In support of America’s transforming critical infrastructure, the Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA) has been advancing and developing private long-term evolution (LTE) broadband as a key communications infrastructure for a secure, resilient, digital grid. UBBA founding member Southern Linc hosted the UBBA’s first annual summit in Birmingham, Alabama early October, where utility executives, industry technology leaders along with representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Edison Electric Institute (EEI), and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) explored key challenges facing electric utilities and examined private broadband networks as a critical element of the transforming grid.