Life-cycle Cost Analysis in Modern Network Planning

12 July 1989

In the past century, many advances in technology have been applied to the telecommunications network in the form of new transmission, switching, maintenance equipment and computer systems. These technologies have substantially reduced the cost of basic service, improved the quality of end-to-end connections, reduced call set-up times, allowed the introduction of new advanced services, and have automated many operation, administration and maintenance (OA&M) tasks. Important as all of those improvements have been, they have corresponded to the evolutionary replacement of old technologies with new ones in order to improve the economics and performance of the existing network. The economics of the substitution of modern technology, therefore, becomes one of the major factors considered in the development of a network modernization plan. Truly understanding and being able to measure the economic benefits that advanced technology provides to a network are becoming one of the main tasks the network planners are facing today.