President, Chief Executive Officer & Chairman, Adtran Holdings
Search every verified Thomas Stanton interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a September 2014 presentation, Tom Stanton, Chairman & CEO of ADTRAN, discussed the accelerating pace of change in broadband and networking. He attributed this to the combined effect of Moore's law, Gilder's law, and Metcalfe's law, the last of which he described as stating that "the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of that network." Stanton argued that speed remains a "bottleneck to innovation" and that increasing access speeds will unleash new capabilities. He also stated that the network is not scalable if built for all users to have everything, and pointed to software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) as a path to economical scaling. Stanton compared the current technological shift to the impact of Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, saying it "completely changed society by making knowledge and education available to everybody." He referenced futurist Ray Kurzweil's prediction that the century could see the equivalent of 20,000 years of progress if bandwidth bottlenecks are unlocked. Stanton asserted that "the demand for broadband is infinite" and that it is impossible to foresee where broadband requirements will peak.
“The demand for broadband is infinite and over the longer term, it is impossible for us today to see where that broadband requirement is going to peak out or if it ever does peak out.”
“Speed is still important; I believe fundamentally that speed is the bottleneck to innovation today. If we increase access speeds and speeds of devices, we will continue to see an unleashing of capabilities and innovation that we haven't yet seen before.”
“Metcalfe's law states that the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of that network. Every single user adds exponentially more value to that network.”
“Moore's law, stated in 1965 by Gordon Moore, says the processing power will double about every two years. This has been an incredibly strong foundation for the way the industry has been able to progress.”
“Gilder's law, which states that the bandwidth of systems will triple every 12 months, has turned out to be less accurate. Bandwidth has grown about 45 percent a year over the last 20 or 30 years, which is good but substantially less than what could be achieved.”
“The synergistic reaction of Moore's law, Gilder's law, and Metcalfe's law is driving significant capabilities and bandwidth requirements in the future, unleashing tremendous growth and innovation.”
“Assuming we have hit this inflection point, the growth potential is tremendous. Ray Kurzweil surmised that we won't see a hundred years of progress in this century but more like 20,000 years of progress.”
“The network is not scalable if we always build for everybody having everything; the cost implications are too high. SDN and NFV point to a path for us to scale in an economical way and allow users to have the same experience regardless of the application.”
“Connectivity has to be ubiquitous; the device or location you connect from has to be the same to fully utilize and see the dream of what could happen with this change.”
“What Johannes Gutenberg did with the movable type printing press is very similar to what we're seeing today with Metcalfe's law and the processing power coming online. It completely changed society by making knowledge and education available to everybody.”
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