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Sector study · Networks

What to renew, which deliverable to accept.

For water, energy and telecom, the decision has the same shape. Fibre (FTTH) is one telecom example inside that shape. It is not the subject of the study.

Author : Youcef ADDA (GEODECI) ·

One decision, three families of networks

Drinking water, wastewater, electricity, gas, heat and telecom all ask: what to renew or repair first, which deliverable to accept, where the asset register is not yet reliable enough, and where to survey first.

Since 1 Jan 2026, where a PCRS exists, it is the basemap for DT-DICT replies. Sensitive networks in class A, and non-sensitive networks in urban areas, are in the same calendar. The fundable answer is a ranked survey programme, not a promise to survey everything.

GEODECI poster. Accepting a wrong network deliverable means paying twice: at handover, then again for field rework. Water, energy, telecom.
Water, energy, telecom: the same acceptance decision.

Five decisions

  1. 01

    Accept or refuse a deliverable

    Who decides
    Client, owner’s engineer, integrator, engineering firm.
    If it goes wrong
    Paying for a wrong deliverable, field rework, a dispute.
    Information required
    Conformity to the business reference, engineering rules, consistency with the field.
    Criterion to write
    An acceptance grid you can stand behind, with blocking and non-blocking thresholds.

    For telecom, the current exchange reference is GraceTHD.

  2. 02

    Rank renewal or maintenance

    Who decides
    Operations director.
    If it goes wrong
    Outages, poorly targeted interventions, penalties.
    Information required
    Condition of the assets, incidents, how critical the users are.
    Criterion to write
    Criticality by probability, drawn on the map.

  3. 03

    Prepare the end of the contract

    Who decides
    Local authority, or the granting body.
    If it goes wrong
    Assets that cannot be operated, and a rebuild paid by the authority.
    Information required
    Completeness, quality, history of changes.
    Criterion to write
    A completeness inventory, followed over time.

    Water, energy or telecom concession: the question is the same.

  4. 04

    Programme the surveys

    Who decides
    Operator, local authority.
    If it goes wrong
    Damage, liability.
    Information required
    Precision class, PCRS already available, works already programmed.
    Criterion to write
    A ranked survey programme.

  5. 05

    Telecom example: validate a copper-to-fibre migration zone

    Who decides
    Local authority, operator.
    If it goes wrong
    Subscribers without an alternative, disputes.
    Information required
    Real connectability at the address, failed connections.
    Criterion to write
    Address completeness, checked zone by zone.

    This fifth decision is specific to telecom. The four above are not.

Why the tools fall short

  • Checks done by hand, at the end of the works, dependent on one person.
  • Engineering rules that stay implicit, and differ from one subcontractor to the next.
  • Data scattered across versions and formats.
  • No trail of who changed what, so a choice is hard to defend.

Criterion, check, trail, choice

GEODECI method in four steps: written criterion, control of geometry attributes and topology, an enforceable anomaly report, human judgement where it matters.
Criterion, check, trail, judgement.
  1. 01

    State the decision

    Who decides, on what, and with what tolerance for risk.

  2. 02

    Write the criteria

    Readable by a person, executable by a machine.

  3. 03

    Check continuously

    Deliverable by deliverable, not only at the end of the works.

  4. 04

    Keep the trail

    Each anomaly, each correction, each accepted waiver.

  5. 05

    Decide

    The person decides. The report says why.

  6. 06

    Hand it over

    Rules and data stay with the client.

QGIS, PostGIS, automated checks, a change journal. An AI can be used. It stays reviewed by a person.

Telecom, as an example

GraceTHD v3 is the exchange model for fibre network data. Deliverables are returned in that structure. Older datasets are migrated into it.

At the end of a public-service contract, the authority takes the infrastructure and its data back. If the data is incomplete, rebuilding it stays on the authority’s side of the bill.

Arcep has started the commercial closure of the copper network. A fibre alternative then has to be true at the address. That check is a telecom decision. The method around it is the one used for water and energy.

GEODECI poster. An argued decision, deliverable by deliverable. Checks run continuously, not only at the end of the works. Tools named last: QGIS, PostGIS, automated checks.
The study engineer spends time on the cases that need a judgement.

90 days on one decision

  1. 01

    Days 1 to 30

    Pick one priority decision, map the data, write the criteria grid.

  2. 02

    Days 31 to 60

    Check a pilot batch, measure the gaps, adjust the thresholds.

  3. 03

    Days 61 to 90

    Generalise. Put the trail and the dashboard in place. Train the team.

Ten questions

Sources

Resources

Youcef ADDA (GEODECI)

Decision Diagnostic

A short fixed scope. We name what costs money or blocks the work, and the first action to take.

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