For decades, network records were the quiet part of running a utility or a telecom network. The cables, pipes and poles did the work. The GIS and asset records sat in the background, updated when someone had time.
In 2026, three separate developments turned those records into something much harder to ignore. Each one is getting attention on its own. Very few people are connecting them.
1. Resilience rules now ask: what do you actually have?
On 17 July 2026, EU member states reached the deadline to designate their critical entities under the Critical Entities Resilience (CER) Directive. It covers energy, drinking water, waste water, transport and digital infrastructure, among others. Designated organisations then have ten months from notification to meet its obligations.
CER often lives in the shadow of NIS2, which focuses on cybersecurity. CER takes an “all-hazards” view: natural disasters, sabotage, accidents, insider threats and supply chain disruption. Organisations must assess these risks, document a resilience plan and report significant incidents within 24 hours.
Think about what that means in practice. You cannot assess what a flood does to your network if you are not sure which assets are in the flood zone. You cannot report an incident’s impact within 24 hours if finding out which customers depend on a failed component takes a week. Resilience starts with records you can trust.
2. Copper switch-off is a data project in disguise
In January 2026, the European Commission proposed the Digital Networks Act, which sets out a path to retire copper networks and move to fibre, with 2035 as the headline target. The proposal still needs approval from the European Parliament and the Council. Meanwhile the market is moving: according to the FTTH Council Europe’s tracker, only Norway and Spain had fully switched off copper by early 2026.
Most of the conversation is about fibre roll-out and customer migration. Less is said about the work behind it. To decommission copper safely, an operator needs to know which lines are still active, which customers and services depend on them, and where the physical assets are. Decades of upgrades, workarounds and undocumented changes make that harder than it sounds. Every gap in the records becomes a site visit, a delay or a surprise.
3. The people who know the network are retiring
In many utilities, a significant part of the network knowledge lives in people, not systems. Industry figures from the water sector show the scale: in the US, 21% of utility employees are eligible to retire within the next five years, according to the AWWA’s 2025 benchmarking survey. Ask any European network operator about their senior engineers and the picture is familiar.
When an experienced engineer retires, the documented records stay behind. The undocumented corrections, the “we always check this first” and the knowledge of where the old drawings are wrong leave with them. The answer is not only to write more documentation, but to make sure the next generation can actually find and use it, in the tools they already work in.
The common thread
Regulators want proof of resilience. Network transitions need precise inventories. New colleagues need answers they can trust. All three depend on the same foundation: network and asset records that are complete, current and easy to use.
This is also why AI projects stall. An AI assistant is only as good as the data and documentation behind it. Put it on top of incomplete records and it will answer quickly and confidently, which is not the same as correctly.
Where to start
1. Treat records as an operational asset, not an archive. Give data quality an owner and a budget, like any other critical system.
2. Check connectivity, not just completeness. A pole in the right place but connected to the wrong cable is still a wrong answer during an incident.
3. Capture knowledge while it is still in the building. Turn work instructions, field corrections and expert know-how into documentation that people can actually find.
4. Make records usable for the people who need them. The best data in the world does not help if only three people know how to query it.
5. Link it to the deadlines. Use CER, NIS2 and copper switch-off plans to justify the investment. The records work pays off in all three.
How we help
Realworld Systems has worked with network and asset records for more than 30 years, mainly in GE Smallworld environments for utilities and telecom operators. We help organisations improve data quality, integrate network data with the systems around it and make it accessible. Our AI assistant, SmartGuide, was built for exactly this moment. Working inside Smallworld Electric Office, it lets engineers ask questions in plain language and get answers from their own manuals, work instructions and live network data. Every answer shows the page it came from, so new colleagues can trust what they read. Built-in checks flag topology and connectivity gaps, and bulk corrections are shown as an old-value and new-value table before anything is written. Network data stays in your environment.
The infrastructure that keeps society running has always been physical. In 2026, the records that describe it became just as critical.
Want to see SmartGuide answer questions from your own network documentation, with every source visible? Book a walkthrough.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
