Here is a paradox of modern living: a nation as wealthy and technologically advanced as the United States, tens of millions of people still lack access to reliable, high-speed internet. Research estimates that over 42 million Americans reside in areas where broadband either does not exist or is prohibitively expensive. This digital divide is not just an infrastructure gap; it's a gap in opportunity, education, economic mobility, and civic participation.
The government has taken notice. The US focuses on bringing the internet into the most lacking areas with funding worth billions from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and various targeted broadband initiatives, such as the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. While the last-mile things are the actual processes of rolling out fiber-optic cables from the main line to individual homes and businesses. The last challenge is still very difficult. The traditional method of trenching, where sidewalks and roads are ripped up in order to bury cables, is not only slow and costly but also very disruptive. It has been estimated that trenching in urban areas can cost around $1-$50 per linear foot, and that is even before considering complaints from residents about closed lanes, damaged pavement, or unexpected utility outages due to the work.
One way that product managers and engineers have found to be effective, with a little success, is micro-trenching. This method is basically cutting a small and shallow trench in the pavement just for the size of the fiber-optic cable. It is more efficient, cheaper, and less disruptive than manual trenching. But even micro-trenching has faced skepticism. The fill materials used to seal the trenches often require long curing times, delaying road reopening. Worse, maintenance teams have had trouble accessing cables post-installation without damaging the surrounding surface.
It was in this context, where a good idea was teetering on the edge of practicality, that Shubham Thakare found himself leading product strategy for micro-trenching systems at a U.S.-based infrastructure firm. His role was not to invent micro-trenching itself, but to make it work. And perhaps more importantly, to make it scalable.
Over two years, Shubham helped guide the development of a modular sealing and reinstatement system that addressed many of micro-trenching's operational challenges. The core idea was deceptively simple: replace slow-curing concrete with a fast-setting polymer and use a removable cover plate for easier cable access. In practice, the details were more complicated. The team had to engineer a polymer that could cure in under five minutes and still withstand heavy traffic loads and shifting weather conditions. They had to ensure the modular cover would be durable yet lightweight, tamper-resistant but serviceable.
"There wasn't a single moment where we said, 'This is it.' It was a lot of iterative problem-solving," Shubham explains. "We had to look at the chemistry, the installation workflow, the user behavior; it was very cross-disciplinary."
The final product was a two-phase system. First came the proprietary polymer fill, infused with nano-silica accelerators. Curing in less than five minutes, it dramatically sped up the backfilling process, allowing road sections to be reopened the same day. Then a fabric composite filled with the same color as the surrounding pavement was placed on the top of the trench. It was fixed with UV epoxy, which allows it to be taken out and replaced without needing to remove the base layer. A feature that utility providers found particularly attractive, as they would be able to fix any problem in the future without having to go through the whole process of reinstallation.
The innovation was formally recognized with a corporate patent: Universal Microtrench Sealant and Method of Installation. It's a technical name for something that quietly addresses one of the most persistent problems in infrastructure rollout.
The system was piloted in geologically diverse regions, places with bedrock-heavy soil in the Northeast and seismic zones along the West Coast, to test its adaptability. According to internal assessments, it performed well under both climate stress and heavy vehicle load. The rapid-setting fill resisted water intrusion, and the modular cover design stood up to repeated removal and resealing.
There were hurdles. Older pavements with rebar or layered materials required adjusted cutting protocols. In regions with a cold climate and deeply frozen ground, the shallow trench depth was not always applicable. Typically, the depth of a trench is 12–24 inches, which is shallow. Shubham's team suggested a mixed method of setting up the network, such as micro-trenching places that are compatible with bore drilling areas where the action is necessary.
Over time, what began as a technical project took on broader strategic significance. Within 18 months of commercial rollout, the system helped the company secure a 40% share of the U.S. micro-trenching market. Contracts tied to federal broadband programs followed, bringing fiber to over half a million households. Internal projections now suggest the system could capture up to 75% of the $1.2 billion urban micro-trenching market within the next three years.
The financial and civic implications are not insignificant. Telecom carriers using the system have reported up to 52% cost reductions compared to conventional methods. Municipalities, too, have seen benefits: fewer road closures, fewer citizen complaints, and a sharp drop in post-installation pavement damage. Some cities project annual savings of over $100 million in reduced liability claims and maintenance budgets. In the meantime, the supply chain required to manufacture and deploy the new materials is now supporting more than 1,200 skilled jobs in four states.
What makes Shubham's role in this narrative stand out is not so much the technology but rather the orchestration. He was not the polymer chemist or the field technician. He was the guy putting those worlds together and making sure that what was developed in a lab could actually be implemented under the tires of a delivery truck in downtown Boston or in freezing rain in Spokane.
Asked whether he sees this as an engineering feat or a public service, he pauses. "It's both," he says. "At the end of the day, it's about enabling access to information, to opportunity, to the digital economy. The infrastructure we build now shapes the kind of society we're going to be living in 20 years from now."
The seal member system is now patented under the title Universal Microtrench Sealant and Method of Installation. It is present not only as a commercial product, but also as a silent facilitator of a broader transformation in how America connects. It is different from the noisy tech headlines and Silicon Valley moonshots as it is less loud, less visible, and more infrastructural and unglamorous. The ripple effects lead to fewer delays, more connections, and perhaps most pertinently, more access for those who have traditionally been on the margin.
It's easy to forget the physical realities of the internet. We think of it as something in the cloud, wireless, and frictionless. But every packet of data has to travel through something, somewhere. Often, that somewhere is a shallow trench in a road. Thanks to people like Shubham Thakare, the journey just got a little smoother.
