Alexy Luecke is a Brand Marketing Specialist for CommScope. She is primarily responsible for development and management of global brand programs, search engine marketing, and brand education. Alexy brings previous sales and marketing experience with technology companies to CommScope. Alexy is a magna cum laude graduate of Hamline University, holding a Bachelor of Business Administration degree with emphasis in Marketing and Communications.
Alexy Luecke
Brand Marketing Specialist
What is expertise? For CommScope, it’s a valuable combination of knowledge, experience and passion—understanding the theory, being confident in the practice, and caring about the result. When you consider the evolution of communication networks—how they are converging, scaling and doing more than ever before—the value of expertise becomes crystal clear. CommScope’s greatest product isn’t an antenna, cable or cabinet. It’s the expertise we bring to every partner relationship. 40 years in the global communications industry has given us the depth and breadth of expertise that drives the world’s most important networks… like yours. I hope you enjoy this edition!
From the Editor
Issue 4
Digital Magazine
© 2018 CommScope, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks identified by ® or ™ are registered trademarks or trademarks, respectively, of CommScope, Inc.
CommScope to acquire Arris
As the future of communication networks evolves, so does CommScope.
Shaping the communication networks of the future
Smart solutions for our connected world
Connectivity is becoming universal—from communities to countries to the entire planet. CommScope understands that it takes flexible, agile solutions to keep these connections clear and open—and we understand that performance and efficiency must go hand-in-hand for network operators. That’s why we’re a trusted source for solutions that increase capacity, reduce latency and improve economics across the board.
This interactive graphic shows you all the ways CommScope connects a community.
Lasting Relationships are built on expertise and trust
Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing
Peter U. Karlsson
Mr. Karlsson has been CommScope’s Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing, since 2011. Mr. Karlsson previously served as Senior Vice President, Enterprise Sales, from the time of our acquisition of Avaya’s Connectivity Solutions division in 2004 through 2011. From 2002 to that acquisition, he was Global Vice President, Sales, for Avaya’s SYSTIMAX division. Mr. Karlsson joined AT&T in 1989, holding several management positions in the Nordic and Sub-Sahara Africa regions, was named General Manager of Lucent Technologies, Global Commercial Markets Southwest Territory, in 1997, and Managing Director, Caribbean and Latin America, for Lucent Global Business Partners Group in 1999 before transitioning to Vice President, Distribution, for Avaya’s Connectivity Solutions division.
The thing about expertise is that it can only be shared within an environment of trust. It doesn’t matter what you know and what you share, unless you also have the integrity to make it matter to your customers and partners. As Frank Drendel, CommScope’s founder and current chairman of the board, has famously said: In my role with CommScope, Frank’s words have special meaning to me. Over my 29 years in sales and marketing, I’ve seen many changes in how vendors and customers interact. I’ve seen the lines between sales and marketing merge. I’ve seen the traditional dynamic of sales—an assumption of trickery—grow into a more mature, consultative role that is most important when the customer isn’t buying anything. For CommScope, expertise is based on trust, and trust is based on integrity. We listen more than we speak, keep the customer’s challenge at the forefront, and we’re not afraid to honestly say it when we think the customer is better served by a non-CommScope alternative. It doesn’t happen often but, when it does, we respect our relationships enough to do the right thing. After all, knowing our own product line is the easy part. The hard part is knowing what the customer really needs to succeed. When a global financial company needs insight into planning a new data center—or an international service provider needs advice on planning fiber networks—they know they can count on CommScope expertise to help them overcome their business challenges as well as their technology challenges. They see that our global manufacturing footprint, local market insight, and worldwide network of PartnerPRO experts are all at their disposal. They know our advice is sound and that our follow-through will get the job done. After three decades of working with people all over the world to solve their most pressing challenges, I can safely say that people really are the same all over. Expertise is only valuable when partners trust each other—and our goal in every interaction is to leave the customer happy to say they trust CommScope.
More devices, services, applications— greater connectivity demands innovative power solutions to drive it all.
CommScope is a trusted source worldwide for solutions that power the present—and empower the future.
IoT, cloud computing, macro and small cell networks, indoor wireless solutions, fiber broadband networks and others all need reliable power solutions that can evolve as quickly as connectivity does.
Access CommScope expertise online anytime with these great tools
40 years in the communications industry has taught us a thing or two about what our partners need. That’s why CommScope puts our expertise at your fingertips with our suite of online tools, utilities and calculators. These useful items can help you plan, design, budget and deploy the cutting-edge solutions your network needs.
Quick tip: Bookmark the Calculator Page and share it freely—it’s expertise on demand, 24/7.
Check it out on the screen above or open in a new tab
Click here to access the online tools
Read More
Our planet has an insatiable appetite for capacity and speed, and CommScope is tooling up to meet it with an expanding research and development footprint. Connectivity is a global concern, and so is CommScope’s manufacturing presence, spanning more than 30 locations all over the world. In fact, our next fiber innovations are coming from our facility in Goa, India—not only in fiber, but in base station antennas, microwave antennas and even copper infrastructure.
Innovation at work
One eye on the present, one on the future
As connectivity evolves, it’s no small task to maintain focus on the future as well as the present. Fortunately, CommScope is committed to helping your network address every need and meet every challenge—today and tomorrow. Here are some of the ways we’re delivering on that commitment.
What is your definition of “innovation”?
CommScope is built on innovation, but that doesn’t mean we have just one concept of what innovation really is. Here are a few ways our experts define “innovation.”
