CO location strategy: Freeing millions of savings

As you asses the current situation, you need to be able to create a 360-degree view for a given location as a key base for any further activity. We can distinguish between factors that are directly linked to a CO, like lease terms, maintenance, and power consumption, as well as failure rates, and factors that influence the number and size of COs needed. Transparency on the planned rollout is key to derive a phase-out roadmap of the legacy equipment, unlocking the saving potential.

An organization needs to have clarity among three factors, each of which has the potential to accelerate or block the entire value-based fiber rollout approach. It is crucial to have a forward-looking strategy for all elements that affect the Central Office. If only 90% of a legacy network is replaced by fiber, the legacy platform cannot be decommissioned and thus the savings cannot be realized. Such potential can only be calculated and properly integrated in a build model if the organization has clarity on:

• Architectural Guidelines: Clarifying maximal distances, location requirements in terms of routing, backup and hardening.
• Financial structure: Clarifying tradeoffs between leasing and owning the COs, as well as clear requirements towards ROI and IRR.
• Customer impacts: Setting standards for product lifecycle, acceptable churn and transition timelines.

The next step is to identify the most lucrative business cases. Site location is only one of the many factors that drives a value-based rollout strategy. It has, however, a significant impact on the prioritization of certain high-cost COs.

There are several central questions that determine the prioritization of some COs over others. To factor these into the strategy, we found the pain points that might limit the speed of the rollout to be the organization’s tolerance level for changes, migration and customer management as well as regulatory impacts such as policies and subsidies.

To work around the unpredictability, we build a simulation model that combines the inputs and allows CSPs to identify the impact of the anticipated and potential adaptions.

This model helps to identify three to five distinct scenarios (e.g. conservative or accelerated), allowing CSP to foresee the impact of the anticipated changes, and providing a tested foundation to define a strategy.

Equipped with our strategy and agreed goals, we are now entering an iterative cycle. In this last phase execution and migration progress can be tracked and those new insights can be fed back into the planning models.

While the initial planning can follow standard best practices within a CSP’s Project Management Office (PMO), the execution and monitoring of rollout status typically requires real-time responsiveness. This includes, firstly, the management of all ongoing fiber rollout-related initiatives, including all network design, permitting and crew capacity management.

Secondly, the company needs to adapt the product portfolio configuration and last mile installations. Finally, they need to plan and execute the Central Office infrastructure decommissioning. End-to-end process management must be in place to detect and resolve delays early on, as well as to help PMOs factor in pilot insights and completed migrations each step of the way.