The Iowa Heartland SCTE's Cable-Tec Games will be in new location this year, making it more convenient for participants from central and western Iowa.

The games will be Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities Office and Training Complex in Ankeny. While the Chapter has held numerous trainings at the IAMU facility over the years, this is the first time the Cable-Tec Games have been here. For the past several years the Games were held at Kirkwood Community College in Hiawatha or Marion.

Registration is now available for participation in the Cable-Tec Games. There is no charge to participate in the Games and the competition is open to both SCTE members and non-members. For a complete description of the Games and the day's schedule, visit the "Events and Trainings" page.

The Iowa Heartland SCTE Board will be meeting in January with to goal of establishing our local training and events for 2019. And we'd love to hear your ideas about what types of training opportunities would most benefit you in your telecommunications career!

In the past two years, we've provided low-cost training sessions on a number of topics, including fiber optics, DOCSIS, home networking, network powering, and many others. Is there a topic that you'd like us to address? If so, please send an email to Chapter secretary Curtis Dean at curtiswdean@gmail.com. We'll share it with the Board and hopefully it can be included in our 2019 training opportunities!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2018 Golf Outing and Vendor Day on October 3, 2018!

The latest training opportunity presented by the Iowa Heartland Chapter was entitled "All Things DOCSIS". The presenter was Benjamin Brodfuehrer with Cisco Systems. 

When Windstream decided to accept federal funding under the FCC's CAF-II program, it was clearly not going to be sufficient to expand fiber networks to all underserved rural areas. Instead, the company has been using fixed wireless technology to fill in those gaps.

As THIS STORY in Fierce Wireless points out, Windstream has been using Radwin fixed wireless equipment to cover 9,000 households in Oklahoma and another 200 in Argyle, Iowa, and unincorporated town in the southeast corner of the state. They are apparently planning to use similar fixed wireless technology to reach an additional 34 communities in Iowa with 6,500 households through next year.
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Windstream is offering a 25 Mbps package for $50 a month in those areas, with up to 100 Mbps speeds available at $70 a month. While those speed levels and prices seem very competitive, the line-of-sight nature of fixed wireless will limit reach in some areas. Also, there's no word on whether Windstream plans to retire its copper network in these areas - something that other large carriers have announced that they plan to do.

​CenturyLink has shuttered it's own IPTV service, Prism, that was offered in some of its larger cities. However, to fill their customer's needs for video services, they are apparently ready to partner with other OTT cable providers.
According to THIS ARTICLE at Fierce Cable, CenturyLink will explore options for bundles using "virtual MVPD's" such as Sling Television, Sony Playstation Vue, Fubo, or others. No specifics on when they might begin offering these services or where. 

Some of these vMVPD's have already worked out deals with the National Cable Television Cooperative that allow broadband providers to offer these services, although in most cases the cable company isn't allowed to bundle those services on their bill.

Shawn Stogdill, a Mediacom employee based out of Des Moines, was the overall winner in the 2018 Iowa Cable-Tec Games held March 14th in Marion.

Stogdill took the overall crown despite not winning any of the individual contests. He finished 3rd in drop splicing and Cable Jeopardy but solid overall showings in all the events allowed him to win.

Jesse Cornell of Mediacom (Des Moines) ended up in second place while Phil Metz of Mediacom (Ames) took third.

Stogdill will await word on whether he is invited to participate in the 2018 International Cable-Tec Games this fall. Last year's Iowa winner, Nathan Sidlinger, placed third overall at the international games in Denver.

CLICK HERE for the 2018 Cable-Games scoresheet showing the top three in each event.

The Iowa Heartland Board of Directors has set the training and event schedule for 2018.  

​March 14, 2018
Cable-Tec Games
Kirkwood Training & Outreach Services, Hiawatha

April 4 & 5, 2018
Home Networking Challenges
Ankeny, Hiawatha, and remote sites to be determined

June 6 & 7, 2018
All Things DOCSIS
Ankeny, Hiawatha, and remote sites to be determined

October 3, 2017
Vendor Day & Golf Outing
Kirkwood, Hiawatha and Airport National Golf Course

November 7 &8, 2018
Fiber Optics 1-2-3
Ankeny, Hiawatha, and remote sites to be determined

For more information on these events, including registration links, visit the Events & Trainings page of the website.

Turnout was strong for the Iowa Heartland's final technical training session of the year, "All Things Fiber Optics".

The chapter hosted two sessions of the half day training in Ankeny on November 7th and in Hiawatha on November 8th. Also, over 20 people participated in the training remotely at sites in Cedar Falls and Muscatine on November 7th.

The Iowa Heartland Board will be meeting in January to finalize a schedule for training sessions in 2018. As always, your input is welcome. If you have an idea for a topic you'd like to see addressed at one of our technical training sessions, just drop an email to curtiswdean@iowaheartlandscte.org.