CGA is excited to announce the release of our newest White Paper, “Telecom’s Critical Role in Reversing Utility Damage Trends,” which provides critical insights into the telecommunications sector's specific challenges in damage prevention amidst the fiber and infrastructure boom. The White Paper analyzes data derived from in-depth interviews and an industry survey, which highlight specific strengths and recommendations to enhance damage prevention efforts within the telecom industry.

Click here to access CGA’s 2023 Telecom White Paper as well as a suite of tools to help you share insights from our ongoing stakeholder research. Download tools including a presentation deck, an image library of all the Paper’s graphs and charts, and social media graphics.

The Telecom White Paper's key takeaways underscore critical facets shaping the telecommunications sector’s landscape and its position within the industry:

1. The telecom sector has the most potential to impact the U.S. damage prevention system – and its own bottom line.
2. Growth and customer satisfaction are prioritized over damage prevention by many telecom stakeholders.
3. Rather than focus on long-term national standardization strategies to reduce damages, telecom can achieve more timely results by improving internal practices and contracts.
4. Securing executive-level buy-in from telecom facility owner/operators on rigorous damage prevention standards will be necessary to reverse the upward trend of damages to U.S. infrastructure.

Key actions for telecom stakeholders to help the industry achieve our 50-in-5 goal of reducing damages by 50% over the next five years include:

• Ensure executives are engaged and active participants in damage prevention.
• Update facility maps, regularly share them with 811 centers and contract locators, and provide 811 ticket-level facility visualizations to excavators, designers and engineers.
• Coordinate with other stakeholders in advance of and throughout large projects.
• Improve damage data collection processes with a focus on root cause analysis.
• Evaluate contract structures with locators and excavators: Consider incentives versus penalties, best-value versus lowest-bid contracts, and reimbursing for potholing.
• Become Damage Prevention Institute accredited, and require locators and excavators to do so as well.

Check out the new Telecom White Paper on CGA’s website and view supporting materials, including a presentation deck highlighting the key takeaways and recommendations, a LinkedIn carousel, as well as all graphs featured in the White Paper.