Contract and billing management has always been complex for Central Maine Power (CMP). With more than 2.3 million joint use attachments and over 680,000 poles, maintaining accuracy and efficiency has been no small feat for the utility company.
At Alden Systems, we know your time is valuable and that efficient utility joint use asset management is essential for your ...
At Alden Systems, we don't just manage your utility joint use asset data, we safeguard your trust—and we take that ...
The 2025 Alden Conference opened with a spirited welcome from CEO John Sciarabba that did more than just kick off the event. ...
Utility poles are replaced with new ones for a variety of reasons, including scenarios when an existing pole doesn't have ...
On November 7, 2024, Alden Systems and Trico Electric Cooperative co-hosted a regional Utility Joint Use Summit in Marana, ...
Without advanced solutions, tracking the status of scheduled or in-progress joint use work can be a cosmic nightmare for ...
It’s no surprise that utility professionals may occasionally get their wires crossed when discussing joint use asset ...
For electric power, communications, and broadband providers, ensuring customers have the uninterrupted service and coverage ...
For utility pole owners and third parties wishing to attach equipment to those assets, the utility attachment permitting ...
The energy was electric (pun intended) at the recent 2024 Alden Conference, where the team behind Alden ONE, the joint use ...
How can municipal power systems make sense of their field asset data to proactively address utility joint use issues? ...
Roy M. Palk, who has worked with electric cooperatives since 1970, is enthusiastic about the opportunities in the rapidly ...
Utility asset owners and asset attachers face pressing violation management challenges due to the growing demand for ...
It’s a new year with a familiar story for utility joint use asset management. Asset-owning electric utilities and attaching ...
Alden ONE is a web-based, cloud-hosted platform that supports all types of utility assets, including distribution poles, ...
In 2023, our team released many Alden ONE enhancements aimed at delivering a superior, more efficient user experience. We ...
By connecting utility asset owners, attachers, and engineering and construction firms, Alden ONE helps to streamline and ...
Part two of Alden Systems' series on “The Value of the Alden ONE Data Lake for Joint Use Asset Management.” Read the first ...
In response to requests from our users, it’s now possible to track and manage the attributes of streetlights through ...
Managing utility infrastructure assets comes with inherent challenges. Often, utility networks consist of multiple smaller ...
Behind-the-scenes heroes power our nation's critical utility joint use infrastructure. Utility asset owners, engineering ...
The increased demand for fiber rollout keeps driving competition in the utility space, underscoring the need for the utmost ...
Alden Systems is pleased to introduce Tom Brandewie as our newly appointed Senior Director of Sales! In a recent interview, ...
Two challenges are converging in the utility industry. With the massive growth in the volume of attachment requests driven ...
Part one of a series titled "The Value of the Alden ONE Data Lake for Joint Use Asset Management." Read the second article ...
“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” Henry Ford.
Could agility be the single most important quality you’ll need for success in the joint use industry today? Alden Systems ...
This article is the second in a series that examines the progress of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auctions — with ...
This article is the first in a series that examines the progress of Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auctions — with ...
Consumers are eagerly awaiting the next step in broadband technology: 5G. With an explosion of small cell and fiber ...
What happens when you gather together with joint use professionals and utility industry leaders and give them an open forum ...
Alden Systems’ CEO explains why a team mindset is the best approach to a demanding deployment schedule and how the right ...
Despite some speedbumps laid by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the rollout of 5G wireless service continues across the ...
When it comes to the fast-paced utility and telecommunications deployments needed to meet the 5G rollout timeline, every ...
Data management, permitting, and internal and external communications become less daunting with the right technological tools
Leverage your resources to take advantage of 5G market demands.
In modern asset management, time is money. Whether a company’s assets are utility poles or cell towers, many costs—such as ...
Overcome the lack of resources with these key steps that drive efficiency Service providers are facing an incredible ...
When 5G wireless service appeared in the first few US markets more than two years ago, it arrived on a wave of anticipation. ...
In simpler times, joint use asset management for a utility or communications company wasn’t so daunting. It was important ...
Learn Why Driving Operational Efficiencies Is Essential to Increasing ROI at the Tower Alden Systems CEO John Sciarabba ...
Although remote sensing has been around in some form for many decades, this technology has emerged as one of the most ...
A couple of years into the deployment of 5G technology many asset owners, including utilities and municipal governments, ...
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated that at the beginning of 2021, at least 3.8 million households with school-aged children ...
As communications and broadband technology evolved rapidly over the past two decades, optical fiber networks played a ...
Your company has just purchased an enterprise software system. The road to get here has been long. It’s been a significant ...
