Strategic planning for rural service improvement at the Manitoba Telephone System : a system modelling approach

Abstract

The rapid changes in the telecommunications industry are driven by the accelerating pace of technological innovation, and the ever more sophisticated communications of the global community. The Manitoba Telephone System is the crown corporation that provides telephone and other telecommunications services within the province of Manitoba. As a crown corporation, the Manitoba Telephone System is subjected to higher levels of political pressure than a 'private sector' company. The present climate in the province has placed rural service improvement quite high on the political priority list. Such rural service improvement programs typically have capital requirements of hundreds of millions of dollars, so program decisions are rather significant to the financial well-being of a telephone company. Of the possible areas for improvements to rural telephone service in Manitoba, customers have indicated that the highest priority is the conversion of multi-party to single-party service. There are a number of possible program options that could be employed to implement the conversion to single-party service. There are a number of possible program options that could be employed to implement the conversion to single-party service. Since planning decisions for such programs are based upon the analysis of complex interrelationships, among a large number of variables, advanced methods of analysis of strategic alternatives are needed. In order to investigate the impact of such policy alternatives upon the network planning of the Manitoba Telephone System, a descriptive model of relevant portions of the telephone system has been assembled using the methodology of Systems Dynamics. This model has been programmed in DYNAMO to allow computer simulation of the alternative policy directives.