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When the books are closed on 2024, the electric power industry will look back on a series of historic challenges and accomplishments. Perhaps one of the most striking and compelling developments for the industry? Increasingly broad recognition of substantial long-term growth in demand for electricity. 

Late last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission nearly doubled its five-year demand growth projection, from 2.6 percent to 4.7 percent. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation predicted peak demand growth of up to 38 gigawatts through 2028. That’s the equivalent of powering more than 28 million homes.

Notably, this growth stems from multiple drivers. In addition to broad economic and population growth, transportation and other industries are becoming increasingly electrified. And, the growth of innovative technologies—data centers, edge computing, AI, new battery and chip factories, and much more—also is spurring greater electricity demand.

Meeting this customer demand is only one of the electric power industry’s priorities. Utilities are committed to enhancing resilience and grid security in the face of extreme weather and threats from hostile actors. Meeting customers’ expectations for clean energy, together with technology and market developments, are contributing to utilities diversifying and decarbonizing the electricity fuel mix. 

Utilities cannot take a business-as-usual approach to addressing all these strategic priorities. To position themselves—and their customers and communities—for a more reliable, secure, clean energy future, the industry must embrace digital solutions and advanced connectivity to accelerate innovation and resilience. Simply put, a modern grid requires modern communications.

Modern connectivity is at the heart of utilities’ efforts to digitize the grid. Digitization of the electric grid refers to the process of integrating advanced digital technologies like sensors, smart meters, and communications networks into power grid infrastructure. This enables real-time monitoring, control and optimization of electric flow, improving grid reliability, efficiency, and smart grid transformation.

Enabling these data-centric digital solutions is more than just turning on a switch. Utilities need to formulate comprehensive approaches to gathering, transmitting, analyzing, and acting upon this data. Doing all this requires a communications network that unlocks the efficient, more reliable, and secure solutions they need today, while spurring innovation and optionality for decades to come. 

Grid digitization represents a quantum leap in utilities’ capabilities, unlocking a broad range of valuable outcomes for the grid and for electricity customers: 

• Improved grid reliability, thanks to faster fault detection and isolation. This, in turn, leads to reduced outages.
• Enhanced grid resilience: With real-time data and insights on grid operating conditions, utilities are better able to manage disruptions caused by events like extreme weather. 
• Integration of renewable energy: Grid digitization facilitates the seamless integration of variable renewable sources like solar, wind, and batteries. 
• Demand response management: Enables utilities to incentivize customers to adjust electricity usage during peak demand periods. 
• Cost optimization: By improving operational efficiencies, utilities potentially can identify and exploit cost savings throughout their grids.

Already, leading utilities are recognizing the transformative potential of broadband connectivity. By establishing private wireless broadband networks, utilities can unlock the full capabilities of modern grid technologies. This critical infrastructure, akin to a third grid, complements traditional transmission and distribution systems, enabling advanced grid operations, enhanced security and resiliency, improved customer experiences, and accelerated integration of renewable energy resources.

The 900 MHz movement—spearheaded by seven leading utilities and Anterix—is revolutionizing our nation’s utilities. By leveraging the powerful family of technologies centered on 900 MHz, utilities’ robust and more secure private broadband networks enable real-time data collection, advanced grid automation, and improved communication between devices.

With 900 MHz private wireless broadband networks, utilities enjoy the communications scale, greater security, and reliability they need to support smart grid technologies and solutions—from renewables integration to assisting with wildfire prevention and mitigation, distribution automation, enhanced cybersecurity, AMI 2.0, and much more. Their grids also benefit from leveraging seamless and more secure networks to bring together powerful and intelligent grid edge computing devices and other advanced sensors and controls. 

Utilities with 900 MHz private wireless communications networks further benefit from the ecosystem of technologies and solutions represented by the 100+ members of the Anterix Active Ecosystem. Having access to this broad and deep range of tested, proven technologies is another means to ensure that utilities can bring value to their customers through their licensed, private communications networks. 

