SUMMARY
This company operates in the telecommunications industry and offers network coverage in nearly 25 American states, making it one of the largest wireless carriers in the USA. One aspect that sets it apart is its extensive presence in rural areas.
Because broadband connectivity creates a greater risk of distortion, it was difficult to determine serviceability, coverage and speed for potential customers.
Korem developed a turnkey application that is scalable and customized to the carrier’s needs from the Spectrum platform. Since then, not only has the accuracy of its service qualification process improved dramatically, but it has also saved considerable time.
The Client
Offering network coverage in nearly 25 American states, this company is one of the largest wireless carriers in the USA. It recently began deploying to broadband Internet, in other words, high-speed fixed wireless access (FWA) that uses radio signals instead of a traditional wireline network.
With this type of Internet connection, customers can experience very fast download speeds of up to 300 megabits, using an antenna installed on the building. It also promises reduced latency with improved reliability and stability compared to a traditional network.
One aspect that sets the company apart is its extensive presence in rural areas, where the demand for Internet access is ever-growing due to the recent surge in telecommuting. With few wireline Internet providers operating in these remote areas given the size of the market, this carrier enjoys a valuable competitive edge.
The Challenge
Previously, the company relied on a sometimes inaccurate service qualification process that resulted in lost opportunities. Because fixed wireless access uses wide broadcast bands, overlapping with those of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) in the United States, it’s more susceptible to interference. This makes it a lot more complicated to check whether a potential customer has access to the service—and at what speed—compared to a satellite network.
Because it has a very precise resolution of only a few square meters, as opposed to 100–900 square meters for traditional technologies, broadband Internet requires that all the structures (not just a single point) associated with each building be analyzed to define the coverage probability of a customer. But the carrier didn’t have an effective way of doing this.
This meant that a customer could be considered unserviceable if eligibility was determined based on a single geocode located outside of a 4 m² resolution. Since an Internet speed only require a minimum of 20% coverage for a building to be eligible for service, another geocode located just a few meters away could indicate the opposite result.
Having to analyze all of a building’s structures to accurately estimate signal propagation also meant the company had to leverage huge volumes of complex property data, including information on the perimeter and height of buildings at a single address. Unfortunately, the client didn’t have a suitable way to store, analyze, or even visualize the data.
The solution
Korem’s business relationship with this carrier began over a decade ago with the development and deployment of a web-based mobile network coverage map and a store locator. This made the geospatial company a preferred partner when it came time to refine the fixed wireless Internet serviceability process.
Korem first thoroughly analyzed the carrier’s needs, then recommended the most appropriate strategy to estimate its network coverage more accurately. And so, using Precisely’s Spectrum Spatial and Spectrum Global Geocoding products, a turnkey, scalable, and customized solution was developed.
This solution, which is managed, hosted, and fully implemented by Korem on the carrier’s system and website, fulfills four distinct purposes:
Because the app is publicly available, careful attention was paid to make it user-friendly both in-house and for customers. The interface is also suitable for all types of devices.
In addition, the company has access to a geospatial data management and viewing tool, which was developed by Korem’s team of experts based on Spectrum Spatial Analyst. This tool allows employees to publish and share network layers in-house, without duplicating data.
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Key Results
6,000 eligibility requests per day
Customer qualification in under 300 milliseconds
The Results
Able to absorb complex data on any property in the United States, the solution can swiftly confirm which addresses have fixed wireless access. This makes it the most accurate geocoding tool on the market and has significantly increased the number of eligible customers.
The website’s serviceability tool processes on average 6,000 eligibility requests per day, with each request taking under 300 milliseconds. Because the tool is so easy and quick to use, serviceable customers are happier with their experience and more likely to order the service, which they can easily do remotely without any help.
The new solution also saves the company a great deal of time:
What’s more, the solution boosts the efficiency of targeted marketing campaigns and ensures that assessments of potential markets are more in line with reality. This minimizes the company’s risk exposure by making it easier to calculate the ROI on multimillion-dollar investments.
The FuturE
The telecommunications company is set to integrate new technology with even more accurate data to further optimize its serviceability tool. As such, the carrier and Korem are exploring ways to store and process an even greater volume of data.
Recently, Korem also performed a geospatial health assessment on the carrier consisting of a comprehensive analysis of its use of the technology. The resulting report lists recommendations for the next five years to guarantee the company stays a step ahead of the competition.
As data grows in complexity and technological challenges intensify, Korem is committed to supporting all its customers in achieving their medium—and long-term strategies. From the start, Korem strives to identify trends and future challenges in the industries it serves to better position them for the future.
