Smart grid's new world of partnerships

For telecom service providers to play an active role in the smart grid market, they have to embrace partnerships - with new partners and existing partners working in new ways. Although there are some areas of overlap, service providers are actively seeking out partnerships with device makers like OpenPeak, systems integrators such as Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco, and other technology players specific to the grid, including SmartSynch, Current Group and Ambient and Itron. Telecom and utility companies are no strangers to partnerships, and the two industries' trajectories are actually quite reminiscent of each other, according to Shahid Ahmed, Accenture's networks global lead. From a regulatory, technology and consumer-need standpoint, the breakup of big players and gradual breakdown of regulation, the spectrum options, the new entrants - the industries' growth mirror one another and suggest partnership could benefit both.