Lightyear is a New York-based enterprise software company building a 'Telecom Operating System' that digitizes how large organizations buy and manage network services. Founded in 2019 by Dennis Thankachan and Ryan Schrack, the platform automates telecom procurement, network inventory management, and bill consolidation across a marketplace of 1,000+ carriers, replacing a process that has traditionally relied on phone calls, spreadsheets, and weeks of waiting. It serves 300+ enterprises and 5,000+ users, including Palo Alto Networks, Five Guys, Alo Yoga, Pandora Jewelry, and Teladoc.
Nrby is a New Hampshire-based AI software company that turns raw network telemetry and location data into proactive action for broadband and telecom operators. Its platform - built around SmartPins, VisionAI, and the Link AI framework - shifts network operations from reactive repair to predictive prevention, guiding field technicians to the exact location of a fault and validating that work is done right the first time. Founded in 2015 by telecom veteran Kurt Dobbins, Nrby serves Tier One wireless, fiber, and broadband providers across North and South America.
Kurt Dobbins is the founder and CEO of Nrby, a New Hampshire company building AI-driven predictive network intelligence for broadband and telecom operators. A serial entrepreneur and networking engineer with more than three decades in the industry, he previously founded Ellacoya Networks (acquired by Arbor Networks) and Deep Information Sciences, and earlier served as technical director at Cabletron Systems. He is the named inventor on more than a dozen networking and communications patents and describes himself as a lifelong builder of ideas that challenge convention and reshape industries.
Clad is project management and billing software purpose-built for infrastructure. It unifies project operations and finance so telecom operators and construction subcontractors can track production in the field, automate invoicing and payments, manage vendor compliance, and handle 811 utility locate requests - all in one place. Founded in 2022 by ex-Instagram product manager Jason Rudin and backed by Y Combinator (W23), Clad aims to help the companies rebuilding America's internet and power networks build faster and get paid faster.
Cox Enterprises is a privately held, family-owned conglomerate based in Atlanta, Georgia, that traces its roots to a single Ohio newspaper bought by James M. Cox in 1898. Over more than a century it grew into a roughly $23 billion-a-year business spanning broadband and cable (Cox Communications), automotive services and marketplaces (Cox Automotive, which owns Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book and Manheim), and media (Cox Media Group and Axios). Still controlled by the Cox family and led by fourth-generation CEO Alex Taylor, the company reinvests its cash into new bets such as greenhouse agriculture, advanced plastics recycling and healthcare, while pursuing an aggressive Cox Conserves goal to be carbon and water neutral by 2034.
SCTE is the non-profit professional society that trains, certifies, and sets the technical standards for the people who build and run cable broadband networks. Founded in 1969 and a subsidiary of CableLabs since 2021, it runs the only ANSI-accredited standards program for the broadband industry, issues role-based professional certifications, delivers online and hands-on technical education, and hosts SCTE TechExpo (formerly Cable-Tec Expo), the largest cable telecommunications event in the Americas. In short: if a technician splices a fiber, proctors a DOCSIS install, or writes a Remote PHY spec, SCTE is usually the reason there's a shared playbook.
Maria Popo is the president and CEO of SCTE, a subsidiary of CableLabs, and the first woman to hold the top job at the cable industry's standards and training body. A self-described lifelong learner who started as a customer service rep and trained at a trade school, she rose through technical and executive roles at 3M, 3Com, Ambit Microsystems, Foxconn and Ubee Interactive - where she helped bring the first generations of cable modems to market - before earning a master's in Learning Design and Technology at Stanford. She now runs SCTE's global network of 60-plus chapters, retooling how the broadband industry trains and certifies its workforce for the AI era.
Sail Internet is a Santa Clara-based internet service provider that uses a hybrid of fiber and fixed-wireless technology to deliver high-speed, no-contract broadband to homes and businesses across the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. Founded in 2015 by Stanford-trained broadband engineers, the company positions itself as a customer-first, net-neutral alternative to incumbent cable and telecom giants, reaching residences, multi-dwelling communities, and enterprises with gigabit-class connectivity that skips costly trench-and-dig infrastructure.
Sonic is the largest independently owned internet service provider in California, founded in 1994 in Santa Rosa. It builds and runs its own fiber-optic network, selling fast, flat-priced gigabit and 10-gigabit home and business internet with no contracts, no data caps, and a privacy stance that has earned it a perfect score from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. After more than 30 years serving the San Francisco Bay Area, Sonic began its first out-of-region expansion in 2026, lighting up fiber in Los Angeles and Dallas.
Brian Barlow is the co-founder and co-CEO of Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), the Alphabet spinout that owns, operates, and invests in next-generation energy, mobility, water, and digital infrastructure. He brings three decades of private equity, venture capital, and infrastructure investing - including a stint inside Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs and an early seat at Michael Burry's Scion Capital - to the question of how to fund and build the infrastructure cities actually need. SIP launched in 2020 with a $400 million backing from Google and has since seeded ventures like Renew Home and AMP Robotics.
Vianet Communication is one of Nepal's leading internet and TV service providers. Founded in 1999, it pioneered fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) internet in the country in 2011 and launched one of Nepal's first IPTV services in 2016. Headquartered in Lalitpur, the company serves roughly 260,000 fiber customers across 24 cities, holds about 10% national market share as the third-largest ISP, and in 2023 launched Nepal's first 2 Gbps XGS-PON multi-gig internet service.
Verizon Communications is one of the largest telecommunications carriers in the United States, delivering wireless service, fiber and broadband internet, and managed enterprise networking to consumers, businesses, and government. Formed in 2000 from the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, the company runs one of the country's most extensive 5G and fiber-optic networks and reported roughly $138 billion in revenue in 2025.

