Fiberside Chat

It’s an exciting moment for the growth of telecommunication infrastructure, especially in places that aren’t New York City or Los Angeles.   While the “big three” companies will continue to fight each other in urban markets, rolling out things like 5G and battling for the best densification, there’s enormous space for the hundreds of smaller companies who are looking to serve small towns and rural environments, which became even more attractive in 2020.

Service providers of the past may have had the luxury of time. While new technologies constantly are emerging, implementing those technologies or streamlining their processes was something that could wait. In today’s marketplace, however, that simply isn’t the case, said Kyle Siniard, VP of Technology for 3-GIS “There’s no longer an appetite to wait six to 12 months for some new piece of equipment or for some new requirement inside my network design or how I’m provisioning things,” Siniard said. “As I start to adjust those things, I need to do it right now because, if I don’t do it right now, someone else is, and I can’t get behind. I need to be the first one here, and [I] need to go get these new customers and sign them up. In order to do that, I have to be able to adjust to meet the needs of today. Companies like 3-GIS can get companies up to speed by providing the systems to get optimized data models and real-time information, whether it be an industry giant like Verizon with 70 different locations or a much smaller operation “I have 70 different, almost, projects going on and being run in a different format. I then have 20 different vendors managing these markets, so, even organizationally, the businesses I’m working with operate slightly differently. Then, I have 5,000 users or more across all those 70 markets, 20 vendors and my internal team,” he said. “In an eight-month period, we took all those different markets, different vendors and all of those users, and we converted that data and moved them into a single system – a unified data model. That data model is maintaining almost 85,000 geospatial files, it’s got 25,000 fiber miles … and then, in terms of the sheer volume of data, it’s over 130 million different records. Smaller service providers may have different challenges, but those are tasks 3-GIS is ready to take on and handle with the experience and expertise garnered in working with some of the biggest providers in the world.

It may seem as if more and more networks are converting over to fiber and that copper is a thing of the past. But not so fast, fiber - copper networks are still very much a part of the equation as 3-GIS’ Jerry Golden, Chief Operating Officer, and Michael Measels, VP of Product Management, explained. “Most customers, even today, still use copper in the last mile,” Golden said. “They’ll put fiber down until a certain point and copper out to the customers.” “I think copper’s here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future,” Measels said. “Organizations have a fairly significant investment in their copper network over the last several decades, so they’re taking advantage of that investment over time and leveraging that in terms of profits and reduction of maintenance and buildout cost.” Golden said, with the increasing speed of fiber networks, replacing existing copper networks all the way to the home is the ultimate goal. Still, the investment required to do that does not make it feasible in all cases. “The amount of copper network out there makes it too big a job to undertake, and you can’t do it in a few years. It’s going to take several years," Golden said. And, while 3-GIS is primarily a fiber-focused company, Measels said they're managing more and more copper-based networks for telcos who want to switch permanently to fiber, but realize it cannot happen overnight or even in the short term. “We built an application to manage a legacy network that will go away sometime in the future,” Measels said. “From a competitive standpoint, we need to manage both copper and fiber.” Golden believes the system and process 3-GIS created to manage both copper and fiber networks will help telcos minimize the cost and the expense of data transfer to maintain both networks as they move toward eventual full migration to fiber.

When it comes time for telcos to pick a software solution to streamline or transform their digital transformation, the decision boils down to this question: Do they select a commercial off the shelf (COTS) software or a custom solution? 3-GIS’ Kevin Noack, Director of Information Systems, and David Stoner, Director of Product Development, shared their perspectives and insights. “I think it's a convergence of the digital transformation and GIS, and with the off the shelf solution, not only are you getting digital...you're also in a common communication platform,” Noack said. “ You don't want to be in some proprietary custom solution that you can't get your data out and share easily or share versions of it to do different entities.” Nor do you want to be stuck with a system that doesn’t match with your unique operating and service-differentiating workflows. So, how does a telco decide on the right option? One of the primary value points for a COTS solution is in-software maintenance and support. Another long view consideration is the configurability of the COTS software. That is the ability for the system administrators to change the configuration for user sets, workflows, UI metaphors, etc. rather than having to incur additional costs for programming changes. “Having a COTS solution allows various departments to have various access points into the application without having to do a different customized version for each department,” Noack continued. “Really when it gets down to it, when an end user is using a system, they want it to look and feel customized for their job function. And through configuration, we really can control the look and feel and down to the workflow level for that individual group,” Stoner added. “That's very powerful...you think about a team of disparate user bases using the same central platform to get their job done and being able to provide that custom feel without the custom application code makes a big difference.”

