Lynx UK

Realising the Hidden Value in Your Telecom Assets

As in most worlds, knowledge is power. In managing telecom assets, that power can be harnessed to deliver value to you, the owner of those assets.

At Lynx UK Limited, based in Andover, England, we have in-depth knowledge of the pre-owned equipment market and have extensive experience in identifying the resale value of telecom assets. We have close relationships with network operators, and by using our knowledge help them manage their redundant telecom assets to realise value from it.

As a network owner, your network is likely to be a combination of current technologies and legacy systems, and the balance for you is to achieve the technological change needed to offer new services, with the need to support and enhance the existing network. Most engineers will want to introduce as much new technology as they can – holding on to existing telecom assets for a rainy day! Operations directors will want to minimise storage and handling, whilst finance directors will always demand that the worth invested in telecom assets is maximised. Throw into the equation telecom assets being designated End of Life by OEMs and the need for “green” corporate credentials; it becomes even harder for you to achieve the optimum balance.

We here at Lynx’s want to help you understand how to achieve that balance with your telecom assets by the implementing the Three R’s:

• Reuse
• Resell
• Recycle

Reuse
Excess telecom asset inventory can build up across your business, at POP sites, local maintenance stores and central warehouses, leading to increased overhead costs of storage and management and in some instances lack of visibility of the total inventory. Re-using equipment consists of a company taking ownership of that problem for you, de-installing or removing all excess telecom assets and providing you with a full and detailed inventory. Using the supplied information you can then look at your own network and determine what is required to meet network demands. Required telecom assets will be returned to your designated site or warehouse, allowing the equipment to be reused in your network.

Resell
The market for pre-owned telecom assets, like any other commodity market, is driven by supply and demand and can therefore fluctuate. One core competency of quality companies should be understanding and interpreting the market conditions and using that knowledge to make the best possible recommendations and returns for clients. Specifically for telecom assets that have been deemed redundant in the Three R’s process, we use our expertise at Lynx to value your telecom assets and market them in the pre-owned equipment market, reselling to other clients for whom the equipment is essential.

Recycle
When there is no commercial value for the telecom assets in the resale market then recycling the equipment in order to realise value back to you and handling all telecom asset disposals in accordance with the WEEE Directive [Directive 2008/34/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of 11 March 2008] is what can be done.

What are the challenges with this? Well one is that whenever an operator identifies telecom assets in his network that are unwanted, they have to be treated as waste and handled accordingly. Having all the necessary certification from the UK’s Environment Agency to collect, transport and sort electrical and electronic waste is critical for Lynx specifically. More importantly to the operator, we can supply a full audit trail of each individual telecom asset collected through to its final disposition, ensuring that the equipment is responsibly disposed of in line with legislative requirements. The most environmentally friendly way is of course to reuse or resell the telecom assets as it is, but where that is not practicable the next best way is to extract the precious metal content of the equipment which can then itself be reused in other manufacturing industries.

So who benefits from this Three R’s process and how? As network operator you will have your telecom assets optimised, reducing storage and overhead costs; and have the opportunity to redeploy telecom assets for spares and support across your own network together with the realisation of value from redundant telecom assets either through resale or recycling.

At Lynx, product quality and provenance is everything, so we benefit from having a source of quality equipment for resale and from the opportunity to sell back into the market when there is a deficit of a particular part.

For us here at Lynx, this has been so successful that it has helped us develop a “Carrier Ecosystem” which allows us to move telecom assets from one operator or carrier to another where the technologies overlap, effectively managing surplus and deficits of equipment across different networks, to the economic benefit of all parties. Alternatively, we move product through re-seller channels across the UK, Europe and the USA or back to the OEMs to support their own legacy systems projects and clients

If you are a company who is just starting to provide asset management services, here is an example of how we have worked with a major carrier in the UK over the last 15 months to manager their excess telecom assets.

The process that we apply is as follows:

• Assess the site and telecom assets to determine the best approach for its extraction
• Recover the telecom assets
• Compile and inventory
• Using our expert industry knowledge as to which telecom assets have a value in the pre-owned equipment market, make recommendations on each part recovered.
• Client reviews the recommendations and requests the following courses of action for each piece of equipment:
  • a. Lynx to return the telecom assets to client warehouse
  • b. Lynx to resell the telecom assets on behalf of the client
  • c. Lynx to recycle the telecom assets on behalf of the client
• Lynx carries out each of the actions as requested by the client and returns revenue based on sales achieved and recycling disbursements.In working with this carrier, we have recovered over forty consignments of equipment, each type of consignment being unique and ranging from complete POP de-installations through warehouse clearances to secure site clearances.

Tens of thousands of individual items have been handled as part of this process, ranging from individual assemblies through to switches and cable reels. The carrier has benefitted from all the operational work being carried out without any up-front cost, from reducing their storage and leasehold costs, from being better able to support their own network through the consolidation of existing telecom assets for spares and of course from revenues gained from resale and recycling.

They have achieved their operational objectives whilst realising value from unwanted telecom assets and maintaining a full audit trail both for their own asset register but also for their obligations under the current legislation for managing waste.

If you would like to discuss how Lynx can help you rationalise your excess telecom assets, and deliver real value to you business then please call Lyn Pickering on +44 1264 337 444 for an initial discussion or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it