Keith Southard runs Allied Telesis, the San Jose-headquartered networking company building switches, routers and software-defined infrastructure used everywhere from US military bases overseas to smart-city deployments. He took over as CEO of Allied Telesis Capital Corporation in 2008 and has stayed at the controls ever since, quietly steering a 1,900-person company through the awkward transition from hardware vendor to network-automation outfit.
Astranis builds small, software-defined geostationary communications satellites - about the size of a washing machine - that deliver dedicated broadband to underserved regions and governments. Founded in 2015 in San Francisco, the company designs, manufactures and operates its MicroGEO platform entirely in-house at Historic Pier 70.
Ready (ready.net) is a San Francisco software company that builds the platform state broadband offices use to run the federal BEAD program - from application intake and challenge processes to milestone tracking, reimbursements, and NTIA-ready reporting. Founded by Jase Wilson and Mike Faloon, the company turns a paperwork avalanche into structured, auditable workflows so $42B in public money actually reaches the unserved homes it was meant for.
Cardi Prinzi is the Chief Executive Officer of Sail Internet, a Bay Area fiber and fixed-wireless ISP serving residential and business customers across Silicon Valley and San Francisco. With more than 30 years of senior leadership in telecommunications - spanning Sprint, MCI Worldcom, Equinix, TelePacific, New Edge Networks, EarthLink, Pacnet, Telstra, and Windstream Enterprise - Prinzi brings deep expertise in strategic vision, product development, and revenue growth to one of the region's most customer-focused internet providers. Since joining Sail Internet in 2024, she has overseen a period of significant expansion including the acquisitions of Paxio Residential, Paxio MDU, and Ether Web Network, plus a high-profile partnership with Twist Broadband.

Nathan Patrick is the Chief Executive Officer of Sonic, a California-based fiber internet provider that has been challenging the telecom duopoly since 1994. A career network engineer turned executive, Patrick rose through the ranks to CTO before taking the helm as CEO in 2024. He won the 2016 FTTXcellence Award for his technical leadership and has spearheaded Sonic's aggressive expansion beyond its Bay Area roots into Oakland, Los Angeles, and Dallas - backed by the belief that fast, honest internet shouldn't be a luxury.

Remko Vos is the CEO of CUJO AI, a cybersecurity and network intelligence platform protecting over 60 million homes globally by monitoring more than 3 billion connected devices. A Dutch-born engineer turned MIT Sloan MBA, Vos spent five years at Comcast before stepping into the CEO chair in April 2022, bringing rare firsthand experience as a CUJO AI customer to a company that blocks over 17,000 threats per minute. Under his leadership, CUJO AI has landed Tier-1 wins including T-Mobile USA and EE, earned recognition as a Cybersecurity Visionary at RSAC 2025, and become a voice at forums from the World Economic Forum to MWC.
Jase Wilson grew up in rural Missouri, earned a Master of City Planning from MIT, and has spent two decades trying to wire America together. After helping land Google Fiber's first network in Kansas City, founding and ultimately losing Neighborly - a civic fintech built on municipal bonds - he pivoted to Ready.net in 2019. Now, as founder and CEO, he runs a Y Combinator-backed vertical SaaS platform that helps state broadband offices manage billions in federal BEAD grants and track sub-grantee performance, with $14.6M in total funding and a team of 62.

Wahaj us Siraj is the co-founder and CEO of Nayatel, Pakistan's leading fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) telecom company. A mechanical engineer by training who pivoted to entrepreneurship out of frustration with government bureaucracy, he sold a Suzuki car to fund his first venture and went on to build Pakistan's first FTTH network - a first for all of South and Southeast Asia. Under his leadership, Nayatel has grown to 170,000+ customers, 2,500+ employees, and operations in 17+ cities, while also launching Pakistan's first HD TV channels and partnering with Facebook to expand fiber across 8 cities.