Google wants to be your Internet

Tue Jan 23 17:25:24 UTC 2007

Virginia Power replaced our meter over the summer with a new one that
has wireless on it.  The meter reader just drives a truck past the
houses and grabs the data without him/her ever leaving the truck.  I
have no idea what protocol they're using, or if it's even remotely
secure.

Jamie Bowden
-- 
"It was half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take hold"
Hunter S Tolkien "Fear and Loathing in Barad Dur"
Iain Bowen <alaric at alaric.org.uk>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nanog at merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog at merit.edu] On 
> Behalf Of Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu
> Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2007 11:44 AM
> To: Brandon Galbraith
> Cc: Daniel Golding; Niels Bakker; nanog at merit.edu
> Subject: Re: Google wants to be your Internet
> 
> On Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:18:09 CST, Brandon Galbraith said:
> > Why don't utilities strike deals with celluar providers to 
> push data back to
> > HQ over the cellular network at low utilization times (how 
> many people use
> > GPRS in the dead of night?).
> 
> Especially in rural areas (where physically reading meters 
> sucks the most due
> to long inter-house distances), you have no guarantee of good 
> cellular coverage.
> 
> The electric company *can* however assume they have copper 
> connectivity to
> the meter by definition....
> 