Part Four of our series “The Success of 5G Deployment Depends on these 4 Key Industry Changes.” Read the other articles ...
Part Three of our four-part series “The Success of 5G Deployment Depends on these 4 Key Industry Changes.” Read the other ...
Part Two of our four-part series “The Success of 5G Deployment Depends on these 4 Key Industry Changes.” Read the first ...
This article is the first in a four-part series that explores changes utilities can make to realize more effective 5G ...
The spread of 5G wireless service across the country continues with great fanfare. Communications companies are trumpeting ...
For the many people responsible for deploying and maintaining utility and communications infrastructure, joint use is a more ...
Joint use in the utility sector began as a simple resource-sharing proposition between electric utilities and telephone ...
As the technologies used to create digital twins have become better and more affordable, forward-looking companies in many ...
Small cell is bringing big changes to joint use departments of electric utilities, telecommunications and broadband ...
Endless demand for wireless data and advances in technology are ushering in the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial ...
Businesses are in a rush to get small cell wireless attachments deployed. In the past couple of years, competitors entered ...
Several years ago, the buzz began about the incoming mass deployment of small cell attachments. Annual deployment continues ...
In the past few years, communications companies have deployed thousands of antenna systems to fuel next-generation 5G, and ...
For wireless consumers, small cell wireless promises ultra-fast connections, stronger signals, and exciting new technology ...
CORE Electric Cooperative is an 82-year-old Colorado-based rural electric association with roughly 170,000 customers over ...
As the technologies that can produce a detailed digital duplicate of a company’s physical assets are becoming more ...
In the joint use industry, confusion and uncertainty are the arch enemies of cooperation. They cause delays in permit ...
Tilson is a network development and information infrastructure firm providing professional services to national ...
Minnesota Power is an investor-owned utility with roughly 145,000 customers, whose services cover roughly 26,000 square ...
The digital revolution that began a few decades ago continues to rapidly reshape the way companies around the world do ...
Let’s start with a common scenario: A communications company files a permitting application with an electric utility to ...
The 5G rollout has begun in cities across the U.S., and applications for small cell attachments to utility and streetlight ...
Utility professionals have always been at war with the weather. Disruptive storms, whether in the form of hurricanes, ...
The decision to implement a storm hardening program is a big step for any utility company. Large-scale storm hardening can ...
Weather-related power outages have been inevitable as long as electric utilities have existed. The basic questions utilities ...
Utilities have always had to contend with the ravages of weather, particularly after massive storms that damaged or ...
For utility companies, accurate data is essential to effective asset management. Power providers need up-to-date data to ...
At Alden, we understand that joint use professionals work better when everyone works together. Since 1995, we have centered ...
By the middle of the 20th century, many Americans likely felt they had reached the pinnacle of high-tech living. In ...
By now, many consumers of wireless services are aware that 5G is on its way. In a few U.S. cities, the newest generation of ...
The small cell revolution is underway. Deployment is accelerating as the 5G rollout continues. With the mass explosion of ...
When the FCC issued its Third Report and Order on small cell attachments in September 2018, wireless telecommunications ...
The restrictions, requirements, and obligations in the FCC’s Third Order and Report on small cell wireless deployment ...
The goal of the FCC’s Third Report and Order on small cell wireless deployment, issued in September 2018, is to remove any ...
The FCC’s Small Cell Third Report and Order, is all about speed. The Third Report and Order regulates deployment of small ...
The September 2018 Third Report and Order was designed to speed up deployment of small cell wireless infrastructure across ...
The race to roll out 5G wireless broadband service is under way in the United States. In September 2018, the Federal ...
Professionals in the joint use industry are preparing for compliance under the FCC’s Third Report and Order. The FCC’s ...
If you have been following industry news or reading our blogs, you may know by now that the Federal Communications ...
New OTMR guidelines range from shortened timetables to specific processes. The primary parties involved (asset owners, ...
The Federal Communications Commission’s One Touch Make Ready order (OTMR), issued in August of 2018, spells out the rules, ...
The FCC’s One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) order has placed the joint use community and its personnel in a new and uncharted ...
If you’ve been reading our latest blog series, you know that the FCC issued a Report and Order in August for the new policy ...
Across the United States, the joint use community is busy transitioning to the new rules and timetables established by the ...
The FCC’s One Touch Make Ready (OTMR) order, issued in early August, involves big changes for everyone in the joint use ...
The stage has been set for major advances in technology, and that means big changes for the joint use community. In August, ...
Installing fiber optic cable can be an expensive and lengthy process. Often, it requires an extended period of right-of-way ...
There are big changes on the horizon for joint use professionals. With the race to attach and deploy services, the next few ...
