Why Treating Broadband Like A Utility Is Costing Your Company Sales And Slowing Growth | Waypoint 33

At first glance, broadband looks like just another utility. Dig deeper and you will see why that mistake costs companies sales, slows growth, and creates frustration for both providers and partners.

A look closer reveals the differences that change everything.

The Mistake: Treating Broadband Like A Utility

Throughout my career working within and serving the telecom industry, I have seen one mistake made again and again. Too often, companies approach broadband providers by treating broadband like a utility. On the surface, the comparison makes sense. Both have networks of assets, crews in the field, customers at the edge of service, and regulators setting the rules. But here is the reality I have learned through my years in telecom. Treating broadband like they are water or power companies is not only wrong, it costs companies sales, slows growth, and creates missed opportunities. To succeed in this space, we must first understand how telecom really works.

The truth I have learned over past 20 years is to ensure success in this industry, you must  recognize telecom is not a utility. Providers, operators, technology and services vendors all operate in an environment defined by different pressures, risks, and expectations. Treating it the same leads to flawed conversations, poor policies and regulations, or vendor solutions that simply do not fit. The consequences ripple out into missed opportunities, wasted capital, and communities left behind.

To overcome this, the only way to avoid those mistakes is to understand the differences before taking action. In my experience, the best way to understand the industry comes through the lens of location intelligence.

Where the Similarities Stop

At its core, a utility delivers a commodity. Water flows when you open the tap. Electricity powers your home when you flip the switch. Demand is predictable, markets are usually operating in territories without competition, and the infrastructure is built to last decades.

Telecom is completely different. It delivers digital experiences and opportunity, not commodities, and it does so in markets defined by competition. In a single neighborhood, you might see fiber, cable, fixed wireless, and satellite providers all fighting for the same customers. I often explain to people that a water company never worries about three other companies laying pipes on the same street, but that is the daily reality for a broadband provider.

In telecom, speed and competition drive everything, unlike utilities with exclusive territories.

This competitive pressure changes everything. A bad installation, a slow activation, or poor customer support can send a subscriber to a competitor overnight. That is why metrics like Net Promoter Score and customer satisfaction carry so much weight in telecom. The same dynamic applies inside the company. Utility employees are responsible for stable operations with predictable rhythms. Telecom employees must constantly innovate, adjust to shifting technologies, and deliver flawless experiences to customers who have options. Workforce alignment and employee satisfaction directly influence performance.

Utilities measure success in uptime and reliability. Telecom must measure reliability, but also customer trust, speed to market, and loyalty. That extra layer of accountability changes the entire operating model.

The Risk of Utility Thinking in Telecom

When I talk with policymakers, vendors, or consultants who treat telecom like a utility, I can often see the blind spots and how they are impacting their goals. They bring in solutions built for monopoly environments and assume customers have no other options. They design workflows optimized for 30-year investment cycles, when telecom lives on technology stacks that routinely shift every 18 to 24 months.

The business consequences are predictable but are avoidable. Providers overspend on projects that do not match the market, regulators slow down deployment by applying outdated rules, and vendors introduce tools that cannot keep up. As a result, the sales cycle stalls and opportunities slip away. Meanwhile, the very communities we are trying to connect, such as schools, hospitals, small businesses, are left waiting and missing out on opportunity.

Treating telecom like a utility leads to blind spots. Real insight comes from tools that show the market as it is, not as we assume it to be.

The world cannot afford this kind of mistake. Broadband is no longer a luxury, it is the infrastructure of education, healthcare, business, and opportunity for everyone. That is why understanding the real differences between telecom and utilities is not just a matter of industry nuance, it is a matter of community well-being and economic growth.

So, let’s take a bit of an academic look at the two groups working within the same arena. To make the key differences clearer, I thought it would help to step back and look at them through the tried-and-true PESTLE lens. At a high level, here’s how the pressures on utilities compare to the pressures on telecom and all of this is based on research. All in all, for the  companies selling into broadband this is the playbook your customers live by. So, make sure to open the cover and read a bit, if you ignore it, your efforts will miss the mark.

Utilities vs Telecom: A PESTLE Comparison

Factor	Utilities	Telecom
Political	Heavily regulated monopolies with long-term infrastructure mandates	Competitive policy environment with ongoing government push for universal broadband
Economic	Stable, predictable revenue models with low customer churn	Highly competitive markets with pressure on margins and constant risk of churn
Social	Customers expect reliability and affordability	Customers expect seamless digital experiences and rapid service improvements
Technological	Slow adoption cycles; infrastructure designed for decades	Fast innovation cycles; networks evolve every 18–24 months
Legal	Compliance focused on safety, access, and environmental standards	Compliance tied to competition law, spectrum rights, and data privacy
Environmental	Long-term planning around resource sustainability and resilience	Pressure to reduce energy use of fast-growing digital infrastructure and support green initiatives

(Table created from PwC and EY reports, resource links provided below)

Location Intelligence: The Secret Sauce

This is where location intelligence, powered by GIS, changes the game. Telecom leaders cannot afford to guess, because guesswork leads to stalled projects and lost opportunities. They need a clear view of the market, the competition, and their own operations to make the right moves. With location intelligence at their fingertips, providers and partners gain that visibility by showing demand, competition, and opportunity in one connected view. With that shared perspective, leaders can spot patterns, anticipate risks, and uncover opportunities such as:

Location intelligence gives providers and partners the clarity to see demand, competition, and opportunity in one connected view.

