FiberPlanIT and COS Service Zones Make the Fiber Broadband Business Case

GHENT, BELGIUM — Belgian fiber deployment expert Comsof and COS Systems announced that Comsof's FiberPlanIT, a solution for automated FTTx network planning, can be used collaboratively with COS Service Zones, a demand aggregation tool, to enable fast and accurate fiber plans and deployment cost estimates based on actual customer demand.

Customer-centric Demand Aggregation
Traditionally, network planners choose addresses to connect based on estimates as to where demand will be greatest or where deployment costs will be lowest. COS Service Zones takes a customer-centric approach by targeting future subscribers neighborhood by neighborhood with a demand aggregation campaign to pre-sell the fiber connections.

Data-based Network Design
As neighborhoods reach take-rate thresholds, that data can be used as input for FiberPlanIT’s algorithms to design a network that will start generating revenue immediately after deployment. FiberPlanIT creates network designs in a fraction of the time required to do it manually with a layout that minimizes the long and short term deployment and maintenance costs. Its advanced algorithms take in all the geographic information of the area and in the blink of an eye provide a detailed network design connecting every serviceable location at minimum cost compliant with the desired network architecture.

As a result, deployment cost calculations from FiberPlanIT combined with the revenue from subscribers pre-signed in COS Service Zones create a complete business case upon which deployment decisions can be based.

“We have verified that the COS Service Zones data fits perfectly with our network design platform. The first step in a fiber project is to decide your target area, for this you need address information. Now we can propose a tool to get that address list from the most reliable source — their future subscribers. We are excited to help deliver not only well designed networks, but also networks with subscribers from the start, which guarantees profitability,” says Comsof CEO Raf Meersman.

“So many fiber projects have failed due to the wrong decision on where to start the build-out. We developed COS Service Zones to eliminate these unprofitable networks. But knowing the future revenue is only a part of the picture. FiberPlanIT will ensure that deployment costs are kept low and will give you the important cost component needed to make an optimal deployment decision. We look forward to see our customers build profitable networks designed with the help of FiberPlanIT,” says COS Systems CEO Peter Lidstrom.