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Amdocs Takes a 'Soup to Nuts' Approach to Fiber Deployment

With about $42.5 billion in federal money via the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program earmarked for advanced high-speed network construction over the next 10 years, it's safe to say that deployment of fiber optics will be top of mind at every communications provider in the U.S. for the foreseeable future. But with new fiber projects come a myriad of problems—like how to design networks most efficiently, how to integrate those networks with seemingly unrelated but vital functions across the enterprise, and how to make sure different divisions and operations within the company communicate effectively. Amdocs, a leading provider of software and services to communications and media companies, has taken a modular approach—offering large and small providers alike a basket of products that not only help with the initial design of the network, but the integration of other aspects of the business—like customer service and billing—to ensure not only that the finished service is reliable and efficient, but profitable too.

"I use the expression, 'from soup to nuts'," said Amdocs' Regional VP Customer Business Executive Iris Harel in an interview. "But it's built from standalone components that can be taken individually, based on the operator's business needs."

Harel added that providers can have several different approaches to creating their fiber networks within their own companies. For example, a Chief Financial Officer may be more concerned with efficiency, so would be looking for automation and managed services solutions, while a Chief Information Officer's main priority would be the overall ecosystem, warranting a full jumpstart kit that would give them the resources to serve customers immediately. On the other hand, a Chief Marketing Officer could be looking for ways to keep customers updated on the status of the network build. Without that integration, a customer calling in to inquire about fiber service availability would likely be told it was not available, even if it was coming to their area in a matter of weeks.

Connecting the fiber rollout plan to the CSRs "changes the whole picture," Harel explained. "You've created a connection between the sales and marketing element to the actual construction management, you've preserved customer loyalty, you've created a better customer experience, and you've created a very good chance that that customer will not churn."

Also on the customer care side, Amdocs recently introduced an AI platform—called amAIz, the first TelcoGPT—which Harel says is unique because it has Telecom taxonomy, meaning when a customer uses it, they get a more accurate response to questions, not just a generic answer. The product is layered to be cost effective and secure, so that information does not leak outside the organization. "When we use AI for different reasons for network or care or billing, we have the content that makes the answers more efficient, less expensive and the accuracy is fantastic," Harel said.

"When we designed what we have, we were thinking about all of those elements," Harel continued. "Not just the CIO, or the CTO or the CFO. We were looking at everything, top to bottom—you may need some assistance with migration services, you may need some assistance with establishing the NOC [Network Operations Center], with deploying fiber, with doing assurance."

She added that Amdocs is one of the four FCC Spectrum Access Systems [SAS] administrators in the U.S., Google, Federated Wireless and Sony are the others. The SAS designation means Amdocs allocates wireless CBRS spectrum when it is not being used by the military. With CBRS, providers can drastically cut costs by building fiber to the node or curb, and then using wireless spectrum to extend service into the actual home or business.

"The fact that we can combine the fiber rollout with CBRS is a huge advantage," Harel said.

Amdocs' approach is not only geared to large projects. Harel said the company has identified two specific customer categories—greenfield providers, or those backed by private equity; and brownfield providers, or established telecom companies—for fiber projects. Amdocs has solutions for both.

Greenfield Providers

For greenfield providers, Amdocs usually provides a full package—a light ecosystem that gives them what they need that has as much out-of-the-box integration as possible.

"The point is to do it in a cost-effective manner," Harel said. "What we come to the table with is 'We have a full package for you.' Within a few months you'll have it up and running. You can serve your customers almost immediately—it doesn't take a year to establish the ecosystem and start understanding how to operate it. You'll need very few people to do it. It could be on the cloud, which is very appealing to them instead of buying real estate and data centers. The whole concept is what I call ‘travel light'—everything is light, everything is small everything is simple and can be implemented very efficiently. What they get is everything they need for day one."

And if later down the road that greenfield customer needs additional components for additional services, Amdocs is there too.

"The ecosystem is so modular, that once you need another function, you just take that function and plug it in," she said, adding that is especially attractive to private equity companies that have several different providers under their umbrella. "The point is to give them that flexibility."

The Brownfield Pitch

Brownfield operators have different needs, Harel said, because they already have an ecosystem in place. But that doesn't mean they can't use help.

"Designing the fiber network and the inventory and the orchestration and assurance, those are still valid for brownfield customers because they would still need those capabilities anyway," Harel said. "We're providing them with the components or microservices for their existing ecosystems in order to support the new need, and in order to facilitate and enhance their sales process."

Amdocs also provides both brownfield and greenfield customers with consultancy services.

"Many of these operators, whether greenfield or brownfield, need someone to help them understand what is going on," Harel added, as well as identify needs, priorities, where to invest first and what to do during later stages of operation. "We do advisory and consultancy to those companies so they can pave their way and make sure they are creating the right decision mechanism to be successful in the end. We are not just providing the products; we're also providing the services around them."

That includes services like automation, which is especially attractive to private equity clients that have several fiber operations with several different companies. It allows them to duplicate efforts around ongoing support instead of having to hire more people to do the same task. Amdocs takes a 360-degree approach to fiber clients, making sure they look at their own customers holistically, eliminating silos within the organization and fostering better communications between divisions.

Replication is Important

Harel said with many customers, especially for those hoping to participate in the BEAD program, the ability to replicate operations across multiple projects is critical.

"The efficiency of how you roll it out and the best that you can replicate the solution and make it happen within a few months is highly important," she said, adding that replication is even more important as consolidation occurs in the industry. With several deals already in the hopper and more expected over the next months, the ability to quickly and efficiently implement a company's overall fiber plan across multiple entities will be paramount.

"The ability to replicate and the ability to migrate quickly or even to create a federation layer [two separate networks that share resources] between two ecosystems that should be migrated, yes, we have that capability," Harel said. "And we can do it very quickly for them and have them up and running in no time."

While Amdocs has been in the fiber business for years, Harel said it has only been in the past year that the company has stepped up its efforts to let customers know how it can help them deploy and manage their fiber networks.

"We have a unique combination of Telco Domain products and services" Harel said, adding that Amdocs also provides advisory services to clients.

She likened Amdocs’ fiber offerings to a Lego store, with full sets of building blocks available as well as individual blocks that customers can pick and choose and build their own projects at home. "That's the concept," she said, adding that clients don't have to be an Amdocs shop to take advantage of their offerings. "We can plug our elements into any system."

Amdocs also offers clients two-to-three-hour "Enlight" thought leadership sessions—free of charge—covering industry research on a variety of topics. "It's not about us, it's about the industry and the things that we see and check globally," Harel said. In addition, Amdocs has a podcast—"The Great Indoors," also free—that talks about industry topics like Generative AI, IoT, MVNOs and digital inclusion.

And it is offerings like that that Amdocs hopes will separate it from the competition—not only giving customers what they need to immediately run their fiber business, but the tools to manage the present and plan. And if that isn't soup to nuts, nothing is.