As the crisis on energy and water is extending all over there is every indication that remote metering and demand response will be extending very rapidly to gas and water sectors across the globe and especuially where water rationing has been in existance for quite some time now and  gas energy usage has been recently intoduced.water shortages in many cities has been very vritical in cities like Mumbai/ Delhi and  is a major cuse of public  crticism of the government.There for I forsee a massive growth of REmote meering technologies especially such as thoise developed in India which are far cgheaper than those being developed in the west. Meters is a very important issue and cheaper meters with GSM link upo will rule the market as it is quite cheap to get the  data.

As far as smart metering for utilities in Power is concerned it is now practically certain that Fiber optic communication will rule the market. However time has come to look for similar solution for gas/ water or using the same network as that for electricity.It is high time to start building standards for such a combination