Lack of Visibility Hampering Network Deployment for Network Operators, Finds EXFO
Recent research from EXFO Inc. indicates that large numbers of communications service providers (CSP) lack the oversight over field technicians needed to ensure successful network deployment. The findings highlight the pressing need for CSPs to automate their test processes and take back control of their deployments.
EXFO polled a high number of CSPs at Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, between February 22-25, 2016 to gauge their views on the state of the market and the challenges faced. The research found that while 93% believe it is important to have visibility over contractors’ efficiency and test results, the vast majority (81%) have only a partial view or no view at all. Moreover, the research also suggested that verifying all tests to meet performance standards and guaranteeing first-time-right deployments would drive the greatest cost savings, at 70% and 74% respectively.
Commenting on the findings, Lane Liley, Solution Architect at EXFO, said: “These results are very much consistent with what we have been seeing in the market. A significant proportion of CSPs that we work with lack true visibility over their contractors’ tests because many of their processes haven’t been automated. If you don’t have visibility, how can you ensure that contractors are doing it right the first time? Simply put, you can’t, and you’ve just got to take them on their word. That is putting a lot of trust in the hands of the contractor and creates some real problems in the industry that result in full service outages, network faults and, ultimately, lost revenue."
“Manual intervention along all stages of service deployment opens the door to a catalogue of potentially very costly mistakes. Tests by field technicians may not be conducted to standard—assuming they are conducted at all – results are often misrecorded, and mistakes are often missed by CSPs themselves because they lack the resources needed to review all of the associated documentation in detail,” Lane Liley continued.
“Testing deployments manually is an enormous task and it is safe to assume that you will have issues if you stick to the manual method of maintaining process compliance. By digitizing and automating the process, and overlaying that into the test set, CSPs can eliminate the need for tedious manual field entries which reduces mistakes and provides complete visibility and control over their cell deployments.”
