Enterprise data and competition in telecommunications

In 1996, established telecommunications companies (telcos) in the US have been wrenched from their protected monopoly status and are increasingly in the thick of the ''rough and tumble'' of competition. Many are eager to leave the shelter of the monopoly and taste the greater rewards of success in competition. The down side is that not all of these staid, traditional, blue-chip companies will survive the change. AM/FM/GIS will make a contribution to the success of a telco, whether it is a long-established ''telephone company'' or a new, entrepreneurial ''communications'' company, but only if the systems are planned and designed to address the right problems. This paper will discuss the necessity and the rationale for telco applications to work within the greater context of corporate data systems. Many telcos are focusing their AM/FM/GIS on outside plant engineering applications, but there is much greater value to be had in systems with a broader, enterprise-wide focus. The discussion will include strategies and architectures for using AM/FM/GIS with linkages to legacy systems and new development to serve inside plant, outside plant, broadband, and radio engineering, field access, market/demographic studies, E-911, and trouble dispatch.