More and more, customers and communities are looking to utilities not only for the energy that powers their lives—they are expecting the energy grid to be the backbone of a cleaner, more resilient economy. With this expectation in mind, utilities must embrace grid-wide digitization to enhance reliability, resilience, and cybersecurity, as well as to integrate more renewables and provide the data needed to harness AI in the utility sector.

As they have many times before, utilities must embrace innovation to meet today’s challenges—and that means extending digitization throughout their operations and bringing it to the grid edge. By adopting private broadband networks, utilities can leverage a strategic asset that advances their goals to modernize their infrastructure, advance resiliency and security objectives, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction. This strategic shift will help to position utilities as leaders of the energy transition.

Utilities collectively are working hard to ensure their critical infrastructure is ready to meet future grid modernization, resilience, security, and clean energy requirements. Over the coming years, utilities will see rapid growth in data usage driven by an increase in network capacity, performance, and new applications. Technology and the communications network advancements that support the grid play a key role in helping to meet network challenges while also mitigating risks, increasing customer satisfaction, and improving operational metrics.

As utility operations become increasingly complex, and the grid more digitized and automated, a private LTE network is becoming an integral part of the utility critical data infrastructure to support required increased data speeds, capacity, and security. The need for private wireless broadband networks to make the grid smarter, while improving security, resiliency, affordability, and automation is more critical than ever.

The Case for Private LTE as the Foundation for Utility Communication Networks

Utilities have a long history of installing and operating their own communications systems. From distance relay protection on transmission lines and mobile radios, to large SCADA and corporate data networks, communications are a vital link in the chain-of-system control that utilities must maintain, especially across field operations. To achieve that control, utilities build, own, and operate communications systems on a foundation that includes fiber, digital microwave, and commercial (or public) networks. However, utilities can ensure the coverage, performance, reliability, resiliency, and cyber security of these networks when they have end-to-end control over them. Private LTE wireless technology is an optimal choice because utilities can design a private wireless broadband network that works with their current system but expands upon its benefits. With a private LTE network, utilities can communicate more securely with devices anywhere in their service territory and control the devices permitted on their network. They also can design the private LTE network to withstand long power outages, mitigate natural disasters, and reinforce it to prevent cyberattacks.  Built on a global standard, private LTE networks open the door to a future in which sensors, controls, and advanced technology can be installed anywhere on the grid.  Mobile workforce, drone inspections, advanced analytics, wildfire mitigation, and a host of other use cases and grid-enhancing technologies can be realized. 

900 MHz private LTE is becoming the broadband wireless standard for utilities due to its ability to offer visibility, control, quality of service, reliability, and resiliency all the way to the grid edge which is essential for next level grid transformational solutions.

 

 

900 MHz private LTE benefits include:

Security, Privacy, and Control: Complete control, not only of the network design, build, and operation, but also of the end-to-end system security, access, and data visibility, and prioritization. The data never leaves the private network or traverses the public internet. Private LTE can be architecturally and fundamentally more secure than commercial networks and provides utilities with control access to both the network and devices through user authentication and encryption capabilities.  Customizable layers of security can also be added.

Reliability and Resiliency: Reliable and resilient communications across a service territory enables greater control of grid operations. Thus, utility communications must meet a high standard: hardened to prevent compromise by human actors and natural disasters, reliable to work even under emergency conditions, and resilient to quickly recover from setbacks and support power restoration efforts.

Capacity and Scalability: A communications platform built to deliver capacity to meet current and future connectivity needs and use cases is a must for utilities. With private LTE, utilities can deliver more and faster connectivity demanded by clean energy solutions and smart grid applications. Built on a global standard, private LTE can provide bandwidth and scalability for the growing number of devices supporting all Field Area Network (FAN) requirements.

Future-Proof Innovation: Private LTE is built using global 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Program) standards that can provide a future-proof investment for years to come.

