Connecting the Dots: Optimizing Network Consolidation and Smart Data Management

The North American telecom industry is undergoing rapid and seismic change. In recent months alone, we’ve witnessed Frontier aligning with Verizon, Lumen transferring Mass markets fiber business to AT&T, and T-Mobile acquiring US Cellular, Lumos and Metronet, Ziply has joined Bell Canada, and Zayo is divesting assets to Crown Castle.

What ties all these events together? A singular objective: efficiency at scale.

Telecom operators are striving to overcome inefficiencies created by fragmented networks and redundant systems, all while navigating intensifying price competition. This urgency is reflected in the market: global telecom M&A activity totaled US $63 billion in the first half of 2025, a 44% increase over the previous year with 90% of that value concentrated in the Americas, according to Bain & Company. But consolidation on paper doesn’t automatically translate into operational synergy. The real challenge lies deeper, within the data that forms the backbone of every network.

The Business Drivers Behind M&A: It’s More Than Market Share

Telecom consolidation is primarily driven by the need for better cost efficiency and scale. While demand for bandwidth continues to climb, operators are constrained by tight margins and limited ability to raise prices in a market where high-speed access is increasingly seen as a utility. The competition is intense, and customers often have more than one broadband provider to choose from. This dynamic makes retention difficult and long-term loyalty a challenge.

To remain competitive and profitable, telecom providers are turning to consolidation as a strategic lever. Organic growth through network expansion is still critical, but it can be slow and capital-intensive. In contrast, acquiring existing infrastructure offers a faster and often more economical route to market expansion—especially when fiber deployments can cost thousands of dollars per location and take years to deliver a return on investment.

The Hidden Challenge: Post-Merger Data Paralysis

Despite all the potential benefits, most telcos face a significant stumbling block after a merger: inability to consolidate and rationalize their data and systems. Too often, operators leave legacy systems running alongside new ones causing fragmented operations, increased licensing costs, dual training burdens, slower customer response times, and suboptimal inventory tracking.

But why does this happen? It’s rarely a technology issue, it’s a decision-making one. Many organizations delay system consolidation because of the perceived complexity and cost. However, this delay comes at a price. According to a McKinsey study, more than 70% of mergers fail to realize their intended synergies. One of the most common reasons is ineffective integration, particularly when IT and data systems are not aligned or consolidated properly. This procrastination ultimately leads to:

• Duplicated operational support structures
• High maintenance costs across parallel platforms
• Data mismatches leading to delayed fiber activation
• Inaccurate customer service records and field deployment errors

Inventory Systems: The Heart of the Network

Whether companies are merging two legacy inventory systems, shifting to a next-gen platform, or integrating disparate back-end architectures, the success of a unified network depends on one key element: clean, validated, well-mapped data.

Cyient’s strength lies in understanding not just the systems, but the data context and operational logic behind them. Over the past years, we've worked extensively across inventory platforms, both legacy and modern, used by some of the largest operators in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.

And we don’t come in with a preference. We're platform-agnostic. Our experience spans everything from design and engineering systems to ticketing databases, provisioning layers, and beyond. Whether you’re migrating to an upgraded inventory solution or rationalizing into a chosen incumbent system, we bring knowledge from both sides of the table.

Why Telcos Struggle With in-house Migrations

Many IT teams fall into the trap of treating a network migration like a file transfer—data from System A gets dumped into System B with little to no validation. But in telco operations, data isn’t just data. It reflects physical and logical infrastructure, service availability, provisioning rules, and customer dependencies. Typical pitfalls include:

• Incorrect data field mapping (e.g., strings as numbers or vice versa)
• Missing geographic metadata for fiber locations
• Legacy character sets or formatting errors
• No pre-validation or post-load integrity checks
• Inability to adapt the data structure to evolving business logic

Cyient’s approach avoids all of these by taking a holistic and iterative path to migration.

Our Methodology: Data Migration Built For Telecom

At Cyient, our data migration framework involves:

• Discovery & Analysis: Understanding both the source and target systems. We map fields, identify inconsistencies, and simulate future-state data flows.
• Transformation & Cleansing: AI-powered tools and expert oversight clean and standardize records. This includes error flagging, rule-based field splitting, character conversions, and schema validation.
• Iterative Offline Migration: We operate within firewalled, secure client environments. We stage the migration offline, test it repeatedly, and validate outputs before touching production.
• Incremental Cutover Strategy: We snapshot live data before the final cutover, then incrementally apply changes and clean up deltas. This ensures continuity with minimal operational disruption.
• Post-Migration Verification: We ensure backward traceability and offer fallback options during the transition window.

This hybrid of technical rigor and telecom domain expertise is what sets Cyient apart.

A Proven Success Story: From Fragmented To Future-Ready

One North American fiber provider faced exactly this dilemma. With legacy data spanning more than a decade across multiple systems, they needed to rationalize into a unified inventory model to drive service innovation.

Cyient led the end-to-end transformation, applying our AI-led framework, backed by telco engineers who understood the underlying business logic.

The outcome:

• 98%+ data integrity post-migration
• Reduced MTTR (Mean Time to Repair) through cleaner fault localization
• Streamlined field operations with unified access to accurate asset records
• Significantly improved customer satisfaction metrics (CSAT)

Why Now is the Time

Data migrations and cleanups are often overlooked or delayed because they are difficult to quantify in isolation. But in the context of a telecom merger or acquisition, they become not just relevant, but essential.

M&A presents a rare opportunity to rethink and rebuild from the ground up. Systems are already in transition. Budgets are earmarked. Leadership is focused. That makes it the ideal moment to clean and consolidate data, before inefficiencies are locked into the new combined environment.

The telecom operators that act during this window will be the ones that emerge stronger, faster, and better equipped to serve their customers, realize efficiencies, and grow revenue.

Ready to lead your next telecom merger with confidence?

Dive into our expert playbook: 4 Must-Haves for M&A Success in Broadband and discover the proven framework for clean data, fast integration, and long-term ROI. Click here

Curious how this applies to your business? Let’s talk.

About the Author

Vinay Kundaje, Vice President & Head of North America & Canada, Telecom, Cyient

Vinay Kundaje is a senior executive with more than three decades of telecom experience, specializing in strategic alliances, business development, and global program management. He has a proven track record of scaling businesses by aligning cross‑functional teams, leveraging data‑driven strategies, and delivering operational excellence. From launching new offerings to managing billion‑dollar capital programs, Vinay focuses on creating win‑win outcomes that drive revenue growth and long‑term value. Based in Dallas, he blends business acumen with a systems‑thinking approach to deliver measurable, lasting impacts for customers and stakeholders alike.