The urgency is real. European operators are racing to deploy fiber at scale, and the pressure to move fast is intense. But speed and longevity pull in opposite directions. Still, Part 2 of the Wavelengths podcast confronts that tension directly. The choices being made now — in planning rooms and procurement decisions — will shape these networks for fifty years. Or make them expensive retrofits within ten.
Returning to the conversation are Karsten Engelke, Director of Technology at ANGA, and Dr. Anthony Basham. Basham serves as VP of Active Products for the EMEA region at NetSeed and as President of SCTE. In Part 2, the conversation moves from market context into operational territory. Topics include European fiber network resilience, AI-driven cybersecurity, and whether the industry’s workforce training can keep pace with the fiber being deployed.
What Makes This Episode Worth Thirty Minutes
Moreover, Basham opens Part 2 with a reframe that sets the tone for everything that follows. Fiber networks are now critical national infrastructure. Not just internet access — but energy systems, emergency communications, and public services. That changes how resilience must be treated. It cannot be retrofitted later. Design it in from day one.
The cybersecurity segment is equally direct. Engelke and Basham examine AI-powered Network Detection and Response (NDR) systems — and surface a tension that rarely gets examined publicly. NDR flags deviations from normal behavior. But what happens when a new technology is the deviation? Could the security systems designed to protect networks inadvertently slow the adoption of new ones? Basham raises this directly, and the conversation that follows is worth hearing in full.
On workforce, both guests are candid: the industry has good ideas and increasingly good tools. But good solutions fail without trained people. For example, Engelke draws on his DOCSIS-era experience to argue for global, not local, training standards. SCTE, he suggests, has a role to play in European workforce development that it has not yet fully claimed.
Key Takeaways
- Fiber networks now qualify as critical national infrastructure — resilience must be designed in from the start, not added after the fact
- Build the passive layer for endurance and treat the active layer as replaceable — that separation is the architectural principle that makes a network built to last
- AI will augment network engineers, not replace them — but only if training keeps pace with the tools being deployed
- International standards protect operators from being stranded as technology evolves; they matter as much to the business case as the fiber itself
European Fiber Network Resilience: The Next Three to Five Years
Ultimately, the next three to five years will be decisive for European broadband. How operators balance urgency with long-term design will matter long after the cables are in the ground.
Listen to the full episode or check out Part 1 on the Wavelengths podcast.
Learn more on this topic by listening to the Wavelegnths Podcast by Amphenol Broadband Solutions by clicking here as well as Apple Podcast, Spotify or watch on YouTube featuring a full discussion with guests, Carsten Engelke, Director of Technology, ANGA and Dr. Anthony Basham, VP of Active Products EMEA, Head of Nactceed DK, CEO at DKT A/S, President SCTE.