Scaling Shared Fiber Future

12:00 – 12:30 PM

Welcome Lunch & Networking

Doors open at noon with a light stand-up lunch. The first opportunity of the day to connect with operators, ISPs, investors, vendors, and industry peers before the formal program begins.

12:30 – 1:30 PM · Opening Session · Fireside Format with Audience Q&A · Desoto 4-5

Keynote & Fireside: The Standardization Imperative — Building a Common Language for Open Access

Open Access has proven its commercial and financial logic across multiple continents. What it has not yet produced is a consistent operating grammar. Wholesale interfaces, service layer agreements, provisioning protocols, billing structures, and API standards differ enough across markets that each new build still requires custom integration work — and each cross-border partnership starts from scratch.

Following an introduction by COS Systems’ Chief Technical Officer and Open Access Network Forum’s Vice Chair, Sajan Parikh, the session opens to a direct, facilitated on-stage conversation with the audience.

Topics include: how a shared definitional framework for Open Access roles enables real interoperability; how fragmented OSS/BSS systems drive deployment delays and higher integration costs; and whether voluntary alignment has reached the point where it functions as a competitive advantage rather than a regulatory obligation.

Speakers: Sajan Parikh (COS Systems), Scott Baker (AT&T), Josh Saucier (Calix)

1:30 – 2:30 PM · Panel · Desoto 4-5

Panel I: Built to Scale — How Open Access Architecture Accelerates Consolidation

In a rapidly consolidating fiber landscape, shared infrastructure and Open Access models have a structural advantage: when networks are designed for multiple providers from the start, M&A integration becomes faster and less disruptive. The separation of network and service layers enables modular integration — ISPs can retain their existing BSS systems if operationally justified.

This panel examines how Open Access architecture and standardized APIs reduce OPEX and accelerate time-to-market and take rates post-acquisition. Panelists address how consolidators can sustain multiple ISP brands on a single shared network — unlocking revenue growth while limiting churn.

Speakers: Amy Wheelus (Gigapower), Tony Ding (Nexxcap), Josh Orlowitz (Bonfire)

Moderator: Richard Knowlton (PMP Strategy)

2:30 – 3:00 PM · Desoto 4-5

Coffee Break & Sponsor Showcase

A dedicated window for coffee, informal exchange, and direct engagement with sponsors and technology partners. Sponsors are on the floor — use this time to get into specifics on the platforms and tools that run Open Access at scale.

3:00 – 4:00 PM · Panel · Desoto 4-5

Panel II: Beyond Fiber — Open Access Across Fixed Wireless, Hybrid Builds, and Multi-Technology Infrastructure

The Open Access model has been refined for fiber networks. The current questions are whether its commercial and operational logic applies smoothly to fixed wireless access, hybrid fiber-wireless deployments, and potentially even cable, and under what circumstances the answer is yes.

This panel covers the architectural implications of a multi-technology Open Access network: how serviceability, address management, provisioning, and quality of service differ between fiber and FWA; what sharing network infrastructure investments mean for business economics; and how operators in underserved markets are using FWA not just as a fiber substitute but as a complementary layer within a phased infrastructure strategy.

Speakers: Rob Johnson (Prime Fiber), Craig Walton (AT&T), Iswar Tripathy (1Finity), Jonathan Van (Element 8)

Moderator: Isak Finer (COS Systems)

4:00 – 5:00 PM · Panel · Closing Session · Desoto 4-5

Panel III: What Travels and What Doesn’t — Lessons Learned from Open Access Deployments Across Continents

Open Access has been implemented across markets with fundamentally different regulatory, financial, and competitive dynamics: from the Scandinavian models where network and service layer separation was first operationalized at scale, to last-mile projects in sub-Saharan Africa, national wholesale platforms in Western Europe and Australia, and U.S. Tier 1 and community broadband programs.

This closing panel brings together operators and partners from multiple continents for an honest exchange: what concepts transfer across contexts — take-rate dynamics, active vs. passive operator models, ISP commitment structures, exclusivity arrangements — and where context makes direct translation fail. This is not a success-story panel. The goal is operational honesty.

Speakers: Matthieu Guerin (Nokia), Rudolf Pretorius (Rizz Fibre/Crisp Fibre), Aaron Hildreth (Intellipop), Mikael Philipsson, Pär Cedergren (OciusX), Benjamin Meyer (HDR)

Moderator: Keith Ponton (Arcadis)

5:00 PM

After-Panel Drinks

Continue the conversation over drinks. Meet new contacts, follow up on panel threads, and move ideas forward in an informal setting before the evening begins.

From 7:00 PM

Open Access Bar

The unofficial evening hub for the Open Access community. The formal program is over; the conversations are not.
@Celebration Brewing Company, 1601 Future WY, Kissimmee, FL 34747, USA