We are thrilled to introduce PoleIQ™, an automated field assessment tool, as a new addition to our Broadband Investment Optimizations (BIO) services. A national broadband service provider has already utilized this cutting-edge tool to accurately evaluate aerial deployment options, resulting in over $2 million in savings for a single deployment.
Leveraging AI, PoleIQ geo-locates and delivers a high-level assessment of the health and integrity of each utility pole on the proposed network, including the possibility of space and location for installing new wiring. The outputs enable Service Providers to quickly identify and quantify route possibilities, enhancing presales activity, and focusing permitting and detailed inspection resources on only the routes with the highest viability for aerial. The data enables construction partners to accelerate their tasks, potentially eliminating weeks, if not months, of the plan to design a construction process at a fraction of the cost.
VCTI has also added more robust and granular soil analysis, modeling data down to the census block level, so service providers and their construction partners are well-prepared for eventual digging and can plan their broadband expansion business case effectively and accurately.
“Our service provider partners must move at warp speed to deliver the broadband services consumers want and deserve. In an environment driven by grants and intense competition, building bullet-proof business cases for every potential network expansion project is critical,” said Raj Singh, CEO of VCTI. “Our ability to leverage big data, AI, and sophisticated analytics to provide very accurate plans and costs at a granular level is not only allowing service providers to develop successful expansion strategies, focusing on and prioritizing resources for the best opportunities. This saves them time and money and enables faster revenue and EBITDA growth.”
A national broadband services provider came to VCTI to help plan a new network build-out in the southwest. The new service would bring broadband to more than 7,000 underserved homes. In the early stages of planning the broadband expansion, the service provider estimated that 90 percent of the deployment could be done aerially, with only 10 percent of the infrastructure deployed via fiber in the ground. The construction partner believed the opposite was true – or 90 percent fiber vs. 10 percent aerial.
Leveraging PoleIQ, VCTI determined that the true number was 28 percent viable for aerial deployment. Given the size and geography of the deployment, it would have taken a team of two people more than 70 days to inspect the entire route physically. Using PoleIQ, VCTI could save the service provider more than four weeks of man-hours and more than $100,000 in physical inspection costs. In addition, the new data on aerial deployments enabled more than $2M in deployment cost savings.
VCTI’s Broadband Investment Optimization Service identifies viable technology options with economic analysis in targeted areas to help service providers prioritize infrastructure investment and strengthen collaboration with local governments for public/private partnerships. VCTI determines underserved and serviceable households and communities in targeted expansion areas within or tangential to the provider’s current footprint using machine learning technology, highly accurate location data, mapping services, and infrastructure information. Once the targeted areas are determined, the service identifies all available technological options. VCTI’s sophisticated design algorithms rapidly design wireline, wireless or hybrid networks to optimize the number of households and businesses the provider can reach with each investment. Targeted areas for expansion, available technology options, and economic analysis are identified to help service providers make long-term investment decisions.