Viewpoint
Total Telecom are pleased to be partnering with IMMCO at April’s Gigabit Access virtual event – 20-21st April. As an integrated solutions provider, IMMCO have been delivering engineering, geospatial, and software services to leading companies in the broadband and telecommunications industries for the last 20 years.
Ahead of Gigabit Access, Total Telecom caught up with IMMCO to explore a project they had undertaken with an industry leader in the Telecom industry, based out of Ireland & the UK.
ABOUT THE CLIENT
In August of 2018, a global network services provider, with fully managed services and individual network component services needed their HFC network to be built out, with a scope of over 75,000 households. The client was an industry leader in the Telecom industry, based out of Ireland & the UK, in both urban and rural areas, offering fully managed services and solutions.
THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE
The two main tasks in this project were digitizing the RF process, as notes were still handwritten and designs were in a specific software format, along with upgrading their RF capabilities from 860/750 MHz to 1.218 GHz, with minimum network changes and cost-effectiveness while improving the performance, security, and reliability as well. The process before we got there had a specific format for field walkout information and handwritten notes to be taken for the as-builts. These changes then needed to be updated to maps in a separate platform, and loaded in the client’s database.
IMMCO’S SOLUTION
The client provided the field walkout file and land base as the input, IMMCO then digitized this input and sent it back to the client. They then updated the digitized input in a database which served as a set of approval requests for the client to send to homeowners in the case of changing cables/amplifiers to a home or building. After this, we documented the design files and NBR (Network Betterment Report), capturing anomalies in the network identified after the field survey was completed. After the update, we upgraded the digitized network and sent the final package to the client.
Following digitizing, upgrading the network from 860 MHz to 1.2 GHz was the next step. The client reviewed this final package (upgraded network on the platform, series of checks pre-submission, design files) and gave the go-ahead. This entire process was completed for over 200 nodes which in turn affected over 75,000 houses, with a great quality average, showing that the speedy timelines of IMMCO’s work progress does not come at the expense of consistently high quality.
Due to their limitations in numbers, using our team enabled the client to do more. Also, due to our respective familiarity in the industry, we had a great relationship with members on the client’s team, leading to great working experiences for both parties. Our initial 2-man team that had started off helping with the client’s HFC network, billed by the hour evolved into a 12+ member team designing networks at a pace of over 8,000 homes per month.
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
This led to IMMCO taking up the client’s FTTH project in 2019, covering a scope of over 150,000 households. IMMCO handled the initial feeder design to the fiber allocation sheets. With over 600 jobs from multiple activities to be submitted, we still maintained an exceptional quality average while completing over 15,000 network designs per month.
These designs for the network were carried out across multiple software platforms, made possible with our team’s expertise across various software environments. The overall highlights of our work with the client are as follows.
1. Over 600 jobs from multiple activities submitted
2. Consistently exceptional quality average across the HFC and FTTH projects
3. Digitizing and upgrading RF networks for over 75,000 houses in a 6-month timespan
4. Designing networks (Fiber and HFC) for over 225,000 homes across Ireland
5. Working seamlessly across different platforms, with multi-platform expertise on our team
6. Showcasing the scalability of our team, being able to take on multiple phases of the project (HFC Digitizing, Upgrading, FTTH) as it progressed
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Seeing the success of the current project, we look to finish out the entire FTTH network for the client. We look to expand our scope to even more design types and move up our house count to another 10,000 per month in the near future. IMMCO’s global footprint is only trending upwards with projects across different continents, showing success across geographies and technology platforms alike.
For more information on IMMCO’s solutions (engineering services, software product, custom software development), reach out to mhollander@immcoinc.com!
ABOUT IMMCO
IMMCO’s engineering services and iBISS® field automation technology cuts the costs of deploying fiber and wireless networks. IMMCO is an integrated solutions provider that has been delivering engineering, geospatial, and software services to leading companies in the broadband and telecommunications industries for the last 20 years. Our headquarters are located in Alpharetta, Georgia with offices in India and Australia. We are staffed with network design engineers, software engineers, and GIS specialists.
For more information, please visit immcoinc.com
