For the utilities sector, smart metering is a hugely important step to inform consumers of where their money is going – especially with continually rising bill prices – as well as saving energy overall.

And in terms of the ever-growing Internet of Things, the smart meter is seen as the first step to creating the smart home.

In the UK, smart metering has been a major issue of late. Earlier this month it was announced by the government that the rollout of smart meters to 30 million UK homes is to be delayed until at least 2014, with the programme expecting to be completed by 2020.

This was not met with consternation, more relief that the project was not being rushed, with energy secretary Ed Davey calling the rollout an “enormous logistical and technical challenge”, according to the BBC.

Writing for TelecomsTech back in September, MDS’ Rob Smith noted the link between the utilities sector and telecoms, in that the telecoms industry has “stolen a march in the skill of treating customers as individuals, through the provision of tailored pricing tariffs that cater to a variety of usage platforms.”

Yet what is the average consumer’s knowledge of smart meters, the proposed rollout and its benefits? Operator O2 UK put together an infographic detailing the results of a YouGov survey of 3000 UK citizens to find out, revealing that current knowledge is low, but the benefits make sense.

This is particularly interesting, given survey results from Ipsos Mori back in August showed that more than half (51%) of respondents did not know what a smart meter was, inferring that things haven’t changed much since then.

Check out the infographic below. Find out more on the various M2M (machine to machine) verticals at Telecoms Tech World, in London on 26-27 November.

Source: Telefonica Digital