Wednesday, 13 January 2021 07:12

Battery backup 'remains essential for telecommunications resilience'

By

Research firm Venture Insights points out that in south-east Australia's 2019-20 bushfires, about 88% of the telecommunications outages were caused by loss of power outages and only 1% were due to direct fire damage, which implies that better power backups could significantly reduce outages.

After more than 1000 mobile towers and other facilities were disabled as a result of bushfires last summer, the Commonwealth Government announced a $37.1m funding package to strengthen telco resilience, including $10m for the Mobile Blackspot Program and battery backup solutions.

Repairs to damaged power lines can take time, especially if many poles must be replaced. So battery backup systems are important for maintaining communications in times of disaster.

Lead-acid batteries are an established part of small-scale commercial back-up energy solutions. According to Venture Insights head of research David Kennedy, "More advanced battery technologies, including lithium-ion are now primed for rapid expansion – far beyond what legacy battery technologies could have hoped to achieve. The future batteries such as zinc-air and lithium-air will help telcos become more resilient in the event of an emergency at a fraction of the current cost.

"Further, in the medium term, 5G small cells will present a new challenge with respect to power backup, as there will be a drastic increase in the number of locations where power will be required. Addressing this will raise issues around cost, deployment speed and visual pollution."

NBN services also need battery backup, Venture Insights points out.

Power outages at customer premises affect NBN services. FTTP services can be protected with the optional backup battery, but HFC, FTTN and FTTC connections rely on the power supply to the premises. Furthermore, most connected equipment – routers, switches, IP phones, etc – requires a backup power supply if they are to be usable during power outages.

Furthermore, the rollout of 5G small cells will drastically increase the number of sites that will need backup power, and that raises cost and visual amenity issues.

"The bushfires, upcoming 5G small cells and backup requirements for NBN services mean that batteries will remain in focus in the foreseeable future", added Kennedy.

Image: 80 trading 24 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Read 3013 times

Please join our community here and become a VIP.

Subscribe to ITWIRE UPDATE Newsletter here
JOIN our iTWireTV our YouTube Community here
BACK TO LATEST NEWS here




ELASTICON SYDNEY 2024 LATEST ADVANCEMENTS IN GENERATIVE AI

On 20 February, keynote addresses from NAB, Canva, AWS, and Google Cloud, among others, will feature at ElasticON Sydney 2024.

This event will explore the latest advancements in generative AI

The one-day conference, hosted by leading search analytics company Elastic, will include networking drinks, hands-on labs, technical sessions and a stellar line-up of keynote speakers from finance, technology, and government e=sectors.

ElasticON Sydney 2024 promises to be an enriching experience with a comprehensive exploration of the latest developments in security, observability, generative AI and their real world applications

Don't miss out on this opportunity to network and find answers for what's next from your industry peers and leaders


Register for ElasticON Sydney 2024

REGISTER HERE!

PROMOTE YOUR WEBINAR ON ITWIRE

It's all about Webinars.

Marketing budgets are now focused on Webinars combined with Lead Generation.

If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event.

The iTWire campaign will include extensive adverts on our News Site itwire.com and prominent Newsletter promotion https://itwire.com/itwire-update.html and Promotional News & Editorial. Plus a video interview of the key speaker on iTWire TV https://www.youtube.com/c/iTWireTV/videos which will be used in Promotional Posts on the iTWire Home Page.

Now we are coming out of Lockdown iTWire will be focussed to assisting with your webinars and campaigns and assistance via part payments and extended terms, a Webinar Business Booster Pack and other supportive programs. We can also create your adverts and written content plus coordinate your video interview.

We look forward to discussing your campaign goals with you. Please click the button below.

MORE INFO HERE!

BACK TO HOME PAGE
Stephen Withers

Stephen Withers is one of Australia¹s most experienced IT journalists, having begun his career in the days of 8-bit 'microcomputers'. He covers the gamut from gadgets to enterprise systems. In previous lives he has been an academic, a systems programmer, an IT support manager, and an online services manager. Stephen holds an honours degree in Management Sciences and a PhD in Industrial and Business Studies.

Share News tips for the iTWire Journalists? Your tip will be anonymous

Subscribe to Newsletter

*  Enter the security code shown:

WEBINARS & EVENTS

CYBERSECURITY

PEOPLE MOVES

GUEST ARTICLES

Guest Opinion

ITWIRETV & INTERVIEWS

RESEARCH & CASE STUDIES

Channel News

Comments