“Storms” are always brewing…

At any moment, your infrastructure can be disrupted by a tree falling, a car accident, or even vandalism. But the costs to your business don’t have to be exacerbated by resource-depleting responses or one-size-doesn’t-quite-fit-all truck rolls. While storm clouds on the horizon may provide some warning, smaller or less obvious issues are much more evasive. How quickly can you locate and assess a problem after your customer reports it? Better yet, can you respond to customer calls by letting them know it is already being addressed? Finally, do you have the ability to accurately determine whether a truck or a team needs to visit the scene?

Waiting on customer calls is a 20th-century scenario. Now, you have the power of industry-leading technology — fiber optic technology. And if you’re wondering whether this is only beneficial for internet service providers, think again. Fiber optic technology offers more than fast Wi-Fi. It enables you to monitor your infrastructure end-to-end, be it fiber broadband networks or power grids. Metering and substation technology offer some information, but can you harness all these disparate data points into a unified, holistic view? Most importantly, are you able to recover costs with your current technology?

Revenue-depleting culprits:

  • Costly reactive responses
    • Not knowing about problems before customers call
    • Wasting time locating the problem
    • Wasting resources by assessing the nature of the problem on-scene
    • Inefficient resource allocation and timing, leading to lost revenue and increased operational costs
    • Reduced revenue over time due to reliance on reactive solutions
  • Siloed communications
    • Separation of information
    • No aggregate solution for various data points; including metering, reclosers, substations, etc.
  • Bandwidth constraints
    • LTE cards that cannot meet demand
  • Critical communications and monitoring
    • Power delivery needs resilient, real-time communications
    • Inability to be proactive without sufficient or real-time communications
    • Inability to quickly assess issues and roll out appropriate resources

A worthy investment

Fiber optic technology like Adtran’s not only empowering operators to modernize and leverage unified insights, but it also ultimately leads to cost recovery and resource protection. Over time, this investment brings quantifiable returns to operators

Dollar impacts:

  • Real-time monitoring maximizes customer experience by enabling speed and efficiency
  • Operators are better able to allocate the right kind and right amount of resources
  • Search time is eliminated as resources can now be sent to exactly the right location

Adtran’s fiber monitoring solutions provide comprehensive insights into the health of your grid. While you may already know the power usage and status at your substations, leveraging fiber technology can dramatically enhance your infrastructure view into a more holistic one. Now, you can better manage your grid, your resources, and your revenues.

You have two key advantages… Harnessing your existing expertise and federal grants

You’ve already built a community. For years, you’ve served homes and businesses and held together the foundation of modern society. But beyond lighting your neighborhoods and storefronts, you have the ability to offer your customers reliable internet access. Fiber can help you ensure the reliability of your power grids, but it can also deliver leading internet access and network monitoring.

One of the most important aspects of a fiber build is knowing where it’s needed most. This is your leg up – the blueprints to light up the town, the existing structure of your neighborhoods, campuses, and businesses.

Additionally, there is currently an unprecedented amount of grant funding available to providers nationwide intended to expand communications infrastructure unlike anything seen in decades and unlikely to recur for years to come. With partner programs like Adtran’s, you can receive valuable assistance in the grant application process and maximize the effectiveness of your funding. This presents a unique opportunity to leverage your relationships and expand your resource pool, ultimately leading to an enhanced customer experience and a resilient revenue stream.

You have the power to leverage 21st-century innovation today. With Adtran, you can offer end-to-end services to your community and protect your infrastructure for decades to come.

This article was kindly contributed by Adtran