More and more North American utilities are taking advantage of their existing, underutilized fiber infrastructure to offer new services such as telecommunications to the local community. A "utelco", or utility offering telecommunications services, can generate new revenues by providing local business customers with high-bandwidth services such as T1 and high-speed Internet that would have been otherwise unavailable or too expensive if obtained from incumbent carriers.

RAD ensures your telecommunication unit's success by offering scalable products that can be purchased on an "as needed" basis, guaranteeing a high ROI. Simple installation and maintenance, coupled with available service packages, limits the necessity to increase network operating costs by hiring dedicated technicians. Because RAD offers a wide array of access solutions perfectly suited for the SONET, IP and ATM backbones of utilities and utelcos, you can be certain to find the ideal solution for your needs.

According to research from the United Telecom Council (UTC) in 2002, there are several factors contributing to the strength of utelcos in today's telecom market:

- Also, because of the ability to leverage access to infrastructure, utilities have established relationships and processes which enable them to build out networks faster and more efficiently than many start-up carriers

- Utelcos that remain under a utility holding company umbrella have significantly more conservative financial goals and parameters than market funded telecom companies

- Thanks to the financial strength of their parents, utelcos have a strong market position as providers of capacity and services that won't disappear or go bankrupt, which is attractive to service providers

- Finally, utelcos have successfully avoided market exposure in most cases, due to the fact that they are subsidiaries of a utility parent and not forced to publicly report all explicit financials

One of the greatest advantages utilities have is that much of what they need to provide telecom services is already in place:

Infrastructure

- Fiber is already available in the ground or on transmission poles

- Typically only 3% of this infrastructure is in use for internal communications

Network Maintenance

- Existing crews are maintaining existing utility transmission lines

Access to Customers

- Utilities have unparalleled fiber reach in their region

- Access to customers surpasses even that of the local telecom service provider