Xcel Energy’s Ed Bieging on How Utilities Can Help Accelerate 5G Network Buildouts
Hundreds of thousands of new small cell sites are expected to be needed to support 5G and the revolutionary services it will enable — from connected vehicles to the internet of things. This densification effort will require close cooperation among wireless carriers, infrastructure providers and cities as network equipment reaches deeper into communities at a block-by-block level.
Utilities could become key facilitators in the coming wave of 5G wireless network buildout. Companies like Xcel Energy own thousands of assets – such as street lights — deployed in rights of way across the country that could be leveraged for small cell deployments.
Xcel Energy recently launched a program to allow carriers to install small cells on its street light poles, including both existing and new sites, beginning primarily in Colorado where it owns 187,000 street lights. The company has developed an approval, design and construction process that will allow carriers to efficiently get small cell sites into operation while easing city concerns about infrastructure clutter in rights of way.
Interest in the program has been strong, according to Edward Bieging Jr., Project Manager for Small Cell Dual Use Pole Deployment for Xcel Energy. The company is working with service providers on more than 1,000 requests that are in various stages of approval and design, and it anticipates even more demand in the next year. Construction on the first site developed as part of its dual-use program is expected to begin soon, and once the process is streamlined, the company expects to deploy between three and five sites per week, Bieging said… Read More on WIA
Hundreds of thousands of new small cell sites are expected to be needed to support 5G and the revolutionary services it will enable — from connected vehicles to the internet of things. This densification effort will require close cooperation among wireless carriers, infrastructure providers and cities as network equipment reaches deeper into communities at a block-by-block level.
Utilities could become key facilitators in the coming wave of 5G wireless network buildout. Companies like Xcel Energy own thousands of assets – such as street lights — deployed in rights of way across the country that could be leveraged for small cell deployments. Xcel Energy recently launched a program to allow carriers to install small cells on its street light poles, including both existing and new sites, beginning primarily in Colorado where it owns 187,000 street lights. The company has developed an approval, design and construction process that will allow carriers to efficiently get small cell sites into operation while easing city concerns about infrastructure clutter in rights of way.
Interest in the program has been strong, according to Edward Bieging Jr., Project Manager for Small Cell Dual Use Pole Deployment for Xcel Energy. The company is working with service providers on more than 1,000 requests that are in various stages of approval and design, and it anticipates even more demand in the next year. Construction on the first site developed as part of its dual-use program is expected to begin soon, and once the process is streamlined, the company expects to deploy between three and five sites per week, Bieging said… Read More on WIA
