Licensed Spectrum Could Limit Utilities' Flexibility in Deploying Smart Grids

This past week, several articles have been written about Cisco’s recommendations to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as it relates the National Broadband Plan; you can check out one such article in earth2tech. From our perspective, we wholeheartedly agree with Cisco’s recommendations to the FCC. Tropos has also been active in submission of comments to the FCC in meetings and formal response to Public Notices related to the value of broadband for building Smart Grids and Smart Cities.

One of the controversial topics I’d like to highlight is the issue as to whether the FCC should allocate wireless spectrum specifically for utilities to use for Smart Grid – a new licensed spectrum. We agree with Cisco’s position on this issue – while it could be valuable, it’s just not needed. There is sufficient bandwidth and quality of service available with today’s unlicensed band which includes 2.4 and 5.8 GHz for regional scale distribution area networks. Unlicensed 900 MHz is already widely used for neighborhood area networks to support metering LANs and has proven to be quite effective. From a cost perspective, use of unlicensed spectrum for the Smart Grid translates to less cost for utilities as they don’t need purchase an expensive use license. Different unlicensed options play a valuable role within the Smart Grid context and we believe utilities should be allowed the freedom to select the best solutions – including licensed and unlicensed spectrum, that best meet their specific requirements. Therefore, Tropos continues to recommend to the FCC that if licensed spectrum is allocated for utilities, it should be an option but not a mandate.

Based upon our vast experience in deployment of distribution area networks, the concerns raised by some parties as it relates to interference in unlicensed spectrum, is unfounded. Reference Tropos’comments submitted to the FCC which highlights one of our Silicon Valley customers that has successfully mitigated interference issues in a very challenging interference environment.

In addition, among Tropos’ customers are many utilities that are successfully using unlicensed spectrum for multiple applications across urban, suburban, and even less populated regions. Such utility-specific applications include backhaul for smart meter LANS, distribution automation, substation security, power quality monitoring, and mobile workforce applications (scheduling, GIS, etc.). The Tropos wireless broadband network provides the needed reliability, performance, security, and quality of service dictated by utilities.

We look forward to the recommendations Nick Sinai, the FCC’s Energy and Environment Director, will be presenting to the FCC for how to bring broadband to the Smart Grid as part of the National Broadband Plan in March – it undoubtedly could have significant impact on the flexibility and options U.S. utilities will have as they deploy Smart Grid communications.

Tom

Philadelphia to Save $9M over 5-Years with City-Owned Wireless Broadband

The City of Philadelphia announced its plan to purchase the Tropos-based wireless broadband mesh network initially installed by EarthLink, but never completed. The City’s plans are to use the network primarily to improve municipal and public safety services and reduce operational costs; some public hot zones will also be available. “With the build out of the network, the City of Philadelphia will be a national model for how to operate and economically leverage a broadband network for the benefits of its citizens.” (quote is from the City’s press release on December 16, 2009)

Funding for the purchase of the network is a combination of $1.5M from homeland security grants and $500K from the City’s public safety funds. The City expects to save an impressive $9M in operating expenses over a 5-year period.

In the past year, Tropos also worked with the City of Corpus Christi as they purchased a Tropos-based mesh network back from EarthLink. Similar to Philly, Corpus Christi is using the network to improve municipal operational efficiencies and to deliver multiple high-value applications across the entire community. Just this week, Tropos presented the Mayor of Corpus Christi with an award citing their leadership and vision in adopting use of broadband for municipal services. Check out the press release to read about more of the details.

Both Philadelphia and Corpus Christi are great examples of how citywide wireless broadband can improve a wide range of public services while providing taxpayers and the City with substantial cost savings.Check out the Philadelphia Inquirer for more about Philadelphia’s announcement.

Denise

Corpus Christi Receives Award for its Use of Wireless Broadband to Improve Municipal Services

This week Tropos honored Corpus Christi City government leaders citing their vision in implementing a wireless technology for community-wide benefit. Tropos president and CEO, Tom Ayers presented Mayor Joe Adame with the award. Recently, Corpus Christi was selected by the National League of Cities as the top digital city in the nation among cities with a population of 250,000 or more.

John Sendejar, External Relations Manager for the City’s Municipal Information Systems Department noted that "Corpus Christi is very proud to have one of the most digitally progressive communities around the nation. We’re experiencing 100 percent success with our smart meters system reads and are grateful to have a network like Tropos in place as we start to realize the benefits it has for other government applications."

In 2005, Corpus Christi became on of the first cities to deploy a wireless broadband network. The first municipal application was for Automated Meter Reading (AMR) for water and gas meters; the City had sought to use AMR to save money and improve meter reading and billing accuracy. Today, 120,000 residential meters are read twice a day over the Tropos network. Since then, City leaders realized that they had a valuable asset in additional bandwidth that could be utilized by many city operations. By moving mobile city workers (police, building inspectors, code enforcement officers, fire inspectors, animal control officers and others) from a cellular network to Tropos, they have benefited from substantial cost savings plus much higher bandwidth enabling new applications such as Geographical Information systems (GIS), which performed too poorly to be of value over the cellular network. The City is also offering 25 free Wi-Fi hot zones around town as a way to provide an additional service for the community.

Tropos is pleased to be a part of continuing to work with City leaders in Corpus Christi to build a greener, safer, smarter community that enhances the quality of life. Read more about this award.

Denise

Tropos Customer, City of Rock Hill, SC Selected to Showcase Citywide Network at Congress of Cities Expo

The National League of Cities’ has selected the City of Rock Hill, South Carolina to display its customer-driven citywide Wi-Fi system, based on Tropos, at the Congress of Cities Exposition, November 10-14, in San Antonio, TX. Rock Hill was one of a select group of U.S. cities chosen by the National League of Cities to share experiences with innovative and unique programs or services.