Reduction of Costs: Several factors contribute to a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and improved business case. The 900 MHz band features increased coverage area per cell site due to advantageous propagation of low band spectrum as compared to higher bands. Lower site infrastructure density can lead to lower capital requirements. The convergence of legacy single purpose application networks into a unique standards-based platform can eliminate costly O&M and redundant capex. 900 MHz can be an economical solution compared to fiber to reach the edge of the grid. With a single platform, devices can be installed quickly anywhere on the grid at no additional O&M or capex connectivity cost.

The Unique Benefits of Private LTE for Grid Modernization

900 MHz private LTE is the ideal choice to support the breadth of use cases driven by the most critical needs of the grid, and to support clean energy and DER requirements. 

Here is an overview of some of the use cases supported by a 900 MHz private LTE network.

Energy Supply and Load Management

Demands on the aging metering network are accelerating, driven by increasing operational costs, the need for more bandwidth, higher reliability, and better security. A private LTE network can deliver the performance, security, and capacity needed for evolving AMI systems. With private LTE, lower latency and quality of service control allows the utility to prioritize traffic to fit their requirements. A private LTE “Under Glass” meter can support faster two-way communication between the utility and end users, faster outage response, better fault identification, and ease the challenges of DER interconnection. Utilities can also reduce the incremental cost of endpoint connectivity of traditional solutions, as well as support increasing bandwidth requirements.

Private LTE can replace traditional narrowband links, commercial cellular connection, and other third-party backhaul solutions with a single platform providing connectivity at no additional cost for years to come.  Private LTE can provide a utility with the ability to enhance its meter infrastructure without restrictions or bandwidth constraints imposed by a proprietary communication solution.  Being standards-based, private LTE facilitates the interoperability of multiple vendors bringing flexibility, scale, and innovation. 

Electric Vehicles

With the proliferation of EVs, charging stations, and storage, utilities need to have robust, secure connectivity to the assets controlling EVs and charging infrastructure to manage two-way power flows and maintain control and reliability of the grid. Preventing overload of the distribution infrastructure due to increased demand for charging, the ability to dynamically utilize available EV resources for charging at scale, and ensuring the flow of real time information are critical requirements for the data communications network.

900 MHz PLTE can provide high throughput and low latency connectivity which will allow for an improved V2X bidirectional charging flow and the accurate monitoring of EVs, charging stations and solutions at scale. Private LTE gateway devices allow secure and reliable two-way communications to gain more visibility of real-time information, current production levels, and the availability of resources. EV assets can be fully integrated to the same operational network as the electric grid.

Wildfires

Solutions like falling conductor protection and other innovations that have emerged over the past decade can mitigate wildfire risks, increase customer satisfaction, speed up de-energization, and improve operational SAIDI, SAIFI, and CAIDI metrics.  Falling conductor protection helps utilities proactively increase resiliency by de-energizing the broken line before it hits the ground with a near real-time connection.  Rapid de-energization of the line can be targeted to specific communities and accomplished through the low-latency and traffic prioritization capabilities of a 900 MHz private LTE communications network. Overall system reliability is not impacted, unlike other solutions like line tripping that can cause false trips. Remote monitoring and control of substation/distribution equipment, remote video surveillance, and supporting emergency response and mutual aid are additional examples of how a 900 MHz private LTE network can help mitigate issues caused by wildfires.

Natural Gas

900 MHz private LTE can provide the ability to rapidly and economically deploy environmental sensors to increase efficiency by improving natural gas infrastructure monitoring that improves leak detection and remote control of gas services. Private LTE also supports the evolution of gas meters to AMI 2.0, enabling meters to become powerful grid edge sensors capable of running many applications in real time, further increasing efficiency and overall control of gas services.

Distribution Automation

Distribution automation systems automatically isolate faults and perform switching to restore and maintain power to as many homes and businesses as possible within seconds. These systems typically utilize three phase reclosers, capacitors banks, MOABS, load break switches, sectionalizing cabinets, and regulators. Distribution automation systems rely on direct or wireless connectivity for real-time feeder condition information to determine the optimal operational configuration during an event. To perform these tasks most effectively, utilities require a secure and reliable communications network connecting these assets. Deploying a 900 MHz private LTE network will allow these devices to communicate seamlessly in real-time and eliminate the costly and complex deployment of fiber.

