Michael Soto

Michael Soto has extensive work experience in the telecommunications industry, spanning over four decades. Michael began their career in 1979 with the United States Air Force, holding various roles such as Instructor, Supervisor, Manager, and Chief in Network Operations and Configuration Management.

In 1999, Soto joined Cisco Systems as a Systems Engineer II, where they worked until 2001. Michael then moved to Time Warner Cable, where they served as a Senior Manager in Network Operations for the Tampa RDC - Southeast Region from 2001 to 2009.

Soto continued their career at Brighthouse Networks as a Sr. Manager, National Network Operations (NEO), responsible for Brighthouse networks across five states. Michael acted as the Primary Change Review Board representative for all ENG/Ops activities.

From 2017 to 2018, Soto held two roles at Charter Communications: Director, Advanced Engineering, where they directed the Automation and Validation team engineer efforts, and Senior Manager DOCSIS, managing Nokia and Sumitomo FTTH deployments and all CMTS/DOCSIS operations for the Florida Region.

At Summit Broadband, Soto served as the Director of Engineering/Telecommunications from 2019 to 2020. Michael oversaw multiple teams responsible for backbone, transit, network, leased lines, voice trunks, voice infrastructures, fiber plant, and NOC operations. Michael implemented process improvements resulting in improved NOC support, streamlined deployments, and device standardization, managing a budget of $2M.

Currently, Soto works at OpticalTel as the Director of Engineering, where they direct the planning and operations of the Engineering and NOC team. Michael supports daily service provider services and leads the planning and deployment of FTTH via Adtran while reducing the DOCSIS footprint.

Michael Soto has a diverse education history. Michael first attended the Community College of the Air Force from 1990 to 1999, where they obtained an Associates of Applied Science degree in Information Technology. Following this, they pursued a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix, completing their studies from 2007 to 2009. Michael continued their education at the same institution, obtaining a Master of Business Administration degree specializing in Business from 2010 to 2011. In addition to their formal education, Michael also obtained the ITIL Foundation Certification in November 2014.