The UK’s Public Switched Telephone Network is shifting to fibre optics, which rely on a customer’s power supply. Major power outages could result in communities being without telephone communication; DefProc Engineering is working with UK Power Networks, SP Energy Networks and Northern Powergrid to develop a smart uninterruptable electricity supply to power multi-day fibre to customer premises and satellite phones for remote communities.
The Challenge
The UK’s Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is transitioning from copper cables to a faster fibre optic network.
Unlike the old system, the new fibre network won’t be powered by telephone exchanges, but rely on electricity from customers’ properties.
In the event of major damage to the high-voltage (HV) electricity network, large areas of the low-voltage (LV) network could lose power, leaving communities (both rural and urban) without services for extended periods.
Mobile networks would also be affected, with poor or no signal due to power loss. This could make it difficult for network operatives to stay in contact with colleagues, depots and the operational control centre.
The Innovator
DefProc Engineering is a design engineering company that specialises in early stage product development and small-scale manufacturing.
DefProc has 12 years’ experience of working on projects with businesses of all sizes to create innovative solutions. This leading innovator specialise in internet connected (IoT) devices for LoRaWAN (low-power, wide area networking protocol) solutions.
What’s Next?
This collaborative NIA-funded project is being led by UK Power Networks, with SP Energy Networks and Northern Powergrid.
With this collaboration, the project will further develop an existing smart, Uninterruptible Power Supply (Smart UPS) to deliver and facilitate health related services to vulnerable consumers via telecommunications and digital technologies, by enabling multi-day Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) power for domestic and emergency phones in the case of catastrophic power loss.
A courtesy satellite phone will also be developed for remote communities to provide connectivity to the distribution network operator in the event of a complete communication loss to an area. This will provide the option to support individual priority service register customers or communities in the event of an outage.