 Welcome to JSA TV, where we're covering the latest stories, trends, and innovations from leaders in global connectivity, digital infrastructure, and the networks within. I'm Allison Whelan, coming to you live from Metro Connect USA 2024 in beautiful Fort Lauderdale. And joining me today is Bob Thompson, CEO of Underline Infrastructure. Bob, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me, Allison. It's a pleasure. Of course. So we're just chatting a little bit. You have such a diverse background. What inspired you to found Underline? Well, the short version of the story is while I spent 25 years working as a banker I took a bit of a weird detour and spent the better part of 18 months working in Haiti after the earthquake back in 2010. Oh, wow. So the reason I share that is it was in Haiti managing three of the refugee camps that I got kicked in the face with what I call my American ignorance about critical infrastructure. We all naively take for granted that water comes out of the spout and the lights work and so forth. But I was in a place where I would say I was very morally responsible for the well-being of about 4,300 people And there was no power and no telecoms and the water was killing people. That experience started me on what's now a 10 year plus personal research project. What I would call the role of critical infrastructure in the fabric of communities. To the point where in 2018 I gave my wife the good news I was going to quit an otherwise pretty good job and try to start a company that could actually do something about transforming the capacity of American communities to flourish. So the background of underline is just that our mission is to deliver the critical infrastructure from a connectivity perspective that's necessary for American cities to flourish. Yeah, what a wonderful mission and thank you for everything you're doing. That sounds like it really changed the trajectory of things there that trip, huh? It really did. Yeah. To call it life altering is an understatement. Wow. Well, that's an amazing story. And what are some ways that you're seeing open access networks changing from the technology side of things right now? Well, there's there's a lot of different business models operating under the banner of open access. Ranging from purely wholesale fiber focused on the residential internet problem. We all the way to the other side of the spectrum, which is where we operate. We we build single multi-purpose fiber networks capable of serving every single client segment in the market from a poor family on government subsidized internet access all the way to complicated enterprise and local municipal utilities. So from a technology perspective, we would say community need needs to drive the technology. So communities need cyber secure foundations to modernize their other infrastructure. So that's where we believe the technology has to go and open access. Emphasis on cyber security, emphasis on capital efficiency, multi-purpose, multi-use infrastructure. But also the the transformation of fiber into a delivery mechanism for innovators. So the underlying platform of technologies is built to sit on top of our own owned fiber or to snap on top of someone else's fiber and bring it to life. And we think that's where the technology has to go. Of course. And so that's the technology side. What are you seeing from the business economic side of things? Well again, there's a lot of smart people and a lot of capital here in this conference that are focused on different segments of the market. People are building residential internet optimized fiber. There are people building fiber targeting the enterprise, etc. From from our perspective, the cost of putting fiber under the ground is the same for all of us properly done. So we don't want to serve one segment. We want to serve every segment. And I think that's where the economics will drive the activity. But it's also more complicated and requires more technology. So we're early in the evolution of the market, but I think the economics will drive toward multi-purpose infrastructure. Yes, it's insightful. And I know you're speaking on a panel. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Maybe give us a preview or a key takeaways that you want attendees to leave with? Sure. I'm quite frankly, I'm really appreciative of the chance to speak with this group. The panelists range from Utopia, which I give a lot of credit. They were early to the notion of open access internet to sci-fi and ubiquity, rock, etc. So it's a great group of experienced people. Each of us are doing things a little bit differently. Again, we are an infrastructure technology company, first and foremost. So I would say with no disrespect to anybody else's business model, we've just taken a different approach. So it's going to be an interesting discussion. There's some serious divergence of opinion among the group about how the future should unfold. So it should be a pretty fun panel. Good, good. I think we'll have to add that one to our agenda. Please come see us, 12 o'clock. Yes, 12 o'clock. Well, thank you so much for joining us. If our viewers want to go to learn more about underlying, where can they go to either connect with you or go to learn more? Very simple. It's underline.com. Easy to find. Well, keep an eye out for Bob and that panel and head to underline.com to know more. Thank you viewers for tuning in and thank you for joining me. My pleasure. Thank you, Allison. Until next time, happy networking.