What You See Is Not Always What You Have (Cont'd)

As a result of the carriers' inability to track their physical layer, one company has documented around 15% to 30% discrepancies between listed access records and actual physical connections in the field, based on samples commissioned by various telecom companies.

The issue isn’t so much that the infrastructure isn’t up to the job – it’s that most operators have lost track of what exactly it is they have in the ground through corrupt or out-of-date information. Keith Willetts, chairman of the TeleManagement Forum describes the problem, “This is essentially a data management concern – but one with huge implications for the future of broadband. Many incumbents neglected management of their copper loops during the late 80s and early 90s because there was a general feeling that fiber to the curb was only around the corner. As a result, records for the access network might only be sixty percent correct.”

Keeping You In The Loop
Not having a clear picture of available infrastructure can become a costly problem when trying to install new technology. As the demand for digital services increase, operators are forced to make major infrastructure adjustments to meet customers’ growing needs. Operators need to provision higher bandwidth over existing lines in order to supply digital services, while ensuring that the loop line distance from the central office to customers does not suffer from signal degradation as a result of being too long.

To shorten the loop length, operators are investing in the installation of active street cabinets and transferring DSLAMs from the old street cabinets to the new ones. This requires that technicians rely on database information to guide them through the process. Inaccuracies in the database may send technicians to the wrong cabinet or street, adding hours to the wiring process. Failed installations cost the operator money and delay the moment at which the service provider can begin to offer and charge for the subsequent service.

In order to enhance planning of digital service deployment, telecom operators need an accurate view of their network and the components of their network. One approach is to implement a solution that provides resource mapping and utilization monitoring, enabling carriers to maximize the performance of digital services supplied and enhance the digital service performance level. The ability to generate accurate digital data rate predictions for upstream and downstream capacities on a line by line basis, along with a wide range of sensitivity analyses for planning and testing customer service capacities before deployment, would improve network efficiency by an order of magnitude.

Finding The Other Pair
Telecom operators know that they need to expand their infrastructure to accommodate the demand for newer services. Adding new lines to achieve this is costly. Being able to recover old lines is an option that could save millions of dollars a year. However, the large number of inaccurate records prevents operators from taking the preferred and more economical route.

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