Utility Companies Should Aim for Flexible Network Solutions for Long Term Success

Think the really important thing to understand here is we wanna provide the, kind of the the the diaspora of the utilities with the concept of flexibility. It still seems, I think, based on our perspective, that it's relatively early days to have, you know, to go one way or the other. We had, you know, old mesh networks out there. We have brand new, Gen X type of mesh networks with much larger broadband throughput in order to do so much more than the traditional meter to cache. And many utilities are now kind of subscribing to, going to that more advanced telecommunications pipe. And that can include, you know, distributed intelligence through mesh networks. It can include private and public LTE as an uplink. So being flexible, I think, is gonna be really important because there's, you know, three thousand plus utilities out there just in the US alone, and everybody's at a different point, on their journey. So I think that's really key to enabling everybody to get on the bus and to, you know, meet their their end goals towards decarbonization. Alright. I'm just gonna stand off. Go ahead, Dominic. I I'll jump in quickly. So, you know, there's an important thought on how do we proactively plan for what we need to know. And I wanna think a little bit about, you know, those interconnected sensors and that backhaul of that information, in asset pieces that are not easily accessible. Right? So overground utilities, you can get to them. You have poles. Underground utilities, those are large capital expenses ranging from three to six million dollars per mile. Right? And there you wanna equip sensors that you maybe need to maintain, upgrade. But when you design these assets, right, with a lifetime expectancy of fifty, sixty, seven, eighty years, you really have to think about that sustainability and what's effective on your SADI numbers, what's that effective on your connectivity. And that's where we at Loc are starting to see some of the biggest interplay between the utilities on the electric side and the communication side to be able to share that information, right, and really get around the table and discuss, hey. What are we gonna put there so that we can together see what is happening so that we can work around issues? Because when you have an underground fault, that is a major fault. When you have an overhead utility fault, well, you get to it, but, it's still a a piece of information that you really gotta think about, as you practically design and work on on these physical assets.