Barry Walton is a veteran broadband strategist and one of North America’s most respected voices in fiber deployment and network innovation. With nearly five decades of hands on experience—from climbing poles as a young rural installer to advising national scale fiber rollouts—Barry brings a rare blend of technical depth, operational insight, and real world practicality to every stage he steps onto.

Barry spent over 37 years with a major Canadian telecommunications provider, where he was instrumental in leading one of the country’s first and largest Fiber to the Home (FTTH) initiatives, ultimately shaping deployment strategies for more than 130 communities and over a million homes. Today, as a Senior Broadband Solutions Advisor with Corning Optical Communications, he works with service providers, municipalities, and industry partners to design efficient, scalable, and cost effective fiber networks—especially in rural and hard to reach regions. Known across the industry as one of Corning’s #BroadbandGuys, Barry is celebrated for his ability to simplify complex challenges in deploying FTTH networks and translate them into actionable, field ready solutions.

Barry is a longtime contributor to the Fiber Broadband Association and previously served on the board of the North American FTTH Council. Whether he’s speaking to policymakers, engineers, or community leaders, Barry brings clarity, candor, and decades of lived experience to the conversation—always with the goal of connecting the unconnected. And a great telecom storyteller