Network deployment isn’t getting cheaper, which has a direct impact on CAPEX budgets set months ago. However, smarter planning is making some operators far more efficient. Operators using automated design tools are reducing planning effort by up to 70%, before any cable plant even hits the ground. This article focuses on reducing telecom infrastructure costs through data-driven OSP (outside plant) design.

The Illusion of Optimisation: Why Manual Planning Still Prevails

Despite the technological advances across telecom operations, many operators still rely on manual planning processes and engineering rules for OSP design. Legacy workflows, CAD drawings (Computer Aided Design), and knowledge locked in the heads of expert designers continue to drive multi-million-euro deployment projects.

The belief that network costs are fixed because of mandated design rules masks a deeper issue: inefficiencies baked into the design phase.

There are two main impediments to optimised network augmentation:

·         Design search space: Even expert designers cannot trial thousands of variants within time and budget. Algorithmic design evaluates thousands of options to find cost-optimal layouts

·         Volatility mid-project: Unexpected ground conditions, customer changes, or adjacent builds trigger redesigns and cost overrun risk

Where the Money Leaks: Hidden Costs in Traditional Network Design

Cost leakage in OSP is highly physical. The following cable route planning best practices target the biggest CAPEX drivers. The biggest savings come from reducing or right-sizing specific infrastructure elements:

  • Cable length: Non-optimal paths add hundreds of metres per segment. Shortening cable runs lowers fibre cost and reduces signal loss margins
  • Splice points: Every splice adds labour, time, and attenuation risk. Optimised continuity and hub placement cut splices significantly
  • Nodes and distribution points: Even the reduction of a single node or fibre distribution point (FDP) can help to reduce the Bill of Materials (BOM), annual support fees and years of maintenance
  • Trenching distance and civil volume: Civil works are often the largest budget line and opportunity for cost optimisation. Cost per trench or bore length can vary up to five times for soil/sand versus rocky terrain or costly streetscape reinstatement. Terrain-aware routing that follows existing corridors prioritises shared duct and steers around high-cost reinstatement zones, significantly reducing civil costs by cutting dig length and reinstatement volume
  • Ducts and conduits: Oversizing or duplicating ducts is common when demand forecasts are conservative or engineering standards require significant spare capacity. Accurate capacity plans allow smaller, fewer, or reused ducts
  • Poles and aerial hardware: Where aerial is viable, aligning to existing pole lines avoids new plant or underground alternatives
  • Passive equipment: Closures, splitters, manholes, and handholes accumulate through rule-of-thumb spacing. Data-driven spacing and hierarchy design removes unnecessary assets (and costs)

Each of these cost leakages compound. One extra node or a slightly longer route can require extra ducts, more splices, additional closures, and another cabinet. Each decision cascades into more trenching, more permits, and more risk.

Note also that it’s not just the Bill of Materials (BOM) or capital expense (CAPEX) that is impacted by sub-optimal design. For every extra node or length of cable, there are also increases in operational expenses (OPEX) such as maintenance and support costs.

Smart Design Starts with Data: How GIS and OSS Unlock Planning Precision

SunVizion Network Planning & Design delivers GIS-based telecom network planning that replaces static assumptions with live, geospatially precise planning. By bringing terrain, parcel boundaries, road classes, utility layers, and existing network assets into one model, planners can evaluate multiple route options against cost, time, and resilience.

Key capabilities that directly reduce physical plant include:

  • Automated route optimisation that proposes the shortest feasible paths and prioritises infrastructure reuse to reduce new cable / trenching builds
  • Rules-aware topology design that sets optimal distances between access nodes, reducing number of nodes, passive equipment, and splices while respecting loss budgets and engineering rules
  • Asset library and existing network integration with SunVizion Network Inventory, exposing existing nodes, joints, spare fibres, ducts, or poles to avoid unnecessary new builds
  • Constraint and conflict validation that flags crossings, high-cost reinstatement, no-dig zones, and clearance issues early, lowering rework and emergency redesigns
  • Scenario modelling that compares CAPEX outcomes for aerial versus underground, single versus shared duct, ensuring the lowest-cost configuration that meets service targets

By codifying engineering and design standards into the OSS, SunVizion makes best practice repeatable across teams and geographies, not dependent on local knowledge.

Creating the Business Case for Automation

Automation changes the economics of outside plant by optimising fibre optic cable deployment and attacking the biggest cost drivers first:

  • Civil works: Even single-digit percentage improvements in dig length translate into six or seven-figure savings on city-scale builds
  • Materials: Many programmes see a more than 10% reduction in cable/duct/trench and device quantities when designs are fully optimised
  • Time: Automated checks accelerate design reviews and permit submissions. Fewer conflicts mean fewer stoppages on site and a faster revenue start date
  • Risk: Standardised, rules-based outputs lower variance between plan and build, reducing change orders

Planning as a Competitive Edge: Why OSS Integration Pays Off

Integrated OSS turns cost avoidance into an end-to-end planning operating model:

  • Plan-to-build continuity: Designs, assets, and locations flow from planning into Network Inventory and Workforce, so field crews construct to the plans
  • Cross-team visibility: Engineering, procurement, and operations share one source of truth, enabling accurate forecasting, smarter staging, and fewer surplus materials
  • Reusable templates: Proven node spacing, feeder-distribution patterns, and duct configurations are captured once and applied across new clusters or cities, repeating reductions in nodes, splices, and passive equipment at scale
  • Future-ready choices: With Smart Service Designer and Billing & CRM in the loop, capacity and product plans inform where to build, keeping infrastructure sized for demand

In competitive markets, the operator that consistently builds shorter routes, fewer nodes, and cleaner splicing plans will always deploy faster and cheaper (in CAPEX and OPEX). That is a strategic edge, not just an engineering win.

Avoiding the Cost of Doing Nothing

Manual outside plant design hides costs. By adopting GIS-based, automated planning with SunVizion Network Planning & Design, operators systematically reduce CAPEX and OPEX.

For operators evaluating the best software for telecom network plant management, SunVizion combines planning, inventory, and rollout control to turn design intent into measurable savings

Ready to see how much infrastructure you can remove from the plan before your first trench is dug?
Explore SunVizion Network Planning & Design: https://www.sunvizion.com/products/network-planning
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