Home Conference NXTcomm Programming NXTcomm Programming June 17 NP1102S-8 Tracks, VHS, T1s

8 Tracks, VHS and T1s

 

Tuesday, June 17 • 10:55 AM - 11:15 AM • South Hall, Room S111

Every carrier wants the same thing: grow top-line revenue and reduce OpEx. Yesterday'’s cash cow, T1s, continues to decline as bandwidth requirements grow. Existing T1 facilities can be upgraded to Mid-Band Ethernet (MBE) to deliver Ethernet over existing copper with up to 10x more bandwidth and Metro Ethernet SLAs. MBE is said give carriers flexibility to create a service-rich portfolio and grow a carrier's customer base exponentially with little investment or effort. But can it be that easy? Hatteras, TDS Telecom and XO Communications will discuss how carriers are leveraging MBE to meet their own service needs and add new customers fast, while providing real-world deployment details straight from the source.

Moderator

Kevin Sheehan, Chief Executive Officer, Hatteras Networks

Kevin Sheehan serves as CEO of Hatteras Networks with primary responsibility for overall management and strategy for the company.

Before joining Hatteras Networks, Mr. Sheehan was vice president of marketing and business development at Alcatel where he led marketing, product management, business development, and business planning for the company‘s DSL business in North America. During his tenure, Alcatel expanded the company's market leadership position in data networking, securing over 58 percent of the worldwide market share for DSL. Mr. Sheehan joined Alcatel via the acquisition of Packet Engines for $350 million in 1999, where he served as director of product management where he was responsible for product planning and development of the company‘s innovative line of gigabit routing products.

Mr. Sheehan holds a BSE and an MS from Stony Brook University, New York, and an MBA from Dowling College in Oakdale, New York.

Speakers

Craig Cowden, Vice President Access Services, Sprint
Wayne Rehberger, Chief Operating Officer, XO Communications

Craig T. Cowden is Vice President- Access Strategy/VoIP Interconnection at Sprint.  He is primarily responsible for the development of strategic and implementation plans targeted to reduce Sprint’s total access costs paid to local exchange carriers (LEC). As such, Cowden manages executive relationships for all LECs, CLECs, and MSOs to implement access strategy cost reduction initiatives aimed at reducing a $4.0 Billion annual access expense budget. In this role, Cowden led the development and implementation of an IP Peering strategy targeted to reduce switched access costs by $300M annually, at 90+% gross margins. The solution involves bypassing traditional LEC access through the peer-to-peer interconnection of partner IP networks, requiring technical design expertise and executive persuasion across major industry segments (cable MSOs, Wireless carriers, CLECs, ILECs).

Cowden also manages all service delivery aspects of Cable/VoIP (1,200+ total employees), including network infrastructure buildout and VoIP service activation. He also acts in an oversight role across the entire network lifecycle in support of Sprint’s cable partners. In this role, Cowden led the implementation of a LEAN process improvement program that resulted in a 500% increase in organizational output, while only doubling resource commitments, in order to meet business contractual requirements. In a three-year span, Cowden has led the expansion of the Cable/VoIP business from a startup-up operation to more than 4 million subscribers projected by year-end 2008.

Cowden is a 15-year telecom veteran, all in various network engineering and operations roles within Sprint. In his last role in Managed Network Services, Cowden was responsible for implementation and operational support of life-cycle management services to Sprint’s enterprise data customers. Cowden also served as director of IP Edge Operations, responsible for operating Sprint’s IP VPN and Dial IP network infrastructures in support of AOL, MSN, and EarthLink.  In that role, Cowden was awarded a patent associated with the development of a remote call forward translation testing process.  Cowden has also served as director of Engineering and Implementation in Sprint’s Broadband Wireless Group, responsible for the design and implementation of 2-way wireless broadband networks.

Cowden holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan and Masters in Business Administration from the University of Kansas. He lives in the Kansas City area with his wife, Tara, and three sons: Camrin, Carson, and Cager.

Wayne Rehberger is chief operating officer of XO Communications, responsible for all aspects of XO's operations including marketing, network and sales. He previously served as the company's chief financial officer for more than three years. During that time he led the company through a successful financial and operational restructuring that improved XO's operating metrics and financial performance through efficiency initiatives and the reduction of operating and overhead costs.

Mr. Rehberger has 20 years of diversified telecommunications management experience including having served in a number of executive roles at MCI Communications Corporation. During his time at MCI, Mr. Rehberger served in a variety of corporate and business unit accounting, finance, and operational support roles. He was involved in major acquisition activities, both from a business development and operational integration role. Mr. Rehberger held the position of senior vice president of Finance at MCI WorldCom prior to joining XO.