Street Lighting

Utilities need to manage not only distribution and transmission assets, but also assets such as residential streetlights. Private LTE can be leveraged to provide connectivity to each streetlight, eliminating the need for a purpose-built network for this application. The load management of tens of thousands of streetlights can utilize self-provisioning, real time notifications, smart light scheduling, intelligent dimming, and more. Control and management of these programs can also reduce energy costs.

Mobile Communications

Communications coverage is critical to the effectiveness of a mobile workforce and one that is often overlooked. Today’s mobile workforce can perform more efficiently, respond faster to outages and provide better customer service when connected to a private, highly reliable, and secure communications network. With private LTE, utilities can build their network where it is needed, removing poor signal area concerns. A secure private LTE network connecting a mobile workforce provides the ability to monitor vehicle status and location and aids dispatching in assigning work more efficiently. Real-time vehicle and worker visibility enables quicker response times to customer issues and outages and provides customers with a higher quality of service and reliability.

No matter where utilities are in the evolution of their grid communications network, 900 MHz private LTE is foundational for a modernized grid and can support the data speeds, capacity, and security to enable a modern, clean, and resilient utility communications infrastructure.

The phone’s buzz hit like a skunk at a picnic.  Al shot me the look—the one that said, “Why now?”  I checked the text message and reached for my bag just as our daughter bounded off the pine and onto the hardwood like a one-woman, late-game calvary.

“Really?” said Al.  He let the non-question hang, knowing both the answer and the reason why.  “I thought this wasn’t going to happen so much anymore.  Didn’t you say that?”

“Yes, but not until the network’s done,” I replied.  “That’s what I said.  Until then, this lady doesn’t rest.” 

“Please let it be soon,” he grumbled, leaning to deliver a goodbye kiss.  “You go make sure the lights stay on—I’ll try to handle things here.”  He sighed to let me know he wasn’t entirely joking and let loose a half-hearted “HOOT!” for the Fightin’ Barn Owls.  Down on the court, our fresh-faced, five-ten baby posted up on her six-foot opponent, all straining muscles and flying elbows.  I winced at a mother’s premonition and made for the exit.

When I checked from the car, the forecast wasn’t too bad:  some high gusts would bring down some trees, but it didn’t look like much—certainly not the howler we’d expected.  The new network would enable a greater level of grid automation, but as long as we had to rely on the legacy communications systems, we had to staff the Network Operations Center , even for relatively minor events.  Even though I couldn’t help much with those aging systems, I felt like as head of the team, I had to be there for moral support if nothing else.  God, I couldn’t wait to get Distribution Ops off my back, always going to the boss when we lose communications.  It was my job to get us completely off that hodgepodge of aging wireless systems and finish the transition to the modern broadband network. 

The passenger’s side window filled with advancing thunderheads, slate-gray and closing fast; I instinctively sped up, like that would help anything.  Of all the changes that came with my move from a regional cellular carrier to my hometown electric utility, being on-call all the time—and I mean all the time—was hardest to take.  Ol’ Edison, my lead technician for the legacy networks, took it all in stride, actually thriving on the urgency and weighty responsibility that so burdened his personal life.  Even so, my guilt grew with every passing month:  as the only one left who could fix the legacy networks, Ed couldn’t retire until they did. 

Hopefully, that glorious day wasn’t far off.  We’d gone live with private LTE for almost the entire service territory, and with that coverage we transitioned critical grid management capabilities from the dozen or so single-purpose legacy networks to the multi-purpose, high-capacity, low-latency new network.  The only problem was that we still had to rely on the legacy systems to connect in those few areas where we hadn’t yet turned on the private LTE network.   

