Building tomorrow’s network
Miranda has been working for Telenet for 20 years now. She literally saw Telenet grow - as she was living right behind our headquarters in Mechelen back then. Today she’s leading our ‘Build’ team and is responsible for the roll out of our coax and fiber network on the one hand, and our mobile network on the other hand. A challenge she’s seizing with both hands.
When Miranda joined Telenet in 1997, Telenet didn’t have a physical network yet: we had an agreement with the inter-municipal associations to use their network for interactives services. That network was only meant to be used for television. Adaptations were needed to be able to use it for telephony services. “At that time I was responsible for the follow-up of the planning and the release of the nodes. As soon as the network in a city was ready for it, our sales team took off with their yellow tents to sell telephony and internet products throughout Flanders.” Two years later Miranda moved to the installation team. “Again a very exciting period: in only two years’ time we went from 100 to 2000 installations per day.”
Since 2013 she is responsible for the ‘HFC team’ (hybrid fibre coax network) that guarantees the design, the planning, the coordination, the implementation and the maintenance of our network. When the new organisation within the Technology & Innovation department went live early 2018, building our mobile network also became Miranda’s responsibility: the modernisation of the current network, but also building 200 new sites in 2018.
Preparing our network for the future
Our customers want to be online all the time. Miranda and her teams have to play along with this trend and make sure that our network can respond to this increasing demand for capacity.
Her teams are a mix of Telenet and ex-BASE employees. Each with their own processes, tools and habits. “By literally bringing the teams closer together, we simplify the entire process. Instead of structuring the department based on the technology (mobile & fixed), mobile and fixed experts are now joining forces and the organisational structure of the department now follows the different phases in the process: from Strategy & Planning, over Design & Build, to Operations. We now follow our customer in his evolution towards more convergence: it doesn’t matter for our customers whether they are using wifi or 4G, as long as they’re connected.”
Miranda notices that the organisational change gives an extra energy boost. “Colleagues learn a lot from each other now that they’re collaborating much closer. And that’s nice to see. A lot of knowledge comes together. We have to combine the best of both worlds, and that takes time, which is not always that simple in a sector of rapid technological change.”
Taking your career into your own hands
In 20 years’ time Miranda has had a long track record at Telenet. Her motto? “Don’t wait until a promotion is coming your way. Show your skills, dare to see things differently, take initiative (also outside your strict responsibilities), go for it and you’ll see that opportunities appear and you get noticed as well.”
Enthusing girls for technology
Also in her free time Miranda wants to bring technology to life in our children’s environment. “When I get the chance to speak about my job in one of my children’s classes, I take it. This way I want to inspire children – and yes, especially girls – about technology.” Via her active engagement in a couple of school boards, she makes the connection between school and the technological industry. “It’s interesting to see what diversity – whether it’s about gender and/or nationality and culture – can mean for schools and which positive contribution this can bring on all levels.”