Public Policy Leader Carl Guardino Joins Tarana as VP of Government Affairs

Kicking off formal efforts to help accelerate US digital-divide initiatives

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Increased focus on the digital divide at all levels of US government, along with Tarana’s innovation in next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA), have created a unique opportunity to make material progress on America’s persistent divide more rapidly than ever thought possible.

To help capitalize on this unique opportunity, Carl Guardino has joined the Tarana team as VP of Government Affairs. Carl is a trusted public policy leader and advocate with over 35 years of experience guiding public/private engagement. With this addition, Tarana can more readily assist public officials in understanding and leveraging ngFWA technology to ultimately give broadband programs wider reach and faster implementation.

Since its commercial launch in late 2021, Tarana’s ngFWA platform (G1), the product of over 10 years of intense R&D and $300M in investment, has been embraced by over 190 internet service providers in 8 countries. Demand for G1 has generated an unprecedented $100M in first-year revenue.

Many G1-powered operators’ deployments are explicitly targeting un- and underserved communities. A number of Tarana’s customers have spoken publicly about G1’s dramatic performance and network economics improvements — enabling fiber-class speeds and reliability even in unlicensed spectrum — and with project timelines measured in months instead of years. (See Tarana’s releases with Alyrica, Comnet, Nextlink, Redzone, Resound, and SmartWay for noteworthy examples in the US.)

Carl Guardino noted, “Fiber is clearly the default choice in the current policy conversation. It’s important to keep in mind that in some places it’s just not economically practical to deploy, given costs per mile and per household. I’m excited about this opportunity to expand access to fast, affordable, and reliable broadband in those challenging areas.”

Basil Alwan, Tarana Chairman and CEO, added “Our mission from the start has been to enable substantially faster progress in closing the world’s persistent digital divide. We’re looking forward to contributing toward greater success for both America’s and global broadband initiatives.”

About Tarana

Tarana is on a mission to accelerate the deployment of fast, affordable internet access around the world. With a decade of research and more than $400M of investment, the Tarana engineering team has created a unique next-generation fixed wireless access (ngFWA) technology instantiated in its first commercial platform, Gigabit 1 (G1). G1 delivers a game-changing advance in broadband economics in both mainstream and underserved markets, using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. G1 started production in mid-2021 and has been sold to more than 190 service providers globally. Tarana is headquartered in Milpitas, California, with additional research and development in Pune, India. Visit www.taranawireless.com for more on G1.