NRTC Operational Intelligence Platform Now Available for Broadband Providers

NRTC today is introducing an Operational Intelligence platform, a software system to help telephone and electric member companies organize their day-to-day broadband business functions from a central location. The vendor-agnostic analytics system accepts data from a wide variety of sources, from infrastructure status to weather reports to consumer feedback on social media. Broadband providers can analyze rapidly changing situations and make informed decisions.

“Operational Intelligence allows [NRTC members] to focus on proactive fixes vs. reactive issues. The feedback from pilot customers has been great, and we’re excited to make the platform available to all our members,” said NRTC Managed Services President Jon Bartleson.

We invite all NRTC members to attend a webinar, “Operational Intelligence: Putting Your Data to Work for You,” with in-depth information about the Operational Intelligence platform. Panelists will include Chris Beatson, chief technology officer for NRTC Managed Services, and representatives from VIBRANT Broadband in Minnesota and Velocity in Kansas. The session will begin at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, Aug. 2.

NRTC shared the Operational Intelligence concept earlier this year during a session at the 2022 NRECA TechAdvantage conference in Nashville. Beatson described how he worked closely with Marcellus Nixon, VP, Internet Services for rural electric provider United Cooperative Services in Texas, to develop some of the early use-cases for the platform. They had an eye on creating a view of a broadband network similar to the view electric utilities get from their SCADA systems.

The platform automates many of the routine daily broadband operational tasks. Broadband providers can anticipate network or subscriber issues and act proactively to address them. The system will generate a series of customized alerts to the appropriate member of the provider’s team. NRTC members may choose to monitor the data themselves or work with NRTC’s network operations center technicians who will monitor the data and the entire network, 24x7x365.

Beatson gave credit to NRTC members who piloted the platform after the initial NRTC/UCS development. They’ve shown NRTC how “to build out the platform for providers of all sizes and access technologies,” he said.