Our History
Alpha has provided power solutions for the telecom market for over 35 years. Our experience includes developing, manufacturing and installing power systems for Central Office, Broadband, OSP and Wireless applications. Today, our products are used by leading telecommunications service providers for powering all parts of the network, from the core to the edge. Our products range from over 10,000 Amps to less than 100 Watts, include a wide variety of AC and DC power conversion products, and are designed for indoor and outdoor applications.
Company History
Alpha is dedicated to creating world-class powering solutions for communication, commercial, industrial and renewable energy markets. Generating in excess of $600 million in annual sales and employing well over 1,300 employees, Alpha has over three (3) million powering solutions in operation globally. Our Company dates back to 1975, when Alpha recognized the need of the emerging Cable Broadband sector for task-specific powering that would improve network reliability. Since our humble beginnings, Alpha's power solutions have become de facto standards for CATV throughout North America and around the world.
Following our success in the Cable Broadband sector, the company started a new business focused on serving the telecommunications market. Alpha developed switchmode rectifiers, DC-DC converters and line power products for CO and outside plant applications, ultimately culminating in the development of the highly successful Cordex power system platform.
Headquartered in Burnaby, British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver, this 113,000 square foot, state-of-the-art headquarters building is home to 500+ Alpha employees, and includes corporate offices, customer service, R&D labs, AC and DC product production, warehousing, circuit board design, prototype development and final assembly and testing.
Distinctive Excellence
Our distinctive excellence is the ability to innovate and quickly deliver optimized solutions for our customers' unique powering challenges. As a supplier of both AC, DC and Renewable power, Alpha can tackle virtually any application. Our TL 9000 certified quality system, award-winning product strategy and continuous improvement/operational excellence program focuses on achieving complete customer satisfaction and supplying solutions of the highest quality, value and reliability.
Industry Leadership
1978 Standby Power for Cable Television1985 Introduced AM Series – First Standby Cable Power System
1986 Remote Power Supply Status Monitoring
1987 Introduced Dual-Output Power Supply and First Argus DC Products
1989 Introduced First Commercial, 48-V-100A Switchmode Rectifier
1992 World's First Voice/Video Network Power System
1993 Installed British Columbia's First Traffic Backup System
1995 Launched Broadband Centralized Node Powering
1997 Introduced Novus UPS Series for Outdoor Wireless Communications
1998 AlphaGen Curbside Generator Systems
1999 XM2 2nd Generation CableUPS
2000 Introduced 10kW Switchmode Rectifier and Deep Fiber OSP
2001 Tempest Outdoor Power Enclosures
2002 Argus Develops CSM36 +/-190VDC converter
2003 Introduced PDA Touchscreen in Cordex Controllers and Rectifiers
2005 Embedded DOCSIS Status Monitoring
2006 World's first UPS-Rated Grid-tied Solar Power inverter
2007 FlexPoint Fiber Power and VMX CableUPS
2008 XM2 HP – Advanced High Performance CableUPS
2009 Cordex HP Series of Advanced High Performance DC Rectifiers
2010 AMPS 80 HP Unique High Performance Modular Inverter/UPS System
2012 LPS36 Next Generation +/- 190Vdc Line Power System
2013 eLimiter, World's First Indoor DAS Power System
2013 XM3 HP – 3rd Generation Advance High Performance CableUPS
2014 eLimiter+ and IDAS Aggregator – Class 2 iDAS Power Systems
Alpha's leadership extends beyond product development. We are an active participant in industry standards groups such as the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), eMERGE, SCTE and the QuEST Forum. We develop application-focused white papers and videos on subjects ranging from powering DAS to FTTH networks. Our thought leaders are featured speakers at industry trade shows and are often published in industry trade magazines. As the Diamond Patron of the 36th Annual INTELEC® Conference on Energy for Communications, we are giving back to the industry by investing financially as well as by contributing 13 technical papers. From innovative solutions to participation in standards forums to thought leadership, Alpha is the pace-setter for telecom power vendors.
Product & Technology Summary
Alpha's products and services address three major segments of telecom: the Core, Broadband and the HetNet.Powering the Core
Switching and data centers may be behind the scenes, but edge connections like HetNets and Broadband go nowhere without a solid core network. The availability of that network core hinges upon reliable power. Alpha offers robust CO and MSC power systems, from shelf systems to over 10,000 Amp multi-bay configurations. We also supply single and dual bay configurations that include both power conversion and distribution. Interchangeable single phase and three phase rectifiers can power virtually any application. And for emerging AC applications, we offer an innovative modular inverter/UPS product to ensure the AC loads are backed up by office battery plants.
Powering Broadband
With both Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) and DSL architectures, the network intelligence continues to move closer to the subscriber. This change is driving new requirements for power and OSP enclosures. Our rectifiers and UPS systems can be located near the FTTH or DSL equipment, in either a CPE housing or a GR-487 cabinet. An emerging trend is to power these remote devices over embedded twisted pair copper using elevated voltages. Alpha is a pioneer and leader in this technique, called line power, with products that can power DSLAMs, Optical Network Terminations, or WiFi Access Point.
Powering HetNets
Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) are the primary tool in wireless carriers’ efforts to augment bandwidth capacity and overcome spectrum limitations. Alpha has been a leading supplier of power and battery systems for macro cells, with +24V and -48V rectifiers and converters. For outdoor Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), we offer the industry’s only NEBS certified, environmentally hardened UPS. We combine our rugged UPS and batteries in carrier-grade enclosures for use in the outdoor environment. For indoor DAS and Small Cell applications, we pioneered a 48V line powering technique that enables service providers to use safe and low cost Class 2 circuits to power remote devices from a centralized location.
