Avista Edge’s patented, assembled in America customer premise equipment (CPE), along with its industry partnerships, enables electric utilities or local ISPs to offer internet service to their customers as a value-added essential service. By adding functionality to the electric meter, Avista Edge(TM) adds new value for electric utility customers. Supporting underserved communities gives local electric utilities an extreme lift in customer satisfaction in the populations they serve by delivering a turnkey, cost-effective, high-speed internet solution, bridging their local digital divide, and all enabled by Avista Edge.
Avista Edge has enabled all of this technology through the electric meter using a simple meter collar that attaches to the meter and is online in less than 10 minutes. Avista Edge combines high-speed fiber with high-speed wireless technology to deliver up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps) download speeds and up to 200Mbps upload speeds today.
This hybrid approach creates a cost structure that shifts a much larger portion of the build out and install cost after the end customer has signed up for service. In addition to the convenience of an electric utility meter solution, the off-the-shelf install is an improvement over custom costs for traditional wireless internet service providers (WISPs) today. Other WISPs require access to power and access to the customer’s home. With Avista Edge, the utility electric meter shop simply attaches the meter collar, i.e. the customer premise equipment (CPE), to the existing electric meter, without any custom construction or installation required.
Avista Edge utilizes safe FCC approved, 5Ghz spectrum that is widely accepted by consumers as it is the same as Wi-Fi® that is found in many public places throughout the U.S. In fact, like AM or FM radio, all radio waves for data communication are at lower frequencies than visible light.
Finally, Avista Edge’s high-speed signal is coupled with the main power line entering the home just over a few feet. With Avista Edge’s technology partnership inside the home with Amazon Eero, the signal is simply picked up at the nearest outlet and securely routed to the remainder of the home via Wi-Fi® mesh or wired Ethernet.