Podcasts
Nitel’s chief product officer joined us to discuss how software-defined wide area networks, also known as SD-WANs, have lived up to the hype.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
Software-defined wide area networks (SD-WANs) are now a de-facto standard in the telecommunications industry, according to Mike Frane, Nitel’s chief product officer.
Frane, who joined Nitel in 2022, previously spent 14 years with Windstream as a VP of product management. On a recent episode of the Beyond the Cable podcast, Frane said SD-WAN has come a long way since entering the market years ago.
“It truly was the MPLS killer,” he said, referring to multiprotocol label switching.
Frane continued, saying there are a number of technologies that have not lived up the hype. He said SD-WAN stand out, however.
He said he’s seeing lots of companies moving from legacy WAN technologies, like MPLS and point-to-point, to SD-WAN.
“As part of that, they’re introducing a lot of different types of access to their networks,” he said.
Frane called it a “great evolution” in the marketplace for Nitel and how they deliver services.
“We’re very access agnostic,” Frane said.
To hear the full episode featuring Frane on Spotify, which features a 15% off discount code for Connected America 2025 tickets, click here.
To listen to Beyond the Cable on Apple Podcasts, click here.
Learn more about Broadband Communities Summit 2025 in Houston.
Also, click here to subscribe to the Broadband Communities newsletter.