It may sound simple, but it’s something many telecommunications companies forget when modeling their network: It’s easier to plan if you have a deep understanding of what the current overview looks like. Too many telcos may not understand exactly where they have fiber, how close or far it is from their potential customers or how much they would have to connect when evaluating a potential merger and acquisition. “I think most people understand that today, but some of the people just starting out are looking so much at the right now and not really at the future of what they’re going to do,” said Tommy Siniard, Chief Technical Officer at 3-GIS. Having the data on exactly what your network looks like can also have big benefits, whether it’s reporting to local authorities, dealing with taxes or even showing places where inefficiencies can be cut and costs can be reduced by eliminating redundancies. “It’s important to keep in mind that this data, from a financial perspective, can be used for both reducing costs and also growing your network and revenue generation,” said Greg Connors, 3-GIS’ Technical Product Manager. The best way to achieve some of those goals is to make sure there are open lines of communication between the people managing the fiber network and those in the office. “In order to get the true value of the data from a financial and reporting perspective, it’s important to understand connectivity both from the outside network, between the buildings, inside the buildings, all the way to the intelligent electronics, which is where the circuits ride,” Conors said. “So, understand down to the level where you could say, this is where these circuits are riding through these fibers through this part of the city. “That’s challenging, but that’s really where you get the most value out of your physical network and logical combined data.”

Speed and efficiency. That’s what automation can bring to a process. Involving automation in network deployment is no different, said Michael Measels, Vice President of Product Management for 3-GIS, who has seen processes go from days-long to being measured in hours. “To design an area might have taken two and a half days with a CAD-like workflow. Then, bringing in this idea of GIS into the mix and a web-based system to design that network, we were able to shift from two and a half days to a day,” he said. “Once we brought automation to the mix, we could design that same area in a matter of minutes but, more importantly, provide the ability to redesign that area should we not appreciate the output.” Even with that quick turnaround, Measles said the planning phase and something that starts even sooner than that, the company’s culture and willingness to adapt, can be the most critical thing in successfully bringing automation to the network planning process. “Engineering companies are rooted in a pretty steep history and tradition in terms of how they’ve approached products in the past, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. I think the biggest challenges with adoption have been that,” Measles said. “That’s essentially changing who you are culturally as a company. That’s difficult and takes some progressive thinking inside the company as to how to approach that change in your culture in a way that allows for broader user adoption.” And, while changes can now happen quickly, it will mean nothing, Measles said, if the output isn’t what the user wants to see.

Fifteen years ago, the role of GIS in telecommunications networks was somewhat limited. Michael Measels, VP Product Management, 3-GIS, and Patrick Huls, Senior Solutions Engineer at Esri, discuss how today it’s a much different story. The migration from desktop-based to web-based operations took its time, but now the telecom world is ready to adapt cloud-based GIS technology solutions. “GIS has always been a support tool, maybe for the design, maybe for the physical network,” Huls said. “A lot of that still happens today behind the scenes. But I think what we’re seeing is a trend where GIS and location are becoming more and more important in the industry, and that is because of the evolving networks of the communications network.” With the advent of 5G and the complexity of today’s network architecture, designers need spatial tools to handle mapping and designing these networks from anywhere. GIS provides that assistance network designers need. “Location is a driver to planning and engineering these networks as more complex technologies come into play,” Measels said. “Now, as this convergence between wired and wireless networks happens, we see the necessity and interlock between these two entities with customers more and more.” “As companies move towards GIS-based ecosystems to deliver their telecommunications services, they ultimately see the benefit by meeting these build-outs at scale,” Measels said. “Building out at scale is the idea of being able to provide service to customers as quickly as possible that either haven't had it, were dissatisfied with their existing service provider, or were not getting the necessarily required speeds in today’s digital economy.”

