Grid Connectivity: Enabling Smart Communities

By Robert Schwartz

Today, as a society, we are at a critical inflection point. Sectors like energy, telecommunications, and transportation must collaborate to advance the economy-wide goals of sustainability, resilience, development, and equity. And Anterix is poised to contribute, because smart energy infrastructure is a key enabling platform for smart communities—and we cannot create a smart, resilient clean electric grid without modern communications technologies.

In late March, I was privileged to join a discussion of these impactful issues at a virtual forum convened by Dentons and the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) . My fireside chat with Clint Vince focused on how Anterix is working with leading utilities to elevate their electric grids with broadband connectivity built on 900 MHz private wireless networks.

Electric grid connectivity based on a foundation of these 900 MHz private wireless networks empowers utilities to fully realize their powerful vision for a cleaner, smarter, more secure energy landscape.

And our story is much bigger than Anterix alone. Already, the universe of organizations using 900 MHz private wireless broadband networks to drive a new digital foundation for the future of the energy sector—which is indispensable for smart communities—includes:

• Six pioneering utilities serving 15 states, with many more on their journey to join us.
• More than 100 leading technology and service providers in our Anterix Active Ecosystem, all of which are driving innovative broadband solutions for utilities and their communities.
• The Utility Strategic Advisory Board, comprised of 10 utility senior executives identifying and prioritizing utility technology needs.
• Collaboration with key groups including EPRI, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Lab, and many more.

This growing universe of leading organizations and individuals is driving a powerful future for 900 MHz private wireless broadband that leverages the utility industry’s deep spirit of connection, interdependency, and collaboration to transform the electric grid—all for the benefit of communities nationwide. Thanks to these collaborative efforts, tomorrow’s electric grid will be cleaner, smarter, more resilient, more secure, even as it supports broad electrification, economic growth, social justice, and importantly, keeping energy affordable.

In common with the development of wi-fi—a key focus area of the Wireless Broadband Alliance—Anterix’s story is one of continuous innovation, based in using spectrum to serve the unmet needs of industry and communities.

With the availability of the scarce resource of spectrum, a wave of innovation surged, harnessing this newfound capacity to fulfill customers' escalating requirements. We have seen a “virtuous circle” of development and transformation to solve big challenges for customers and society, and Anterix is a strategic enabler of this virtuous circle for utilities and the energy sector.

We haven’t arrived here on our own. Collective action is essential to driving progress across the sector, and across the economy. Anterix has adopted a distinctive approach that is centered on working on behalf of the utility industry. We are proud to be a trusted partner to the industry on addressing challenges and advancing a clean energy future by enabling utility-first solutions for the industry’s most pressing energy challenges—from decarbonization to wildfires, extreme weather, cyber and physical security, and more.

Electricity—and the grid—underpins all smart communities. The growth of electrification, distributed energy resources, smart buildings, smart transportation, and much more all depend on smarter energy infrastructure, which is centered on smart electric grids. For our utility partners—and for Anterix—building a cleaner, smarter energy future with a more resilient electric grid is a business imperative.

Achieving their most compelling strategic opportunities is exactly why six leading utilities already have joined Anterix and the technology innovators represented by our Active Ecosystem to advance a broadband future for the grid. By leveraging foundational technology that is built on a universal standard and that uses nationwide 900 MHz spectrum as its enabling platform, our team is collectively enabling utilities to achieve their goals and give their customers the smart grid—and the smart communities—that they want and expect.