Page 10 - 20180911 Access Transformation white Paper Final

Conclusions

Every single access network technology discussed in this paper went through an impressive evolution to keep up with customer
demands. For most technologies it seems that we are nowhere close to the end of the evolution road. Looking closer at the
transformation methodologies for each of these fundamentally different access technology families, it turns out that there are
remarkable similarities.

The most important observation is that no matter the access technology, the move to push fiber closer to the subscribers is an
unstoppable trend. With all technology families benefitting from having fiber deep in the network, the fiber assets will not become a
stranded investment.
For the longest time it was the industry wide expectation that the end goal for all access networks is Fiber-To-The-Home. Lately the
wave of innovation on copper and wireless access capabilities have challenged this expectation. The wired and wireless access
convergence is fueled by the fact that the end devices are becoming more wirelessly connected and the burning deployment questions
of where the hand of wireless handoff to wired access will happen.

Why is all this important?
Understanding all the network transformation option is important as there is no well-defined path or best option to evolve an access
network over time. A network transformation path that is not finely tuned can waste millions and increase churn. Having a
comprehensive and flexible long-term transformation plan is mission critical in such a competitive world.

The access network is directly impacted by growing customer demand, budgetary limitations and the availability of next generation
access technologies. Creating a strategic transformation requires a highly efficient capital investment plan with many iterations of
what-if scenarios.
Creating a transformation plan is a multidimensional problem of balancing demand drivers, introducing right access technologies with
budgetary and operational constraints. This planning is influenced by customer broadband needs, capacity constraints, corporate
strategy, current and emerging competition, operational expense minimization, and technology innovation. Such a complex plan
should be conducted at a node level while keeping end to end strategic integrity. This complexity is why we decided to create a toolset
to reduce the complexity and allow you focus on the strategy.

Jibe is a breakthrough Interactive Planning Toolset used to generate and analyze multi-year access network
transformation plans, which fulfills growth requirements, strategic objectives, and operational (financial and execution)
constraints. The flexibility and speedy execution of Jibe gives you the opportunity to create and refine various
deployment strategies, resource requirements, and financial impact analysis across the entire footprint of your network.

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