Nokia CTO to Keynote Cable-Tec Expo 2016

Marcus Weldon, CTO of Nokia and president of Nokia Bell Labs, is on tap to keynote Cable-Tec Expo 2016 when the annual event returns to Philadelphia, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and its global arm, the International Society of Broadband Experts (ISBE), announced Tuesday.

Weldon’s keynote is set for Tuesday, Sept. 27, and will be part of the show’s opening general session at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, which is scheduled to get underway at 8:30 a.m. ET.

SCTE said Weldon will share insights into the future of communications networks, including observations from his recent book The Future X Network: A Bell Labs Perspective.

“Marcus Weldon is a visionary whose unique perspective on the power and evolution of networks transcends any specific company or technology,” John Schanz, executive vice president and chief network officer of Comcast Cable and chairman of the SCTE/ISBE Cable-Tec Expo 2016 Program Committee, said in a statement. “His views on IP migration, services, the opportunities for wireless networks and the impact of virtualization and the cloud are fascinating and will have broad application for the SCTE/ISBE Expo audience.”

“Telecommunications providers worldwide face a new technological revolution defined by the digitization and ubiquitous connectivity,” added Weldon. “Our challenge is to create ‘cloud integrated networks’ that will help us achieve the 100-fold or more improvement in network scale, flexibility, programmability and cost per bit that the revolution will require.”

Weldon holds a B.S in Chemistry and Computer Science from King’s College, London, and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Harvard University. In 1995, he joined the Physics Division at AT&T Bell Labs as a post-doctoral researcher, before becoming a Member of Technical Staff in the Optical Materials Division.

Cable-Tec Expo week begins with three two-day Boot Camps -- on DOCSIS 3.1, FTTx and Wireless -- on Sunday, Sept. 25 and Monday, Sept. 26. The show’s conference sessions, exhibits and other activities are set for September 27-29.