Without a telecom plan the smart grid will become more complicated to deploy and cost more to operate while enabling few of the uses of data Google et al envision. It is therefore a critical first step for every utility committed to a smart grid and a good candidate for every investor looking for the investment at the epicenter of smart grid deployments.

It is capital inefficient and dramatically complicates the purpose of the smart grid to utilize three different telecom networks , presented in the preceding post, or http://bit.ly/ScRAu provided by at least three different operators to effect the smart grid - in the home (HAN), distribution between transformer and meter (LAN) and electron carriage from substation to transformer (WAN). WiMAX because of the propagation characteristics of 1.8 - 2.5GHz and the ability of base stations to exchange without meaningful packet loss data with low power clients (else it would not work as a solution for cellular handsets) is a perfect technology to enable a utility to control the flow of data regardless of who makes the investment to collect and harvest (Google, Microsoft Hohm, Tendril, Trilliant, etc).