July 20, 2011

Indiana Utility Taps Tantalus for Smart Grid Communications
Tantalus' flexible, evolvable technology impresses fiber early-adopter City of Auburn

Raleigh, NC – July 20, 2011 – Tantalus, a leading provider of real-time Smart Grid communications, today announced that the City of Auburn, Ind., has selected Tantalus to provide its Smart Grid communications backbone. Tantalus' technology will support the City of Auburn's plans for an evolvable, fully automated metering solution.

The forward-thinking Northeast Indiana municipality proved its foresight by installing fiber optic communications in 1985. In more recent moves to develop its grid, the city sought an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solution that would best leverage an existing Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) deployment. The municipal utility also needed control over water infrastructure, and Tantalus' multi-commodity approach fit the bill.

"Tantalus is a forward-thinking company, just like the City of Auburn, and the fact that we can add applications over the years to come is a big factor that grabbed our attention," said Stuart Tuttle, City of Auburn's Superintendent. "We don't want to have to change our AMI system any time soon."

The City of Auburn will put an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) on virtually every home – tying to more than 7,100 meters – to ensure that the FTTH project is completed and accessible to all, even those who opt in at a later date.

"The City of Auburn is exactly the type of smart, forward-looking municipal utility that characterizes Tantalus' sweet spot," said Tantalus CEO Eric Murray. "They completely grasped the core of our value proposition: a communications system that can address current needs robustly and later provide the ability to easily expand, migrate and interoperate."