Expert insight into your top network questions
CommScope expertise extends from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the field. We asked our subject matter experts about the most frequent questions they were asked by partners like you, and here’s what they had to say.
An index terminal is a network access terminal suited for use in a distributed split gigabit passive optical network (GPON) to distribute connectivity across an area. It has a tail with 12 fibers, terminated on a hardened multifiber-optic connector (HMFOC). Inside the terminal, the first of the 12 fibers are split through a 1x4 or 1x8 splitter, then brought to four or eight hardened drops. The remaining fibers are indexed one position, then passed through—allowing for progressive daisy-chaining of up to 12 index terminals on one cable.
Most outside plant (OSP) cable is singlemode fiber with the water attenuation peak removed. Some new fiber has a reduced bend radius specification offering a different profile or cross section compared to standard fiber cable. This can create a view on a splicing machine that looks like larger core splices to a smaller core, making it difficult to align the surfaces. Even a good splice can look poor on a single-direction OTDR test. Learn more in this recent blog.
Yes and no. It depends. Generally, factory-terminated drop cables provide better performance and lower insertion loss, and they are also much quicker and economical to install. Field-terminated drop cables, on the other hand, don’t require predetermined cable length information and allow greater freedom in slack management. That said, last-mile and fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) deployments favor factory termination due to its deployment speed and reliability advantages.
Tim Schuett
Mithilesh Prasad
Meet the subject matter experts
Mithilesh Prasad is a Field Application Engineer (FAE) for the Service Providers in India for Commscope. At Commscope for more than three years, Prasad is responsible for connectivity solutions for the telecommunications carrier market from the fiber perspective. In his more than 12 years of overall work experience, he has held several leadership positions in product line, sales, business development and technical support. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Utkal University, Odisha, India.
Mark Winick
Mike Wolfe
Pedro Torres
Tim Schuett began his carreer with the Army’s Information Systems Engineering Command in 1984 working on installation and certification of coaxial based broadband LANS for Army medical hospitals. Later supporting the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s campus Broadband/Fiber LAN Expansion and Maintenance. In 1993 Tim moved to the commercial sector serving as a Sr. Project Manager, Major Account Manager, Operations Manager and Director for a large structured cabling contractor supporting national contracts. With many years of experience designing and installing structured cabling systems, Tim brings a unique and qualified perspective on any discussion regarding the physical layer infrastructure. Tim Schuett has been a Field Application Engineer since 2012, currently supporting CommScope’s MSO team with a focus on Fiber Optic cabling and connectivity.
Mark Winick has 20 years of experience in the telecommunications field, currently as a principal field application engineer. Before that, Winick spent time on the sales engineer and project systems engineer teams. Specialties include project management, technical training and quality assurance. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with a B.S. in electrical engineering.
Mike Wolfe is the North American director of Network Engineering, Wireless for CommScope, responsible for troubleshooting and solving customers’ most challenging technical problems. Mike previously worked for CommScope as a regional sales manager and has served in a variety of management and engineering roles in both the commercial and defense communications
Pedro Torres is director of technical sales, Southern Europe and CALA, for CommScope Mobility Solutions. He previously worked for Ericsson as RAN CTO for the Telefonica Global Account, and in prior roles in R&D system engineering and IP and RAN solution sales. Pedro holds a master of science degree in telecommunications engineering from Madrid Polytechnic University.
How does an index terminal work?
Are factory-terminated drop cables better than field-terminated?
Why is outside plant fiber cable so tricky to splice?
The CBRS Spectrum Access System is a cloud-based service that acts as a broker to grant frequency resources to each base station node, called a Citizens Band Radio Device (CBSD), that is deployed in a CBRS network. CBSD nodes can be deployed indoors or outdoors depending on the coverage and service objectives of the operator.
How does the CBRS SAS work?
Commscope joined the xRAN forum in 2017 and it is an active member of the ORAN consortium. CommScope contributed to the xRAN specifications (adopted now by ORAN) which enable an open fronthaul interface for LTE and 5G deployments, enabling remote radio heads and baseband units from different vendors to communicate and interoperate in radio access networks.
How is CommScope contributing to open RAN initiatives such as ORAN/xRAN?
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 42 years since CommScope became a key player of the global communications revolution. As you know, that revolution never ends—and neither will CommScope’s commitment to our partners. Here’s a look at our philosophy—one summed up in a simple phrase: now meets next.
Bottom line: We put our expertise to work for you
All of us at CommScope are 100% committed to helping our customers succeed. For over four decades, CommScope has been leading the way for what is next, so the industry is ready to turn today’s innovations into tomorrow’s communication experiences.
Eddie Edwards
President and Chief Executive Officer
CommScope has thousands of talented, experienced employees who are excited by the future of network infrastructure and devoted to helping you.
Mr. Edwards became our President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors in 2011. From 2010 to 2011 Mr. Edwards was our President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that, Mr. Edwards served as our Executive Vice President of Business Development and General Manager, Wireless Network Solutions from 2007 to 2010. From 2005 to 2007, he served as our Executive Vice President of Business Development and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of our wholly-owned subsidiary, Connectivity Solutions Manufacturing LLC. Mr. Edwards also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of OFS Fitel, LLC and OFS BrightWave, LLC, a joint venture between our Company and The Furukawa Electric Co. Mr. Edwards has also served in various capacities with Alcatel, including President of Alcatel North America Cable Systems and President of Radio Frequency Systems.