Fiber optic broadband is sweeping the nation. Fiber's advantages over copper include faster speeds, durability, and ...
We interviewed Dianne Costello, Product Manager of Managed Services and Client Training, at Alden. We asked what small cell ...
One of our clients recently mentioned that within just a few weeks, their joint use department went from having five small ...
Utility poles offer the necessary power and connectivity that is vital for small cell deployment. Providers will likely ...
Cell phone signals have become much more reliable in the last few years. Making calls from your office, home, or school ...
Nationwide, utilities and other asset owners are seeing an influx of inquiries and permitting applications for small cell. ...
In the early days of cable service, providers encountered attackers who tried to steal service, customer data, and video ...
Communications companies possess extensive consumer data, including financial and behavioral information. Customers ...
As the joint use industry inches closer to a technology-based future, cybersecurity is an everyday concern. In the last few ...
The Internet of Things (IoT) is ushering in a new era of connected homes, smart appliances, and other developments beyond ...
New players in the joint use arena are racing to deploy services. Utility poles once stood tall under the weight of power ...
What Pole Owners & Attachers Need to Know In 2015, we published an in-depth blog series about the top ten violations in ...
Many joint use asset owners and attachers/renters use homegrown, legacy applications to manage their assets. Some use Excel ...
In our 3-part blog series, we are inspecting common pole conditions that can be costly for asset owners, as well as ...
In our 3-part blog series, we are investigating common pole conditions that interrupt service deployment and increase asset ...
In this 3-part blog series, we are addressing common pole conditions that halt service deployment and can be costly to asset ...
In our four-part educational series, we have explored three important issues that manhole and handhole owners are currently ...
In this four-part series, we are uncovering manhole and handhole conditions. In our experience, asset owners are often ...
Successful joint use management of underground infrastructure begins with knowing which assets are in underground spaces and ...
Successful business decisions for asset owners and occupants of underground infrastructure begins with knowing which assets ...
Over the next three articles, we will discuss the tools needed to strengthen joint use partnerships. We will focus on the ...
In the last post, we discussed the challenges created when asset owners are the only source of information on current field ...
In our last post, we examined reasons why line workers have one of the most dangerous jobs in America. More than just the ...
Industry professionals understand the risks line workers face all too well. However, many customers may be surprised to ...
For power and communications providers preparing for storms, wildfires, or flooding, every moment is critical. Mutual aid ...
When a storm or other major event looms on the horizon, utility and communications companies turn to mutual aid ...
For joint use asset owners that are already stretched thin managing their plant, the trend of more frequent and more ...
While downed lines or other utility factors only cause a small fraction of wildfires, one fire is too many when the loss to ...
To close our underground series, we look at the crucial principles of an underground inventory. Underground inspections are ...
A few weeks ago, Hurricane Harvey gushed into the streets of Houston and surrounding areas. It flooded businesses, homes, ...
Foreign to our everyday lives above ground, the underground world can be quite mysterious. What lies beneath is unknown and ...
The future of communications is rapidly progressing. With high-speed broadband becoming a basic requirement in daily life, ...
Search tools deliver faster, more accessible results than traditional reports. Data is a hot topic today. How do you collect ...
The vast amount of asset data is overwhelming. Where should you begin? Traditional joint use management began as a manual ...
Better data management, consistency, and communication: three concepts to unite safety and access, multiplying productivity ...
Data security threats have become a primary focus for utility asset owners, as the risks from cyber threats grow in ...
It’s been all over the news this past year: Google Fiber made plans to deploy broadband into several markets at a breakneck ...
People are using more and more data with their various devices. For state and local governments, getting broadband access ...
Today’s utility asset data is a vast world of information. Much of it is valuable; some of it is not. Asset owners hold data ...
One of the most prevalent issues facing utility pole owners is aging pole transfers, but they don’t have to be a constant ...
When damage to a utility pole is caught early, it can be treated to halt rot, decay or insect damage from further weakening ...
When a utility pole needs to be replaced, the pole owner will schedule the required equipment transfers. Many utility poles ...
What is Joint Use, and How Does It Work? Imagine a street lined with several sets of utility poles running up both sides, ...
For businesses that own and operate joint use assets including utility poles and underground conduit, it is important to ...
Big data is being used in practically every industry today, yet many struggle with beneficial data utilization by having too ...
The big data revolution has left many utilities and communications companies scrambling to manage backlogs of stored ...
The Internet of Things – and the Industrial Internet of Things – promise significant changes and improvements for asset ...
As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to gain momentum, more and more assets will be connected in the field. Advances in ...
This post is the second in a two-part blog series that explores the potential for joint use field assets to become ...