In 2006, Rock Hill installed a Tropos wireless broadband network citywide as a foundation for deploying a wide range of municipal services. The City was one of the first in the world to implement a citywide Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) and fixed leak detection system. Not only has this real time meter data resulted in operational savings through greater efficiencies in manpower, it has enabled the City to offer enhanced customer services such as real time access to accounts and rate of use.

According to Rock Hill City Manager Carey Smith, the City incorporated the creation of a citywide Wi-Fi network as part of its strategic plan several years ago. “We knew that a Wi-Fi system had many practical uses in terms of maximizing manpower by utilizing the latest technology. The system is now used by all City Departments and facilities and has resulted in resource conservation, greater internal efficiencies and improved customer service capabilities,” said Smith.

While meter reading was the first key application to utilize the Tropos Network, the city experiences daily cost savings for a wide range of additional applications from law enforcement to public safety to public works. For example, the Police Department estimates that officers are out in the field two hours more per day because of the increased efficiencies in daily operations through use of the Wi-Fi network; the Fire Department can access information on the presence of hazardous materials en route to an emergency call.

James “Jimmy” G. Bagley, Jr., Public Services Administrator/CIO for the City of Rock Hill was instrumental in planning and implementation of the citywide Wi-Fi network. “We wanted to build a foundation for the City’s future rather than just an AMR (Automated Meter Reading) system,” said Bagley. “With our high-speed Wi-Fi infrastructure, we now have the capacity to continue delivering many different City services – all on the same low cost, reliable network.”

Broadband Collaboration -- Key to Expediting Smart Grid Rollouts?

For quicker and smarter implementation of smart grid broadband communications, we believe that a prudent approach is for public utilities, Co-Ops, municipalities and vendors to collaborate and share broadband communications in order to advance important grid initiatives. As Craig Settles, an analyst and president of consulting firm Successful.com states in his blog about broadband stimulus recipients, “The end goal for Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) applicants would be to strengthen the business case or the technology strategy of the broadband proposal. For the smart grid grant winners, this collaboration can lead to a better overall infrastructure that moves their data more efficiently.”

As Settles aptly points out, “Urban areas definitely need to jump on this opportunity with both feet. Public utilities in Philadelphia and Baltimore are just two major cities that won big grants, and these are areas that have little or no chance at getting an infrastructure grant. But if big cities have broadband adoption and/or public computer center proposals in the queue as Philly does, they possibly can work out a way to tap into aspects of the smart grids wireless network or backhaul. Because the network infrastructure would already be paid for, NOFA applicants can make a stronger case for financial sustainability of the project.”

Moreover, Sarah Reedy reporting from Telephony Online points out that “Two-way communication is critical to essentially all the advanced features of the smart grid, over which consumption data is backhauled. A community can either lend its fiber network to the utility for this backhaul or rely on the utility’s fiber network, if they choose to build their own, for their purposes.”

We couldn’t agree more. In fact, several Tropos Networks customers such as the City of Corpus Christi, Texas, have taken the lead to not only bring intelligence to their local utility communication networks, but to also leverage their investment to include broadband access for the community.

Municipalities, public utilities, and vendors all working together are today helping to make communities greener, safer, and smarter. Let’s continue that trend.

Tom

Tropos Customer Corpus Christi Named Top Digital City

In its annual survey, the Center for Digital Government ranked Corpus Christi, Texas as the number one digital city in the nation among cities with a population of over 250,000. Automated gas and water meter reading are two of the key municipal services utilizing the city-owned Tropos wireless broadband network. "We're getting about 99.9 percent accuracy on the readings and it's helped us quite a bit," stated Corpus Christi CIO, Michael Armstrong (pictured right). The automated metering system reads approximately 115,000 water and gas meters twice daily and enables generation of online billing statements.

The City also leverages the Tropos network for a range of other municipal services to improve municipal services delivered to the community. This includes:

• Public Safety and Utility vehicles are tracked using the network to identify the closest vehicle to respond to incidents at a fraction of the cost of previous systems.
• First responders and ER doctors have quick access to HIPAA releases for victims, enabling quicker treatment beyond simple field triage.
• Building inspections became more efficient by reducing the lag time between helping cut overall construction time throughout the city by reducing delays between inspections and approvals.
• Over 40 city facilities, such as police substations, fire stations, senior centers, and parks and recreation facilities have been outfitted with Tropos routers so they can serve as safe, reliable Wi-Fi hotspots for municipal workers who do not have mobile wireless network connectivity, enabling them to use conventional laptops to connect to city IT resources when out in the field.

"No city in the entire United States uses and manages technology better than we do, here in Corpus Christi, and we can be proud that we are the very best," Armstrong concluded.

Denise

Check Out Our New GridCom Website

Tropos’ new website welcomes customers and partners seeking to learn about building Smart Networks for Smart Grids using Tropos’ GridCom wireless broadband network solutions. The new Web site contains valuable information on GridCom’s field-proven technology and Tropos’ commitment to support, including:

• Consultant’s Corner contains information to help decision makers learn about the roles, requirements, and technologies for the different layers of communications that comprise a Smart Grid infrastructure.
• Partners section lists solution partners, such as ABB and Itron, who have demonstrated interoperability with GridCom, simplifying deployment and support for customers.
• News section provides the latest information on Tropos and GridCom products, customers, and partners.
• Upcoming Events lists conferences and tradeshows in which Tropos will be participating. Look for Tropos' presentation at the SmartGrid Roadshow in early November.

Please send questions and comments to marketing@tropos.com.