Ukraine Internet Suffering, Washington Adds Broadband Director, Lumen Adds CFO

March 28, 2022 – Broadband Now published research on Monday indicating Ukraine’s internet service has significantly deteriorated since the Russian invasion began on February 24.

The data indicates that the average throughput had fallen 12.5 Mbps, data loss increased by 37 percent from 3.7 to 5.1 percent, and the roundtrip time of data increased by 5.3 milliseconds.

Out of the eight regions sampled, Kharkiv is the only one that did not seem to experience a degradation in its quality of internet.

“The deterioration of all three metrics is part of a consistent pattern seen across Ukraine both in aggregate and regionally. The research breaks down the metrics across eight cities throughout the country,” Jason Shevik, Broadband Now’s senior industry analyst, said about his research.

Washington State hires broadband director

Washington’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee announced Thursday the appointment of Mark Vasconi to serve as the director of the Washington State Broadband Office, replacing Dawn Eychaner who stood in as the serving director since September of 2021.

Vasconi will be taking the reins on April 1, and will be working to help distribute the millions of state and federal dollars that have been made available to Washingtonians in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Providing ubiquitous broadband access has been a critical goal of policy makers across the country for over 20 years, and I’m beyond excited to extend this effort for the benefit of all,” Vasconi said. “The need for high-speed internet access has been well understood for many years although the impact of the pandemic clearly heightened this need, particularly in rural Washington and its many Tribal communities. I am honored to be part of the team that will finally accomplish this long sought-after goal.”

Vasconi previously worked for U.S. West, Pacific Northwest Bell, and AT&T, and has served as the director of regulatory services at the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission since 2010.

Lumen appoints new CFO

On Monday, Lumen Technologies announced that former Arrow Electronics senior vice president and chief financial officer Chris Stansbury will begin serving as Lumen’s CFO on April 4.

Lumen is a telecommunications company with gigabit fiber-to-the-premises services and more than 500,000 miles of fiber in more than 60 countries. The company’s CEO Jeff Storey said he was confident in Stansbury’s capabilities and pointed to Stansbury’s nearly ten years as Arrow’s lead accounting officer.

“Chris is a tenured finance executive with an impressive track record of delivering growth and value creation in his prior roles,” Storey said in a press release. “Chris’ leadership and financial acumen bring a unique skill set to our company as we scale the Lumen Platform and our Quantum Fiber build, both critical drivers of our return to growth.”

“This is an important time in Lumen’s transformation, and I look forward to continue building on the great work the team has underway,” Stansbury said.

Stansbury has also held finance and leadership positions at PepsiCo and Hewlett-Packard.