need it. It opens doors, changes the conversation. It’s a win-win. it’s going to grow our industry and protect critical infrastructure.
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