As we step into 2025, there are many factors changing the face of the telecom and utilities landscape. Over the past month, through our webinars and Network IQ conversations, we engaged with industry experts to explore what lies ahead.
In this blog article, we have compiled insights and predictions from the following:
Their perspectives provide a comprehensive outlook on the challenges, opportunities, and innovations shaping the future of the fiber and utility networks in the coming year.
Preparing utilities for extreme weather and the renewable energy transition
Mike Smith - Principal at KLN Group
Furthermore, there are financial challenges on the horizon. A lot of money is spent maintaining the grid and preparing for the new energy environment we’re moving into. A preliminary report from the California Public Utilities Commission’s ratepayer office found that it could cost up to $20 billion to prepare the grid for next-generation electrification requirements.
We’ve faced challenges like this before, such as in the 60s and 70s when air conditioning took off, so as an industry we have a good track record of responding to these changes, but that’s not to minimize some of the challenges we’ll face.
Another important factor to consider in the coming year is how well utilities are prepared for the new renewable energy environment in both blue sky and grey sky operations.”
Building smarter, resilient grids – Navigating the “messy middle” of 2025
John D’Agostino - Global and Regional Power Industry Lead at ERM
In 2025, the industry will have to tackle how to manage sustainability and the pressure to decarbonize while maintaining resilience. More maintenance is required as the grid ages, which needs to be handled alongside increasing demand. The challenge here is how utilities allocate their resources to accommodate the rapidly rising demand coming from all sectors.
It’s projected that data centers alone are going to be consuming 11% of the energy demand by 2030. While you have aging infrastructure, how do you bring efficient solutions through technology to deal with these issues?
From this, there’s an opportunity for cross-industry collaboration. For example, when you look at both the technology and power industries in the US, some technology companies are partnering up with power companies to put their data centers next to their power plants.
Another upcoming issue facing the utilities industry is how to deal with the massive data storage required to accommodate growing AI and adaptive technology use. There’s a potential opportunity these two industries to come together in 2025 and collaborate on a solution.
Renewables are the future, but we’re not quite there yet with implementation. 2025 is going to be the ‘messy middle’ where we can expect ready and funded projects to be prioritized. The ‘messy middle’ will also create opportunity for the utilities industry to accelerate its goals for the coming decade.”
Accelerating fiber deployment and adoption – Challenges and opportunities
Vincent Garnier - Director General for FTTH Council Europe
Although 2025 brings a lot of geopolitical uncertainty and people are likely to feel more cautious, investment is needed in the European fiber industry.
Currently, fast deployment at a lower cost with operational excellence is a widespread concern for network operators. In many countries across Europe, this deployment also needs to take place in increasingly rural low-density areas. Therefore, how to deploy in a cost-effective way in a low-density area is one important topic that many operators and investors will face in the coming year.
Many countries still struggle with administrative burden, as red tape remains high. Getting past this will remain a top priority on the agenda of many operators (i.e. permitting).
Another trend for Europe in 2025 is the need to accelerate fiber adoption rates. 70% of European homes potentially have access to fiber, but only half of them are effectively taking the service. Moving people effectively on the fiber network is essential. For this, technology isn’t a focus, instead we need to look at public policy. Accelerating the transition to copper switch-off is a key driver to accelerate adoption and investment.
On the fiber side, AI is driving demand for bandwidth, making high-capacity networks essential. Interestingly, it is also being increasingly used at every stage of roll out, from planning to maintenance service to customers, throughout the ecosystem of vendors. AI is increasing productivity at every step of the journey. AI will be both fuelling industry demand and changing the way the ecosystem works to satisfy this demand."
Managing increasing electricity demand and maturation of the fiber broadband market
David Cottingham – Chief Technology Officer at IQGeo
First, the increasing complexity of distributed energy generation resources and consumers being able to flip to being providers (e.g. vehicle to grid technology) will come into even sharper focus in the year ahead. Utility operators will need to understand and manage more elements of their grid than ever before, including their customers’ devices that are behind the meter. AI will certainly play a role in predicting and managing this process going forward, but so will changes to how utilities incentivise and disincentivize industrial and residential customers to dynamically vary their usage. Management of the network is being turned on its head as operators move from controlling generation capacity (generally fossil fuel-based) to either baseload generators (such as nuclear) or dynamic sources that they cannot control (renewables); meanwhile, the edge of the network is moving from completely out of their control to smart devices that can respond to cues from the network operator.
Second, in 2025 fiber network operators will find themselves in a rapidly maturing market, particularly for those in competitive urban environments. Vendor consolidation is already happening, and will accelerate this year. With funding costs increasing, automation and operational efficiency will become essential for survival as operators fight to secure new customers and reduce churn. The challenge to achieving this will be in how well they can merge disparate network inventory systems from multiple acquisitions, and what the quality of the data in those systems is. Operators that can demonstrate that their network assets are of high quality using proof from their systems of record are likely to fetch increased valuations.
The common enabler to success that electrical utilities and fiber operators share is an accurate view of their network assets, how they logically fit together, and all the metadata associated with them. Without it, these industries will be unable to take advantage of technologies such as AI, and will not move fast enough to address the challenges described above. In 2025, I see a focus on network data quality, both at construction time but also during maintenance, and expect even greater rates of replacement of legacy GISs (essentially digitised versions of paper maps) with software that is a true digital twin of the network. Our own Network Manager Telecom and Network Manager Electric solutions are helping these operators build the strong network-focused foundation they need to manage greater network complexity in a more competitive business landscape.”
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