 Welcome to JSA TV and JSA Podcasts, the newsroom for telecom and data center professionals. I'm Barb Mitchell, coming to you from ITW 2020. Joining me today, we have three special guests from NJFX. We've got Felix Sada, general manager of NJFX, Sarah Kurtz, business development manager of NJFX and Amanda Cadence, sales and marketing, summer intern. Thanks for joining us, all three of you. We appreciate having you. And I know that, you know, we're always so excited to hear all the amazing news coming out of the New Jersey Fiber Exchange NJFX and Felix, I was wondering if you could just kick things off by telling us some of the big news you may be ready to share at ITW this year. Yeah, absolutely. One of the biggest things that we're announcing at ITW this year is the fact that CenturyLink is now setting up shop at NJFX. And as you all know, and as the industry knows, CenturyLink is a large provider and they are setting up shop at NJFX with their underground terrestrial fiber network and linking key routes across North America. And we'll be at NJFX to also work with the subsea capacity from the multiple subsea cables that we have here at the the landing station. So we're really excited to have them on board. And I think it's a great news for our growing ecosystem. And hopefully we can kind of utilize this as a springboard to for the rest of 2020. Right. And you mentioned your growing ecosystem of carriers and subsea providers, always growing. I know that NJFX is uniquely known as a carrier neutral CLS, actually one of the few of those in the world. Tell us what that means for your ecosystem. Yeah, absolutely Barb. So at NJFX, since our inception back in 2015, we've tried to build up this one stop shop for all of our customers. So that idea is to kind of create a marketplace so that all of our carriers, enterprises, OTT, whoever it may be, can come to NJFX, interconnect with one another to strengthen their network. So whether it's using our terrestrial backhaul providers or one of the four subsea cables, we like to serve as this kind of optimal hub for all of our customers. Great. And I think we have Amanda here today. And I think maybe we can talk about this, the obviously NJFX is helping millennials build careers in the data center telecom space, leading the charge to encourage young people in their career paths, such an important initiative. Can you tell us a little bit about how this is working? Yeah, so you know, in this time of COVID-19, many internships have been shortened or even canceled. So the fact that NJFX has actually given me the opportunity to have this virtual position for the summer is very cool. And I think it's very adaptive that they've been able to create this position. So the NJFX team has basically included me in a variety of different assignments and projects of their daily routine. For example, I've sat in on company meetings, sales calls, I've been able to learn how to craft social media and website posts to promote new customers, upcoming events, etc. I've been involved in taking parts in seminars like this and creating video projects. So it's a lot of new valuable knowledge that I'm gaining. And it's been a great experience. Wow, what an amazing opportunity and experience. How great that NJFX is supporting this. I just think that's just fantastic. And Barb, just to springboard a little bit off what Amanda said, you know, Amanda's done a great job. It's not easy, you know, kind of getting accustomed to this new world. And, you know, I commend her for being open to this opportunity. And, you know, NJFX, as an organization, we're really focused on driving new leaders and creating that next generation for the industry as a whole. Sarah and myself, we've done a few different things. We've created this millennials and telecom event that we utilize as a springboard to help generate a forum for leaders, young leaders in the industry looking to find their voice and look for opportunities to grow within the industry. And now we're also utilizing that as a springboard. And we're working with the suboptic group in their diversity and inclusion program. And the focus on that is the same type of initiative, right? It's working with different organizations and members of the industry who are focused on the diversity and inclusion, obviously, but also growing out that next generation of leaders within the subsea industry, telecom industry, content industry, everything that sort of encompasses what we do. And, you know, it's a long road ahead of us, but I think, you know, that everyone involved is really committed to this initiative. And I think it'll be a great thing for our industry moving forward. So obviously having Amanda on board and being a part of this and seeing what we're doing helps a lot, right? And the hope is that we can continue doing this and utilizing our ability to sort of promote and generate that new leadership in the coming years. That's fantastic. It really is. It's so refreshing to hear this and so important, as you said, for the industry as a whole, as we sort of build toward the future. What an amazing initiative to hear about. Can you tell us just sort of in closing, I guess, what, I mean, there's always so many things happening with you guys. What's up, you know, for the remaining of the year? What's coming next? Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, I guess first and foremost is the arrival of Haferu AEC2, the newest transatlantic subsea system that's coming on board fairly shortly. And obviously that will be landing at NJFX and providing direct connectivity to Denmark, Norway, and Ireland. And with other older subsea systems going away, such as TAT-14 and some of the older systems that are reaching their end of life in the next coming years, this new Haferu AEC2 subsea system is going to be a major piece in terms of shifting the subsea connectivity landscape between the US and Europe. And I'll just add, I know we've spoken about our ecosystem, and as we're always trying to grow that, now we kind of, now that we have this great community of carriers, we're looking to add some enterprises to our ecosystem. And with that, one of the verticals I'm working with is some of the US financials, so providing them with whether it's their international connectivity or diversity and resilience on their network or IP transit, we're looking to kind of move some of them into the building and start collaborating with our carriers. Wow, such great updates. We can't wait to see how this all unfolds and celebrate with you as further announcements come out. So thank you. Thank you all of you for joining us today. And thank you viewers for tuning in to JSA-TV and JSA Podcasts. Happy networking.