In this article you will read about
- how automated AI-based processes can significantly accelerate the planning and expansion of fiber-optic networks.
- what role a geospatial data infrastructure and artificial neural networks play in this process
- why operating this kind of solution in the public cloud is more advantageous than in-house operation in own data centers
Working from home and high-volume streaming for every household – fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) makes this possible. More than 33 million households in Germany already have access to speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s thanks to Telekom's fiber-optic roll-out. We don't want it to stop there: "Our schedule calls for us to put 15 times more fiber-to-the-home connections into operation each year than before," says Niko Gitzen, senior expert at Fiber Factory. As a division of Deutsche Telekom Technik GmbH, it handles the planning for nationwide fiber-optic coverage.
The ambitious schedule cannot be achieved without automated processes. The crux: Until now, large amounts of manual work have slowed down the planning and commissioning of fiber-optic networks. For example, planners had to take hundreds of photos during on-site inspections and then evaluate them manually to find the best possible route for a fiber-optic network. With such a time-consuming and error-prone process, it is highly unlikely that up to two million new fiber-optic connections per year could be achieved.