Electric Utilities' Role in FTTH, Cloud's Role In Cybersecurity Discussed at Conference

摘要

Panelists at the 2013 Freedom to Connect (F2C) conference disagreed over the business case for electric utilities to deploy enough fiber for smart grid purposes to enable them to provide retail fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband service. Terry Huval, director of Lafayette Utilities System in Louisiana, said, "I could never pass the red-face test if I told customers that I need fiber to the home to deliver electricity. You don't." He also noted that there was a small but vocal contingent of customers who had objected to smart meter technology because they said it was a way "for the government to spy on them and find out if they were having sex." He said that 300 customers out of 63,000 had opted out of smart meters in Lafayette, instead paying more to have a meter reader sent to their homes.