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Perhaps the most impenetrable silo in telecom operations is the one that isolates outside plant from the rest of the business.
Fusing outside plant data and AI - The big picture
This is an excerpt from the new TM Forum report: Fusing outside plant data and AI to maximize CapEx investment. Download it now for the full insight. Perhaps the most impenetrable silo in telecom operations is the one that isolates outside plant from the rest of the business. The silo walls have grown strong over the last two decades as the core switching and routing fabric has morphed into software and again into virtual machines, taking with it the lion’s share of network investment and focus. Meanwhile, demand for ubiquitous, high-caliber coverage using multiple access and transport technologies has driven communications service providers (CSPs) to enlist the aid of outside engineering firms, thinning even further the bonds with ‘inside’ operations. Though isolating, this arrangement has worked for the most part, thanks to the competence and dedication of engineers and visionaries on both sides. But it is a new, data-driven world now. The power of data, and the ability to analyze and share it, is knocking down silos all over the industry, and it’s time for this silo to go as well. Within CSP organizations, outside field technicians and inside operations staff typically work in separate departments that are filled with people who presumably like what they do, run by processes and motivations the others might not understand. But their daily routines do not have to mix in order to function as a team. Field techs who prefer climbing poles and living in the physical world do not need to sit down for lunch with ethereal thinkers on the inside who paint masterpieces on whiteboards and code them into programmed reality. But their data does, and there is too much data being left on the ground in outside plant that could otherwise help create true end-to-end visibility for the CSP business. This new report from TM Forum looks at the need for CSPs to better extract and incorporate outside plant data, including geographic information systems (GIS), into the bigger operational picture. This need is especially acute with 5G transformation underway, aided by new tools like machine learning and artificial in telligence (AI), which are often grouped together under the term AI.
While the title of this new report - Fusing outside plant data and AI to maximize CapEx investment - might imply that using AI is mostly about capital expenditure (CapEx) and cost savings, there is much more to outside plant intelligence than reducing costs. Maximizing CapEx investment is about CSPs getting the biggest bang for their buck. Outside plant is the foundation of the network, and outside plant data is key to not only controlling the cost of deploying facilities, but also streamlining marketing and sales to the enterprise market and delivering a quality customer experience overall. The benefits come from ensuring integrity of the data and insights drawn from it, and that is where AI and machine learning come in. The skyrocketing demands on outside plant engineers to find optimal deployment strategies is matched only by the varieties of data that engineers now have at their disposal to help them. AI is often associated with customer data, customer service and behavioral knowledge, but the more urgent need lies elsewhere. Indeed, the top three most impactful areas for applying AI in telecom, according to a May 2019 Nokia-sponsored paper from STL Partners, are:
