The following information was excerpted from a Newton-Evans survey conducted in September 2010. A total of 47 utility officials from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions responded to the survey participation request. For the majority of U.S.-based respondents, there was a good mix of utility representation by size and by type of utility.
Do you plan to migrate (or have you already migrated) the existing feeder automation communications network to a newer wireless technology that allows for functionality like higher bandwidth, IP enabled radios and WiMAX?
Fifty-six percent of respondents had no plans to undertake any migration to newer wireless technology approaches. Sixteen percent of survey respondents had already migrated their existing feeder automation communications network to a newer wireless technology, while 30% were planning to do so.
If you are adding wireless technologies for feeder automation communications, which wireless technology are you planning to migrate to?
Three specific technologies were listed on the survey form (WiMAX, LTE and 4G) along with “other.” Forty-one percent cited WiMAX, 18% mentioned 4G and 6% listed LTE. More than three quarters of the group listed other wireless technologies as shown below.
Other Mentions
- NetCom 900MHz packet radio
- IP radio system
- 700mHz Arcadian
- CDMA 450 Mhz
- Owned licensed spectrum
- not sure; investigating
- RFP stage
- Low bandwidth/IP enabled IDEN
- Higher speed 900 mHz supporting IP
- Under investigation; not decided yet
- unlicensed spread spectrum
- Wimax, 802.11 technology, 900 mHz spread spectrum
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