At iTNews, James Hutchinson reports that NBN executives have started up preliminary talks with NSW electricity suppliers on the rollout of smart electricity meters, which would then hook up to the NBN for real-time monitoring purposes.
Smart meters don’t necessarily need NBN-level bandwidth, but there’s some crossplay with installation, as the same trenches and conduits could be used for both electrical and broadband applications, as well as potentially using the same in-house termination points, according to the report.
It also notes that there’s a push to use an NBN-backed smart grid to speed the adoption of fast charging stations for electric vehicles, noting that New South Wales was particularly ill-equipped for those with electric cars; for example there’s apparently only one charging station in the entire Sydney CBD. [iTNews]
JonBOY
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 2:02 PMhmmm….another way that councils can be notified the millisecond your parking expires so as to dispatch a parking officer to slap you with a revenue raising fine.
eddy96
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 5:08 PMlooking forward to having my toilet connected to the internet.
Stephen
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 9:06 PMSorry, but I think it’s already been done by someone in the webcam craze a few years back.
Kroo
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 7:03 PMLooking forward to you covering the ACCC’s concerns about the lack of wireless with the NBN. HELLOOOOO!!!!! I’ve been saying this over and over. Wireless is the future, but lets just ignore that, thanks Juliar!
Nomet
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 7:38 PMOk, we hook up wireless towers all over Australia… now how do those wireless towers connect to the internet to deal with the huge traffic? We’d almost have to build something like a National Broadband Network to help these poor struggling towers, oh wait, we are. Lucky labor has a great plan.
HC
Sunday, September 4, 2011 at 11:36 PMRepetition of a statement does not make it factual.
Thomas
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 7:22 PMSee, this is exactly the sort of thing the NBN needs: More talk about the ways it can improve life, even if it’s a little silly. One of the main reasons for the general lack of interest by a lot of the public is that it just seems like an expensive way of speeding up the internet a little. The more it seems to improve the way of living, the less the perception of it as unnecessary will loiter over it.
Antonia
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 8:15 PMWithin a few years of the NBN’s construction I believe that Australians will not remember how it was possible to live without one.
I also believe that, in the inevitable post-mining boom period, it will help prevent Australian from becoming a 3rd world country.