Ubiik, a provider of private LTE systems, and utility provider Electricity Canada announced the successful establishment of the first 1.8 GHz private LTE (pLTE) ecosystem to support next-generation utility telecom networks in Canada. Built as a collaborative project between Ubiik, Electricity Canada, and several semiconductor and Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI) partners, Ubiik expects the continued expansion of this ecosystem.
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Collaboration with Industry Partners
Ubiik said chipset vendors and module providers Sequans, GCT, Semtech (formerly Sierra Wireless), and Sony Semiconductor Israel (Sony) have all now committed support for the Electricity Canada band, with AMI vendor Itron also planning to build meters for this band.
Expansion of Product Ecosystem
Canadian electric utilities hold sole rights to the 1800-1830 MHz band, but its potential has remained untapped due to limited vendor support. Ubiik, as a corporate partner to Electricity Canada and in collaboration with utilities in Canada, led the project to expand the ecosystem of products available for this band, ensuring the spectrum's full utilisation for the benefit of utilities and citizens and opening new market opportunities, the company said.
"When we started working with Electricity Canada on the 1.8 GHz band in October last year, there was no support for this band from LTE vendors," says Ubiik. "To have 30 MHz of spectrum allocated solely for utility use is the envy of utilities across the world. We therefore made it our mission to create and strengthen the 1.8 GHz ecosystem through collaborating with our industry partners."
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Challenges and Future Applications
"Historically, equipment vendors have not supported 1.8 GHz due to the lack of designation as a standard 3GPP band and the perceived size of the Canadian utility telecom infrastructure market," the official release said. "In addition to metering, Canadian utilities are expected to use the 1.8 GHz band for distribution automation, monitoring of generation and transmission facilities, as well as communication between substations and operations centers."
In addition to securing partners to support 1.8 GHz, Ubiik said it has continued progress with this band with the recent successful pLTE lab pilot in Vancouver.
