30 Jan The UBBA’s First Steps
Bobbi Harris, member engagement and operations lead at the Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA), discusses how her organization came to be and what’s next for it and its members.
Can you start by telling us a bit about why the UBBA was formed?
The UBBA was formed over about the last 12 months; the idea came about organically as some utilities and technology providers in the US were keen to understand what are the options requirements opportunities and challenges of private broadband solutions for utility operations. As talks began, the key stakeholders decided that they needed to form an alliance so that they could formally come together on a very regular basis and share ideas, ask questions and create something that the utility industry, even around the world, could use.
We soft-launched the UBBA at Distributech this past February, and I joined in April. Initially, we thought that eight to 10 utilities and vendors would be really interested, but 30 people in the room were, and since that time our membership has risen to 19 organizations, of which five are utilities and the other 14 are vendors. About 60 individuals from those 19 organizations participate in our working groups.
SOURCE: Critical Communications Today
