I was recently at a fiber industry trade show where visitors to our booth kept us busy by asking a wide range of questions about our innovative geospatial network management software. Emblazed on our stand is our company tagline, “Building better networks”. Perhaps I should not have been surprised that more than one person challenged me on our bold statement by asking, “What exactly do you mean by ‘building better networks’”? This is a fair question given the prominence of our statement, and since the answer is multi-dimensional, I want to take the time to explain exactly what we mean.
1. Operational networks
For those that know IQGeo, you can appreciate that visualizing and managing telecommunication and utility networks is at the heart of what we do with our network management software. Our mission is to collaborate with industry experts to help them plan, design, construct and maintain their operational networks through the creation of a real-time network digital twin that supports their entire network lifecycle. From this perspective, “building better networks” is pretty obvious since our software is helping build and operate “better” next-generation fiber, 5G, and distributed energy networks. But there’s also a broader dimension to what we mean by “better networks”.
One thing we can all agree on is the importance of telecom and utility networks to our personal and professional lives. The Covid pandemic brought home to us just how much we depend on these networks for the survival and prosperity of our businesses and communities. So, when we talk about “building better networks,” IQGeo’s vision extends beyond the obvious benefits our flexible digital twin model brings to managing the entire lifecycle of operational network assets. It also encompasses the integration between telecom and utility networks and broader community networks that are working to improve our quality of life.
2. Integrated networks
Another interesting aspect of the fiber industry event I attended was the presence of many electric utility operators. They were at the show because they are playing an increasingly important role in delivering fiber networks to their customers in smaller cities and rural communities. And if they are not deploying the actual fiber, electrical infrastructure is often the conduit to create partnerships with fiber operators. The traditional responsibilities of utility and telecom operators are no longer distinctly separate, so building relationships between these organizations is vital to delivering innovative and cost-effective services, whether customers are in a city center or a rural farming community.
Electrical utility and fiber broadband networks are no longer created in isolation, and the supporting technology must reflect this reality. For example, distributed energy generation, electric vehicle charging, and shared battery storage simply cannot operate without high-performance, low-latency broadband networks. This is precisely why IQGeo has optimized network models for fiber and electrical networks, while at the same time allowing them to be seen and maintained in a single geospatial view. Our technology approach supports the integration of utility and telecom networks, which provide the services required by municipalities and commercial companies who are empowering the public/private partnerships that are changing the face of our business and community landscape.
3. Community networks
This leads us neatly to the final piece of this puzzle: the end users of the utility and telecom network services and the communities that they represent. It is here that the network gets very personal. Next-generation communication and utility networks hold great promise for improving the quality of life for all people by delivering high-performance services and enhancing the environment in which we all live. Whether it’s education, medicine, business conferencing, transportation, smart cities, or net-zero sustainability, the utility and telecom grids we are building today enable amazing potential benefits for the future. If deployed fairly and affordably, we can also help to create greater digital and resource equity for remote and disadvantaged communities.
The ambitions of community networks depend on efficiently deployed and maintained next-generation telecom and utility technology. Managing cables, pipes, transformers, and splice boxes is a fundamental first step in the network hierarchy, and this is where the IQGeo software plays a strategic part in the larger ecosystem.
Answering the question
The mission of the IQGeo software is to build better networks, which we make possible by creating an accurate digital twin to support the network lifecycle. This is the foundation upon which many technical, business, and social ambitions are built. If you can’t model the network, you can’t manage it, and if you can’t manage it, the promises of the future will simply not be possible.
This is where IQGeo’s flexible approach is racing ahead of our legacy GIS-centric competitors that demand big budgets and protracted upgrade cycles to achieve any tangible results. By contrast, we provide the industry’s most powerful technology framework built for rapid and constant innovation that delivers consistent and continual ROI throughout the lifecycle. Our mobile-first platform gives field teams and contractors the network intelligence they need at their fingertips to revolutionize operational productivity and create game-changing competitive advantage.
This brings us back to the original question I was asked more than once at the trade show: “What exactly do you mean by ’Building better networks’?” The IQGeo software empowers telecom and utility operators to create and maintain the next-generation networks that are the fundamental enabler for the integrated business and community networks that are taking on the challenges of the future.
The IQGeo team is excited to be part of creating better operational, integrated and community networks that we believe hold limitless technical and human potential. In short, “Building better networks” captures both the tactical role and strategic vision that our software and team plays in helping to create a smarter, greener, and more equitable world.
Learn more about IQGeo and see why our customer choose to work with us.