Proper Planning Leads to Fiber Deployment Best Practices

Proper Planning Leads to Fiber Deployment Best Practices

Laying the foundation for a smooth and successful fiber deployment must be strategically planned at many levels. This planning starts with financial modeling, risk mitigation and partnership strategies, investor expectations, and OSS/BSS selection and includes scenario analyses for potential delays and quicker penetration rates. Proper planning and anticipating potential obstacles at the very beginning helps to mitigate early challenges before deployment.

“If you think about fiber deployment, a lot of the work actually starts well in advance of actually doing the deployment,” said Joe Hickey, President of PomeGran Inc. “The first thing you need to be working on as you look to raise funds for your project is developing a very robust financial model. Some of the things that project financers, private equity firms, etc, look for is a 20 to 30-year time horizon. Fiber projects have a life expectancy of 30 plus years.”

The deployment phase unveils a new set of challenges, but these can be looked at and overcome with tools designed to help with high-level and detailed design.“There are a lot of tools available [for the design stage], advanced GIS models, as well as LIDAR technologies,” said Hickey. “We really like LIDAR because it enables us to create a digital twin and representation of the network.”

Other deployment challenges include make-ready applications and local community engagement. Taking the critical steps to prepare documentation and applications for utility companies and engaging with community leaders early can set you up for a successful and efficient deployment, Hickey stated, but even with these practices, there are still some risks with deploying fiber, many of which cannot be controlled, such as permitting and weather delays, technical challenges, material supply issues, cost overruns, etc. In order to mitigate these risks, contingency plans should be made to keep the process running smoothly.

Once deployment starts and the network comes up, it’s time to start looking at adoption strategies, including a comprehensive marketing strategy that aligns with initial market entry and continued growth, which means reaching into the technology toolbox to measure and use data to effectively sign up customers.

“The key takeaways we see in writing the rules of [successful] fiber broadband [deployment] is you got to build and on time,” said Hickey. “It seems intuitive, but it is harder done than said. You need to ramp quickly, so as you are building, you have to be connecting, and you have to have an integrated field team for marketing, to sales, to engagement model, and always be engaging at the front end during the build and post-build,” noted Hickey.

For more on key strategies for successful broadband deployment and examples of what PomeGran has done in rural markets, listen to the latest Fiber for Breakfast podcast.

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