What are some of the common barriers or challenges you are hearing when it comes to FTTH network construction?
When I meet with our customers deploying fibre to the home projects, there are a few issues that tend to come up frequently without regard to borders or business models. First, navigating the regulatory landscape of permits and infrastructure access is complex and time-consuming. A lack of careful execution and planning can quickly escalate project costs. Being able to easily access accurate data is another key impediment that can quickly derail even the best-made plans and forecasts. Finally, there seems to be a lot of rework in the field, much of which could be resolved by better communication. Too much information is being lost in email inboxes and disconnected spreadsheets.
How does digitization help address these challenges?
Embracing digitization within fibre deployment planning and construction workflows can substantially mitigate many of these issues. As I alluded to above, many of these issues share the root cause of poor communication and collaboration. Digital platforms can facilitate communication and collaboration between different stakeholders, including network planners, engineers, and contractors. This can help to streamline processes like permitting to ensure proper lead times are in place and resolve potential conflicts early on. Digital tools can also be used to manage and share project data in real-time, which can help to improve coordination and reduce the risk of errors. Additionally, capturing data from the field and from different stakeholders in the same systems you monitor progress and report out of will ensure the quality of data is much higher than when data is being re-entered into multiple systems. This improves visibility, forecasting, and even resource management which are crucial areas for the success of any FTTH project.
What is the risk of maintaining the status quo? How should the industry think about these priorities and ROI?
There are two ways to think about the priority of these issues when it comes to network planning and construction - financial and macro-objectives for our industry. As most providers will tell you - design, project management, and construction costs make up the vast majority of expenses for fibre deployment. Much of this is tied to labour hours. Additional truck rolls to a job are both a hard cost and an opportunity cost. This is where greater operational efficiency and collaboration between project stakeholders pays great dividends - getting the job done right the first time through, and moving on to the next without delay. In the bigger picture, the European Union has set out ambitious objectives in the related visions for a Gigabit Society by 2025 and the Digital Decade by 2030. Achieving those aims will require not just historic funding, but an evolution of how we work. Europe needs robust, competitive FTTH networks to compete effectively in a global economy. Fortunately, we have the resources and tools to meet that objective, but we need a proactive commitment to digital transformation to deliver.