USTA Webinar - Why Utilities and Telcos Should Work Together

I've had occasion to work with USTA recently in the telecom arena, and when our paths crossed with smart grid, we realized how much we have in common. This afternoon, they hosted and presented a smart grid webinar titled "The Convergence of Energy and Broadband". I don't normally draw attention to webinars presented by others, but USTA is not a competitor; if fact, I see them as a key ally in our efforts here to bridge the worlds of telecom and utilities.

Before touching on the main messages, I wanted to talk about the level of interest in the webinar itself. It's not my place to tell you how many people were on the call, but it was a lot, and it's my understanding that USTA has never had this type of turnout for their webinars before. Given that most of their members are Tier 2/3 carriers, and their focus is to advocate broadband adoption, it's clear to me that telcos have a keen interest in smart grid. Needless to say, that's good news for us, and we hope to work more closely with USTA as we prepare for our next Smart Grid Summit.

The main speaker today was Robert Mayer, VP, USTelecom Industry & State Affairs, and he gave a good overview of what utilities need to be doing, as well as what the telecom world has to offer. There was no ground-breaking news here, but that was to be expected. I have to presume the audience was primarily drawn from their membership, and while there is great interest here in smart grid, this is pretty new territory for them. I can see right away that USTA can play a similar role to our summit in that basic education about smart grid is needed - not just for utilities, but telcos as well. The vendors understand this very well, especially those who are active in both markets, but for today's presentation, the focus is on telcos.

Robert set the stage nicely by citing various DOE reports that outline the shortcomings of the current grid infrastructure. All the expected issues were raised, such as grid reliability, security, efficiency, and reliance on carbon-based energy. He noted that many of these concerns could be addressed and better managed with a modernized grid network, and integration with broadband-based communications networks. The key here is real-time, two way data flow, which give utilities far better response capabilities. This may be first nature for Tier 1 carriers, but there's an important message here for all telcos. The faster they develop broadband networks, the better positioned they will be to work with utilities, especially on a local basis.

Those of us immersed in telecom or IT understand these issues fully. Based on Robert's presentation, however, utilities have a lot of catching up to do. He provided a great analogy to point out how different these worlds really are. If Alexander Graham Bell were with us today, he would hardly recognize the telecom business - that's a pretty fair statement. Thomas Edison, on the other hand, would feel right at home if he paid a visit to his local utility - as Robert noted, the electric grid is fundamentally the same today as it was in his time. Telecom was like this prior to deregulation in 1984, but the business is very different today, thanks to the forces of competition and innovation. While we may not see much of the former with utilities, there is little doubt that the latter is alive and well, and that's what makes smart grid so exciting now.

Aside from this, the strongest takeaway for me was the importance of connecting smart grid with smart home. Robert talked about how the "diversity of benefits increases the diversity of stakeholders". That's a nice way of saying as the benefits of smart grid extend beyond the T&D networks, stakeholders emerge from new areas. He explained that technologies from these new areas will be needed to realize the benefits, as utilities do not have these capabilities themselves. With broadband and two way communications technologies, utilities have far greater capabilities for optimizing their potential not just in the home but with their business customers. He raised another interesting point about how many smart home technologies are evolving independently of the smart grid, and if utilities takes too long to embrace them, they will end up elsewhere; i.e. with telcos or even cablecos. Smart grid offers great opportunity for utilities, but it's not all theirs for the taking.

Robert's presentation ended with a good discussion about cyber security, which was continued in more detail by the second speaker, Jesse Hurley, CEO of Shift Research. For a variety of reasons, this is a core topic that impacts utilities just as much as it does telcos. We'll certainly be addressing it at our next summit, and the themes these speakers touched on are very much aligned with our views here.

To wrap up, the presenters did a good job getting these points across, and it's great to see USTA being proactive by bringing these messages to their members and beyond. I'm optimistic the messages resonated well with the audience, and I hope they continue along this path. If you missed the webinar, a replay should be available soon on their site.