Building Rural Broadband: How GWI Used VETRO FiberMap to Accelerate Network Deployment and Grant Applications

COMPANY:
GWI builds and operates all-fiber networks in Maine and Vermont, delivering internet and voice products to rural communities in the greatest need. GWI is the first broadband carrier in the nation to become B Corporation certified.

THE CHALLENGE:
Prior to using VETRO, the GWI fiber engineering team struggled to effectively document and share fiber designs for their growing all-fiber business. They needed a solution that truly allowed them to own their data, easily exporting and importing without GIS engineers being involved. The FiberMap platform replaced their use of spreadsheets and Google Earth, while expanding their organization’s visibility into understanding where their fiber assets existed.

GWI had evaluated several competitors and all had proven to be cost prohibitive and complex. The FiberMap platform’s shared views feature allowed them to provide an access limited (and customizable) view of constructed fiber networks to the entire GWI organization and their partners.

“In the early development of VETRO FiberMap, I learned that VETRO CEO, Will Mitchell, was able to effectively listen to and unpack my sometimes overly ambitious demands into future features of the system. Will has been able to transfer his ability to develop a product that consumers want to his staff, as VETRO continues to grow. The executive, development, and support team are attentive and responsive; a key combination leading to a trusting relationship between GWI and VETRO” says Chris Whelan, Director of Network Engineering at GWI.

GWI wanted their staff to quickly and intuitively have access to a fiber management system that accurately depicts fiber assets in the GWI footprints. The system had to be easy enough for executives to view data, and flexible enough for engineering staff to fully replace other tools (ie: Google Earth, QGIS, Spreadsheets, etc). This need was solved by using VETRO FiberMap.

THE SOLUTION:
GWI chose to deploy VETRO FiberMap due to its simplicity and transparent data management.

They have been working with the VETRO team since the product’s inception and have been impressed with how the product has evolved over the years, and with how the VETRO team continues to regularly enhance and add features, constantly increasing the value of the platform.

THE RESULTS:
“VETRO FiberMap solved our problem and met our objective. An immediate benefit we saw after implementing VETRO FiberMap was that the fiber designs were immediately available for review and collaboration. FiberMap became the source of truth for the splicing of fiber circuits and physical fiber assets,” says Chris Whelan.

A pleasant and unexpected benefit GWI has seen in using FiberMap is the ease of data analysis. They can quickly load federal, state, and/or market data that allows them to visualize the best locations to deploy new networks.

Although some of the measurements of success are intangible, GWI feels they are quickly performing high-level designs that are required for many grant applications. This work would not have been achievable in such abbreviated time frames if not for the FiberMap product.