• Where demand exists and how it shifts across neighborhoods, regions, and demographics

• Where network capacity is strong and where it is weak

• Where competitors are moving quickly and how that impacts growth and retention

• Where employees are under strain and how workflows can reduce friction

  
  

By unifying these perspectives, GIS provides a single connected view of the business. It ties together asset data, customer demand, workforce performance, and external context. Instead of reacting to problems, leaders and their partners can act with strategy and sell solutions that fit the market reality. They can decide not just how to build, but where to compete, how to protect market share, and how to align the entire organization with the reality teams are seeing on the ground.

Without GIS, organizations are left with siloed reports and blind spots. With it, they gain the clarity needed to improve customer satisfaction, boost employee morale, maintain long-term competitiveness, and improve sales outcomes.

Understand Before Acting

One of the greatest pressures in telecom is the need to move fast. Regulators, investors, and communities all want rapid progress, so the instinct is to break ground quickly and figure things out along the way. But I have seen what happens when companies move without clarity. They misjudge demand, underestimate costs, and frustrate employees along the way. Projects need to be reworked, forecasts fall short, and communities wait even longer.

Location intelligence builds discipline into the decision-making process. It forces organizations to consider not just the engineering challenge, but the business challenge as well. Questions like:

• How will this project affect customer loyalty?

• What will it mean for employees in the field and the office?

• How does this decision compare to competitor moves?

• Are we building where demand will sustain growth, or only where it is easiest to dig?

These are not utility-style questions, they are telecom questions. All are best answered when you have the insight and understanding that GIS provides.

Why This Matters for Partners and Policymakers

For anyone working with telecom, (whether as a regulator, vendor, or consultant), the lesson is clear. You need to acknowledge the similarities but respect the differences.

Broadband providers need partners who understand the realities of a competitive market, not assumptions borrowed from utilities.

Telecom providers do not need partners who assume they operate like water or power companies. They need partners who understand that competition, customer experience, and workforce alignment drive every decision. They need solutions designed for agility, not just reliability, and they need partners who understand that sales cycles are driven by competition, not monopoly rules. They need policies that reflect the realities of a competitive marketplace, not the assumptions of a monopoly.

Above all, they need clarity before they act. And that clarity is powered by location intelligence.

The Waypoint 33 Perspective

At Waypoint 33, we bring experience from withing with both utilities and telecom. I know where workflows overlap, but I also know where comparisons fall apart. That perspective is what allows us to guide providers, agencies, and vendors with confidence.

I believe our role is to bring clarity through leveraging the incredible capabilities of GIS, to unify information in the way people need it today. We help leaders see demand patterns, understand competitive threats, assess customer sentiment, and recognize workforce realities before they invest. With that clarity, organizations can improve Net Promoter Scores, boost employee satisfaction, build strategies that stand strong against market pressures, and grow sales in a highly competitive environment.

Best of all, this perspective is not theoretical. It comes from years of working with leaders across both industries, seeing where strategies succeed and where they fail, and learning that the difference always comes down to understanding the market on its own terms.

A Call to Action

The next time you hear someone say that telecom is just another utility, challenge that assumption and use it as a fantastic learning experience. After all, the stakes are higher, the pace is faster, and the measures of success are very different. Telecom is about connecting people to what matters most in their lives, in a competitive environment where customers have choices and employees are the frontline of delivery.

At Waypoint 33, I help companies see the difference and turn clarity into growth. Let’s connect.

If you want to succeed in this sector and grow your business, start by understanding it on its own terms. And if you want clarity to guide that understanding, GIS is where you begin.

At Waypoint 33, we are here to help you see the difference.

Let’s Connect

At Waypoint 33, we believe leadership choices shape not just organizations, but entire industries. If this perspective resonated with you, I’d love to continue the conversation.

Reach out directly:

Randall René Founder & Principal Advisor, Waypoint 33📧 randall@waypoint33.com

Sources & Research Behind This Post

1. PwC has highlighted how telecom operators face intense competition and must deliver differentiated customer experiences to remain relevant: PwC Telecom Industry Insights

2. EY notes that agility, digital transformation, and workforce engagement are critical factors shaping the telecom sector: EY Global Telecom Outlook

3. EY, Utilities Sector Outlook 2025: Four Themes Empowering Utilities — about cost pressures, modernization, and regulatory balancing in utilities EY

4. EY, Top 10 Risks for Telecommunications in 2025 — identifying competition, workforce, and tech/transformation risks for telecoms EY

5. ITU, The State of Broadband 2023 — global progress & strategy in broadband planning & universal service ITU

6. EY + Liberty Global, Wired for AI — how telecom networks are central to enabling AI and what that means for investment & performance Liberty Global