Chad Johnston: After 26 Years Building Fiber Networks, Here's How My Thinking Has Changed
A fiber veteran argues there's no single right architecture. Rising costs and scarce labor mean operators should design for long-term flexibility, not habit.
When you've spent more than two decades designing fiber networks, you start to realize there usually isn't one perfect answer.
I've been fortunate to spend the last 26 years on the service provider side of this industry, working with telephone companies, cable operators, fiber overbuilders, and private equity-backed startups. Along the way, I've been part of teams that have designed and built hundreds of thousands of homes passed using just about every major network architecture in use today.
That experience has taught me something I mentioned during a recent Fiber Broadband Association webinar.
Nobody is deploying fiber the wrong way
If you're building fiber to the customer, you're making a long-term investment in infrastructure that will serve communities for decades. There are different architectures and different approaches, and every one of them has strengths depending on the network you're trying to build.
What has changed, though, are the questions I think we should be asking before construction begins.
The industry looks different today
Earlier in my career, the conversation was mostly about getting fiber built. Today, operators are balancing a lot more than that. Construction costs have increased. Finding experienced labor has become more difficult. Capital is under greater scrutiny. At the same time, we're trying to build networks that can support demand we can't fully predict. Those realities have changed the way I think about outside plant architecture.
Labor has changed the equation
One thing I probably didn't appreciate enough early in my career was the value of skilled labor. It's easy to focus on fiber counts, split ratios, and equipment. But every splice, every closure, every vault, and every truck roll requires experienced people. Those people are becoming harder to find. When labor becomes one of the biggest constraints on a project, reducing unnecessary field work becomes just as important as reducing material costs. That doesn't mean every network should look the same. It simply means labor deserves a bigger place in the conversation than it used to.
I've also changed my mind about 'just put In more fiber'
For years, conventional wisdom was simple: "Just install more fiber. You'll probably need it someday." I believed that for a long time. Today, I think it's worth asking a different question.
More than what?
None of us knows exactly what bandwidth demand will look like ten years from now and fiber isn't as inexpensive as it once was. Trying to predict exactly what you'll need decades into the future can be just as risky as not planning far enough ahead. Personally, I'd rather build infrastructure that gives operators options as networks evolve.
Construction cost isn't the whole story
One lesson that experience has reinforced is that the lowest construction cost doesn't always produce the lowest lifetime cost. The network you're designing today will be operated for decades. Every maintenance event. Every expansion. Every new customer. Every technology upgrade. Those are all influenced by decisions made before the first shovel goes into the ground. That's why I spend as much time thinking about operational flexibility as I do day-one construction costs.
The best architecture depends on the problem you're solving
People sometimes ask me which network architecture is best. My answer is usually the same.
It depends
Every provider has different goals. Every market has different challenges. Every operator has different financial constraints. That's why I don't believe there's one universal answer. What I do believe is that it's worth challenging assumptions that may have made perfect sense fifteen years ago but deserve another look today.
Looking ahead
One thing I've learned after 26 years in this industry is that broadband never stands still. The technologies change. Customer expectations change. Construction economics change. The questions we ask should change too. If I hope people took one thing away from my recent webinar, it's this: Don't choose an architecture because it's what you've always done, choose it because it gives your business the best chance to succeed—not just on opening day, but ten or twenty years from now.
Chad Johnston is Vice President of Strategy at Hexatronic US, bringing extensive experience in telecommunications infrastructure, network architecture and fiber deployment. His expertise spans OSP engineering, system design, construction and market expansion, with a focus on finding more efficient and scalable ways to build fiber networks. Before joining Hexatronic, Johnston held senior roles with Google Fiber, Ting Fiber, Charter Communications and Fidelity Communications, where his experience included large-scale fiber deployments, network architecture and market launches across the U.S., and he holds two U.S. patents for fiber optic deployment methods. He also served in the U.S. Army. This Expert Opinion is exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.
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