How Servato can Predict Battery Failure Months in Advance and Improve Reliability for Active Battery Management Customers:

If you knew that a battery was going to fail months in adavnce you could replace it before an outage exposed it. However, you would want to be sure that the battery was really on its way to failure instead of replacing a good battery, so how can you be sure?

• Servato uses over five million hours of battery data to inform its predictive analytics.
• Using patented technology to perform advanced tests automatically, Servato gathers battery data that other monitoring equipment cannot.

Check out a couple examples of Servato's predictive analytics:

Free eBook: Adaptive Charging Allows us to Double VRLA Battery Life

In August 2016 Servato Business Development Manager Alex Rawitz presented the principles of Adaptive Charging at the Battery Power conference in Denver, CO. 

The eBook, based on the presentation, describes: 

• The shortcomings of continuous float charging
• Principles of Adaptive Charging and how Servato's hardware and software administers this charging regimen in the field automatically
• Case studies that demonstrate the power of Adaptive Charging to extend battery life, improve battery State-of-Health insight and reduce costs of maintenance.

The views of the panelists below are their views and their views only and do necessarily reflect the views of their employers.

At ISE Expo in San Antonio, Servato convened a panel of telecom experts to discuss how they approach the complex problem of backup power in their networks. The panelists included:

• John Greene: CEO of New Lisbon Telephone Company, a small service provider in East Central Indiana. John has 40 years of experience in the telecom industry.
• Daniel Jameson: Manager of Critical Systems and Infrastructure for TDS Telecom. Anything that’s concrete, lead, copper, power or battery related flows through his shop.
• Jim Caron: Engineering Manager, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont at FairPoint Communications. Jim handles both CO and RT Engineering including all common systems. He has spent 28 years in the telecommunications industry all on the landline side.
• Curtis Ashton: Power Maintenance Engineer. Curtis handles power tech support and grounding tech support. Self-described “power puke” and “grounding opinionist.” Curtis has been involved with batteries since 1991 and today is on the BattCon committee and a member of the BattCon Hall of Fame.

CASE INTRODUCTION:

In this case study we take a look at how Servato's ability to monitor temperature and detect issues such as failed fans or heat exchangers can deliver critical insight about site equipment and help extend battery life. This particular example of a failed fan illustrates how manual maintenance may have failed this site. Only a monitoring solution with constant awareness could have alerted the customer about this heat issue. Greater site insight means greater network reliability. The case walks through:

• Servato's Temperature Monitoring: How it Works 
• The Site: General Overview of the Case and Site
• The Temperature Data: How ActiView was Quickly Able to Reveal Unusual Temperature Data 

Servato will be attending the International Wireless Communications Expo along with partner Fibrebond

Servato is excited to announce that we'll be joining our partner and fellow Louisiana business in Las Vegas, NV at the International Wireless Communications Expo. IWCE is one of the leading technology conferences for the communications industry and we are thrilled to be participating and showcasing our battery management technology. Visit booth 628 to see Servato and Fibrebond.

Link: "Connect America Fund for Rural: Standalone Broadband, Lower ROR on Tap" by Joan Engebretson

In a recent article on Telecompetitor, Joan Engebretson covers the future of the FCC's Universal Service Fund with an analysis of Chairman Tom Wheeler's latest blog post on the subject and other sources that seem to inform the direction of the program. Take a look at the article here.

The Connect America Fund Phase II promises to deliver over $10 billion for rural broadband development. Here's a recap of where the program came from.

 This year will mark the first year that money will flow from the Connect America Fund II (CAF II) to telecommunications companies for the purpose of increasing broadband connectivity across the country. The FCC has completed its allocation plan with 10 carriers receiving over $1.5 billion per year for the next six (and possibly a seventh) years. The impact of the CAF II program will be determined by the companies putting the money to work and remains to be seen. Here we look at where this massive cash program came from.

Servato Starts 2016 Strong

2016 has already been a good year for Servato, with new and existing customers adding sites for remote management using Servato technology. As more sites come online Servato is excited to use the growing amount of battery data to improve our products. We know that this will allow us to continue to save our customers money and time through maintenance automation, predicitive analytics, and battery life extension.

Guarding against Internet downtime is hard, and sometimes major outages can occur in vast territories over the U.S. These outages, like this Southeast Internet outage, can happen across carriers and take hours to fix.

Last week users took to social media to decry a major network outage that affected Internet and Cellphone access for a huge swath of the Southeast United States, according to USA Today. The article details reports of Internet outages that began on 3pm Tuesday, August 4, 2015 and lasted for approximately 5 hours.

The $175 million is just another example of increased funding for rural broadband development. The promise of connecting the entire country with high-speed, reliable Internet access has never been more imminent.

Windstream, a leading national telecommunications provider, announced on Wednesday, August 5 that it would accept $175 million annually for seven years beginning in 2015 to support expanded broadband. The money comes from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with aim of providing 400,000 rural locations in17 states improved Internet access.