Gila River Telecommunications: Cost-Effective Network Management and Faster Service Deployment with DDI

Gila River Telecommunications Inc. (GRTI) serves as the incumbent local exchange carrier for the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona. With approximately 22,000 registered community members and about 5,000 access lines, GRTI delivers essential communication services, including DSL and an ongoing upgrade to Fiber To The Home (FTTH) across residential areas, supported by a modern telecom network infrastructure.

Ronald Spencer, Network Services Manager, leads the network engineering, central office, and NOC teams and oversees the company’s transition toward next-generation network capabilities.

Main Benefits

• Lower management cost of core network services
• Faster and simpler troubleshooting, improving customer experience
• Stronger alignment with legal and regulatory requirements
• Accelerated rollout of new services
• Scalable foundation to support long-term network growth

Project Objectives

• Regain full administrative control over DNS and DHCP services
• Support future expansion of GCP offerings
• Streamline customer issue resolution process

Situation and Challenges Being Faced

Previously, all DNS and DHCP functions were fully controlled by a third-party provider, leaving GRTI without direct access or administrative rights. This model became increasingly restrictive as the organization expanded its service offerings. Even simple tasks—such as updating DNS records, modifying reverse DNS, or diagnosing DHCP issues—required submitting support tickets and waiting for the provider to take action.

The provider also offered only a limited web based query tool for DHCP lookups, and any enhancements required the vendor to build and test new components. These limitations slowed internal workflows and hindered GRTI’s ability to quickly assist customers, impacting both productivity and service quality.

To regain agility and control, GRTI evaluated multiple options and selected the EfficientIP SOLIDserver™ DDI platform.

The Selected EfficientIP Solution

According to Ronald Spencer, EfficientIP distinguished itself by delivering more value for the investment and offering a broader set of capabilities than competing solutions. Key reasons for selecting EfficientIP included:

• Robust feature set: The solution met current needs while providing room to adopt additional modules and capabilities as the network evolves
• Scalability: GRTI can easily expand GCP offerings and integrate advanced features, including DNS security enhancements
• Ease of use: Deployment and day-to-day management are straightforward, an important factor for a lean technical team
• Compliance support: EfficientIP’s support for DHCP Option 82 allows GRTI to meet law enforcement reporting requirements by identifying subscriber locations using network metadata

“The ability of EfficientIP’s solution to grow with our company’s needs was a key differentiator.”
Ronald Spencer, Network Services Manager, Gila River Telecommunications

Main Results

ansitioning to EfficientIP has given GRTI full ownership and control of its DNS and DHCP services, removing the bottlenecks associated with vendor-managed changes. This has translated into:

• Significantly faster troubleshooting, thanks to full visibility into logs and configuration data
• Rapid deployment of new services, such as additional GCP scopes
• Improved overall efficiency, due to reduced reliance on external ticketing systems
• Greater flexibility, allowing GRTI to build custom interfaces and tools tailored to their operations

With direct access to their DDI environment, GRTI can now actively engage in incident investigation and quickly implement corrective actions—something that wasn’t possible under the previous third-party management structure.

“EfficientIP’s SOLIDserverTM DDI solution stood out from competitors as it offers far more value for the cost, providing a greater overall service offering.”
Ronald Spencer, Network Services Manager, Gila River Telecommunications

In the Future

GRTI is currently focused on expanding both its access and routed networks, including a transition from GPON to XGSPON to support next generation broadband services.

On the DNS and DHCP side, the IT team recognizes that they are only utilizing a portion of SOLIDserver’s capabilities. However, knowing that advanced features—such as enhanced DNS security and threat intelligence modules—are already built into the platform provides confidence that the solution will continue to support GRTI’s evolving needs.

Security improvements, in particular, represent a future opportunity for leveraging EfficientIP’s specialized telecom-grade protection tools.

“We can now resolve customer issues more quickly and deploy solutions more rapidly. The cost benefit of EfficientIP DDI is clear.”
Ronald Spencer, Network Services Manager, Gila River Telecommunications