Smart partner for the broadband dance | Daily Yonder | Keep It Rural

The Department of Energy last month announced 100 stimulus grants totaling $3.4 billion for smart grid projects. You may not be familiar with smart grids, but if your community hopes to build its own broadband network you should be. The companies now poised to build these new utility systems could be invaluable partners in supplying high-speed Internet.

Smart grids are the latest incarnation of a concept that originated in the 1990s. Utility companies then were looking for some way to improve meter reading. Instead of sending people out on foot to chart residential water, gas and electric utility meters -- often stymied by rough weather, locked gates or angry dogs -- companies figured that wireless technology could simplify the job...