“It is crucial to have an accurate cost estimate for our FTTH projects, as we fund all our ventures upfront. Since civil works such as trenching are the costliest aspect – they can rise to 70 percent of the total cost – it makes sense to focus on this aspect”, explains Nick Whittaker from SiFi Networks.

“Initially we tried to develop a formula with which we could analyze the city street data. Based on these numbers, we would estimate the required amount of civil works.”

The need for standardization

“But since every area has its own characteristics, it is hard to use a standardized formula. For example, area residents might have the right demographics, they might be interested in our service, with authorities willing to cooperate. But as the area housing and street architecture is so complex, the formula loses all value. Resulting in prediction errors adding up to 40 percent.”

“To manually draw every trenching line and calculate the total distance and cost, was not the answer either. It took far too long and it was easy to make mistakes.”

“We concluded we needed an automated software solution that would get rid of these uncertainties and save time and expenses.”

Understanding challenges

“We started doing some online research, what kind of solutions are out there? One of the options we found was Comsof Fiber. To get more acquainted with the software, we watched the product demo webinars.”

“We also visited the 2016 FTTH Conference in Luxembourg. At this venue, we had the chance to compare several vendors and see the tools in action. We compared three different solutions. Comsof Fiber was able to convince us with its high-quality algorithms.”

“So our people tested the software. That’s how we realized the Comsof developers have a thorough understanding of network design and construction challenges. This made all the difference.”

Quick and right estimates

“With Comsof Fiber, we can make a quick and good costs estimate and make an informed decision about the economic viability of a project. Before using this software, it took us 6 to 9 months to reach a decision. Now, it takes us 1 to 3 months. That is three times as fast. When we manually calculated construction distances, it took us 4 to 6 weeks. We reduced this to just 3 to 4 days now.”

“These time savings are extremely important to us, as we need to build our business case as quickly as possible. It also means we can assess several areas simultaneously, which is good for business.”

“The Comsof engineers flawlessly translated our requirements into software.” 

- Nick Whittaker

Integrating a ring topology

“Secondly, in our FTTx network design we use a unique architecture. We provide redundant internet access using ring topology. It is complicated but important to understand and to implement in the software. The Comsof engineers did this flawlessly by translating our requirements into software. They were able to grasp the technical challenges we are facing. Compared to other firms, this is an important added value.”