 Welcome, welcome, everyone, to JSA TV Live, the newsroom for telecom and data center professionals. I'm Jamie Scott-Okitaya, CEO of JSA. Joining me today is my friend and colleague Scott Bergs, Chief Executive Officer at DFNI. Scott, welcome back to JSA TV. Well, thanks so much for having me today, Jamie. I appreciate it. We are so excited to talk to you. We've spent a couple of times since we've had you in the hot seat here at JSA TV. And of course, folks know DFI is an established dark fiber provider. But for those who might not already know, can you give us just a quick overview on DFNI and the solutions that you provide to the telecom industry? Absolutely. Thank you again. So DFNI is dark fiber and infrastructure and that's just what we do. We are a developer of communications infrastructure specifically focused on developing the high capacity, most route mile efficient means to connect data centers to other data centers and other points of interconnection specifically around the largest data center clusters in the world. Our Northern Virginia, Maryland platform and set of network facilities connect some of the most amazing partner data centers in the world with a huge amount of capacity. And then we're just continuing to replicate that both by expanding it within that mid-Atlantic region and also looking at other regions around the country. And you guys are rolling out the news. Last time we spoke, you announced the addition of two new digital realty data centers to your network. And since then, the company's really announced some key partnerships. Can you tell us a little bit more about these partnerships and what they mean for your customers? Yeah, absolutely. We've just been so thankful. I mean, obviously the entire Northern Virginia region has got such an amazing density of different data center operators and owners. And we've just been really, really fortunate to be able to work with so many of them. And that list continues to expand day by day. So DRT, Digital Realty, as well as Data Bank, and we're just recent additions. And we continue to have that list expand and expand. And it allows us to both jointly serve our end customers who are utilizing their data center facilities along with our dark fiber, our conduit, our related services to be able to provide connectivity between the endpoint destinations that are so critical for them to unlock the value that they create as the real innovators of the digital economy. And so we're just excited about all those partnerships and what they enable for this ecosystem and then for the users. Yeah, I'm talking about users, the ecosystem, unlocking value, AI, hot, hot topic right now. I don't think that that can be further highlighted, italicized, like you put a lot of emphasis here. AI for sure, just on the minds of so many. Every call I've been on so far today, for example, can you tell us more about the role fiber connectivity is going to play in supporting the rise of AI in data centers? Absolutely. As the architecture of data center connectivity modifies to be able to support both the learning models and engines and those inference models and engines to support AI in its current construct through multiple different applications, we're just trying to learn and be true thought leaders with the data center operators as we provide those multi-destination architectures at the highest capacity. And frankly, you know, I'd be exaggerating if I told you that we fully knew the bandwidth requirements that AI is going to need. We're all learning together, but staying at the forefront and most importantly working really closely with the data center operators that are facilitating this AI revolution is where we want to be. We want to ensure that we're making the smartest decisions about both architecture and scale that we possibly can so that all of the promise and the future of what AI can do and can be is going to be enabled by rather than inhibited by the communications infrastructure component of the entire system. Well said. So well said. And you mentioned, and users earlier, the definition of enterprise fiber really evolving rapidly these days. Can you talk a little bit about enterprise fiber and the importance of adapting to meet the changing demands of this digital landscape? Absolutely. You know, years ago, I think I had and the industry had a definition of an enterprise as being an independent operating business who looked more as communicate as at communications as a turnkey service that was provided by one of the incumbent service providers. And over time, that definition of an enterprise and thus the definition of an enterprise and wholesale communications infrastructure has really changed. As folks are looking more to move away from those the limitations that can sometimes be involved in looking at a turnkey telecommunication service or information service from one of the incumbents and instead controlling that by managing their own core infrastructure, their dark fiber, their conduit, their dedicated high count cables, and then using their own optical management so that they can control their own scalability, their own security. It really shifts the dynamic of who's included in our wholesale focus as a developer of that communications infrastructure and broadens the number of people that we're able to serve so that they can take their unique applications and the verticals that they serve, utilize our infrastructure to be able to enable that. And we're just excited about about being again, just a piece to this puzzle that is so exciting to to see what roll out. Yeah, I love that giving back control so folks can really control their scalability and security like you mentioned. Amazing points. So okay, critical time of the calendar year, we're looking to 2024 all that it promises. What can we expect from DF&I in 24 and beyond? Well, we were so excited and blessed this year. We kicked off the year with a very aggressive build schedule to expand our network more than doubling the route mileage and significantly more than doubling the overall mileage of our network. And it was it was originally scheduled on about a two and a half year timeline. And we are very thankful as well as proud to say that we are about a year ahead of that deployment schedule. And that opens up the opportunity for us to add further growth into 24 and 25. And as you mentioned with the incredible amount of demand that continues to be present from cloud conversion and the amazing partners that we have in the data center and hyperscale side in that arena, as well as the advent of AI and all of the applications that are continuing to be deployed in that space. Having that that room and that bandwidth and that flexibility to continue our growth supported obviously by our amazing partners at IPI partners or financial partner just positions us really, really well to again, not only continue all of what we have done successfully over the last several years in northern Virginia and Maryland, but to expand that organically in the region and then to replicate it in other markets. We're just so excited about that growth. And again, it's all fueled by the customers and the ecosystem as a whole. Scott, mind blown. I have yet to hear someone say we're a year ahead as an answer to, Hey, what can we expect tribute to your leadership, your team, your guidance, incredible job there. And we are so excited to see what you guys can do in 24 and beyond. Thank you so much for your time here. Thank you so much. I appreciate everything you do in the industry. And it's just, it's great to be a part of GSA TV and to be working with great partners. Thank you so much. And thank you viewers for tuning in to JSA TV and JSA podcast. We are so appreciative of you and to everyone have a safe and happy 2024 happy networking and see you soon.