European Utilities Telecom Council (EUTC) represents the telecommunications and information technology interests of Europe's electric, gas and water utilities and other critical infrastructure organisations.
For decades European Utilities Telecom Council’s members have constructed, owned and managed some of Europe’s largest private fibre and wireless communications networks used to ensure safe, secure and reliable delivery of essential utility services. Today, European utilities are faced with new regulatory, technological and business challenges to maintain the high quality of these private networks. At the same time, many are actively engaged in using their telecom experience to develop and deliver new, competitive commercial communication services to better serve their
communities.
As such, European Utilities Telecom Council's primary purpose is to create a favourable regulatory, technical and business environment in which its members will:
The value for all European utilities is that European Utilities Telecom Council will be their best source of support for every major telecommunications need they will face in the next ten years. The return on the modest financial and time investment in EUTC should be enormous through insights and information alone. Combine this with the opportunity to shape European regulatory policies in a more favourable manner and EUTC’s value becomes incalculably strong.
Today’s Unique Environment
The services provided by the utilities have became a matter of special social interest. They are considered essential, particularly since loss of service creates a direct and immediate social reaction. For this reason, the quality requirements imposed by the regulators will become more onerous in the future. Without the highest quality telecommunications, it is not possible to warrant the delivery of the highest quality utility services.
Additionally, technology is rapidly changing the role of telecommunications in Europe’s electric, gas and water utilities and other critical infrastructure companies. Many are faced with new challenges associated with a change in ownership and more competitive energy and telecommunications environments.
Telecom professionals will have to use their vast experience in building and managing sophisticated telecommunications networks to react to new business drivers within all utility sectors. Many are facing new challenges in introducing new wireless communications systems and managing internal telecoms businesses. In some countries, new service delivery solutions are being implemented in a move to managed services and in other countries, utility companies are operating in a shared services environment through exploitation of their telecoms assets.
To meet these varied needs, the European Utilities Telecom Council directly addresses the unique needs of its European members.
It is fully recognized that European utilities have a long tradition of working with utility groups and professional associations. UNIPEDE, CIGRE, CIRED, EUROELECTRIC, EUROGAS, are some of the organisations with a high level of prestige which have become the forum to share experiences. Within them, the telecommunications specifics have been taken into account but mainly from the technological point of view. The development of both the telecommunications and the energy sectors with their different regulation and liberalization schedules, makes it particularly appropriate to establish a very specific professional telecommunications group, using a model which has demonstrated unequivocal success in North America.
Obviously, European Utilities Telecom Council will not be duplicating the work of other organisations but rather complementing and collaborating with those associations already mentioned together with other industry bodies within Europe.
European Utilities Telecom Council Plans for the Future
The European Utilities Telecom Council will accomplish its mission of creating a favourable regulatory, technical, and business environment in which its European members will succeed by being:
New Partner for New Times
No one can argue that with the coming of the 21st Century a new era dawned in Europe. With the expanding European Union, expanding regulatory role for the European Commission, and concurrent demands for new communications services along with more reliable electric, gas and water services – there was no better time for an organization like the European Utilities Telecom Council to be launched.
European Utilities Telecom Council enters the European market fully intending to work as a partner with other new pan-European industry organizations – such as Eurelectric, EuroGas and the European Water Association – and long established organizations – like CIGRE and IEEE.
European Utilities Telecom Council intends to build cooperative working relationships with all other European utility and telecom organizations using cooperative model similar to that used successfully by UTC in North America for many years.
Conclusion
The value of membership in European Utilities Telecom Council is incredible today. By becoming active in UTC Europe at the earliest possible stage, you will begin to see the benefits to your telecom operations immediately.