Seit Jahren hat man Cloud-hosting missverstanden, oft wurde es sogar als nicht besonders vertrauenswürdig angesehen. Selbst von Namensgebung her könnte es “neblig” scheinen! Wer besitzt meine Daten? Ist es nicht kostspielig? Sind die Cloudanbieter für GDPR bereit und gegen Hackern geschützt? Heute wird aber die Cloud schrittweise entmystifiziert, unter Führung von vielen Großkonzernen, die zunehmend der Cloud vertrauen und stellen ihre eigenen Kernsysteme darauf um. Aus der Sicht 3-GIS: bei einem Telekommunikationsunternehmen, das selber Clouddienste seinen Kunden anbietet, heißt es, “lass Worten Taten folgen!”. Wir unterstützten die mit Fachwissen und Zuverlässigkeit. “Insgesamt steht es dafür, dass man sich auf dem “eigentlichen” Job fokussieren kann - sprich auf der Verwaltung und Planung eines Glasfasernetzes - und sich nicht um das Backend kümmern muss.”, sagte Richard Weiss, Director of Operations EMEA bei 3-GIS. Der herkömmlichen Meinung nach war die IT-Abteilung der Torwächter sowie der Verwahrer der kritischen Business Systems. Aber die Flexibilität, der “immer aktuell, immer am Laufen” Ruf der cloudbasierten Lösungen hat Leute langsam überzeugt. “Die Möglichkeit um die Software jederzeit und von Überall zugreifen zu können - von jedem Laptop oder Endgerät, von jedem Land, vom Homeoffice oder Büro - sogar vom Strand in Griechenland! Und das ist sehr wichtig in dieser “neuen Welt” nach der Covid-Pandemie.”, präzisiert Herr Weiss weiter. Nichtsdestotrotz muss man sorgfältig hingehen, die richtige Fragen stellen, den richtigen Partner wählen. Cloud ist nicht immer günstiger, aber mit einem guten Plan in Einsatz sollte doch sein. Nun, dass sich der Nebel langsam auflöst, machen viele Geschäfte den Wechsel, und zwar mit schnellem Tempo. Es macht halt Sinn aus vielen finanziellen und betrieblichen Gründen, sowie wegen Risikominimierung.

3-GIS had a pandemic policy ready, but it did not expect to have to use it. After the SARS-CoV-1 coronavirus crisis in the early 2000s, 3-GIS CEO Tom Counts thought it was important to draw up some regulations. Even as prepared as 3-GIS was, however, there still were plenty of things they had to adapt to on the fly. “The pandemic policy did lay out some of those communication guidelines, but it was one of those things that, as you’re going through your policy manual, you kind of skip that page. You think, ‘That was needed for the Spanish flu days, not 2020,’” said Dustin Sutton, 3-GIS’ President. “So, we did have to dust that off and really dig into, ‘How are we going to communicate?’” Being a tech-first company, there already were measures in place and a high level of familiarity with tools like Zoom, which Sutton pointed out has entered the vernacular as a verb these days with children “Zooming” their friends after their online school. While everyone has made modifications in both their personal and professional lives, the telecommunications industry has been slow to implement tweaks because of COVID-19 and, more or less, things are continuing as they were at the end of 2019. “I haven’t seen any fundamental change, really, in the way networks are being designed, built or architected today. There’s a lot of concern. You always hear the phrase ‘new normal.’ I don’t think we know what that is yet,” Counts said. “I think normal is yet to be determined. I think we’re on a journey to a normal, and I really hope to God we get back to old normal.” Even if we have to adjust to a different world around us, Counts and 3-GIS will be ready to adapt quickly - especially after seeing his team adapt to the current pandemic. “A beautiful benefit to us that we didn’t expect was increased productivity,” he said. “I would’ve been so happy if we could’ve had the same productivity, but it’s actually up.”

GIS technology’s application in the telecom industry over the past decade has been vast. Just ask Julia Teply, Product Solutions Specialist at 3-GIS. Teply’s experienced the changes and growth in GIS technology use and adoption firsthand, and she dropped by Fiberside Chat to share her thoughts on the exciting developments happening with GIS as more and more 5G projects kick into high gear. “GIS is the standard right now for fiber network design,” Teply said. “It allows telecom companies to scale their projects across multiple markets and vendors quickly, as well as increase their speed to market.” Teply’s current workload includes a large-scale fiber-optic project that spans across 70 markets and more than 20 different vendors. Some of the advantages of utilizing GIS in today’s fiber network design is in the technology’s adaptability and scalability, which aids in both high-level and low-level automation. “You can customize GIS not only for design, but for other business needs, as well,” Teply said. The design improvements GIS provides helps standardize 5G networks. which are beginning to expand nationwide. “We are leaving additional conduit and fiber cable to expand upon the network when the time comes to upgrade to 6G,” Teply said. The flexibility and adaptability of the design utilizing GIS will make the transition to 6G easier than the previous transition from 4G to 5G.

