No

government and grants from the Broadband Infrastructure Fund, a copper-based service will continue for many households for some time, Tom predicts.

“We are still investing in our legacy copper and Nokia is our ethernet core edge equipment provider. They also provide some software to monitor our copper network territory, there could be miles between households.” in our legacy copper and Nokia is our ethernet core edge equipment provider. They also provide some software to monitor our copper network adequately and make sure we run that as efficiently as we can for customers who remain on copper” adequately and make sure we run that as efficiently as we can for customers who remain on copper,” says Tom.

That vastness is one of the reasons Brightspeed has found IQGeo’s geospatial software solutions for telecoms and utilities invaluable. Tom says engineers used to take days and weeks to accomplish what IQGeo’s engineering platform can do in minutes.

A recent first visit to Europe brought home to Tom just how vast the territories in the US could be. “I went to Venice, and it struck me there was a lot of water, but every household had fibre,” says Tom. “Venice is a densely populated area, however, in our

“Outside plan engineers make records and keep databases of where telephone poles and cables are, where the rocks and manholes are. Typically, it was a manual process for an engineer to go out there and over time, some records were maintained more accurately than others,” Tom says.

“We started working with IQGeo, a company that draws information from golden sources and databases and uses satellite imagery. As it’s an electronic platform, when people are actually doing the physical work associated with the engineering design, they can make changes and edits on a tablet while they are out and that will trigger equipment and materials orders necessary for that particular build. It helps us from an inventory management perspective because we know how many ‘widgets’ are out in the field,” says Tom. In addition, outside plan contractors who

Building better networks

IQGeo’s network management software is helping innovative fiber operators like Brightspeed to rapidly and e ciently deliver vital broadband services to homes and businesses. Our award-winning enterprise solutions are used around the world to plan, construct and maintain the networks of the future.

• Model anything

• Use anywhere

• Integrate everything

• Innovate constantly complete certain segments of the build get paid more quickly because all the invoicing is triggered electronically, as well.

He explains that the information gathered also helps Brightspeed secure funding. “In North Carolina, for example, we received $90million in grant funding, which sounds like a lot of money but when you are building infrastructure it is not,” says Tom.

“The reason we're able to do this innovation is because when we took over this particular territory, it didn't have a lot of fibre; we were effectively starting from scratch. That allows us to do things differently and it's actually a strength of our business.”