Once that was done, we could shut down the legacy networks and give Ed his freedom (if he’d take it), and all our AMI and SCADA would be riding LTE, as would our FLISR recloser application.  We’d even implemented interoperability between the decades-old land mobile radio system and mission-critical push-to-talk over LTE networks.  For me, though, those applications were really just table stakes.  Our grid ops guys were pressing for direct transfer trip (for islanding), pole tilt sensing, and falling conductor protection (for wildfire mitigation)—all over the new private LTE network.  Just last week, I got a call from our resource adequacy team, asking if the network had the capacity, low latency, and security necessary to carry communications between a virtual power plant controller and thousands of widely distributed residential and commercial “prosumers”; I gave him an enthusiastic YES.  Same for coordination of EV charging, which we all knew was going to change everything.  It seemed the closer we got to completing the new private LTE network, the more—and more forward-looking—applications people wanted to run over it. 

Not exactly a shocking development, but give credit where due:  years ago my bosses saw the future would depend on wireless broadband communications, and they stepped up.  They procured dedicated spectrum, and they hired me to build a team that spoke LTE and 5G, LTE’s evolutionary successor.  And now, we all—my bosses, our company, and our community—were starting to reap the benefits.

***

The mantrap door clicked shut behind me, and Ol’ Ed, still in his lure-adorned fishing hat, gave a wave without taking his eyes off the screen.  Among the shiny desks and brilliant monitors of our brand-new NOC, Ed looked like he’d just beamed in from fifty years ago. 

“Rolston Creek got hit first, lost a pole, and the other lines are galloping like crazy,” Ed announced.  “But comms are holding—so far.”  At the far edge of the service territory and bitter end of our network upgrade schedule, Rolston Creek had LTE, but its six substations hadn’t yet been cut over, still depending on our aging WiMax system.  Ed had to watch it carefully—if we lost comms out there, he would have to get rolling.

I checked the monitors.  LTE metrics looked good:  congestion, latency, packet loss.  If a sensor out on the grid sent data across the LTE system, I could tell it was getting where it had to go.  And even in the highly unlikely event that the LTE network got congested, I knew it would prioritize and deliver the critical communications first.  And if anything went wrong, LTE was a mature, standardized technology in broad use worldwide, so I had had no trouble assembling a capable team to keep the new private network in fine shape.

The storm moved fast, and it took a toll on the grid.  The private network delivered data to the distribution ops team revealing damage throughout the service area, reports developed from SCADA, AMI, and FLISR data.  This data, along with voltage, weather and physical security information provided distribution ops with a detailed picture of grid health and situational awareness to support corrective action.  

Near the height of the storm, the cyber team sent up a flare:  there’d been a breach of the business system.  I imagined crowd of hoody-wearing hackers in a monitor-lit bunker, arranged around a cable spool that served as a conference table, watching storm radar on the Weather Channel, fingers hovering over the “execute exploit” button as the orange intensity blob engulfed our service territory—“Now?”  “Wait for it.”  “How about now?”  With the Internet, the bad guys could challenge our defenses from anywhere on the globe, and this time apparently they’d broken through, at least into our web-connected business management system. 

We’d air-gapped our grid-control networks, isolating them from the outside world, but our cyber team got to work anyway to confirm that our critical system hadn’t somehow been compromised, too.  It was our own private network, so we could run diagnostics and delve as deep as we liked, accessing everything, leaving no stone unturned.  The cellular carrier I’d worked for would never have given a customer that level of access, even a critical infrastructure customer like an electric utility.  Plus, commercial networks were designed to make connecting easy; our utility network was the exact opposite.  We intentionally made it hard to add new devices, implementing measures that amped up cyber protection, even at the expense of convenience.  When it comes to security, we in the utility world serve a different mission, so we apply a different calculus.

“Well, that didn’t take long,” said Ed.  “Just lost Rolston Creek.”  He swallowed the dregs of his coffee and pushed back his chair.  “Wish I could say I’m surprised.”  He reached for his slicker and the Magic Bag, a road kit containing all manner of bizarre tools and doodads he’d created over the decades to facilitate his troubleshooting and repairs.  Ed grabbed a radio off a charging cradle, clipped it to his belt, and jangled out the door.

