On 9-10 November 2022, EUTC has organised its first Annual Event in Lisbon, Portugal. Over the course of two days, EUTC members and other stakeholders from the utilities telecom sector met in personat the Oceanário de Lisboa to mark the yearly meeting of the association and to discuss the future of utilities telecommunications in Europe.
It was also the occasion to celebrate the launch of the first EUTC book, “Utilities Telecommunications in a Nutshell”, written by EUTC Secretary General Julian Stafford, along with EUTC Board member Alberto Sendin and Spectrum Group Manager Adrian Grilli.
Over the two days, participants had the chance to network during coffee break and meal times, where sponsor and new member booths could be visited. On the evening of 9 November, a Networking Dinner also took place.
Sessions – Day 1
The event opened with a keynote speech by Aurelio Blanquet, E-REDES, Honorary member of EUTC, and continued with a panel discussion titled “EUTC Global Dialogue”, setting the scene to present EUTC and its global presence and synergies.
In the early afternoon, EUTC members gathered for its 2022 General Assembly, in which the activities of the year have been presented, as well as possible opportunities for 2023.
The event continued with a presentation from the first sponsor of the event, HPE, represented by Rene Tonon, OSS Master Solution Architect, and was followed by the 3GPP Task Force meeting, led by Erik Guttman from Samsung. The Task Force was launched at the start of 2022 and had its first in-person meeting during the EUTC Annual Event.
In “HPE has an established reputation as provider of Telecommunication solutions worldwide with over 30 years’ experience in OSS and core networks for Telecoms. This expertise has been successfully brought to Utilities in areas such as Service Provisioning, Service Assurance and Inventory Management to provide solutions to monitor industrial infrastructure and telecoms network, to fulfil services such as FTTx and smart meters, SIM and eSIM Management and implementation of Private 5G networks.”
–Rene Tonon, OSS Master Solution Architect, HPE
In the evening, a Networking Dinner was organised in the historical center of Lisbon, where Pedro Tercero Lozano from Ericsson presented the company’s portfolio for Mission Critical Networks Business Readiness.
Sessions – Day 2
The second day of the EUTC 2022 Annual Event opened with an interesting session titled “New members spotlight”, during which the 5 new EUTC members that joined the association had the chance to talk a bit. The Task Force was launched at the start of 2022 and had its first in-person meeting during the EUTC Annual Event.
“One of the key segments for Westermo Network Technologies is Energy distribution. Westermo can provide products for many use cases such as Smart grid and Grid automation applications. Product portfolio includes switches/routers and LTE routers.”
–Pierre Öberg, Business Development Manager Global OEM’s, Westermo
“The GE CIC business has the DNA of a company that has been dedicating its resources, skills and commitment to support the Global Utilities Sector for decades. We have established a path that enables us to bring new solutions and integrated proposition to the market to make the “Smart Grid” a reality”
–Giovanni Puppo, Regional Sales and Business Development Leader, General Electric
“In tandem with falling bandwidth costs, Global Skyware’s new VSAT IoT and SCADA platform exemplifies the enhanced security, reliability, and performance attributes generating a surge in demand for satellite connections to onshore and offshore utility infrastructure.”
-Dr Gavin Cox, Antenna Engineer, Global Skyware
“Chronos Technology Ltd were excited to present at the EUTC conference in Lisbon, discussing our long history in Telecom timing solutions and our expertise in GNSS, it’s vulnerabilities and timing network design. We’re looking forward to working with the EUTC and its affiliates in the future.”
–Chris Boulton, Technical Sales Specialist, Chronos Technology
“EMR Integrated Solutions is a specialist OT communications, SCADA and instrumentation solutions provider. We design, deliver and support mission-critical core networks based on technologies such as DWDM, MPLS-TP and secure edge networks incorporating fibre, microwave, satellite and cellular mobile technologies.”
–Alan Feenan, Sales Director, EMR Integrated Solutions
After that, it was the moment to give the floor to the third sponsor of the event, Axians. Afonso Silva gave a presentation titled “Why is this fish here?”, matching the theme of the event location; the content was focused on Axians services for the ICT world, mainly through its sister company VINCI Energies.
“Axians presented its journey in the world of utility telecommunication networks, with a special focus on an ongoing project in Qatar. Participants were shown the company’s capabilities and challenged to collaborate in the development of new use cases.”
–Afonso Silva, Business Developer, Axians
Later on, EUTC members were called to participate in a Members Strategy Meeting, aimed at discussing the strategy of the association for 2023 and the core topics to focus on. The session was facilitated by the Secretariat and Board of Directors, and had interesting outcomes that will be explored in 2023.
Below, a summary of the inputs received:
1. KNOWLEDGE SHARING EUTC members wish to increase knowledge sharing through a dedicated platform
2. STANDARDISATION EUTC to continue developing work in 3GPP, standards & ecosystem for MSO, engaging in discussions around 6G, ITU and CEPT
3. CYBERSECURITY Members wish to focus on cybersecurity for OT systems and increase know-how sharing on NIS2
4. RADIO TELECOM EUTC to explore novel satellite solutions and investigate testing and homologation for utilities in this field
The last session of the day saw a presentation from ZTE’s Victor Pascual, who presented their services for utilities and cited the case of E-Redes, who collaborates with the company for the building of their private networks.
Utilities can take advantage of the evolution of core features like slicing and service-oriented architectures, to build the 2G/3G/4G/5G private networks to manage their infrastructure. ZTE explained the technology available today and urged utilities to be bolder on building private networks. E-Redes took this bold step with ZTE.”
–Victor Pascual, CTO Spain and Portugal, ZTE
The event was a success for EUTC members and other participants, marking the first in-person occasion for the association’s network to meet. There is more to come in 2023, stay tuned!
