Most of my columns address how to use equipment and technical knowledge to increase efficiency for outside plant professionals. This column also discusses increased efficiency but comes from a different perspective than my technical columns. This column talks Continuing Property Records (CPRs) and why up-to-date CPRs are critical in increasing business efficiency, possibly saving a great deal of money in taxes, etc. And a good CPR system can make outside plant technicians much more efficient as well.

The Problem
If your telephone company owns a small- to medium-size outside plant (OSP), have you ever struggled with the exact value of your plant, and location, condition, and age of some of your OSP? And, if you are an engineer or technician, have you struggled with finding a specific pedestal and you weren’t able to because the maps you have are out of date, and maybe the pedestal didn’t even exist?

These challenges are tied to your CPRs and there are many, many telcos who don’t maintain up-to-date records. It’s not that they don’t care but it may be hard to understand the real value in CPRs. For some, CPRs seem only to be a hindrance in day-to-day efficiency. But if you neglect your CPR system, efficiency at all levels, within the business (taxes and profitability) and outside in the field, is at risk.

Identifying a Solution
To better understand CPRs, I spent a great deal of time talking with Fred Baker, the engineering manager with Alamon Telco, Inc. Alamon, along with many other engineering services groups specialize in creating telco CPR systems. Fred has been working with various telcos since the 1970’s, and his folks at Alamon are using a combination of ideas based on past experience, to work effectively with independent telcos to help them with these types of property issues.

Fred described the process of a recent CPR system install within an independent telco. Following is the approach taken by Alamon and the telco:

First, they purchased county GIS road base maps and converted these maps to an AutoCAD compatible file. Then, working with the telco accounting and OSP engineer they established the In Plant Costs based on the price per foot of various cables, conduit, pedestals, and other miscellaneous items the telco wanted to track financially. For example, the per-foot cost of 25-pair 24-gauge cable placed in the ground in 1977 was established at $1.25 per foot.

Next they arranged to have people with hand-held GPS devices establish X-Y GPS locations for all pedestals and other access points. This information is then placed on the land base maps as they posted their OSP work orders.

They recommend (although it isn’t mandatory) that a GPS pedestal numbering be used instead of route/lead numbering systems. The old style route/lead numbering had resulted in mass pedestal numbering confusion, as the telcos added remotes and made various routing changes. Unfortunately, many telcos have completely abandoned any type of field numbering of their pedestals because of the labor intensive field re-stenciling process, and the changes required in assignment records associated with route-and-lead numbering systems.

The next step was to actually do something with all the work orders that often go nowhere. All past work orders were posted chronologically. These orders were digitalized on the converted county land base maps using their AutoCAD-based software BOSpost.

When this was completed the telco had master plant maps that were clean and easy to read, covering their entire service area. These maps not only show the outside facilities in a geographical manner, but also have embedded intelligence in a data format.

A bonus to the customer is that the completed plant maps can be used to prepare future work orders, saving time when placing orders and locating trouble. This is a huge time saver for the engineers. Even if the engineers do not have AutoCAD work stations, they can print their plant maps using a free Autodesk Express Viewer provided by Alamon.

After the oldest work orders were posted, using their BOSpost software, they were then able to import the data about cable, fiber, conduit, and other plant information that the telco wanted reported, into Microsoft Access. Access then could display the in-plant value. For example, they might import data such as: 22,500 feet of 12-pair 24-gauge cable in service in any given year.

And now the big accounting question can be answered. Of the 22,500 feet of 25x24 cable, only 10,600 feet is in service, and the remaining 11,900 feet is abandoned in the field. What is the value of these in-service and abandoned 25-pair cables?

When they digitized the maps, they showed all plant by year placed in service and whether it is still in service or not. Now they can do the math by multiplying the above 10,600 feet of 25-pair cable placed in-service in 1977 by $1.25 per foot, resulting in service plant worth of $13,250 and $14,875, which is the value of the 12-pair cable not in service. This operation is calculated for all posted outside facilities from the master plant maps.

Now we can extend the efficiency of this system to the field technician. With Express Viewer, a technician can view the posted plant maps, as well as make recommendations for updates by submitting additions or corrections to the posting office personnel who can then change the master maps.

In summary, Alamon’s approach provided digital maps that have valuable embedded data significantly affecting the efficiency of the business. And, with a permanent pedestal numbering system and plant maps in place, the field technician is empowered to be efficient.

Signing off
In order to discuss the topic of CPRs, I’ve interviewed Fred from Alamon. If you want to talk to Fred, you can contact him at: fred@alamon.com, 406.752.8838. If you have any further comments or thoughts on this topic or any OSP topic, please email me at dmccarty@mccartyinc.com or call me at 831.818.3930. Thank you for your loyal readership.

About the Author - Don McCarty

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