I checked the indicators.  We’d taken some damage, but redundant backup batteries and generators ensured that even in a power outage, we had juice for communications to help speed restoration of electricity service.  Even if we’d lost an LTE site—which was pretty rare, given that we’d hardened the infrastructure to withstand even brutal storms—we’d designed the network with overlapping sites to provide coverage.  And if for some reason one of our LTE devices couldn’t connect to the private network, we’d implemented a service that enabled all of them to connect to the commercial carrier as a fallback, if the public network was available. 

“Comms NOC, Edison here.  You copy?” 

I picked up my phone and opened the mission critical Push-To-Talk app.  “Hey, Ed, I got you.”

“Damn radio didn’t charge, crapped out on me halfway out here.”  His irritation came through loud and clear.  “Haven’t used the LTE PTT since training, but it’s pretty sharp.  Dispatch had no clue, thought I was coming in over legacy radio.”  He laughed, both impressed and a little grudging.

“Great to hear it, Ed.  Wouldn’t want anybody to think LTE and legacy don’t play together.  We’re downright inter-generational around here.”

***

There was really only one place that made sense for Ol’ Ed’s retirement party.  Daisy’s had been his go-to diner for thirty-seven years, the scene of umpteen coffee talks, geek sessions, planning meetings, after-actions and hot-washes, all caffeinated and sugar-fueled by Daisy’s attitude-packing but well-meaning wait staff.

In honor of the event, the place was full of linemen and linewomen, network engineers, admins, even some suits.  Ed stood next to me, his back against the counter, uncomfortable with all the attention but lapping it up anyway.  He couldn’t stop grinning. 

“Is it really happening?” he wondered aloud, elbowing me in the ribs.  “Sure you don’t need me another couple of months to make sure your fancy new LTE thing is up to the job?”

“Nope, I’m good.  And it’s about time you got to do a whole day’s fishing in peace.  Maybe you’ll finally catch something.”  I elbowed him back. 

The kitchen door swung open and Daisy emerged carrying an enormous sheet cake, elaborately decorated in unnatural colors.  Straining to fill such a vast canvas, the baker had gone overboard on the inscriptions.  Happy Retirement!  Got It Done!  Gone Fishin!  There was a fishing rod, a hooked steelhead, a passable representation of Ed’s battered skiff.  Also a nerdy partial network diagram in purple icing readily recognizable to the true geeks among us as the now decommissioned WiMax implementation at Rolston Creek.  And, occupying the place of honor at the center of the cake, a mostly spent roll of duct tape, probably taken from the Magic Bag itself.

The raucous rendition of “Happy Retirement to You” drowned out my phone’s ringtone, but I felt the buzz in my pocket.  Severe weather expected over the next few days.  I put the phone away and reached for a piece of cake.  The network would handle it.

As today’s power grid evolves to increase resiliency, support DER integration, and meet decarbonization goals, 900 MHz private LTE delivers the security, control and performance utilities need to safely provide clean and affordable energy.  An important aspect of a private LTE deployment is supporting a wide array of fixed endpoints and mobile devices.  With the increased proliferation of connected sensors and intelligent grid devices, utilities need a solution that integrates all aspects of connectivity management, making it simple, flexible, and secure. 

Some utilities are actively deploying private LTE networks, while many others are still evaluating and planning for their private LTE investments.  While the advantages of private LTE for utilities are well understood as demonstrated by this growing industry momentum, implementing devices at scale across these networks is not without its challenges.

When deploying a 900 MHz private LTE network, utilities need to plan and prioritize how to load and manage at scale a large number of connected smart grid sensors and devices. Some of the critical priorities to consider include:

• Evolving from legacy and commercial networks to private cellular networks 
• Leveraging existing commercial broadband for coverage gaps within the utility service territory
• Increasing the private network resilience with a failover solution to provide back-up connectivity during private networks downtime  

Up until now, utilities using broadband relied on commercial cellular networks with devices activated on the network using carrier’s security identity modules (SIM) cards.  Today, utilities that deploy a private LTE network can manage their own private SIMs and device connectivity.  A comprehensive connectivity management solution that solves for these priorities can be time consuming to build and integrate and require the right in-house expertise.  Utilities developing their own solution need to source a connectivity management solution, procure SIMs, and establish roaming contracts with commercial carriers.

