Hydro Ottawa Connects Vehicles with Cradlepoint
Solution: Cradlepoint Netcloud & Wireless Edge Routers | Industry: Public Works | Use Case: In-Vehicle Connectivity
RTech did not participate in this specific deployment, but we do work with Cradlepoint to provide the mentioned solutions in a similar fashion.*
Highlights
Challenge
Hydro Ottawa is tasked with powering the Canadian capital city of Ottawa. To support their mission of providing electricity 24/7/365 without outages, field service staff and install technicians rely on a huge list of always-on applications and devices inside their company trucks and vans. Unfortunately, Hydro Ottawa’s original in-vehicle connectivity solution failed regularly, couldn’t function effectively in extreme temperatures, and needed constant in-person management.
Solution
With a fleet of hundreds of connected vehicles, Hydro Ottawa used a combination of Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Service and wireless edge routers along with high-performance antennas to provide safe, dependable, and versatile connectivity that their IT team could access from anywhere.
Benefits
The solution provided by Cradlepoint enabled Hydro Ottawa staff to use their connected vehicles as a mobile office from the front seat or outside within the vicinity of the onboard Wi-Fi systems. Additionally, IT staff can now monitor the network and connections made to that network remotely and troubleshoot as needed without forcing vehicles to return to HQ.
Background & Challenges
Sharing the name of the Canadian capital city that it operates out of, Hydro Ottawa Limited provides electricity to over 350,000 customers over a range of 1,116 square kilometers. The primary focuses of the company are power distribution, generating renewable energy, and providing energy and utility services. The company uses a fleet of hundreds of vans and trucks, most of which are equipped with two-way radios, smartphones, mounted laptops, and a slew of other technologies to keep everything connected.
Currently, it costs anywhere between $50-$100 every month to maintain just one POTS line used in a blue light emergency system. Organizations with multiple blue light stations know that this expense multiply across their locations.
The Initial Solution
The electric company’s initial solution was consumer-grade, and as it aged, became subject to more and more hardware failures and network outages. The timing of this exasperated the issue, as Hydro’s dependence on these technologies continued to grow along with the challenges. In some cases, employees even had to resort to using their personal cell phones as hotspots to connect in the field.
Solution
Wireless Edge Networking
Hydro Ottawa deployed NetCloud Service and wireless edge routers to nearly 250 vehicles. The chosen endpoints delivered high-performance cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity, aided by externally mounted antennas.
Combining Cradlepoint’s wireless edge solution and external antennas, Hydro Ottawa staff quickly realized they could expect to get constant, reliable connectivity inside and out of their vehicles.
Real World Benefits
For the Public Works Industry
Reliability
A new network provided employees with a connection they could trust to get the job done right.
Versatility
Versatile Cradlepoint hardware won’t be limited by harsh weather or any other extreme conditions that techs could face in the field.
Remote Service
IT staff can now troubleshoot any issues remotely instead of forcing vehicles back to HQ for service.
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