- Construction takes up more than half of a broadband project's cost, said Render Networks, and BEAD deployments will likely see "incredible cost constraints"
- Digital construction management is becoming a mainstay in broadband deployments, and can automate routine tasks for workers
- This type of software could potentially place less strain on the broadband workforce
The gears are starting to turn for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, as Louisiana, Montana and West Virginia just began accepting grant applications. Render Networks is itching to get in on the BEAD action, especially as deployment costs are going up.
Construction can take up between 50% to 90% of a broadband project's cost, said Rob Laudati, VP of product and partnerships at Render. Inflation is also taking its toll on BEAD, as two years have gone by since the money was set aside.
“Construction of some of these early grants [is] probably not going to even start until early to mid-2025,” he told Fierce. “You’ve got almost three years of cost escalation from when the grant was established, so there [are] going to be incredible cost constraints.”
The company is hearing concern from state broadband offices that “there’s a real possibility that some of these firms could walk away from money because they just don’t see a way to actually execute against the constraints and still meet all the cost conditions.”
The situation is similar to what’s transpired with the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), where operators are backing out of their build commitments because they aren’t sure if they can afford it.
With BEAD, subgrantees need to prove that they can deliver broadband to an underserved project area in roughly a two-year timeframe. “Depending on the size of that project, that’s a very, very strict constraint,” Laudati said.
Faster construction, fewer costs
Render’s bread-and-butter is a digital construction management platform that aims to, as you might guess, automate many of the manual construction processes that go into broadband deployments.
Construction methods vary. A crew might lay all the conduit first then “come back and push the fiber cables through.” Or it can undertake a street-by-street approach, install some conduit or cable in one area then “move on to the next block.”
Whatever the method may be, Render can serve up a “highly ordered and sequenced set of work tasks,” taking into account the materials and construction crews that are “actually available to do that work,” Laudati said. This information allows Render to release work as it’s ready.
“We’ve seen somewhere between 15 to 30% faster build schedules,” Laudati said. “And that’s really important not only for the construction firm but also for the operator who’s paying for that work.”
One operator using Render's tech is Shentel, who previously told Fierce it's aiming to make the fiber deployment process "less paper/email intensive" and break down projects into more manageable sections for construction crews. Other internet service provider partners include Archtop Fiber, Home Telecom and even City Utilities of Springfield. Render also works with the construction firms that are doing business with telcos.
“They can use Render and digital construction management as a differentiator in their business,” said Laudati. “So we see it coming from really both ends of the ecosystem.”
It's not just Render serving up digital construction management for broadband. Vitruvi also competes in this space, touting a cloud-based product telcos and utilities can use to streamline their projects. Another player is U.K-based IQGeo, which is working with German operator DT to help the latter figure out cost-effective ways for trenching fiber.
VETRO meanwhile has a platform for ISPs that leverages automation to identify network routes, estimate deployment costs, connect equipment and splicing, among other features. The company also has a hand in BEAD, as last year it updated its Broadband Intelligence Platform to include a challenge portal for state broadband offices.
Why this matters
Why do operators need to automate all these features, anyway? They may have to sift through thousands of tasks to deploy fiber, and project managers commonly oversee "as many as 500 distinct jobs on a project," according to McKinsey & Co. There's bound to be some human error in the mix.
Digital construction management can, for instance, automate routine tasks like creating a bill of materials or dispatching a crew. On the network design front, broadband workers can focus on more complex tasks, such as "working on designs that might require bespoke solutions because of the unique nature of a construction site."
"A real-time construction management system can, in our experience, quicken the pace of deployment and reduce deployment expenses by 5 to 8 percent," said McKinsey & Co.
Digitizing the deployment process can also address problems a geographic information system (GIS) can't. GIS for instance, "can’t see expired permits, problematic rights of way, or shared ducting in which there’s no space available," according to Michael Morrissey, EMEA VP of sales at Sitetracker.
"These are the sorts of construction details that deployment operations management systems can quickly feed into project planning, scheduling, resourcing, and then back into GIS mapping functions themselves," he wrote in a PBC Today article.
Optimizing the broadband workforce
It’s no secret we’re in the midst of a broadband workforce shortage. BEAD and other subsidized broadband deployments will place “additional pressure” to have a trained workforce,” said Laudati.
“Our customers are looking at Render as a way to mitigate that training and really [offset] the need for the 30-year experienced construction individual to allow software to help,” he said.
In turn, companies may not have to hire as many folks for the job and also “not have to let as many people go at the end of the project.”
Render’s software provides a “clear, descriptive set of instructions” on a work task. Once the task is completed, the construction team needs to verify the work was “closed out correctly,” which includes taking photos of what was done.
“So that’s a huge efficiency gain,” Laudati said. “Instead of that field crew moving onto the next site and then they determine that wasn’t closed out right [or] the nearby environment wasn’t restored correctly.”