After development, utilities would then have to integrate and configure all these elements. SIM profiles would need to be created and work together with the connectivity platform. The platform would have to be integrated with the private LTE core which is in turn connected with the commercial carriers either directly or indirectly. The procurement process and integrations require a lengthy development effort and expertise in each of these domains.

While utilities deploy their private LTE network infrastructure, the operational teams continue to connect devices to either existing utility legacy narrowband networks or to commercial cellular networks. Utilities need to consider deploying these devices leveraging the latest advancements in SIM technology to enable a seamless transition to their own private LTE network when ready.

SIM technology is rapidly evolving for increased management flexibility and security. Traditional physical SIMs are read only. Once it is placed in a device, it contains all the necessary information for the networks it can connect to, and it cannot be modified. A change of configuration requires a change of physical SIM. At large scale, this can challenge the operating expense budget of any utility, which may have to deploy a truck roll to each device.  The market is evolving towards the eSIM, an embedded SIM that has read and write capabilities and can be remotely or locally re-configured to subscribe a device to a particular network. While not every LTE device today allows for eSIM capability, the ecosystem is growing rapidly.

When a utility deploys devices with eSIM capabilities with either physical SIMs with read/write capabilities (eUICC capable) or eSIMs, eSIM capable devices can be initially configured with a private subscription that leverages commercial service. When it comes time to migrate the device to the utility’s own private LTE network, the utility can implement that change remotely.  The ability to combine connectivity on public and private networks on one SIM and enable secure roaming between them enables a seamless transition from the public networks to the 900 MHz private LTE network, avoiding unnecessary physical manipulation of devices and associated operational costs. 

Understanding the need to solve these challenges for the utility industry, Anterix has created a turnkey solution, CatalyX™, to remove complexities in managing connectivity and helping to accelerate private LTE deployments.  With CatalyX, utilities can realize the benefits of broadband immediately and can leverage the strengths of commercial operators while they deploy their private LTE network.  They can get started by implementing a solution that provides secure, private, and controlled management of devices and extend their reach by integrating commercial coverage.  By utilizing an integrated solution like CatalyX that delivers SIMs, connectivity management, and access to multiple commercial LTE networks, utilities can speed time to market and eliminate costly migration.  The complexities and risks of utilities building or buying disparate technology solutions and doing the integration themselves are also mitigated.

CatalyX helps to support utilities in their private LTE journey by accelerating onboarding of devices during the deployment of the network, extending the private network coverage in gap areas, and providing back-up connectivity during private network downtime.  From their private LTE network, utilities can seamlessly connect devices to commercial networks for primary coverage, or as a fallback, helping them achieve the network coverage and resiliency that is required for mission critical grid applications.

CatalyX supports utilities in their private LTE journey by:

• accelerating onboarding of devices during the network deployment,
• extending the private network coverage in gap areas and,
• providing back-up connectivity during private network downtime. 

From their private LTE network, utilities can seamlessly connect devices to commercial networks for primary coverage or as a fallback, helping them achieving the network coverage and resiliency that is required for mission critical grid applications.

Although the journey to private LTE networks can be lengthy and complex, it is essential to support grid modernization.  An integrated connectivity management solution like CatalyX can help accelerate the value utilities realize from their 900 MHz private LTE deployments.  These turnkey solutions allow the utility to immediately begin deploying field devices that can operate on commercial carrier service until the private LTE network is built out in those areas.  With this zero-touch device migration approach, the utility eliminates future truck rolls, minimizing operational expense for utilities with the added benefit of redundant connectivity for the life of the asset. 

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