For years, the concept of “the cloud” seemed nebulous and difficult to get a grasp on. That’s understandable, given the nature of clouds both in the sky and as computer utilities. Today, though, cloud storage is being increasingly demystified, with many communications service providers moving their network management systems to the cloud. For 3-GIS, helping a CSP move to cloud technology is simply practicing what they preach. With so many people around the world currently working remotely, it’s been a good time to be set up with a cloud system. “The flexibility and ability of the cloud to access those things just seems to be much simpler and easier to use, and people understand it better,” said Tommy Siniard, Chief Technical Officer for 3-GIS. “Pretty much all our applications, and even our development, is done up in the cloud today, so we’ve embraced it, internally, and we see our customers doing so, also.” Conventional wisdom in IT departments may have trended toward proprietary systems that set up the department almost as gatekeepers. Yet, in today’s collaborative world, there are plenty of benefits to allowing more users access to those systems (while IT maintains control over access and other functions). “What we see is the breadth at which the organization can access the same data. So, that data can be sent to other systems inside of the organization, where a salesforce could go look at a client being built live and be able to turn their strategies around using that information,” 3-GIS Solutions Engineer Damion Harrylal said. “It does make it really helpful when you have a centralized store of data that is managed and scaled accordingly for an entire large organization.” Now that the fog is clearing, more and more businesses are realizing switching to the cloud makes sense for them for many reasons.

Now, as technology continues to evolve, many companies are using network management solutions that are not keeping up with the times. For Dustin Sutton, President, 3-GIS, there are six pillars that show the strength of a modern network management solution that allows enterprises to get the best business outcomes from their systems. Whether it’s an enormous company with its own fiber network or a small business with only two users, utilizing the six pillars of a web-based system, having a geographic information system platform, achieving data integrity, having a single database, having a functional output and making sure the product has a high level of usability ultimately will be beneficial for companies in the modern world. “I keep going back to the competitive nature of the marketplace now versus 10 years ago. Companies are understanding that their poor customer service, whether it’s out of effort, whether it’s out of data integrity, in this case, it doesn’t really matter. The customer is unhappy,” he said. “I think the companies with good data integrity have been allowed to respond faster to outages, to get their network up and running faster and to understand, when a customer calls, where they’re at.” Around 40% of service providers are still using a legacy architecture, which Sutton said can lead to higher costs in addition to frustration for customers down the line. “We’re seeing companies have to really adapt and become more competitive in their local areas, and this competition has really led to the adoption of higher-performance systems to be able to better service their customers,” Sutton said.

Companies rely on data for every facet of their business operations. But how clean and accurate is that data when the time comes to utilize it? Jimmy Hall, the Vice President of Engineering and Product Services at 3-GIS, recently discussed this issue and offered his advice to maintain data integrity in an ever-growing complex world of data management. “The problem,” said Hall, “is when an immediate need for the data bubbles up, and companies realize they do not have strong clean data available.” Two things Hall frequently comes across is incomplete data collection and improper maintenance of data that is collected. The growing complexity of networks and the increased amount of data available to businesses means better workflow planning is needed to ensure accurate data integrity. “With the internet of things, 5G, and all of the different connections we’re going to have on our networks, and the many identification components on the network, it’s going to require a lot more attention to the data that supports managing those networks,” said Hall. What are the solutions for building and maintaining a system to handle large amounts of complex data in the telecommunications world? Hall said the expectation should be to manage data at both a fiber and wavelength level. “A robust, efficient system manageable down to those levels is a necessity. The system should be something that downstream groups within the company can access to pull data out of.”

It may seem like major communication conglomerates like AT&T and Verizon have a stronghold on communication services, but municipal utility companies may already have the tools at hand to upset the consortium’s footing on fiber networks. 3-GIS explores the advantages and challenges facing utility companies breaking into telecommunications on this inaugural episode of “Fibreside Chat.” President of 3-GIS Dustin Sutton joins the podcast along with experienced utility workers Michale Measles, VP of Product Management, and Jimmy Hall, VP of Product and Engineering Services. The three dive right into detailing how existing utility companies and co-ops are prepared to expand their services beyond just electric, water or gas. With energy conservation and efficiency pushing utility companies to evolve, the telecommunications market offers similar profits and revenue, explained Measles and Hall. Expanding into this field may not be as far-fetched as some energy businesses may think. In fact, with established networks, experienced crews, developed administrations, existing infrastructure and pre-existing relationships, utility companies have many resources at hand to succeed in implementing a fiber connection. Though the road to installing fiber networks is not easy, Sutton details the roadblocks, challenges and tools available to help companies make the transition. Sutton’s experience working with over 70 different international telecommunications companies’ fiber networks shines in this episode of “Fibreside Chat."