Last week at the UTC Telecom and Technology annual show Alianza was recognized with the UTC Impact Award for services. The Utilities Technology Council (UTC), a trade association for power utilities, awards this annually to a UTC Associate Member that is “making a great impact on the utilities industry through an innovative and proven solution.”
Our Cloud Voice Platform is impacting utilities? Yup.
Utilities and electric cooperatives increasingly becoming ISPs as well, serving their customers with a modern suite of broadband services. Some have been doing it for a decade or more, but many more are joining the ranks, especially in rural and underserved communities. And offering broadband phone services is part of that portfolio. Our Cloud Voice Platform is a SaaS solution to do just that.
Let’s take a look at the award winner criteria:
Availability
This is an innovation that is already in the marketplace, addressing a real need and/or solving a problem today.
Yes, and recently enhanced for fiber/FTTH ISPs. In fact, we’ve announced several UTC and NRECA members that selected our solution to power phone services over their broadband networks: BARC Connects, Co-Mo Connect, Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative, NEXT, powered by North Arkansas Electric Cooperative, and OzarksGo.
Our solution gives utilities more revenue and more margin dollars to accelerate the ROI on fiber build-outs with bundled services.
Efficiency Improvements
This technology innovation is meeting a need while improving outcomes or reducing risks to the utility. It may save time or money, lower costs, improve security, or even makes money for a utility.
Our solution is success-based (removing risk from the business case) and provides the highest-margin way to deliver new revenue to the utility. And we make it super easy to manage and quick to deploy. Our APIs that enable back-office integration enable scale and automation for key business processes.
Sustainability
The technology innovation supports sustainability, social responsibility, or green initiatives – innovation that not only demonstrates commercial success but also considers broader implications.
Nothing is greener than the cloud, especially for utilities that previously had built a voice network. Another take on sustainability is that our cloud solution is constantly enhanced with new features and is future-proof. No hardware swap-outs or migrations are required for our customers as they scale and enhance their offerings.
Impact
Immediate and longer-term impact that the innovation has on the utility industry or society as a whole.
We got this one covered in spades. We help these new broadband operators succeed with feature-rich phone services for residential and business customers and tap into the $60 billion fixed voice market while better serving their customers/members.
With average voice adoption rates of nearly 40% from other broadband providers, phone services can have a material impact on revenue. Using Alianza, utilities and FTTH ISPs can see 60-80% gross margins, which contributes significant dollars that accelerate ROI on fiber investments.
Offering phone services can also help with customer win and retention rates (a Heavy Reading survey of service providers shows that 81% of respondents agree that voice helps drive adoption of other services in the portfolio).
Our solution helps utilities launch phone services for the first time or replace obsolete hosted softswitch solutions or VoIP networks based on obsolete VoIP 1.0 gear. In the latter case, our solution can reduce the total cost of ownership by up to 50%, streamline operations and free up resources to invest in other initiatives.
Thanks to UTC and judges for this recognition on how we’re helping utilities make an impact on their customers and improve their overall financial position with VoIP services.
Interested in learning more about how phone services can help utilities, electric co-operatives, and new FTTH ISPs? Read our eBook Got Fiber? You Need VoIP!
