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PCCA Journal|1

st

Quarter 2015

17

equipment last year, as carriers rolled out long-term evolution

networks. Meanwhile, specialized services that rely on, and

protect, data—including cloud services, machine-to-machine

communications, and cybersecurity—all saw large spending

gains in 2013. In fact, spending on cybersecurity grew faster

in 2013 than in any recent year and has shown significant

increases in each of the last three years.”

9

By 2020, we expect the development of a 5G technology

that will again create a construction spending spike focused

around helping customers achieve faster speed and greater

capacity. Currently, there is no clarity on what this new 5G

standard will look like, with many arguing that looking at

previous generational transitions for guidance is mistaken.

For one, Michael Peeters, CTO of Alcatel-Lucent, recently

argued that “the current talk about 5G development was

ridiculous because it was focused on the old issues of tech-

nologies to increase capacity and bandwidth, whereas the

real revolution would come from an architecture which was

open, federated and invisible. Yet with many physical net-

work technologies approaching their limits, the real challenge

is to enable a host of different platforms to work together as

a seamless whole, largely software-controlled and flexible

enough to support any usage pattern from low bandwidth

smart meters to future generations of super-HD video.”

10

This concept of an ever-growing number of devices—be

they consumer, industrial, commercial, government owned,

or mobile—operating on a network of networks means the

industry is about to get a lot more complicated. Imagine if

you will, a Google-branded, driverless vehicle, fueled by bat-

teries or compressed natural gas, traveling in selected cities,

utilizing high-speed wireless or fiber optic communication

to safely and efficiently navigate to your destination. In this

environment, only the nimble will wind their way through

these changes and transitions.

Overall Conclusions

The long-term prospects for the overhead and underground

utility market are very good. They are, however, unbalanced

in sector, geography, and timing. Firms that are ridged, short-

sighted, backward looking, and traditional will be cut the

way rock is cut by running water. Success in these markets

requires that organizations learn to adapt. As water flowing

over, under, around, or even through an obstacle, the firms

that will thrive in these markets must be nimble by nature.

Mark Bridgers, Nate Scott, and David Shipley are consultants

with Continuum Advisory Group, which provides management

consulting, training, and investment banking services to the

worldwide utility and infrastructure construction industry. They

can be reached at (919) 345-0403 or

mbridgers@continuumag.

com and followed on twitter at @MarkBridgers. For more infor-

mation on Continuum, visit

www.continuumag.com

.

Notes

1.

Power produced at the point of consumption. Examples include solar panels

installed on the roof of a home or business; diesel (red power generated at a

remote or rural setting; wind power generated at a commercial or industrial site;

natural gas (red power generated at a commercial or industrial site.

2.

Indiana General Assembly, Senate Bill 0560.

3.

“Modeling distributed generation in the buildings sectors,”U.S Energy Information

Administration. August 2013, pg. 7.

4.

Succar, Samir.“Distributed Generation’s Future Impact on the U.S. Capacity Markets .”

ICF International. 2014, pg. 1.

5.

International Energy Agency (IEA) Key Energy Statistics, 2014, pg. 56.

6.

1 Megawatt (mW) = 1,000 Kilowatts (kW); 1 Gigawatt (gW) = 1,000 Megawatts

(mW); 1 Terawatt (tW) = 1,000 Gigawatts (gW).

7.

Akerman, Elise,“Google Fiber Could Reach 8 Million Homes By 2022,”Forbes, June

14, 2013.

8.

Gustin, Sam.“Google Fiber Issues Public Challenge: Get Up To Speed.”Time.com.

September 14, 2012.

9.

“2014 ICT Market Review & Forecast,”Telecommunications Industry Association.

June 2014.

10. “Alcatel-Lucent techie: Race for ‘5G’technologies is ‘ridiculous,’”theregister.co.uk.

September 25, 2014.