In the past, when companies were regulated entities, they could operate under a cost-plus business model that allowed them ...
On a sweltering summer afternoon in August of 2003, 21 North American power plants suddenly crashed offline, leaving 50 ...
With 30 states in the joint use community now required to follow the Federal Communications Commission’s new “One Touch Make ...
Utility poles and conduit vaults (the underground version of a wire-carrying 40-foot pole) are everywhere in our world—along ...
One of the keys to running a business well is having visible oversight—the high-level, future-focused information that ...
We have drilled it into your head: double utility poles are a liability. They are a safety issue. They cost money. They ...
Call it double wood, double utility poles, or just a double headache for your joint use department, neglecting to remove an ...
Assessing what's in the field is a key component to asset management. If you do not know what's out there or the current ...
For pole owners, attachers are partners: entities that rely on mutual agreement to operate together in one space. However, ...
We frequently discuss the time and monetary constraints many joint use departments face, often in the context of resource ...
Deep in the mines of days past, workers would carry along a small, caged bird on each subterranean trip. Its purpose? To ...
When utility pole owners, attaching companies or anyone with a joint use department decide to ask for help, we have found it ...
While many unexpected issues can be discovered during utility pole inspections, among the most common is double wood. For ...
Joint use is, by nature, a bit of a fractured business: it has two distinct sides to its story. On one hand, you have ...
You may have heard the anecdote that moving—picking up your belongings, removing them from one location and depositing them ...
As business-critical decisions go, when the work gets heavy and resources get thin, this question is often heard: Should we ...
If the term "bad poles" sounds ominous, that is because it is—at least in terms of your organization’s appetite for risk. No ...
Pole transfers are an unavoidable part of the joint use universe. This business-as-usual task requires resource allocation, ...
Utility poles are hardly immortal. They age beyond useful life. They rot and are damaged by elements, human activity and ...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a ...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a ...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a ...
Effective field asset management is not a straight line from installation to decommission; it should be viewed as a ...
You buy a brand new utility pole (or many), plan the job and install the poles. These field assets have an estimated life ...
From first sight to final inspection, utility pole inspections are a vital part of successful field asset verification. So ...
From first sight to final inspection, a thorough utility pole inventory and inspection is a vital part of successful field ...
While there are many issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems ...
While there are many issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems ...
While there are dozens of issues in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often that we consider them problems of ...
While there are many issues and violations in the joint use world, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems ...
While there are many of joint use violation issues, there are a few we see so often we consider them problems of interest: ...
The treated wooden utility pole is the all-star of the joint use world. Straight. Strong. Renewable. Resistant to wind and ...
Utility poles come in a variety of materials from metal to concrete to composites such as fiberglass, however, we would like ...
Picture this: Two poles stand where only one should be. You may call it “double wood,” but utility pole owners and ...
At the Alden Updater, we are declaring October utility pole safety month. We actually think this should be every month. In ...
Today begins a recurring series on inside plant (ISP) telecommunications industry issues, equipment and central office ...
Telephone poles are a valuable asset for power utilities, municipalities and telecoms—hundreds to thousands of forty-foot ...
There is little doubt that good inventory management practices are valuable to nearly any business, especially an inventory ...
While a thorough, well-executed inventory is good for business in itself, using robust data collection software that is ...
We would like to pause for a moment to celebrate the birthday of one of the most influential forces in the Utility industry: ...
In today's economic climate, with efficiency and cost-effectiveness of utmost important, companies are compelled to evaluate ...
Now that we have likely convinced you of the benefits of conducting a thorough inventory of all assets and materials, it is ...
This summer, one Texas co-op is facing $20,000-plus in losses due to the actions of some ingenious thieves. Armed with a ...
We discuss utility pole assets often on the Alden Updater. You see them every day while you’re driving, walking, and just ...
RFID (radio-frequency identification) is wireless, non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer ...
Imagine each utility pole across the world’s landscape as an individual entity with a position on the earth and a set of ...
We have already discussed the benefits of having a joint use department, but what if your business is too small to truly ...
Most businesses keep spare equipment and other operationally important items on hand to ensure they are providing services, ...
Conducting regular, successful asset inventories is as vital a business function as providing quality service to your ...
When a business has made the choice to conduct an asset inventory, the organization has a number of important decisions to ...
Inventory management likely ranks at the top of people’s lists of stressful activities—and near the bottom in terms of ...
Utility poles are visible, tangible assets—40 feet of hard to forget wood towering above ground. Exposed and often installed ...
We have already given you Five Reasons to Take Control of your Inventory Audit Cycle, but numbers two and three on the ...
Think for a moment about joint use contracts. These detail-filled documents are an important part of any utility pole ...