Joe Walsh, now Heddian CEO, shares practical lessons on private LTE for rural utilities from his Energy Central interview during his time at NRTC.
Reliable communications connect your field crews, substations, and grid devices. For rural electric cooperatives, building that connectivity across large, sparsely populated territories creates difficult decisions about coverage, investment, and network operations.
Joe Walsh, CEO of Heddian, explored those decisions in an Energy Central Power Perspectives interview published in February 2025. At the time, Walsh served as Vice President of Smart Grid Communications Networks at NRTC. His discussion of private LTE for utilities focused on practical ways smaller cooperatives could address coverage gaps and share the work of network deployment.
The lessons below summarize that conversation. Deployment examples and plans reflect the interview period, rather than a current assessment of those projects.
In some territories, crews may travel for hours between locations. Where commercial coverage is absent, utilities need another way to connect workers, substations, and field devices. Walsh described these areas as connectivity deserts.
Legacy proprietary networks also constrain equipment choices. Walsh contrasted networks built for a narrow set of tasks with standards-based technologies such as LTE, fiber, and microwave. A broader interoperable device ecosystem can give your team more vendor options, provided compatibility is verified.
For your utility, the starting point is a clear understanding of operational needs and coverage limitations. Communications advisory connects those requirements to a network design and business case.
Shared infrastructure can make private LTE more practical by distributing technical responsibilities and operating costs across participating utilities. Walsh described a cooperative approach that combined network design support, a shared core, and Network Operations Center (NOC) services.
Remote infrastructure management was another priority. Where equipment supports remote upgrades and administration, your team can avoid some site visits and reserve field resources for work that requires an on-site presence.
Walsh also discussed coordinating network resources with investor-owned utilities in overlapping territories. His emphasis was on collaboration that could improve coverage and project economics, rather than requiring every utility to duplicate infrastructure.
Separately, Heddian's Druid partnership supports on-premises and regional data center core deployments. This is Heddian's own offering, distinct from the NRTC collaboration described in the interview.
The objective was to limit the number of towers a cooperative needed to build and manage. A coordinated SIM and roaming arrangement could also simplify the utility's view of connected devices.
Your design still needs to account for application requirements, carrier coverage, roaming agreements, device compatibility, and network policies. Hybrid architecture is a planning choice, not an automatic guarantee of uninterrupted service.
Heddian's UtiliSIM™ supports private and commercial LTE traffic and secure remote profile provisioning. This separate Heddian offering addresses the transition between commercial coverage and a utility's private network.
LTE communications can connect field crews and multiple grid applications through a common network architecture. Walsh described one cooperative considering alternatives to an aging Land Mobile Radio (LMR) system that would otherwise provide voice without mobile data.
The discussion expanded from push-to-talk and crew broadband to substations, sensors, and Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) backhaul. Consolidating communications can reduce the number of separate networks your team needs to manage, where application requirements permit.
Walsh also discussed remote protection-setting changes, automatic switching schemes such as Fault Location, Isolation, and Service Restoration (FLISR), and load management. These applications depend on communications designed to meet their operational requirements.
Heddian's managed core services support communications for these utility use cases. The interview distinguished existing LTE applications from private LTE projects that were still in early deployment stages.
The full interview explores rural deployment economics, vendor diversity, shared infrastructure, and long-term grid planning. Watch the conversation below, beginning at 14 seconds.
Read the transcript and access the original episode on Energy Central. Walsh appeared in his NRTC role; he is now Heddian's CEO.
A practical communications roadmap sequences investment around operational priorities and leaves room for changing technology. Walsh described ten-year planning that starts with use cases and business needs, rather than predicting every future device or vendor.
For your team, that means evaluating crew connectivity, coverage gaps, automation requirements, and existing network assets together. Collaboration can help smaller utilities access the expertise and infrastructure needed to move from planning into implementation.
Heddian brings utility communications experience to that work. We collaborate with your team on business cases, technology selection, network design, and deployment planning.
Ready to improve your utility's communications infrastructure? Connect with our team to discuss your operational priorities and the communications architecture they require.
No. Hybrid LTE is one approach for using commercial coverage alongside private infrastructure. Your utility's application requirements and coverage gaps should guide the design. Heddian helps utilities evaluate the mix of communications technologies appropriate to their operating environment.
Shared operations can reduce the infrastructure and specialist responsibilities a cooperative takes on independently. Shared cores and NOC services are important. Heddian offers managed core and network monitoring services tailored to utility needs, with deployment options that include local facilities and regional data centers.
Start with the operational problems your communications investment must address. Examples include crew connectivity, automation, and load management. Heddian helps your team prioritize use cases and build business cases so network decisions reflect your utility's requirements rather than a technology-first purchasing process.