In the United Kingdom many existing and new communications providers are planning their fibre network deployments utilizing the British Telecom's available ducts. BT's Openreach makes this possible via Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) service. The service has evolved from a map based view to a web service that securely allows communication providers to access the duct and other infrastructure data such as joint boxes, poles and manholes. Soon the service will allow also handling of Notices of Intent (NOI).
Keypro is serving several communication providers in the UK with the KeyCom Geographic Information System (GIS) and network information solution. To meet the needs of the UK market, Keypro has developed interface to the Openreach PIA service. The communications provider using KeyCom can request the PIA data that is then made available in the Keypro's GIS and network information solution KeyCom. Only two steps are needed to get this working. First, the communications provider needs to complete the PIA API (Application Programming Interface) onboarding with Openreach. Keypro can assist or even complete the onboarding if the operator so wants. Once completed, Keypro will install operator's own API to KeyCom and the PIA feature is activated.
Openreach PIA data is useful in the KeyCom GIS system in many ways. It supports network planning and serves as reference. The PIA infrastrucure data can be displayed in the familiar Openreach style, or if the communications provider so wants, it can be themed in a different way to meet the need of the end users. For the benefit of British communications providers Keypro also includes relevant open Ordnance Survey Data Hub and OpenStreetMap data in KeyCom to complement the system for the background maps usage.
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