Global competition is forcing telecommunication companies to stretch their boundaries as never before -- requiring efficiency and innovation in every aspect of the enterprise if they are to survive, if they are to prosper, and especially if they are to come out on top. Even as the competition grows fiercer each day, these companies must simultaneously continue to offer the high levels of service their customers have come to expect, or risk losing them.

With these kinds of challenges, telecommunications firms worldwide are turning to GIS -- geographic information systems -- to give them the edge they need.

GIS combines diverse kinds of geographic information, and that gives forward-thinking companies an indispensable new tool. In the hothouse telecommunications marketplace, GIS can help firms streamline network design, find the clearest paths for wireless operations, or solve difficult connectivity problems.

Companies like the ones profiled in GIS in Telecommunications are also finding that GIS will solve marketing and customer service needs -- combining up-to-date geographic information with such data as demographics, service call histories, and revenue.

Some of the most exciting new markets for telecommunications firms, location services, might not even exist without GIS -- meaning that the technology helps companies offer new services where none existed before: giving customers real-time interactive mapping and routing services, or, when combined with 911 emergency services, even saving lives and property.

The telecommunications industry sometimes seems to have horizons that are limitless. Those firms that know this are finding that GIS can enhance virtually every aspect of what they are doing, and take them as far as they want to go.

About the author:

Lisa Godin is a technical writer and editor at ESRI.